Author Archives: terrenceoconnor

You would think that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) would consider a protest claiming that the agency is not enforcing the Buy American Act (BAA). But, as shown in a recent GAO decision in Craft Bearing Company, Inc., B- 418685, 2020 WL 3429044 (June 22, 2020), GAO rarely considers…

Last month, we discussed opportunities for federal contractors to expand their business prospects during a crisis such as the current coronavirus pandemic. These opportunities are found in FAR Part 18, Emergency Acquisitions, and increases to the thresholds for micro-purchases, simplified acquisitions, and some commercial items.  This month, we…

When companies get into trouble and need to investigate and prepare a report on it to the government, they typically want to limit the report’s exposure. One way to limit disclosing company information in these situations is to hire an outside law firm to direct the investigation and have the…

Facing a cash flow crisis brought on by COVID-19, government contractors have only two basic  ways of increasing cash flow: getting new contracts and performing incumbent contracts. A lot of media attention has focused on ways contractors can get cash flow help in performing their incumbent contracts. Berenzweig Leonard…

On March 30, 2020, the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council (CAAC), the civilian agency component of the FAR Council, expanded the availability of accelerated payments. It issued a FAR class deviation to add small business prime contractors to those entitled to accelerated payments. In doing so, the CAAC implemented a…

The new FAR regulations dealing with the small business programs in FAR Part 19 recently adopted by the FAR Council can get lost in the news of the coronavirus and the need for contractors to find ways to keep their doors open. But, buried among the 28 pages of 3-column…

Getting government contracts in the future depends greatly on how well a company has performed in the past. That’s because Federal procurement policy for years has stressed the importance of the government using past performance as a mandatory evaluation factor in solicitation for future contracts. Often, these solicitation evaluations are…

Unlike the automatic stay of performance that protestors get for free at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), stopping contract performance at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC)  comes at a price. The COFC recently imposed a $42,000,000 bond on Amazon for stopping performance of the JEDI contract. The…

A recent GAO decision demonstrates why a vendor should continue to track contracts it lost for future modifications made by the government. When the Navy modified a contract that increased the contract value by 77%, a competitor saw the Navy’s public notice of the modification and successfully protested the modification.