The GSA will consolidate two dozen multiple award schedules for products and services into a single schedule, a long-overdue move seen simplifying the government’s acquisition process.
Source: GSA to consolidate multiple award schedules – Washington Business Journal
The General Services Administration Administrator Emily Murphy said customer needs and demands are the catalyst for changes to the $31 billion schedules program.
Source: ‘Long overdue’ reforms coming to GSA’s schedules program
Last week, the CAS Board (Cost Accounting Standards Board) published an agenda for its November and January meetings. There are four topics on the agenda (see CAS Board Meeting) including a couple that we have decided to cover in more detail for its potential impact on small businesses. Even though small business contractors are exempt from CAS, most of the 19 existing standards have been folded in part or in whole into the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations) over the years. Yesterday we covered Agenda Topic #4 which consists of a discussion on the Section 809 Panel’s recommendation to eliminate the Defense CAS Board, a Board that was created by the 2017 NDAA but has yet to organize (see Will the Newly Created Defense CAS Board Survive?). Today we will cover Agenda Topic #2, Conforming CAS to GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).
The agency is consolidating the schedules into a single vehicle to make it easier to do business with government.
Let’s suppose that you, a small business, were previously awarded a long-term contract set aside for small businesses. But over the past few years, business has been good and you’ve outgrown the size standard assigned to the contract. Can you still be awarded a task order under the contract? Yes–if the contracting officer doesn’t require you to recertify your size in connection with the task order request, and no contract-specific terms–like mandatory off-ramps–say otherwise.
Section 829 of the 2017 NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) directed DoD to establish a preference for fixed-price contracts (including fixed-price incentive contracts) when determining contract types and also to establish a required for “higher-level” approval for certain cost-type contracts.
Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Defense Department Preference for Fixed-Price Contracts
Assessing the quality of a capture effort is a difficult task. Any assessment is simply a snapshot in time; your capture could get better… or it could get worse. A capture readiness assessment should look at the snapshot, but also look at trends. Using Lohfeld Consulting Group’s 12 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), you can analyze where your capture effort is today, identify areas for improvement, and then chart whether your capture trends upward in readiness for the win.
The number of bid protests filed against the federal government increased less than 1 percent last year, but contractors continue to get some sort of recompense from the agencies they’re challenging, according to a Government Accountability Office annual report.
Source: Vendors Challenged More Federal Contracts in 2018 – Nextgov
We ended last week’s blog with a news article about the CAS (Cost Accounting Standards) Board’s upcoming meetings and the agenda topics for the Board’s November and January meetings (see CAS Board Meeting). Today and tomorrow we want to take a closer look at two of the agenda topics for their potential impact on small Government contractors.
Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Will the Newly Created “Defense CAS Board” Survive?
SmallGovCon readers know that the federal government currently operates two SDVOSB socio-economic designations: a VA-specific program (that requires the business to be verified by the VA’s Center for Verification and Evaluation), and a program through the SBA (that allows the business to self-certify).