Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Agencies improved on small business goals, but can do more

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Federal agencies improved on their commitment to award contracts to small businesses in 2018, though they still fell behind in goals for contract awards to women-owned small businesses, according to the Small Business Administration’s procurement scorecards released June 25.

The government as a whole received an “A” for 2018 — meaning that it met or exceeded 100 percent of the goals set for small business contracting that year — a grade that it has maintained for the past five years.

The Departments of Education, Commerce and the Treasury led the pack of 24 agencies that were evaluated, each earning an A+ and meeting over 130 percent of the established goals for small business contract awards.

Meanwhile, the Office of Personnel Management, Department of Health and Human Services, the Agency for International Development and the National Science Foundation failed to meet their small business contract goals, with NSF achieving the lowest score at just over 85 percent of their goal.

But despite the overall successes for small business contract awards, some categories of small businesses failed to meet governmentwide metrics.

Continue Reading at:  Federal Times

U.S. Department of Education to host Atlanta small business conference July 29th

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The U.S. Department of Education (Education) Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) will host the Atlanta Small Business Conference Monday, July 29, 2019.  The Atlanta Small Business Conference will feature presentations concerning Education procurement opportunities and Education prime contractor partnering opportunities.

Registration is required.  Conference registration will close July 22, 2019  or when capacity is reached.

The U.S. Department of Education has posted the following notice on fbo.gov:

The U.S. Department of Education Atlanta Small Business Conference

https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ED/OCFO/CPO/ED-OSDBU-ATL-SB19-9100/listing.html

Below is the conference registration link:

http://www.cvent.com/d/m6qy9k/1Q

Event Details

Date:  July 29, 2019

Time:  10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Location:  Sam Nunn Federal Building, 61 Forsyth Street, SW, Atlanta, GA 30303

Please email questions to small.business@ed.gov or call 202-245-6300.

GTPAC supports Georgia National Guard vendor expo

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On May 2nd, 2019, GTPAC provided support at the Georgia National Guard vendor expo at the Clay National Guard Center in Marietta, GA.  Vendors who attended the expo were allowed to showcase their products and services to buyers from the Georgia National Guard’s logistics, human resources, medical, equipment, training, operations, and information technology units.

The event was organized by Derrick A. Thomas, a Contract Specialist with the Georgia National Guard.  The Georgia National Guard makes a strong effort each year to reach out to small businesses in the local community who desire to do business with the Guard. 

GTPAC Program Manager Andrew Smith spoke at the event and provided some general tips and advice to contractors in attendance.  “To be a successful government contractor, you have to have the basics covered.  You need to be registered in SAM, the SBA Dynamic Small Business Search (“DSBS”) database, and you need to develop a smart marketing strategy if you want to have a chance to win simplified acquisitions or subcontracting opportunities.” 

GTPAC and Procurement Technical Assitance Centers located in all 50 states, regularly provided free assistance to businesses who need help with the SAM and SBA DSBS registration process. 

Smith continued, “The government will not buy from you if they do not know about you, and the value of your products or services, so attending events like this where you can interact with government buyers, showcase your products and services, and meet prime contractors who are looking for subcontractors is essential if you want to have success in the government market.  I thank the Georgia National Guard for making this opportunity available to the local business community.”

How government contracting is still suffering from the shutdown

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The longest government shutdown in U.S. history ended in January 2019, but businesses that contract with the federal government are still seeing damaging effects for themselves and their employees months later, according to witnesses who testified at a May 6 House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing.

“Everyone thinks the shutdown ended on the 25th [of January]. The shutdown ended on the 25th for government employees.  The shutdown didn’t end for our employees until we got a letter from the contracting officer authorizing us to come back to work,” said Roger Krone, CEO of Leidos.

“Where it may have been 35 days for government employees, it could be another 14 days or more for contractors.  Because the contracting officer had to come to work, get through the pile of paper, figure out what contracts were under a stop work order, and then prioritize those and authorize the contractors to come back.”

Federal employees were guaranteed back pay for the time they were forced to stay home from work or work without pay during a shutdown.  But contractors received stop-work orders or were unable to access the resources necessary for their contracts, and never received compensation for that time they were unable to go to work.

Continue reading at the: Federal Times

Nuclear Regulatory Commission holding small business event in Atlanta on June 5th

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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is holding a Small Business Exchange and Matchmaking Event on Wednesday, June 5, 2019 in Atlanta.   In addition to the NRC, other government agencies and prime contractors will be in attendance.

The event is being held at Georgia State University, 33 Gilmer Street S.E., Atlanta, from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm.

See the event flyer here: NRC Event Flyer

To register to attend this event, free of charge, visit: https://nrcsboutreachatlanta2019.eventbrite.com

DoD testing secure cloud to help small contractors protect data

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The Pentagon still has deep concerns about thefts of sensitive Defense data from contractor systems. But it’s concluded that simply using contract terms to order firms to improve their security isn’t going to do the job.

So the department is testing ways to extend its own cybersecurity expertise and infrastructure to small and medium-sized businesses who don’t have the wherewithal to adequately secure their systems against nation-state attackers. Specifically, it plans to build a secure cloud to house the Defense data companies need to perform their contracts, instead of requiring them to store it themselves.

DoD’s research and development budget for 2020 includes $15 million for a small project the department terms the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Secure Cloud Managed Services Pilot. In the early going, the Pentagon plans to make the cloud service available to “a subset” of small and medium companies that “support prioritized, critical DoD missions and programs.”

In contract terms, the department would treat the secure cloud as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE), said Ellen Lord, the undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-news/2019/03/dod-will-test-secure-cloud/

 

5 things you should know about the ‘nonmanufacturer rule’

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To qualify as a small business under most set-aside or sole source contracts seeking manufactured products or supplies, SBA’s regulations require an offeror to be the item’s manufacturer or, alternatively, comply with the nonmanufacturer rule.

In a prior post, we discussed 5 Things You Should Know about being the item’s manufacturer; in this post, we’ll discuss qualifying under the nonmanufacturer rule.

1. Do I need to qualify under the nonmanufacturer rule?

That depends on the type of procurement you’re bidding on. Again, the nonmanufacturer rule comes into play for solicitations seeking manufactured items or supplies, and only if the offeror doesn’t qualify as the manufacturer itself.

Keep in mind, too, that acquisitions set-aside for small businesses under the simplified acquisition threshold are not subject to the nonmanufacturer rule. This exemption doesn’t apply, however, to any other socio-economic designation—for example, if it’s an SDVOSB set-aside under the simplified acquisition threshold, the offeror will have to either be the item’s manufacturer or qualify under the nonmanufacturer rule.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/five-things/nonmanufacturer-rule/

White House issues new guidance on category management

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Eight years after the Obama administration began importing the private-sector procurement tool known as “category management,” the Trump administration on Thursday rescinded old directives and delivered new agency guidance.

In a March 21 memo to all agency heads, Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director Margaret Weichert—who is doing double duty running the Office of Personnel Management — tasked agencies with a new reporting regime for shared services that “supersedes and rescinds” OMB directives from 2011 and 2012.

Category management involves agency teams coordinating bulk purchasing in areas such as information technology, security and protection, and transportation. Weichert’s memo reported that as much as 56 percent of the government’s $325 billion in purchases of software, mobile services, technology services and travel remained “unaligned” or decentralized, as of December 2018.

“This statistic confirms that substantial cost-avoidances and performance benefits are going unrealized and underscores the need for greater management attention on collaborative buying at both the federal and agency levels by increasing the portion of an agency’s spend” using category management, the memo said.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/03/white-house-issues-new-guidance-category-management/155759/

GSA rescinds all awards made on $15 billion Alliant 2 Small Business contract

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The government rescinded all awards made in the $15B Alliant 2 Small Business governmentwide acquisition contract for IT services procurement last week.

The move follows an order from the Court of Federal Claims that the General Services Administration must rescore every submission it received to address errors raised in protest from Virginia-based technology company, Citizant Inc.

The Alliant 2 SB is part of one of the largest federal IT opportunities of the decade. In February 2018, GSA announced its award to 81 small business, which federal agencies would be able to access for integrated IT solutions around their “current and evolving needs.” After the announcement, protests from dissatisfied bidders ensued.

In March 2018, Citizant, Inc. protested the bid to the Government Accountability Office. GAO dismissed the file in May 2018, but Citizant took complaints to court and won this week, resulting in the rescission.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/03/gsa-rescinds-all-awards-made-15b-alliant-2-small-business-contract/155869/

Former Army colonel pleads guilty to role in Fort Gordon fraud, kickback scheme

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A former active-duty U.S. Army colonel has pled guilty to accepting bribes in return for helping steer military contracts to a business fraudulently claiming status as a small business.

Anthony R. Williams of Vienna, VA, pled guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Bribery and felony conflict of interest in U.S. District Court, said Bobby L. Christine, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.

Williams faces a sentence of up to five years in prison, and has agreed to forfeit more than $1.2 million in proceeds derived from the scheme.

According to court documents and evidence entered during court proceedings, Williams, while serving as a colonel in the U.S. Army, accepted bribes to steer federal procurement contracts to the CREC Group, a company owned by Calvin Devear Lawyer, a retired U.S. Army colonel. The CREC Group had received Small Business Administration (SBA) status as a small, disadvantaged business based on false representations from Lawyer and from Dwayne Oswald Fulton, then an employee of a defense contractor.

Lawyer previously pled guilty in the case and is serving a 60-month prison sentence, while co-conspirator, Anthony Roper, a former active duty U.S. Army colonel at Fort Gordon, also pled guilty and is serving a 60-month sentence.

The cases were investigated by the United States Army Criminal Investigations Division (CID), the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General, and the United States Attorney’s Office.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdga/pr/former-army-colonel-pleads-guilty-role-fort-gordon-fraud-kickback-scheme

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