Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Design changes coming soon to beta.SAM.gov

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Come Monday, the General Services Administration’s central procurement website, beta.SAM.gov, will get a new look, shuffling and tightening the image and feel of the site in response to years of user feedback.

The design update scheduled for April 26 is the first of a two-step process that will end in the merger of beta.SAM and the original SAM.gov—the site that hosts the System for Award Management registration function, required for all organizations contracting with or receiving grants from the federal government.  At that time—currently set for May 24—SAM.gov will be retired and beta.SAM will lose the “beta,” become SAM.gov, and subsume all of the legacy SAM functionality.

Continue reading at:  Nextgov

SAM.gov hackers used spearphishing, spoofing, credential theft

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Cybercrooks who stole federal payments by hacking contractor accounts on a General Services Administration (GSA) website used sophisticated spearphishing techniques to steal login credentials and then diverted payments to bank accounts they controlled, an executive of a contractor targeted in the scam told FedScoop.

It’s unclear how much the scammers have netted through their scheme, which is being investigated by the GSA inspector general and federal law enforcement.

The inspector general’s office declined to comment, but sources familiar with the investigation told FedScoop that the cyberattacks that facilitated the fraud had been identified last year and were ongoing as
recently as last week.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/sam-gov-hackers-used-spearphishing-spoofing-credential-theft/

Also see Tips for Surviving Compromise of Government’s Vendor Database: http://gtpac.org/2018/03/26/tips-for-surviving-compromise-of-governments-vendor-database/

SBA publishes contact information for disaster response contracts

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The Small Business Administration (SBA) has identified officials responsible for the agency’s contracting in support of emergency recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.  The information available here lists SBA points of contact (POCs) for disaster contracts nationwide, 8(a) program waivers nationwide, protests and eligibility matters, and regional contacts.

The SBA is reiterating the importance of the government’s Disaster Response Registry for firms wishing to be identified by government contracting officials as potential contractors in activity categories such as debris removal, distribution of supplies, reconstruction, and other disaster or emergency relief supplies and/or services.  Government agencies search the Disaster Response Registry of the System for Award Management (SAM) to find contractors that can help respond to disasters. The Registry within SAM lists contractors that offer services that support disaster recovery contracting efforts.  Local firms affected by a Presidential major disaster or emergency declaration may be given contracting preferences under the terms of the Stafford Act.

Businesses must register in SAM to be eligible for disaster relief contracting opportunities. On average, it takes 2-3 days to complete the registration process. Once your registration is active, your firm will be added to the Disaster Response Registry.  During registration, you must indicate you want to participate in the Disaster Response Registry and provide the required information on the Disaster Response Information page within the Assertions module.

Contact the Federal Service Desk (FSD) to get help registering. If you’re located in the U.S. and its outlying areas, you can get free support from your local Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), an official resource for government contracting assistance.   In Georgia, the PTAC is operated by Georgia Tech.  The Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) advises businesses to seek its no-cost assistance before paying for any registration services.  GTPAC also warns vendors to be cautious in selecting outside help, noting a recent fraud conviction involving a company misrepresenting itself as a vendor registration list for FEMA.

Remember, it is FREE to register and maintain your registration in SAM. If you get an email from any address that does not end in .gov or .mil, be cautious. If you get an email, text message, or phone call asking for money or payment of any amount, be very cautious. These parties do not represent the U.S. government. You engage third party vendors at your own risk.

In Georgia, you can contact a PTAC counselor at the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center at: http://gtpac.org/team-directory.  If your business is located outside Georgia, you can identify the PTAC serving your state at: http://www.aptac-us.org/find-a-ptac.

See GTPAC’s other articles on disaster recovery contracting by clicking on these links:

Tips for disaster recovery contracting

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If you are seeking to do business with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in support of a disaster recovery effort, please be aware that in accordance with the Robert T. Stafford Act, FEMA seeks out local companies to perform contract work within the disaster area for goods and services related to a specific disaster.

The Army Corps of Engineers, and its contractors, actually do a lot of disaster response and recovery work such as debris removal. Use this link to access more information on contracting with the Corps in emergency situations: http://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Emergency-Operations/Contracting-in-Disasters.

You can use this link — www.moveit.gsa.gov — for access to the General Services Administration (GSA) Transportation Management Services Solution (TMSS).   FEMA procures many of its transportation needs through GSA including: truckload services, air charter, barges, air freight, air ambulance, heavy hauler, rail, vehicle rental, truck rental, travel trailers, and mobile homes.

Please Note: There are companies that mimic services of Federal agencies, and these companies typically charge fees for services that your business can typically accomplish yourself.  Be aware that most, if not all, Federal Government services are free of charge.  If you are approached by letter, email or phone to buy access to federal contracting opportunities, always make it a practice to reach out to the appropriate Federal agency first to inquire about the validity of the service, specifically if a fee is associated with it.  An excellent source of no-cost assistance associated with navigating the government contracting process is the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC).  You may contact GTPAC via email at: gtpacatl@innovate.gatech.edu.  If your business is located outside the state of Georgia, you can find similar no- or low-cost help at: http://www.aptac-us.org/find-a-ptac.

Helpful Tips For Contractors:
  • Get to know the Federal Business Opportunities website www.fbo.gov (known as FedBizOpps or FBO). FedBizOpps is the single point-of-entry to search, monitor, and retrieve Federal procurement opportunities. You will also find subcontractor, supplier and teaming opportunities here.
  • Monitor the Department of Homeland Security’s planned contract opportunities on the DHS Acquisition Planning Forecast System (APFS) located at: http://apfs.dhs.gov/.
  • Accept the government purchase card or credit card. The government buys more than $5 billion in goods and services annually using purchase cards.  In emergency contracting situations, a great many government purchases are micro-purchases less than $3,500.  (Note: Effective Aug. 29, 2017, the micro-purchase threshold for disaster recovery contracting was raised to $20,000.  See details at: http://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/2017/09/05/micro-purchase-and-simplified-acquisition-thresholds-raised-for-hurricane-harvey-response.)
  • Promote your business in electronic catalogs. If you are a GSA Schedule contractor, GSA Advantage and other electronic commerce initiatives will allow you to list your products or services for government browsing.
  • Publish your catalog listings on your company website. Having a website allows interested buyers to access additional information regarding your company (experience, past performance record, financial stability) after reviewing product descriptions.
  • See other helpful information at: http://gtpac.org/2017/08/31/register-free-if-you-want-to-provide-debris-removal-supplies-reconstruction-and-other-disaster-or-emergency-relief.

Register — free — if you want to provide debris removal, supplies, reconstruction, and other disaster or emergency relief

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When national emergencies or disasters such as floods and hurricanes occur, supplies and services need to be procured by the federal government and rushed to the affected area.  To expedite this process, the System for Award Management (SAM) contains a Disaster Response Registry in accordance with FAR Subpart 4.11 and FAR Subpart 26.2 listing those contractors who are willing to provide debris removal, distribution of supplies, reconstruction, and other disaster or emergency relief supplies and/or services.

A company must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov for federal contracts and other procurement opportunities in accordance with FAR Subpart 4.11, to be included in the Disaster Response Registry.  On average, it takes 2-3 days to properly register and have a company’s registration become active in SAM.  It may take longer.

During the registration process, companies must indicate that they want to participate in the Disaster Response Registry and provide the required information on the Disaster Response Information page within the “Assertions” module.  Once a company’s registration is activated, it will be added to the Disaster Response Registry, and federal contracting officers will be able to locate the company through the search function within the Disaster Response Registry.

You can get FREE help with your registration by contacting the supporting Federal Service Desk (FSD).  In addition, if you are located in the U.S. and its outlying areas, you can get FREE support from your local Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), an official resource for government contracting assistance.  Check the PTAC website at http://www.aptac-us.org/find-a-ptac to locate your closest PTAC.

Remember, it is FREE to register and maintain your registration in SAM. If you get an email from any address that does not end in .gov or .mil, be cautious. If you get an email, text message, or phone call asking for money or payment of any amount, be very cautious. These parties do not represent the U.S. government. You engage third party vendors at your own risk.

In Georgia, you can contact a PTAC counselor at the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center at: http://gtpac.org/team-directory.

Owner of fraudulent government contract registration firm sentenced to prison for tricking 1,200 vendors

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In April of this year, the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) reported on the guilty plea entered by the operator of a phony government contract registration firm charged with wire fraud for his part in tricking at least 1,200 businesses into believing they needed to employ his services in order to qualify for contracts issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a unit of the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security.

On Friday, August 11, 2017, he was sentenced to four years and two months in federal prison, along with a $594,000 judgment against him, for his role in these fraudulent activities.

In Tampa, Florida, U.S. District Judge Charlene E. Honeywell imposed the sentencing terms on Michael Pirolo who earlier pled guilty to the charges against him.  According to court documents, Pirolo served as the president of Government Contract Registry, Inc. (GCR), doing business as FEMA Contract Registration. He employed telemarketers who, during communications with victim-companies, falsely claimed that — for a fee — GCR would “register” the companies with FEMA to enable them to receive preference in obtaining contracts from FEMA.  The GCR telemarketers’ communications were based on instructions and scripts that they received from Pirolo.

Specifically, the telemarketers falsely and fraudulently stated that for a one-time fee of $500, the customer would be registered with FEMA, and that this registration would place the customer on a list of “preferred” vendors.  When the need for a vendor arose, GCR telemarketers falsely stated that FEMA would bypass the standard contract acquisition process, contact the registered victim-company, and then offer a no-bid contract.  At times, Pirolo also instructed GCR telemarketers to go back to victim-companies that had already paid the $500 one-time fee and seek renewal and payment of another fraudulent $500 fee.

To further the scheme, the GCR telemarketers provided victim-companies with an online GCR form that requested the same information as a form on FEMA’s public website.  In fact, FEMA does not charge a fee to companies to complete its vendor information form.  The purpose of FEMA’s form is to assist the agency with market research in identifying viable possible vendors.  FEMA’s form does not “register” companies.  In actuality, registration in the federal government’s System for Award Management (SAM) is the government-wide vendor registration system.  Vendors can register in SAM at no cost.  

Once GCR telemarketers received the victim-companies’ information, GCR completed and submitted the online FEMA form that then enabled emails to be sent from FEMA to the victim-companies, giving the appearance that the companies had been “registered.”  The FEMA emails gave GCR the appearance of legitimacy.

The approximate 1,200 victim-companies who were misled by this scheme paid GCR at least $604,500.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, and the General Services Administration, Office of Inspector General.  It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Adam M. Saltzman.

GTPAC again reminds its clients and all other vendors that government agencies never charge a fee for registration in government databases.  This includes vendor databases maintained by FEMA and the government-wide vendor database known as SAM.

While one scam — the company featured in this article — has been put out of business, there are others still in operation, so beware!   To read more about questionable practices involving the FEMA and SAM vendor registration databases, click on the links below:

For no-cost assistance with registering in SAM — and no-cost help with many other aspects of government contracting — contact GTPAC at http://gtpac.org/contact-us.   If your business is located outside the state of Georgia, feel free to contact the procurement technical assistance center (PTAC) nearest you.  Locate the PTAC offices in your state at http://www.aptac-us.org/find-a-ptac.

Owner of fraudulent Florida FEMA registration firm faces 20 years

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The U.S. Attorney’s office in Tampa, Florida announced last week that Michael Pirolo — the owner of a company that falsely and fraudulently claimed that it would “register” vendors with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to enable the vendors to receive preference in obtaining contracts from FEMA — has pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Pirolo is facing a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

According to the plea agreement, Pirolo served as the president of Government Contract Registry, Inc. (GCR), doing business as FEMA Contract Registration.  He employed telemarketers who, during communications with victim-companies, falsely and fraudulently claimed that, for a fee, GCR would “register” the companies in such a way that they would receive contract preferences from FEMA.

  • The GCR telemarketers’ communications were based on instructions and scripts that they had received from Pirolo.
  • The GCR telemarketers falsely and fraudulently stated that for a one-time fee of $500, the customer would be registered with FEMA, and that this registration would place the customer company on a list of preferred vendors.
  • The GCR telemarketers also falsely stated that when the need for particular vendor services arose, FEMA would bypass the contract acquisition process, contact the registered victim-company, and then offer a no-bid contract.
  • At times, Pirolo also instructed GCR telemarketers to go back to victim-companies that had already paid the $500 one-time fee and seek renewal and payment of another fraudulent $500 fee.

To further the scheme, the GCR telemarketers provided victim-companies with an online GCR form that requested the same information as a form on FEMA’s website.

FEMA does not charge a fee to companies to complete its form, which assists the agency with market research and does not “register” companies. Completing this form is not part of the U.S. government’s contract acquisition process.

Once GCR telemarketers received the victim-companies’ information, GCR then completed and submitted the same information — online on FEMA’s website — that then enabled emails to be sent from FEMA to the victim-companies, giving the appearance that the companies had been “registered.” The FEMA emails gave GCR the appearance of legitimacy.

Approximately 1,200 victim-companies were misled by this scheme, paying GCR at least $604,500.

This case was investigated by the Inspector General offices of the Department of Homeland Security and the General Services Administration.

The Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) reminds its clients that government agencies never charge a fee for registration in government databases.  This is certainly true with vendor databases maintained by FEMA and the government-wide vendor database called the System for Award Management, better known as SAM.

While one scam — the company featured in this article — has apparently been put out of business, there are several others still in operation, so beware!   To read more about questionable practices involving the FEMA and SAM vendor registration databases, click on the links below:

FEMA warns vendors to look twice at privately-operated registration schemes

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In addition to registration in the federal government’s vendor registration system — the System for Award Management (SAM) — the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommends that businesses register in FEMA’s own database.

There’s the rub.

If businesses don’t know how to access FEMA’s vendor database, they sometimes stumble into privately-operated websites which charge upwards of $500 to register.  In actuality, it’s free to register in FEMA’s official database.

Completion of FEMA’s official Vendor Profile Form serves as supplemental market research for the agency — so they have detailed capabilities descriptions on companies — better enabling FEMA to respond in emergencies.  In completing FEMA’s form, vendors are encouraged to be specific about how your products and/or services can support FEMA’s mission.   The official Vendor Profile Form can be accessed at: https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/29748.  Once completed, the Form should be submitted to: FEMA-Industry@fema.dhs.gov

FEMA does not charge any company a registration fee.  FEMA advises that “there are companies that replicate services of Federal Government entities and there are typically fees associated with their services.  Most Federal Government services, if not all, are free of charge.  Always make it a practice to reach out to the appropriate Federal agency first to inquire about the validity of the service, specifically if a fee is associated with it.”

To reiterate: FEMA does not charge a fee to submit a Vendor Profile Form. 

For more information about vendor registration in SAM, please see: http://gtpac.org/sam-gov-registration-is-free-and-help-with-sam-is-free-too.

For information about fraud involving government contracting, see our article at: http://gtpac.org/fraud-alert-beware-of-unsolicited-purchase-orders-and-other-possible-government-scams.

This is the second time that the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center has written about FEMA registration.  See our July 2014 article at: http://gtpac.org/2014/07/22/beware-of-government-vendor-registration-websites-that-charge-a-fee. 

SAM ‘inelegant and cumbersome’ says GSA CIO

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The System for Award Management (SAM) is operational but it’s not what the future of acquisition systems should look like, said Sonny Hashmi, chief information officer at the General Services Administration (GSA).

Commonly called “SAM,” the consolidated acquisition system launched in August 2012 to bring together three previously separate systems.

“It is still inelegant and cumbersome. We have done just enough to make it operational,” said Hashmi during an April 11 chat on GitHub.

Shortly after the system went live, SAM ran into a variety of problems that required the back-end security architecture, business process management layer and database schema to be completely reconfigured.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/sam-inelegant-and-cumbersome-says-gsa-cio/2014-04-16

Don’t pay anyone to register your company in SAM.  SAM registration is free!  For details, please visit: http://gtpac.org/sam-gov-registration-is-free-and-help-with-sam-is-free-too 

SAM.gov registration is free, and help with SAM is free, too

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Businesses interested in Federal contracting must, as an initial step, register in the Government’s vendor database known as System for Award Management (SAM).   Registration at the official SAM web site — www.sam.gov – is free.

The good news is that SAM registration is something that any vendor can take care of by themselves.  And if any vendor needs instruction, help is readily available at no charge.

Here are three important tips:

    1. Don’t be confused by look-alike web sites.  There is only one SAM database, and it’s a secure web site operated by the Federal Government.  It’s located at https://www.sam.gov.  You also can navigate to SAM by simply typing sam.gov or www.sam.gov in your web browser.  Either of these variations will redirect to SAM’s secure web site.  The key thing to know is that the official Federal SAM website is a “.gov” website, not a commercial website, so SAM.com is not an option if you’re trying to navigate to a Government web site.
    2. There are helpful videos now available on-line to help you with the SAM registration process.  If your business previously had a file set-up in Central Contractor Registration (CCR), you’ll need to migrate your old vendor record over to SAM; for instruction on how to do this, view the instructional video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuFGM9H0gPI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUGYKiouhiBpijT51CplQZ-w.    If your business was never registered in CCR, then your starting point is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VPGVYPvch4&list=UUGYKiouhiBpijT51CplQZ-w.
    3. If you need advice on how to organize your records in order to register in SAM — or you need help with the SAM registration process itself – expert assistance is available free of charge to all vendors, small and large.  Just contact the Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) nearest you.  PTACs have produced a SAM instructional video, too, and it’s available here:  https://netforum.avectra.com/eWeb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=APTAC&WebCode=SAM.  A complete list of all PTACs across the nation is available at http://www.aptac-us.org/new/Govt_Contracting/find.php.    In Georgia, you can contact any of the nine PTAC offices located across the state — all contact information can be found at: http://gtpac.org/team-directory.

Remember, SAM registration is necessary if you want to do business with Federal agencies.  Remember, too, SAM registration is something you can tackle yourself.  There is never a charge to register at sam.gov, and help with the SAM registration process is readily available, at no charge, from your nearest PTAC.

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