Other Items of Interest

Federal Contractors (And Subcontractors!) Must generally pay covered workers $11.25 per hour beginning January 1, 2022  And $15.00 on or after January 30, 2022  - Covered tipped employees rate increased also to ....  see more

The H&W new rate is $4.98 per hour and is required in all government contract bids, or other service contracts awarded on or after June 27, 2023.  More details.......

TRENTON, N.J. – A former Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee who worked as a supervisory engineer at the VA’s campus in East Orange, N.J., today admitted accepting more than $1.2 million in kickback payments in connection with VA contracts awarded to companies with which he had relationships, and to engaging in a scheme to defraud the VA by claiming one of those companies was owned by a service-disabled veteran when it was not, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

I get all types of questions and inquiries from all types of businesses and I will always do what I can to answer or guide my colleagues to appropriate resources at the least cost.

Question from an MD:  Is there any assistance available for tax preparation of a new company (2 years old)?

Few like to talk about this issue because they may secretly want to be, or are trying to be one of those firm who are unfairly enriched. If you can’t say Amen then just say Ouch!  By the way, the information gleaned here can be applied to other certification types such as SDVOSB and WOSB.  And it is also important to those who intend on teaming with a firm for their certification value. So I would encourage everyone to read the articles I reference from the Bloomberg news link toward the end of the full article.  Many who are 8(a) certified are concerned about the difficulty for a “very small” business to get a competitive 8(a) contract, let alone a sole source set-aside.  Others who are thinking about getting 8(a) certified or are going through the application process are frustrated at the difficulty of obtaining the certification.  Well there are reasons to be concerned...

Please review the restrictions on fees for Applicant and Participant Representative Fees! 13 CFR 124.4. Inquiry:
What restrictions apply to fees for Applicant and Participant representatives?

Fact: It is very important that you know the foundational concepts of many key aspects of government cost and pricing. There is no way around this. Yet, once you get past the foundational concepts the issues become related to fewer and fewer contractors. With confidence gained from the foundation, firms now move on to more complicated issues as they arise and become applicable to them. And they hopefully begin to learn how to negotiate and tactfully interact with ego's and inefficiencies often surrounding them. Including our own...smile

The legality of the FAR is daunting and oft-times takes significant judgement and experience in determining how to apply the guidelines based on Intent versus Letter of the law. There even appears to be conflict between DCAA and DCMA application of missions! What are the missions of each? Who has the authority for making the decision on a small businesses ability to perform? Who determines if a cost is allowable or not? Who else can override an Auditor or Contracting Officers decision that your accounting system is inadequate? In my opinion, this article has an excellent explanation of these and related issues and is a must read for every small business contractor. This article alone is worth the annual subscription!

Since the Federal telework program and policies cover only Federal employees, Federal contractors are not governed by OPM and GSA telework guidance or by individual agency policies, and are not counted in the annual Telework Report to Congress. However, this does not prohibit – and should not prevent – contract employees from actually teleworking, as appropriate.

Telework arrangements for contractors should be negotiated with both the contractor’s own employer and with the appropriate Federal agency official,

Should you keep your outstanding line of credit and pay down like a loan or should you pay it back in full once invoice funds come in?

You never know if/when you may have to defend your Fee/Profit Objective. I recommend utilizing the information below to develop your documented policy. Utilize those excerpts below that apply to your company as a whole but more importantly on each specific contract. This is because contract type determines fee/profit limits and factors that may apply. I have highlighted in various colors/bold/underline those items that are of particular importance. The following is what the government is instructed to follow so why not incorporate the applicable elements into your companies’ process and supporting data.

Why recreate the wheel when you can start with the wheel and adjust it to meet your mobility needs.

Codes of Business Ethics and Conduct Policies are typically very generic in nature.  Therefore they lend themselves to be used by almost any firm, especially within an industry.  This type of information is typically not proprietary nor confidential because most organizations want their customers and public to know their company philosophy on this. 

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.

INQUIRY: Can you tell me how long we need to keep Time sheet records? I have heard 4 yrs and several others. Not sure which is correct. Also expense reports? RESPONSE: There are General Guidelines but other factors pertaining to the specific contractor and even contract type may come into play.  FAR 4.7 is the key reference on this issue.  Excerpts from FAR 4.7 listed below indicate that 2 years seems to be the answer however, many firms hold to the 4 years for most of their records, just in case.

I was given your address by our President. We are in the middle of writing a proposal to FEMA, and in the RFP, it’s requesting : “copies of our most recent audited Indirect Rate Agreement.” Are they speaking of our last Financial Audit, and proof how we arrived at the G&A rate, or is it actually the rate that a gov’t official signed off on?

 

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.

You just spent untold hours hammering out a response to a 100-page RFP for a government project. You submitted your proposal, and now you're waiting. How will your response be judged? Most evaluation processes are similar. Proposals that are difficult to follow may be scored lower, even if they contain the required information. If following a prescribed format was a mandatory condition of the RFP, and you deviated from it, your proposal may be judged as "non-compliant" and eliminated from consideration. First, the project manager or RFP officer determines whether the proposal complies with each of the mandatory terms and conditions in the RFP. In some jurisdictions, proposals that fail to comply must be eliminated from further consideration. In other jurisdictions, they may be eliminated at the discretion of the procurement officer.

Inquiry: We have just reported third quarter annual sales to the GSA. Is the IFF fee an allowable overhead cost? Response: Some firms consider it part of Overhead Cost and some consider it a Direct cost. If a large majority of your work is GSA FSS then it would be acceptable, in my opinion, to include it in your Overhead cost. The IFF fee is not profit, nor is it interest. It represents a legitimate cost that is charged to the buyer agency through the contract for administration of the GSA contract oversight.