Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

HUBZone price preference provides a benefit to contractors – but at a price

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hubzoneThe Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Act (15 U.S.C. § 675a) sets forth three ways in which contracting agencies may provide contracting assistance to HUBZone contractors. The contracting agency may award contracts to HUBZone contractors on a sole source basis or they may restrict competition to just HUBZone contractors. In addition, on contracts to be awarded under full and open competition, contracting officers are to give a price preference to the prices offered by HUBZone contractors.

The HUBZone Act states that: “the price offered by a qualified HUBZone small business concern shall be deemed as being lower than the price offered by another offeror (other than another small business concern), if the price offered by the qualified HUBZone small business concern is not more than 10 percent higher than the price offered by the otherwise lowest, responsive, and responsible offeror.” In practice, how the price preference impacts award of contracts depends on the circumstances of the bids.

Keep reading this article at: http://pilieromazza.com/blog/the-hubzone-price-preference-provides-a-benefit-to-contractors-but-at-a-price

Deloitte Consulting agrees to pay $11 million for alleged false claims on GSA contract

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GSA logoThe Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that Deloitte Consulting LLP (Deloitte) has agreed to pay $11.38 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that it submitted false claims under a General Services Administration (GSA) contract.  Deloitte is a nationwide consulting company headquartered in New York City.

In 2000, GSA awarded Deloitte a contract for the provision of information technology services.  The contract required Deloitte to reduce the prices it charged the government if it offered lower prices to specific commercial customers during the course of the contract.  GSA refers to this as “best customer” pricing, a requirement of GSA Schedule contracts.

The settlement resolves allegations that between 2006 and 2012, Deloitte failed to comply with the price reductions clause in its contract, resulting in government customers paying more for Deloitte’s services than comparable commercial customers.

Justice Dept. seal - CopyThis case was handled by the DOJ’s Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch and the GSA Office of Inspector General.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/deloitte-consulting-llp-agrees-pay-11-million-alleged-false-claims-related-general-services

SBA announces new HUBZone designations effective Jan. 1, 2015

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The Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced changes to the geographic HUBZone designations, effective January 1, 2015.

The SBA says the changes reflect several new data sources. These data sources include:

  • American Community Survey 2009-2013 five year estimates,
  • 2013 OMB metropolitan area delineations, and
  • 2015 lists of Difficult Development Areas and Qualified Census Tracts, released by HUD in October 2014.

The changes reflect:

  • eight newly qualified counties,
  • 47 counties that have been re-designated until January 2018,
  • 1,479 newly qualified census tracts, and
  • 1,319 census tracts that have been re-designated until January 2018.

All current HUBZone designated areas can be found by downloading this document: HUBZone Designations – effective 01.01.2015

Please note that these new changes have not been incorporated into SBA’s interactive HUBZone map yet.  SBA says it will make another announcement about revisions to the map when it is updated.

For more information about the HUBZone program, please see: https://www.sba.gov/content/understanding-hubzone-program

Subcontracting uncertainty means no HUBZone price preference required, says GAO

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An agency properly refused to apply the HUBZone price preference when the agency determined HUBZone company’s proposal was unclear as to whether the company would comply with the subcontracting limits set forth in the Federal Acquisition Regulation’s HUBZone price preference clause.

In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) reasonably refused to apply the HUBZone price preference in a procurement for supplies because the HUBZone company’s proposal suggested that HUBZone companies might perform less than 50% of the manufacturing costs.

The GAO’s decision in Wakan, LLC, B-408535.2 (June 19, 2014) involved a DLA procurement for chicken products.  The procurement included a small business set-aside portion and an unrestricted portion.  The unrestricted portion of the procurement was to be awarded on a lowest-price, technically acceptable basis.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/gaobidprotests/gao-subcontracting-uncertainty-means-no-hubzone-price-preference-required/#more-3158

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