Effective October 26, 2018, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) requires businesses who are pursuing federal contracts to be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) prior to their submission of a bid, proposal, or quote to a federal agency.
Think of this as the need to “feed” information about your company into the SAM database, including updates to that information, on a regular basis.
There are only a few exceptions to this new policy (exceptions may be found at FAR 4.1102).
In the context of federal contracting, SAM is essentially the federal government’s vendor database. By registering in SAM, businesses indicate their compliance and agreement with the federal government’s standard “representations and certifications” requirements. Updating your SAM record must be done at least annually for a vendor to maintain “active” status is SAM.
The new rule clarifies what had been ambiguity as to when vendors must be registered in SAM in order to be eligible to receive contract awards. (See details in our earlier article on this subject here.) With the FAR change, it’s now clear that registration must be accomplished before a vendor submits a response to an Invitation for Bid (IFB), a Request for Proposal (RFP), or a Request for a Quotation (RFQ).
If you need help with your company’s SAM registration, feel free to contact a Procurement Counselor with the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC). All of our contact information is listed by location at: https://gtpac.org/team-directory.
If you are located outside of the state of Georgia, you can find the procurement technical assistance center (PTAC) nearest you at: http://www.aptac-us.org/contracting-assistance.
Remember: There is never a fee to register in SAM as a government contractor. PTACs are available to provide you with no-cost help to get you through the process.
