Government Contracts MonitorFailure to Credit Rebates and Discounts? False Claims Act ViolationAugust 24, 2015 PC Specialists Inc. d/b/a Technology Integration Group (TIG), will pay $5.9 million to settle civil allegations that the company inflated the price of computers sold through another company to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). TIG buys computers and other technology products for resale. For 10 years – from 2003 to 2013 – TIG sold Dell computers to Sandia Corporation for… Short Take: As Mother Told You – Don’t Ever Tell A Lie (Especially To A Federal Investigator)August 18, 2015 Brian P. Hearing, 43, of Falls Church, Virginia – a former National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) official – pleaded guilty last week to making false statements to federal investigators regarding his financial interest in a private company. According to the plea agreement, Hearing worked at NGA from 2011 to 2015 in its Innovision Directorate, an applied science and technology research group… How Low Can You Go? Doing the Limbo on PriceAugust 18, 2015 Last week the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained a protest where the solicitation called for award of a fixed-price contract, the protester’s quotes were very low, and the agency concluded that protester’s low prices created a risk of unsuccessful performance. According to GAO this was a “no-no” since there was nothing in the evaluation criteria that put bidders on notice… The Fine Line between Clarifying and Discussing Can Be Harder to Draw than It LooksAugust 18, 2015 You might think that there’s a fairly bright line between “clarifications” and “discussions” because the terms are both defined in FAR 15.306. But you would be wrong. The recent decision in International Waste Industries, B-411338 (July 7, 2015) highlights how difficult it can be to apply the distinction outside the pages of the FAR – and the potentially huge impact of missteps in this area. The… Liar, Liar: Can You Prove It? Heavy Burden For “Bait & Switch” ProtestsAugust 10, 2015 A frequent issue in bid protests is the allegation that the awardee engaged in a “bait-and-switch” by proposing key or other personnel that the awardee never intended to use, but listed in order to obtain higher evaluation credit. Protestors often point to the awardee’s advertising for such positions after award, and/or the awardee’s hiring of incumbent personnel not included in the… Short Take: Disability Discrimination? Desist!August 10, 2015 Last week marked the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). However, National Public Radio reported that those with disabilities are twice as likely to experience poverty, in part because barriers to employment persist. The Department of Justice (DOJ) actively enforces the ADA to ensure that failure to comply with the law does not contribute… If You Want To Get Technical About It: Top Protest GroundAugust 10, 2015 The most common ground for a successful protest is an agency’s flawed evaluation of technical proposals. Indeed, flawed technical evaluations are the basis for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustaining at least half of all successful protests. In most of these protests, the agency’s misstep with respect to the technical evaluation is based upon a failure to follow the… Changes to a Submitted Proposal Can Take You Out of the RunningAugust 3, 2015 Sometimes, circumstances force offerors to consider making changes to their proposal after it’s been submitted. In some cases, offerors decide they need to go so far as to alter their own structure to address a newly discovered problem. As the recent decision in Task Source/Military Personnel Services Corporation FEPP, LLC, B-411173.3 (July 8, 2015) shows, however, material changes to the offeror… Short Take: Take a Lesson from Macbeth – Greed Does Not PayAugust 3, 2015 An active duty first class sergeant in the Army National Guard official, Jason Rappoccio, has been sentenced to 42-months in prison for taking a $30,000 bribe. That means he was paid approximately $700 for each month he’ll now spend behind bars. Rappoccio had responsibility for awarding Army National Guard marketing and advertising contracts. Rappoccio accepted the bribe from… Foreign Corrupt Practices – Contractors Getting Off Too Light or DOJ Coming On Too Heavy?August 3, 2015 Since September 2011, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has tried and failed numerous times to meet its burden of proof in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement actions. These cases have been referred to by some as “debacles”. Perhaps that helps explain why the DOJ recently and somewhat surprisingly announced its settlement of a significant FCPA case with Louis Berger… Constant Corrective Action Crushing or Compensating Contractors?July 27, 2015 The Government Accountability Office (GAO) bid protest docket tells a story that is hard to ignore: the remarkably high number of protests in which the agency takes corrective action – at least 40% -- suggests the federal procurement system is not working. “Corrective action” is the term for an agency’s voluntary decision to reexamine or re-conduct some or all aspects of a… Using the Restroom at Work: It’s More than Just a Bathroom BreakJuly 27, 2015 Caitlyn Jenner, LaVerne Cox (Orange is the New Black) and the hit Amazon series “Transparent” have vaulted the topic of gender identity into virtually every home, workplace and Facebook feed in the United States. Perhaps less well-known is the “Implementation of Executive Order 13672 Prohibiting Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity by Contractors and… |
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