Government Contracts Monitor

New Year's Resolutions, 2019 - Reassess Your Size Status, Update Your SAM and DSBS Listings, Check Your Past Performance Ratings, and Update Your Employment Policies, Handbooks and Postings

January 2, 2019

Happy New Year!  The start of a new year is the time for New Year’s Resolutions.  Here are several we strongly urge you to follow-through on early in 2019.

     1.  Reassess Your (and Any Subcontractors’) Small Business Size Status:  Most companies operate on a calendar year for tax reporting purposes.  For such companies the start of a new tax year, and the end of the prior year, means a change and…

Release of Proprietary Information - Tainted Procurement?

December 11, 2018

What happens when a competitor receives proprietary information during a procurement? Will an offeror whose information has been improperly disclosed succeed in a protest? The answer is . . . it depends.  Most recently, in DynCorp International, LLC,  the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that an agency had a reasonable basis for not disqualifying a competitor that had received…

Dun & Bradstreet Reports Have Limited Utility When Challenging Responsibility Determinations at the GAO

May 24, 2018

Disappointed bidders seeking to challenge a contracting officer’s affirmative responsibility determination will attempt to rely on any information that appears even arguably relevant. One common source of information to which such offerors turn is the Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) report on the awardee, under the theory that its contents can help demonstrate a lack of financial wherewithal. As the…

New Year's Resolutions, 2018

January 3, 2018

Reassess Your Size Status, Update Your DSBS and SAM Listings, Check Your Past Performance Ratings, and Update Your Employment Policies, Handbooks and Postings

Happy New Year! The start of a new year is the time for New Year’s Resolutions.  Here are several we strongly urge you to follow-through on early in 2018.

    1.    Reassess Your (and Any Subcontractors’) Small Business Size Status: Most companies…

Reverse Auctions: Beware “Race-to-the-Bottom” vs. a Non-Responsible or Ineligible Bidder

January 23, 2017

Reverse auctions, while offering obvious advantages to the Government in appropriate circumstances, pose a number of challenges for bidders. These challenges include the need to exercise bidding restraint, and fight the animalistic instinct or desire to “win,” particularly at the cost of bidding too low.  This is particularly so where there is no prequalification of bidders, and some bidders,…

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January 3, 2017

Reassess Your Size Status, Update Your DSBS and SAM Listings, Check Your Past Performance Ratings, and Update Your Employment Policies, Handbooks and Postings

Happy New Year! The start of a new year is a time for New Year’s Resolutions.  Here are several we strongly urge you to follow-through on early in 2017.

        1.    Reassess Your (and Any Subcontractors’) Small Business Size Status: Most companies…

FAR Council and DOL Publish Final Rule and Guidance on Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces

September 6, 2016

Two years after President Obama signed Executive Order (EO) 13673, “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces”, the FAR Council has published the final rule implementing it. The Department of Labor (DOL) has also published the final version of its implementing guidance for the rule. Jackson Kelly initially wrote about the EO’s implementation last year when the DOL published its proposed guidance. The EO has…

Short Take: FAPIIS Reporting Requirements Expanded to Include Information about Affiliates and Predecessors

April 11, 2016

Effective April 6, 2016, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) has been amended to require reporting in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) to include, to the extent practicable, identification of any immediate owner or subsidiary, and all predecessors of an offeror that held a Federal contract or grant within the last three years.

The final rule implements…

Translation Firm to Pay $1.47M to Resolve Overtime and SCA Wages and Benefits Underpayments

February 9, 2016

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Wage and Hour Division (WHD) recently announced that a Monterey, California-based translation and interpretation company that does work for the federal government and other clients has agreed to pay $1.47 million in wages and benefits to its nationwide corps of interpreters to resolve federal labor laws violations identified as the result of two separate WHD…

Opposition Research Has Its Limits – Knowing the Facts May Not Be Enough

January 18, 2016

In order to make good decisions about whether and how to protest an award decision, disappointed bidders must, among other things, have good information about the awardee. This is particularly true where the protest grounds being considered include the argument that the winner’s proposal violated the applicable limitation on subcontracting requirement, an attack that requires a showing that the…

2016 New Year’s Resolutions

January 4, 2016

Reassess Your Size Status, Update Your DSBS and SAM Listings, Check Your Past Performance Ratings, and Update Your Employment Policies, Handbooks and Postings

Happy New Year! The start of a new year is a time for New Year’s Resolutions.  Here are several we strongly urge you to follow-through on early in 2016.

1.    Reassess Your (and Any Subcontractors’) Small Business Size Status: Most…

Corrective Action Must Consider Changed Circumstances

October 12, 2015

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reiterated, in the corrective action context, that an agency cannot ignore changed circumstances, and that an award cannot stand where, as a result of interim developments, the awardee no longer intends to perform in a manner consistent with its proposal.  FCi Federal, Inc., B-408558.7, B-408558.8, August 5, 2015. 

In an earlier decision discussed…