A form of contracting known as lowest-price technically acceptable, or LPTA, has long bugged federal contractors. Defense authorization legislation, and subsequent updates to the Federal Acquisition Regulations, were supposed to limit agency use of LPTA. But contractors say they’re seeing a resurgence. Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to David Berteau, the president and CEO of the Professional Services Council.
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Ask many government contractors, and they’ll tell you that even a single negative report in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) can have a powerful adverse impact on winning future prime contracts.
Given the importance of these performance reports, it’s little wonder that a contractor on the receiving end of a negative CPAR may want to ask a judge to review the matter. But as one recent case demonstrates, a contractor cannot challenge a CPAR with a judge until the contractor has followed the FAR’s claims process.
The decision of the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals in SkyQuest Aviation LLC, ASBCA No. 62586 (2021), involved a contract between the Air Force and SkyQuest Aviation LLC. Under the contract, SkyQuest was to provide “functional check flight pilot, flight engineer, and related services in exchange for $429,000.”
Continue reading at: SmallGovCon
When it comes to “best value” evaluations, agencies ordinarily have broad discretion to accept higher-rated, higher-priced proposals.
How broad is that discretion? Well, in one recent case, the GAO held that an agency reasonably accepted the awardee’s higher-rated proposal, despite a whopping 91% price premium.
The GAO’s decision in Deloitte Consulting LLP, B-419336.2 et al. (2021) involved a DHS Request for Quotations seeking the establishment of a Blanket Purchase Agreement under which the awardee would provide program analysis and strategic support services. The RFQ was issued to holders of the GSA’s Professional Services Schedule with particular Special Line Item Numbers, as well as certain other GSA Schedule holders, and contemplated the award of a single BPA against which orders would be issued.
The RFQ provided for award on a best-value basis, using a two-phase process. Only phase 2 was at issue in the GAO’s decision. In phase 2, the evaluation was to be based on five factors, listed in descending order of importance: management approach, technical approach, prior experience, socio-economic considerations, and price. Because the ultimate scope of work under the BPA was indefinite, price was to be evaluated based on a sample task.
Continue reading at: SmallGovCon
R&W Builders, Inc. (R&W) of O’Fallon, Illinois, has agreed to pay the United States $400,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by fraudulently obtaining construction contracts reserved for disadvantaged small businesses, U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft announced today.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program helps provide a level playing field for small businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals by limiting competition for certain federal contracts to Program participants. To increase the opportunities available to these disadvantaged businesses, the SBA also permits Program participants to partner with another company on certain contracts through approved joint venture agreements. The SBA requires the joint venture agreements to include specific terms to ensure the relationship is fair and provides a benefit to the disadvantaged business, including provisions designating the disadvantaged business as the managing partner of the joint venture and requiring the disadvantaged business to perform a specified percentage of the work. It is important that 8(a) joint ventures comply with the SBA’s criteria because misuse of the Program deprives real disadvantaged businesses of valuable economic opportunities and undermines the Program’s integrity.
In 2014, after R&W was no longer eligible to participate in the 8(a) Program, it entered into a joint venture agreement with Global Environmental, Inc. (GEI), an 8(a) Program participant based in St. Louis, Missouri. R&W and GEI named the joint venture Patriot Commercial Construction, LLC (Patriot) and successfully secured an award set aside solely for Program participants on the Multiple Award Construction Contract (MACC) at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.
The United States contends that R&W falsely represented it would abide by the Program requirements and the Patriot joint venture agreement to obtain the SBA’s approval. Immediately after Patriot received an 8(a) award on the MACC, R&W began managing the joint venture and using its own employees to complete nearly all of the work Patriot performed. Over the next two years, R&W caused Patriot to receive numerous MACC task orders set aside for 8(a) Program participants when Patriot was under R&W’s control, in violation of SBA requirements.
Continue reading at: U.S. Department of Justice
A long-time Senate advocate for whistleblowers and strong oversight of agencies said on Wednesday that due to the historic spending for the coronavirus pandemic, the law that targets fraud against the federal government and in federal contracting is more important now than ever.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, spoke at the Federal Bar Association’s fourth annual Qui Tam Conference. Qui tam, a provision of the “The False Claims Act,” which was originally enacted during the Civil War, allows individuals or non-government organizations to file lawsuits on behalf of the government to disclose fraud that led to financial loss for the government. They can be awarded between 15% and 30% of the proceeds collected. Grassley co-authored updates to the act in 1986 and 2009.
“As the country continues to battle the global pandemic, the False Claims Act has never been more important than it is right now,” said Grassley at the virtual event. “The massive increases in government spending to address the COVID crisis have created new opportunities for fraudsters trying to cheat the government and steal the people’s money. As history has shown all of us, fraudsters thrive during times of crises and large-scale government spending.”
He said it’s important the Justice Department, Congress and whistleblowers “remain very vigilant” due to the trillions of dollars spent in pandemic relief.
Continue reading at: Government Executive
The General Services Administration wants to get ahead on training and education materials contracting officers will need as Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification requirements become standard in government contracts.
Keith Nakasone, the GSA’s deputy assistant commissioner for IT acquisition, said the agency is developing ordering guides for contracting officers who use government-wide acquisition contracts (GWACs).
“We know that training is going to be required as we go through this process with our Department of Defense partners,” Nakasone said during an AFFIRM event on CMMC on Feb. 17. “So as we move forward, we want to present an ordering guide where we have created templates, some guidance in our ordering process [on] how to use the GSA contract.”
Continue reading at: FCW
A huge portion of U.S. defense spending is going to contractors and military personnel based in just a handful of states, according to data recently released by the Pentagon.
Defense Department contract obligations and payroll spending in the 50 states and the District of Columbia totaled $550.9 billion in fiscal year 2019. Of those outlays, 73 percent was spent on contracts for products and services, while the remaining 27 percent paid the salaries of department personnel, according to the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation’s latest report on defense spending by state.
“California, Virginia and Texas topped the list of recipients for overall defense spending,” said a press release accompanying the study. They received $181.3 billion, about one-third of the total allotted to all 50 states plus D.C.
The top five, which also included Florida and Maryland, received about 43 percent of the total, while the top 10 received approximately 59 percent, according to the data.
Continue reading at: National Defense Magazine
U.S. Labor Department leaders are planning to ramp up enforcement of wage standards on federally funded construction and service projects, aiming to reverse a recent trend that has been compounded by attrition of seasoned investigators, according to four sources briefed on the initiative.
The changes the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division is formulating—which could rank among its biggest initial policy moves under the new administration—would support the infrastructure and jobs package President Joe Biden is planning to roll out.
As the administration readies those big-ticket legislative proposals, which would increase government investment in projects developed by private companies, the department has begun preparations to expand its investigative capacity under two statutes that require government contractors to pay workers prevailing wages and benefits, as determined by the DOL.
The building trades and service unions have long called for the department to crack down on what they have described as government contractors’ persistent non-compliance with the two laws: the Davis-Bacon Act, which covers public construction projects, and the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act, which applies to government spending on services, such as janitorial work and food preparation.
Continue reading at: Bloomberg Law
Textron Systems is preparing to show off its vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial system in an Army drone rodeo at Fort Benning, Georgia, for companies competing to replace the service’s RQ-7B Shadow.
The Future Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems, or FTUAS, Rodeo will run through the first week of March and feature troops demonstrating drone prototypes from four defense firms that have been under soldier evaluation for the past year.
After a fly-off event in 2019 involving 11 drone vendors, the Army selected four finalists — the Textron Aerosonde Hybrid Quad, Arcturus Jump 20, L3 Harris Unmanned Systems FVR-90 and Martin UAV V-Bat — to participate in a capability assessment involving brigade combat teams, or BCTs, from the across the service.
Continue reading at: Military.com
Colas Djibouti, a contractor for the Department of the Navy at Camp Lemonnier and Chabelley Airfield, and the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti, admitted today that it faked testing results and submitted a series of false documents and false claims to the United States as part of a scheme to defraud the United States in the sale of substandard concrete used to construct U.S. Navy airfields in Djibouti.
Colas Djibouti, a French limited liability company, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Colas SA, a French civil engineering company. According to documents filed in court, as part of its contracts with the Department of the Navy, Colas Djibouti was required to certify that it supplied concrete with specific composition and characteristics. Notwithstanding these obligations, Colas Djibouti created fictitious testing results, made fraudulent representations regarding the concrete’s composition and characteristics, and knowingly provided concrete to the United States that did not comply with the specifications.
Continue reading at: U.S. Department of Justice
