Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Do small businesses lack a voice in the federal marketplace?

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Small businesses contractors testified before Congress July 16, asking lawmakers to improve the Small Business Act, remove barriers to federal procurement marketplace entry and increase the use of subcontractors.

Witnesses told the House Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure of challenges they faced, as well as opportunities for improvement.  One major point was that subcontractors should be explicitly named in prime contractor’s subcontracting plans, to ensure that commitments and payments to small businesses are met.  Without proper identification in contracts, subcontractors often lose the opportunity to work on projects, even after helping the prime contractor win a bid.

“We’ve all been to large contractor’s meetings, we’ve been invited on projects, and then all the sudden [another subcontractor] comes in and says, ‘I can do this,’” said Thomas J. Depace — CTS, C.O.O. and senior engineering manager of Advance Sound Company, testifying on behalf of the National Electrical Contractors Association.

“It really limits our ability to support local labor … to continue to grow in the marketplace — somebody just taking the scope and the specification documents that we’ve pined over for a long period of time and just putting a number to it,” Depace said.  “Being named as a subcontractor from the start would be an advantage that would give us an opportunity to … make sure commitments are met.”

Continue reading at:  Federal Times

Small business advocate wins $475,000 in legal fees after 4-year fight with federal government

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After four years and expenses of more than $700,000, a California-based small business advocate on Thursday won an agreement from the Justice and Defense departments to pay his legal fees for litigation forcing the government to release confidential contracting data.

Lloyd Chapman, the outspoken founder of the Petaluma-based American Small Business League, declared victory in what he called an “historic” move by Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to require the government to pay Chapman $475,000.

Neither Justice nor the Pentagon would comment on the case to Government Executive, but Chapman’s award was confirmed by his Washington attorney, Jon Cuneo of Cuneo, Gilbert & Laduca.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/contracting/2018/08/small-business-advocate-wins-475k-legal-fees-after-4-year-fight-government/150280/

Army told to improve monitoring of small business subcontracts

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Staff at two Army Contracting Command locations sometimes neglected to assure that contractors gave appropriate subcontracts to small businesses, the Pentagon watchdog found.

Though most of the officials located at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama and Army Contracting Command in Warren, Michigan, were given a clean bill of health, officials working on 23 contracts valued at $918 million “did not ensure that prime contractors provided small businesses with adequate subcontracting opportunities,” the Defense Department inspector general said in a report dated March 19.

The review of 80 Army contracts completed in fiscal 2015-2016 found that prime contractors provided adequate subcontracting opportunities for 27 contracts valued at $694 million.

But a subset worth $331 million were signed without a subcontracting plan or a contracting officer’s determination that no subcontracting possibilities existed.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2018/03/army-told-improve-monitoring-small-business-subcontracts/146931/

GSA holding small business networking session Feb. 8th in Savannah

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The General Services Administration’s Office of Small Business Utilization and Hoar Construction LLC are holding a networking session for small businesses on Feb. 8, 2018 in Savannah, Georgia.

Background

On Sept. 28, 2017, GSA awarded a contract in the amount of $22,819,862 to Hoar Construction of Birmingham, Alabama to design and build the new Tomochichi Courthouse Annex in Savannah.  Since Hoar is not a small businesses, the firm is required to develop an acceptable small business subcontracting plan in accordance with FAR 19.7.  The event being planned on Feb. 8th is designed to facilitate small business participation in the project.

The scope of design/build contract includes: design/construction documents and construction work, consisting of all labor, equipment, and materials for a complete build-out.  The project includes space for one bankruptcy courtroom and chambers, the bankruptcy clerk, and space for the U.S. Probation Office.  The total space requirement is approximately 35,000 square feet of office space and 11,000 square feet of parking for 25 cars,  for a total of 46,000 gross square feet, available for personnel, furnishings and equipment, with occupancy planned for the year 2020.  The newly constructed Courthouse Annex will be located on GSA-owned property, on a site between Barnard Street, West Your Street, Whitaker Street, and West State Street in Savannah.

Networking Event

Prospective attendees at the small business networking event are to register their company with the GSA Contacting Officer listed below via email.  Due to space availability, the GSA asks that no more than two (2) persons per firm be represented.  Call-in reservations will not be accepted.  The networking session is intended to review the scope of the project, review the project site, and conduct a GSA Small Business Networking forum among attendees.

Contact information: Swindale Rhodes, Contracting Officer, Email: swindale.rhodes@gsa.gov

Date and Time: February 8, 2018, 1:30 pm

Location of Event: 124 Barnard Street, J.G. Lowe “B” Building, 3rd Floor, Savannah, GA 31401

Small business activist wins interim victory against Pentagon, Sikorsky

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For four years, the small but vocal American Small Business League has argued that large federal contractors mislead agencies and the public by overstating their use of small businesses as subcontractors to meet statutory goals.

In U.S. District Court in San Francisco last Friday, attorneys for the advocacy group led by Lloyd Chapman and based in Petaluma, Calif., successfully pried out the previously non-public names of suppliers and other subcontractors used by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.

The helicopter maker had joined with the Defense and Justice departments in seeking to withhold such information as proprietary when submitted to the Pentagon under its 27-year-old Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program, designed to measure corporate potential for increasing small business opportunities in subcontracting.

Small business booster Chapman has long challenged the Pentagon’s program as nonproductive and oriented mostly toward obfuscating the degree to which large contractors win defense business intended for smaller ones.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/11/small-business-activist-wins-interim-victory-against-pentagon-sikorsky/142611 

3 ways to make the most of your subcontract

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Are two businesses better than one?

For many small businesses, teaming with a larger and more-established government contractor as a subcontractor may be a great way to gain experience and build a reputation with government agencies.

Despite the many advantages of teaming, subcontractors can sometimes find themselves out in the cold if they don’t take the proper steps to assure inclusion once the contract is awarded.  In fact, according to the American Express Trends in Federal Contracting for Small Businesses report, 31 percent of small business government contractors reported that they participated on a winning bid as a subcontractor, but the prime contractor never used them during the fulfillment of that contract.

No need to be pessimistic!  Many small businesses (including my own) have fruitful experiences teaming up as a subcontractor.  Here are three ways to help subcontractors receive their share of a winning bid and put themselves on the path to more work.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/opinions/2017/10/23/3-ways-to-make-the-most-of-your-subcontract-commentary/

GSA aims to refresh Schedules in April

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The Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) is moving to launch a “refresh” of its Multiple Awards Schedule next month, applying recent rules changes to its largest buying program.

On a March 22 conference call, General Services Administration’s FAS officials said the refresh could roll out in the middle of April and would include:

  • Purchasing by Non-Federal Entities from Federal Supply Schedules
  • Small Business Subcontracting changes
  • Model Subcontracting Plan changes
  • Order level changes

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/articles/fas-aims-to-refresh-multiple-award-schedules-in-april

Pentagon wins court round on disclosing Sikorsky subcontracting plans

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pentagon-sealDefense Department attorneys won an appeals court decision on Jan. 6 that denies a demand from a small business advocacy group that Sikorsky Aviation Corp. be required to disclose its subcontracting plan submitted under a long-standing Pentagon program.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled against the Petaluma, Calif.-based American Small Business League, saying that forcing the helicopter maker to disclose its subcontracting plan would put it at a competitive disadvantage.

Small business booster Lloyd Chapman has long challenged the Pentagon’s 27-year-old Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program as nonproductive and oriented mostly toward obfuscating the degree to which large contractors win defense business intended for smaller ones.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/01/pentagon-wins-court-round-disclosing-sikorsky-subcontracting-plans/134472

2017 NDAA strengthens subcontracting plan enforcement

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osdbuThe 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, if signed into law, includes a few changes designed to help small business subcontractors. Among those changes, the bill, which has recently been approved by both the House and Senate, includes language designed to help ensure that large prime contractors comply with the Small Business Act’s “good faith” requirement to meet their small business subcontracting goals.

Section 1821 of the 2017 NDAA is called “Good Faith in Subcontracting,” and is another Congressional effort to put teeth into the subcontracting goals required of large prime contractors.  (Congress took a crack at this same subject in the 2013 NDAA.)  The 2017 NDAA makes a handful of additional changes to the law, all of which should help ensure small business subcontracting goals are met.

The 2017 NDAA strengthens the current statutory language by specifying that a large prime contractor is in breach of its prime contract is it fails to provide adequate assurances of its intent to comply with a subcontracting plan (including, as requested, by providing periodic reports and other documents). The statute also provides that agency Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBUs) will review each subcontracting plan “to ensure that the plan provides maximum practicable opportunity for small business concerns to participate in the performance of the contract to which the plan applies.”

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/statutes-and-regulations/2017-ndaa-strengthens-subcontracting-plan-enforcement/

SBA issues new rules affecting small business affiliation — and lots more

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Federal RegisterBack when the U.S. Congress was adopting the 2013 version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), it included directives to the Small Business Administration (SBA) to make changes to multiple rules pertaining to small business set-aside contracts and subcontracting.  On Monday, May 31, 2016, the SBA published final rules in the Federal Register implementing each of these changes.

The rule changes are wide ranging, amending SBA’s nonmanufacturer rule and affiliation rules, and for the first time allowing joint ventures to qualify as small for any government procurement as long as each partner to the joint venture qualifies individually as small under applicable size standards.

All of the changes can be seen at: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/05/31/2016-12494/small-business-government-contracting-and-national-defense-authorization-act-of-2013-amendments.

Here is a summary view of some of the most significant changes being made:

  • Affiliation. In the case of a solicitation for a bundled contract, a small business contractor may enter into a Small Business Teaming Arrangement with one or more small business subcontractors and submit an offer as a small business without regard to affiliation, so long as each team member is small for the size standard assigned to the contract or subcontract. This is a major change.  Previously, small businesses risked losing small business status if combined employees or gross revenues exceeded SBA’ s size standards.  This new concept applies to joint ventures as well.  A joint venture of two or more business concerns may submit an offer as a small business for a federal procurement, subcontract or sale so long as each concern is small under the size standard corresponding to the NAICS code assigned to the contract.  In addition, the new rule provides that firms owned or controlled by married couples — in addition to parties to a civil union, parents, children, and siblings — are presumed to be affiliated with each other if they conduct business with each other, such as subcontracts or joint ventures or share or provide loans, resources, equipment, locations or employees with one another. This presumption may be overcome by showing a clear line of fracture between the concerns. Other types of familial relationships are not grounds for affiliation on family relationships.
  • Procurement Center Representatives.  The SBA has Procurement Center Representatives (PCRs) located at federal agencies and military bases which have major contracting programs.  Under the new rules, PCRs are to review all acquisitions that are not totally set aside for small businesses to determine whether a set-aside or sole source award to a small business is appropriate and to identify alternative strategies to maximize the participation of small businesses in the procurement. PCRs are also to advocate against the consolidation or bundling of contract requirements (which tend to adversely impact small business contract participation), and reviewing any justification provided by the agency for consolidation or bundling. This review includes acquisitions that are Multiple Award Contracts (MACs) where the agency has not set-aside all or part of the acquisition or reserved the acquisition for small businesses. It also includes acquisitions where the agency has not set-aside orders placed against MACs for small businesses.  Also, for the first time, PCRs may receive unsolicited proposals from small businesses.  They are to send such proposals to the agency personnel responsible for reviewing such proposals, and the agency personnel are to provide PCRs with information regarding the disposition of each proposal.
  • Subcontracting to Small Businesses.  A prime contractor that identifies a small business by name as a subcontractor in a proposal, offer, bid or subcontracting plan is now obligated to notify those subcontractors, in writing, prior to identifying the concern in the proposal, bid, offer or subcontracting plan.  Safeguards against naming a subcontractor that the prime really doesn’t intent to use are also strengthened.  The new rules state that anyone who has a reasonable basis to believe that a prime or a subcontractor may have made a false statement with respect to subcontracting plans is to report the matter to the SBA’s Office of Inspector General. All other concerns as to whether a prime contractor or subcontractor has complied with SBA regulations or otherwise acted in bad faith may be reported to the Government Contracting Area Office where the firm is headquartered.  Contractors who are judged to have acted in bad faith may be found to be in material breach of contract and subject to liquidated damages under their contract.
  • Limitations on Subcontracting.  The rules have changed for the amount of work a small business may subcontract out.  In order to be awarded a full or partial small business set-aside contract with a value greater than $150,000, a small business concern now must agree that:

    (1) In the case of a contract for services (except construction), it will not pay more than 50% of the amount paid by the government to it to firms that are not similarly situated.  (Any work that a similarly situated subcontractor further subcontracts will count towards the 50% subcontract amount that cannot be exceeded.)

    (2) In the case of a contract for supplies or products (other than from a non-manufacturer of such supplies), it will not pay more than 50% of the amount paid by the government to it to firms that are not similarly situated. (Any work that a similarly situated subcontractor further subcontracts will count towards the 50% subcontract amount that cannot be exceeded.) Cost of materials are excluded and not considered to be subcontracted.

    (3) In the case of a contract for supplies from a non-manufacturer, it will supply the product of a domestic small business manufacturer or processor, unless a waiver is granted.

    (4) For a multiple item procurement where a waiver has not been granted for one or more items, more than 50% of the value of the products to be supplied by the non-manufacturer must be the products of one or more domestic small business manufacturers or processors.

    (5) For a multiple item procurement where a waiver is granted for one or more items, compliance with the limitation on subcontracting requirement will not consider the value of items subject to a waiver. As such, more than 50% of the value of the products to be supplied by the non-manufacturer that are not subject to a waiver must be the products of one or more domestic small business manufacturers or processors.

    (6) For a multiple item procurement, the same small business concern may act as both a manufacturer and a non-manufacturer.

  • Contracts Set-Aside for Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses.  Under the new rules, a joint venture comprised of at least one Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and one or more other businesses may submit an offer as a small business for a competitive SDVOSB set-aside procurement, or be awarded a sole source SDVOSB contract, so long as each concern is small under the size standard corresponding to the NAICS code assigned to the procurement.

All of these rule changes are effective on June 30, 2016.

 

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