This week’s episode covers the Department of Commerce’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking relating information and communications technology and services, an update from the Procurement Collusion Strike Force, GAO testimony about ongoing supply chain challenges at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the American Jobs Plan, and is hosted by partner Peter Eyre and counsel Monica
Offerors must be alert to the possibility of technology difficulties when electronically submitting a proposal for a federal procurement as the general rule regarding proposal submissions is that “late is late.” GAO has heard countless cases in which proposal submission via email has presented complications. Proposal submission via government portals has presented similar problems for offerors.
Recently, in People, Technology and Processes, LLC, B-419385, B-419385.2, Feb. 2, 2021, GAO heard a challenge to GSA’s rejection of a proposal from consideration for an order under OASIS. The offeror, People, Technology and Processes or PTP, experienced technical difficulties while trying to submit the proposal via the GSA ASSIST online portal. Although PTP was unable to submit its proposal, no systemic issues were reported with the portal and GSA timely received six proposals from other offerors.
Continue Reading Lessons Learned at GAO from Technical Difficulties Experienced While Submitting a Proposal on GSA’s ASSIST Portal
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has added emergency loans for small businesses to its list of government programs vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. On March 2, 2021, GAO released its latest High Risk List identifying troubled federal government programs in need of significant improvement. The GAO concluded that the Small Business Administration (SBA) must demonstrate more robust integrity controls and better management practices over the PPP and EIDL programs. GAO’s findings put pressure on the SBA to ensure quicker adoption of GAO’s recommendations for improvements and keeps public focus on the need for SBA audits and investigations of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program participants.
Continue Reading GAO’s High Risk List Puts Spotlight on Emergency Loans For Small Businesses, Reinforcing Audit and Investigation Risk for PPP and EIDL Program Participants
As we’ve stressed about the mentor-protégé program, the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) primary concern is that the program benefits the small business protégés.
Past performance is a particularly delicate topic for small businesses, presenting something of a what-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg question. Past performance is not strictly required in order to win prime federal contracts, and its weighting
Crowell & Moring’s “All Things Protest” podcast keeps you up to date on major trends in bid protest litigation, key developments in high-profile cases, and best practices in state and federal procurement. In this episode, hosts Christian Curran, Olivia Lynch, and Rob Sneckenberg analyze GAO’s 2020 Bid Protest Statistics and highlight procurement and protest trends
In Computer World Services Corporation, GAO sustained a protest challenging the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Coast Guard’s corrective action taken in response to an earlier sustained protest by CWS. In its original protest, CWS successfully challenged a task order award; in response, the agency informed offerors via e-mail that it intended to remove
In a prior alert, we discussed the recently published decision in MCR Fed., LLC, B-416654.2, Dec. 18, 2018 where GAO held that the agency failed to provide the protester with a sufficient amount of time to submit its final proposal revisions. That decision was noteworthy because GAO rarely finds even very short response times
In a prior alert, we highlighted the unusual remedy ordered in Caddell Construction Co. v. U.S., in which the Court of Federal Claims nullified the award of a construction contract and ordered the agency to reopen discussions with only one firm. The court explained that the unusual remedy was appropriate because misleading discussions had
Much that has been written about the bid protest reforms in the Section 809 Panel’s final report has focused on Recommendations 66-69, which expressly address (and propose changes to) the protest process at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) and the Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”). But the 809 Panel’s most impactful recommended changes to
Crowell & Moring’s “All Things Protest” podcast keeps you up to date on major trends in bid protest litigation, key developments in high-profile cases, and best practices in state and federal procurement. In this episode, hosts Christian Curran, Olivia Lynch, and Rob Sneckenberg highlight recent GAO decisions and an ongoing Court of Federal Claims case