PNWC’s Government Contracting Update - page 41

The Federal Bureau of Prisons issued a solicitation for residential community corrections center services in Michigan. Among the companies bidding on the project was Bannum, Inc. Among the evaluation factors, the Bureau of Prisons evaluated the location of the facility proposed  and the validity of the offeror’s right to use it. The solicitation required offerors to provide documentation supporting their right to use the property but also permitted offerors one request ot change an initially proposed facility so long as the request was received with 60 days of initial proposal submission.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Prospective Contractors Bear the Risk of Contingencies Included in Their Proposals

The U.S. Senate wants to add another matter to the long list of factors that the Defense procurement must consider when awarding contracts. Entitled the “American Jobs Matter Act of 2017”, this bill would require that contracting officers include the effects on employment within the United States as an evaluation factor that must be considered in the evaluation of proposals. This law would cover competitive procurements greater than $1 million.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Proposed Legislation Designed to Keep Jobs in America

In March 2016, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) published an RFP to provide support for its mission of threat reduction. There were a number of evaluation factors to be evaluated including one related to past performance. The solicitation directed offerors to identify past performance references for the prime offeror and for each of its critical subcontractors including the submission of a present and past performance questionnaire (PPPQ) for each reference.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: The Government is Not Going to Make Your Proposal Adequate For You

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) is required to perform a Rule of Two analysis for all procurements, regardless whether they involve items on the AbilityOne list, according to a recently published decision published by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Veterans Benefits Act (VBA) Trumps the Javits-Wagner-O’Day (JWOD) Act

Suppose that a prospective contractor submits a proposal that falls under the threshold requiring certified cost or pricing data (currently $750,000) but subsequent to submitting the proposal, the Government decides to add additional quantities that causes the resultant contract to exceed that threshold. Is that contractor required to certify its cost or pricing data?

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Contractors Unwittingly Subject to TINA

In 2016, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) issued a solicitation for towing, storage, maintenance, and disposal services for seized and forfeited vehicles. Contract award was contingent on a responsible offeror submitting an offer that conformed in all aspects to the solicitation requirements and also determined to be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The solicitation also included a statement of work that required the winning bidder to provide evidence that it has complied with all laws and ordinances associated with vehicle storage.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Pre-award Requirement or Contract Administration Matter

Back in February, the President signed an Executive Order (EO) entitled “Enforcing Regulatory Reform Agenda” which established a policy to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens on the American people. Included in that EO was a requirement for Federal agencies to establish Regulatory Reform Tax Forces to, among other things, evaluate existing regulations and make recommendations to the agency head regarding their repeal, replacement, or modification.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Travel Cost Principle Too Difficult to Implement – Here’s Your Chance to Propose Changes

The Navy issued an RFP to small business holders of the SeaPort-e multiple award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ contract. The RFP required the electronic submission of proposals via the SeaPort-e portal by 2:009 p.m. (Eastern Time). Under the SeaPort-e contract, an offeror’s representative is required to confirm his or her intention to engage in a legally binding electronic action. In this regard,when a user intends to take an action that is legally binding, the portal displays a notice and requires the user to confirm the request before the system will complete the request. Once a legally binding proposal is submitted, the system stores a locked copy of the information which cannot be altered or modified in any way.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Proposal Submitted 23 Seconds Late is Rejected

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the state of incurred cost audits and more specifically, DCAA’s (Defense Contract Audit Agency) ability to complete them in a timely manner. DCAA for its part, is subject to the unpredictability of Federal budgets, hiring freezes, and attracting qualified workers. In recent Congressional testimony, the DCAA Director worried that recent gains in reducing the backlog of incurred cost audits could evaporate because of hiring freeze imposed on them by the current administration. Recently we’ve been discussing proposed legislation that would require the Department of Defense to outsource at least 25 percent of incurred cost audits.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Why Can’t Contractors Perform Their Own Incurred Cost Audits?

Last Friday and Monday, we discussed certain aspects of the proposed Defense Acquisition Streamlining and Transparency Act that seek to speed up the acquisition process by streamlining auditing processes that are “time consuming and low value” so that Government contract audit organizations such as DCAA (Defense Contract Audit Agency) will begin competing head to head with commercial organizations to perform incurred cost audits. If you missed those postings, you can go back and read Part 1 and Part 2.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Defense Acquisition Streamlining and Transparency Act – Part 3