Skyway Wire
Does the Supreme Court Kingdomware Decision Change Size Protest Guidelines?
Recently the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) rejected the theory that a GSA Schedule order should be considered a “contract” under size protest timeliness rules. OHA stated that SBA’s...
Policy Tidbits – June 2017
Uniform Use of Line Items - DoD, GSA, and NASA are issuing a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to establish uniform use of line items in Federal procurement. General...
Foreign Military Sales: How Does It Work?
President Trump on his recent trip to Saudi Arabia reached agreement on a $110 billion arms deal. The deal includes tanks, helicopters, ships and other weapons. The questions I heard most over my...
Why You Should Compete for Work – Part III – Compete and Win
The basic concept to grasp here is that it is better to win prime contracts through the competitive process (the 80%) than it is to win them through relationships (the 20%). This is because the...
Why You Should Compete for Work – Part 2: How Are Sole Source Contracts Awarded?
Most sole source contracts are awarded through the “Exceptions to Competition” rules in FAR 6.3. There are seven ways that a contracting officer can award contracts without competition. Each of...
Why You Should Compete for Work: Part 1 – The Cost (and Time!) Of Getting Sole Source Contracts
As a CO, I wrote dozens of sole-source contracts. I bought aircraft, body armor, vehicles, services, software, and I even paid for the use of a testing facility for off-road vehicles through...
Single Cost Objective
When pricing work for the government, contractors must be aware of which costs are allowable under the FAR (Subpart 31.2). Allowable costs include both direct (labor, materials, etc.) and indirect...
Acquisition Threshold Increased for Special Emergency Procurement Authority
DoD, GSA, and NASA issued are issuing a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 to raise...
Department of Transportation (DOT) Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program
During the election, many promises were made to accelerate the US economic growth. Insiders who follow these trends believe that these campaign promises center on infrastructure improvements and...
Government Contractors Indicted in $11 Million Veteran Set-Aside Fraud Scheme
Department of Justice press release that was issued April 21, 2017 stated that owners of San Diego area local construction and telecommunications companies were arraigned in federal court on charges...
Should the Awardee Intervene in a Protest?
You just won a contract. Now the CO will notify you that an award protest has been filed by an interested party – usually with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) or the Court of Federal...
“Myth-busting 3” Further Improving Industry Communication with Effective Debriefings
On January 5, 2017, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) issued a memorandum discussion the best practices to “maximize the return on its acquisition investment and to ensure access to...
GAO’s FY 2016 Bid Protest Statistics
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released its Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2016. This report documents any cases where a federal agency did not fully implement...
Memo Issued to Implement Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) Final Rule to Enhance Effectiveness of Independent Research and Development (IR&D)
On January 4, 2017, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics released a memorandum to implement the class deviation issued by the Department of Defense (DOD) on...
SBA, GSA, and OFPP Can’t Agree on ‘Rule of Two’ Application
The Small Business Administration (SBA) is attempting to expand the Supreme Court’s Kingdomware ruling, applying the “rule of two” to all task and delivery orders under the Simplified Acquisition...
Payment of Subcontractors
The Department of Defense (“DOD”), General Services Administration (“GSA”), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (‘NASA”), have issued a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition...