Skyway Wire
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...
Effective Data Collection Methods: Working with Subs and SMEs
The process of managing and producing a winning proposal response to the Federal Government is largely two-fold. The first challenge is to manage organized, efficient data collection methods for...
Amendments to Department of Defense (“DOD”) Mentor-Protégé Program
DOD has issued a proposed rule which will amend the DFARS to implement Section 861 of the NDAA 2016, which provides amendments to the DOD Mentor-Protégé Program. The proposed amendments will require...
What Happens if References Don’t Complete Past Performance Questionnaires (PPQs)?
This situation is discussed in a recent GAO bid protest, Genesis Design and Development, Inc., B-414254 (Feb. 28, 2017). The protestor alleged it was unfair for the government to reject their...
COs No Longer Required to Further Justify Decision to Provide Customary Contract Financing
DoD has issued a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) by providing that contracting officers are not required to further justify a decision to provide...
Talk to Me Goose!
As a contracting officer for the aviation side of the USN, the movie Top Gun spawned many sayings that we used on a daily basis. When we had a problem, “Talk to me Goose” was one of those sayings...
Is Full and Open Competition Dead?
Are COs being discouraged from using full and open (F&O) competition procedures? When I was a CO, there were a lot of F&O competitions being done, but now it’s hard to find a single...
False Claims Act Recovery is Having a Record Year!
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has released their 2016 report on just how much they have recovered under the False Claims Act (FCA). As a reminder in October 2015, there was a groundbreaking...
Where Have all the Jobbers Gone? (Changes to the Way the Government Buy Commodities)
Back in the day when I was working in Operational contracting offices, we had what we called “jobbers”. They did not have any core competencies, no wheelhouse, no real “business”. But what they...