Current Events

The Executive Compensation Cap was reduced for contracts awarded on or after June 24, 2014 to $487,000.

Billions of taxpayer dollars flow through interagency and enterprisewide contracts annually, but because of poor management and oversight, the federal government does not know for sure if those contracts are being implemented efficiently and effectively, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

A federal judge has thrown a wrench into the Obama administration’s small-business contracting policy by ruling that agencies must give priority to businesses in economically depressed areas when setting aside contracts for small businesses.

“The court interprets the language of the HUBZone competition provision—‘shall be awarded’—to be mandatory,” the judge wrote in an opinion released March 2.

The Veterans Affairs Department has set strict guidelines for bidding on contracts set-aside for veteran-owned small businesses. Entrepreneurs will be allowed only one company at a time in the contracting program and must work full time in the business, according to a final rule published on Monday, February 8, 2010 in the Federal Register.

Contractors should be aware of the potential impact of this issue on future business with the government. This could sneak up and bite small businesses hard. “To address this issue, the budget proposes spending $158 million at civilian agencies to hire more acquisition personnel — the goal is to grow acquisition staffs by at least 5 percent. Of that money, $25 million would go to a fund to help agencies recruit and train. Agencies also can use their slice of the remaining $133 million for those activities, he said.”

More than half of government contractors increased their revenue from federal business during fiscal 2007, according to an annual contractor survey released by the consultancy Grant Thornton LLP on Monday.Fifty-five percent of the 120 contractors surveyed reported growth in revenue during fiscal 2007. Only 18 percent reported a decline, with the rest maintaining steady revenues.Participants in the survey earned 90 percent of their total revenue from government contracts on average, the same percentage as reported in the last survey, which covered financial data from fiscal 2006.

In reaching a deal on the economic stimulus package, congressional negotiators chopped some funds that appeared headed for federal agencies. Funding to replace gas-guzzling federal vehicles with more energy-efficient alternative fuel and plug-in models, for instance, dropped from $600 million in the House version to the Senate-approved level of $300 million, despite President Obama's public support for the spending. But the final version of the $787 billion package, signed into law by Obama in Denver on Tuesday, still allots billions of dollars for upgrades to federal facilities and other projects that directly affect government operations. The following is a sample of the spending that made the final cut.

Those who Audit contractors on Timekeeping have their own issues.  We here at www.paulgunn.com want you to remember and understand that finding perfection in the Timekeeping environment and complying with requirements is not an exact science, but an art. We as small contractors can only do our best as we seek guidance!  Support, documentation, and compliance with your methodology are your best defense and offense. Article from the FederalTimes.com by Elise Castelli - December 16, 2008   Some Defense Contract Audit Agency employees are concerned the agency is reverting back to practices that congressional investigators say undermined the agency’s effectiveness.

Effective October 1, 2008, the SBA will no longer certify for SDB status and small businesses will be allowed to self-certify if they meet the criteria established by the SBA. U.S. Small Business Administration News Release October 2, 2008 SBA Small Disadvantaged Business Certification SDB Questions and Answers Q. Why did the SBA suspend the receipt of applications for the SDB program? A. Since FY 1999, SBA, on behalf of federal procuring agencies, certified Small Disadvantaged Businesses SDBs, which were then entitled to receive price evaluation adjustments of up to 10 percent for federal procurement. The SDB certification process is meant to ensure that only eligible firms received the SDB benefit (price evaluation adjustment). On December 9, 2004, statutory authority to use the SDB price evaluation adjustment ended for the majority of federal procuring agencies. Authority to use the adjustments was still permitted to three agencies, the Department of Defense, NASA, and the Coast Guard, which used it under separate authority running through 2009.

Steve Preston, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, made the following statement today on President George W. Bush's signing of H.R. 5264, the "Andean Trade Preference Extension Act of 2008," which extends the Andean Trade Preference Act through 12/31/08: "The extension passed by the Congress and signed by the President today will be a link that allows us to continue focusing on advancement of the pending U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). "Securing approval of the Colombia FTA is essential to opening two-way free trade for American small businesses to this emerging market. The current tariff arrangement is heavily weighted against U.S. exporters - more than 90 percent of Colombian exports to the U.S. enter duty-free, while most U.S. exports to Colombia

1. SBA is building on improvements made to its lender oversight practices. The agency has taken a number of steps to ensure strong lender oversight. It has enhanced: on-site reviews and off-site monitoring of lenders; reviews of lender delegated authority applications; and its program requiring lenders to take corrective actions to address compliance issues or operational weaknesses identified by SBA. 2. SBA is taking action to protect the agency from potential fraud and is exploring new ways to improve fraud detection. While SBA recognizes the importance of fraud detection, it is the lender that has the primary responsibility for fraud prevention. This is because they have the primary, usually exclusive relationship with the borrower. As part of on-site reviews, SBA's Office of Credit Risk Management (OCRM) checks to ensure that lenders have adequate internal controls to help detect and counter potential fraud (OCRM's goal of reviewing the largest 450 lenders over a two-year cycle ensures

A new rule proposed by the Small Business Administration could make it easier for women-owned small businesses to win federal contracts — but only in a few specialized industries. The rule would apply only to contracts in underrepresented industries. The SBA was tasked with identifying those industries, but its 2001 findings were sharply criticized by the National Academy of Sciences. So the administration contracted with the RAND Corp. for another study. RAND identified four industries in which women-owned small businesses have been historically underrepresented and are, therefore, eligible for set-aside contracts: national security and international affairs; coating, engraving, heat treating, and allied activities; household and institutional furniture and kitchen cabinet manufacturing; and other vehicle dealer. Contracts in other industries cannot be set aside for only women-owned small businesses.

President Bush opposes new legislation that would update contracting programs for small-business contractors because some provisions raise constitutional concerns. The Small Business Contracting Program Improvements Act, introduced by Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Small Business Committee, would strengthen and modernize the Small Business Administrations programs and set standards for programs that help firms with contract applications. But the White House says some provisions in the bill are constitutionally suspect. For example, the bill would allow agencies to confine competition for some contracts to women business owners in male-dominated industries