SmallGovCon
Small business federal contracting commentary.
SmallGovCon Week In Review: June 28 -July 9, 2021
Happy Friday! We hope everyone had a wonderful and safe 4th of July holiday weekend. Despite the holiday, there has been a lot of news and announcements in Federal government contracting these past two weeks. Here are a few articles that we found interesting and informative inclu
Koprince Law LLC · Jul 9, 2021
OHA: Broken Hyperlink Doesn’t Excuse Not Responding to CVE
In my last blog post I wrote about a contractor’s unsuccessful attempt to convince the GAO that its solicitation was improperly dismissed as being untimely because the State Department didn’t recognize its automatic “out of office” email reply response. It appears that federal ag
Koprince Law LLC · Jul 8, 2021
Introducing Our GovCon Teaming Resource Guides!
When it comes to federal contracting, teaming is an invaluable strategy for many businesses–large and small alike. But the rules and processes surrounding teaming can be complex and confusing, even for experienced contractors. That’s why Koprince Law has teamed up ourselves–with
Koprince Law LLC · Jul 8, 2021
Event: Responsibility in Government Contracting, Hosted by Govology
To be awarded a government contract, a company must do more than submit the winning proposal — it must be “responsible.” The concept of responsibility in government contracting is far-reaching and can include such things as having adequate financial resources, a satisfactory ethi
Koprince Law LLC · Jul 7, 2021
Certificates of Competency: A Little-Known Friend of the Small-Business Contractor
You can’t believe it. You did everything right. The solicitation required that offerors have three distinct licenses. You have two, but one should cover for the license you don’t have. However, the agency says you have to have all three as distinct licenses, and denies your offer
Koprince Law LLC · Jul 7, 2021
Five Things You Should Know: Eligibility for Small Disadvantaged Business Self-Certification
The Administration’s recent announcement that it plans to boost Small Disadvantaged Business contracting by 50% means that we may see increased interest by government agencies and large prime contractors alike in doing business with self-certified SDBs. But my guess is that the A
Koprince Law LLC · Jul 1, 2021
CIO-SP4: Is it Limiting Mentor Experience Too Much?
The CIO-SP4 is a big deal for many small and large federal contractors. And lately it’s been a bit of a moving target as to how NITAAC will evaluate the experience of companies working together in prime-sub, mentor-protégé, and joint-venture relationships. We wrote about some of
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 30, 2021
Event: 8(a) Program Conversation with Teresa Moon of Parabilis
For disadvantaged small businesses, the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program can help level the playing field by providing powerful benefits, including access to sole source and set-aside contracts. And in the wake of the Administration’s announcement that it will attempt to b
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 28, 2021
Inadvertent Release of Incumbent Pricing Data Leads to Sustained Protest
Protecting sensitive business information, especially pricing, is essential even in the GAO bid protest realm. As an agency found out, even an inadvertent release of such information could lead to a sustained protest. This slip up resulted in the cancellation of a nearly $1 billi
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 28, 2021
CIO-SP4 Amendment 4: Undoing Amendment 3? Sort Of
Last night, NITAAC released Amendment 4 to the CIO-SP4 RFP. The amendment removes the language expressly restricting the use of first-tier subcontractors past performance, capabilities, and experience, which was previously added by Amendment 3. Let’s take a closer look. We have b
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 25, 2021
SmallGovCon Week In Review: June 21-25, 2021
Happy Friday and welcome to this week’s addition of the week in review. I recently got back from a camping trip in 100 degree weather, so I know that staying cool is crucial. Hope you are all staying cool and enjoying the summer. There were several announcements such as Robin Car
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 25, 2021
Conflicting CIO-SP4 Updates For CTAs, And Now, A Promise to Clarify
We finally have NITAAC’s CIO-SP4 solicitation, complete with several amendments and a Q&A. So that means the anticipated offerors have the answers to all of their questions about this long-awaited GWAC procurement, right? Well, no. In fact, for anyone planning to team-up for CIO-
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 24, 2021
Five Things You Should Know: Common Misconceptions About SBA’s Affiliation Rules
Avoiding affiliation with other companies can be critical to qualifying as a small business under the SBA’s rules for government contractors. But not all SBA affiliation rules are intuitive, and in my career as a government contracts attorney I have seen the same misconceptions a
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 24, 2021
GAO: Protestors Must Show Intervening Offerors Would Not be in Line for Award to be Interested Party
In order to have a bid protest sustained, a protestor must have a reasonable chance of being awarded the contract if the protest succeeded. Often, this just means that the protestor’s own proposal must be acceptable to the awarding agency in the first place. What many contractors
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 22, 2021
SmallGovCon Week In Review: June 14-18, 2021
Friday marked a new federal holiday for Juneteenth. Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery by marking the day enslaved people in Texas learned they were free. This is the first new federal holiday since first holiday to be approved since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was establi
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 21, 2021
Happy Anniversary, SDVOSBs: The Supreme Court’s Kingdomware Decision Was Five Years Ago Today
For SDVOSBs and VOSBs, June 16, 2016 was a monumental day. That morning, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States, holding that the VA must follow the law by putting “veterans first” in VA contracting. Koprince Law LL
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 16, 2021
Five Things You Should Know: GAO Bid Protest Interventions
Intervening in a GAO bid protest can be an important way to protect a federal contractor’s award. But when can you and should you intervene? Here’s how this might come up. As a federal contractor, you work hard to submit the best proposal you can, and then find out you win the aw
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 15, 2021
GAO Seeking Feedback from 8(a) Firms
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has offered participants in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program the opportunity to tell Congress about their views and experience in the program. Currently, GAO is working on its report regard
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 14, 2021
SmallGovCon Week in Review: June 7-June 11, 2021
Happy Friday! It’s been a busy week in federal government contracting news. Among the notable announcements, Federal agencies are staffing up and a new IRS web app has been announced. The Treasury Department laid out its updated vision for its financial management shared services
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 11, 2021
Recent Task Force Meeting Underscores Challenges Facing SDVOSB Transfer from VA to SBA
Sometimes, task force meetings are held just for the sake of having meetings. However, on June 2nd and 3rd the Interagency Task Force on Veterans Small Business Development (IATF) and Advisory Committee on Veterans Business Affairs (ACVBA) met to discuss important issues facing s
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 10, 2021
GOA Considers Receipt of Email During Regular Business Hours Adequate Notice
A recent GOA decision provides a costly lesson about the importance of having internal procedures to receive and respond to official e-mail communications when a company team member is unavailable. The stakes can be big–GAO recently dismissed a contractor’s protest challenging th
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 8, 2021
Koprince Law Welcomes Kevin Wickliffe
We are pleased to announce that Kevin Wickliffe has joined our team of government contracts attorney-authors here at Koprince Law. Before joining our team, Kevin served as general counsel and chief compliance officer at a federally registered institutional, manager-of-managers, i
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 8, 2021
Agency Properly Awarded Contract to Company with Nine Negative CPARs
Among some contractors, it’s taken as an article of faith that even a single negative Contractor Performance Assessment Report will effectively preclude the contractor from winning new government work. While it’s undoubtedly true, in my opinion, that some Contracting Officers pla
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 7, 2021
Event: Government Contracting Ethics, Hosted by Govology
In the commercial world, it’s normal to buy a good customer a holiday gift. But when your customer is Uncle Sam, you might break the law by giving that same gift. The government contracting ethics rules aren’t always as cut-and-dried as “don’t give the contracting officer a brief
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 4, 2021
SmallGovCon: Week in Review May 31-June 4, 2021
Happy Friday blog readers! Can you believe that it is already June? The sunshine and warmer temperatures have returned here in the Midwest and I, for one, am grateful for it. We hope you can get out and enjoy the sunshine this weekend. There has been a lot of activity in the fede
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 4, 2021