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GAO Releases Its FY 2011 Bid Protest Statistics
Every year the General Accounting Office publishes statistics regarding bid protests filed with GAO the previous fiscal year. Yesterday, GAO released those statistics for FYs 2007-2011. These statistics show some interesting trends.
There was an 2% increase in protests filed …
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Court Overturns CVE’s Denial of Verification Application
Yesterday, a DC District Court ordered VA/CVE to go back and reconsider a SDVOSB verification application that it had denied. This appears to be the first known court challenge of a VA SDVOSB verification denial. The court held that VA …
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DoD IG Issues Report Criticizing DoD’s Use of the SDVOSB Set-Aside Program
On Friday, March 2, the DoD IG issued a controversial report regarding DoD’s use of the SDVOSB set-aside program. In particular, the IG concluded that DoD did not have adequate controls preventing fraud in the program. Interestingly, the report has …
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Think You Know Everything About Subcontracting Plans? Think Again.
There are some interesting legal nuances regarding subcontracting plans of which most government contractors are not aware. Most contractors know that, in negotiated acquisitions, each solicitation of offers to perform a contract or contract modification, that individually is expected to …
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SBA Issues New “Small” Size Standards
On March 16, 2011, SBA posted for public comment proposed changes to the size standards for Sector 54, Professional, Technical and Scientific Services. SBA received nearly 1,500 comments on the proposed rule, the majority of which addressed the proposed increase …
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Air Force Sends Notice of Proposed Debarment to Booz Allen
Earlier this week, the Air Force issued a Notice of Proposed Debarment to Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. The basis for the debarment is set forth in a memorandum attached to the notice (contact me if you would like a copy). …
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GAO Protest Decision Addresses Intersection of OCI and Government Post-Employment Rules
Organizational Conflicts of Interest (“OCI”) has been a “hot topic” in government contracts ever since new DoD OCI regulations for Major Defense Acquisition Programs were published in December of 2010. While the final regulations were far narrower than anticipated, the …
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VSE Decision Part II
In my earlier blog post on the GAO’s decision in VSE Corporation (B-404833.4, November 21, 2011), I commented on GAO case law holding that “an appearance of impropriety” can justify the disqualification of a contractor from a procurement. In the …
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Employee Handbooks: Benefits and Pitfalls
One of the questions employers frequently have is whether it is good policy to distribute and employee handbooks to employees. The answer I most readily give employers is yes, as long as the handbook is carefully drafted as it might …
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New Rule Allows Contractors to Prevent Public Access to Contractor Information Reported in FAPIIS
In 2010, the Government implemented the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS). FAPIIS consolidates information from various federal databases such as the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS), the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) and the Contractor Performance …
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