Source: https://govtcontractsmonitor.jacksonkelly.com/2013/02/index.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 04:33:24+00:00

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Two years ago OMB issued a memorandum regarding the low percentage of past performance assessments being completed and, as a result, the failure of the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) – the repository for past performance information on contractors – to capture a sufficient quantity of performance assessments. Why is this important?
As previously reported here, the Court of Federal Claims heard a bid protest in which the solicitation stated the deadline for proposal submission was 2:00 pm Central Time but the GSA’s e-Buy website, which was programmed to refuse proposals after 2:00 pm Eastern Time, rejected as untimely the protestor’s proposal submitted at 1:03 pm Central Time. Sound unnecessarily complicated? Judge Allegra thought so too and, thus, relied heavily on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. As the Judge explained, “Defendant, regrettably, has injected an Alice-in-Wonderland quality to this preaward bid protest case.” Ultimately, the Judge held, “Unlike someone on good terms with the Mad Hatter’s Time, the officials at the VA could not whisper a hint to Time and make the clock on this procurement go round, in a twinkling, to a time different than that listed in the solicitation. There is nothing on this side of the looking glass to support the VA’s rejection of plaintiff’s offer. It is time, via an injunction, for defendant to return to reality.” Laboratory Corp. of America v. United States, No. 12-622C (Fed. Cl. Jan. 14, 2013).
Court of Federal Claims Smacks Down the VA’s OSDBU Not Once, But Twice!
The Court of Federal Claims recently issued two decisions reinstating veteran-owned small businesses (“VOSBs”) in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (“VA’s”) Veterans First Contracting Program, after they were held ineligible by the VA’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (“OSDBU”). See KWV, Inc. v. United States, No. 12-882C (Fed. Cl. Jan. 25, 2013) and Miles Construction, LLC v. United States, No. 12-597C (Fed. Cl. Feb. 14, 2013). To qualify as a VOSB a business must be, among other things, “unconditionally owned and controlled by one or more eligible veterans.” The VA had been interpreting these terms to prohibit common commercial terms regarding succession planning and common sense management. That is until Judge Lettow took the VA’s OSDBU to the woodshed, finding not only that the OSBDU misinterpreted the relevant regulations, but also that it failed to give basic due process to veteran-owned companies in revoking their VOSB status.
A government contractor recently learned the hard way that it should quote the right price for the right product when it issues a quote to the government. In Lacey Newday Consulting, LLC (“Lacey”) v. Department of Justice, CBCA Nos. 2782, 2832 , the Bureau of Prisons issued an Request for Quotation to supply 10,000 pounds of ground beef (80/20 to be exact) for use at the United States Prison in Atwater, California (USP Atwater). Lacey submitted a quotation at a unit price of $0.60 per pound. Seven other quotations were presented in a range of $1.66/lb to $2.40/lb. On December 21, 2011, the BOP contracting officer had a telephone call with Lacey’s principal, and asked whether the price for the ground beef was good and Lacey confirmed the price. The BOP issued a written purchase order on January 11, 2012, and Lacey shipped the ground beef on January 17, 2012.
Experienced government contractors generally know how to submit timely and complete proposal packages. They also know the consequences for failing to do so. These well known consequences were highlighted in the recent Federal Circuit decision of Orion Technology, Inc. v. United States, No. 2012-5062 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 14, 2013).
On January 30, 2013 Federal prosecutors asked a judge in Louisiana to require BP LLC’s lawyers to produce documents from the lawyers’ files relating to admitted fraudulent statements made by BP representatives to Congress and to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The relevant statements concern the rate oil was flowing into the Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 oil platform disaster. The wide-ranging, non-specific request for documents included those that were previously withheld under claims of attorney-client and attorney work-product privilege as well as any other documents not previously identified.
A recent protest decision underscores the importance of fair discussions in task order procurements and the difficulties agencies can face when they change their story mid-stream. Mission Essential Personnel, LLC, B-407474; B-407493 (January 7, 2013) involved a pair of task order awards for intelligence support services in Afghanistan under a multiple award IDIQ contract. Asserting that the Army failed to engage in adequate discussions and misevaluated its proposals, protester Mission Essential Personnel, LLC (MEP) prevailed-- with some help from the Government.
Contractors negotiate labor costs with the Department of Defense (DOD) – as part of the price DOD will pay on a contract – based upon the compensation they pay to their employees. Since defined benefit pension contributions are a routine part of employee compensation, the amounts a contractor contributes to its employees’ pensions are included in these negotiated labor costs/rates. As a result, DOD ends up reimbursing a large amount of contractor pension costs.
A decision by the District Court in the Southern District of Texas gives all companies another good reason (as if any were needed) to avoid criminal violations of statutes governing their conduct. In United States v. CITGO Petroleum Corp., No. C-06-563 (S.D. Tex. Sept. 14, 2012), the District Court reversed its prior decision and held that citizens harmed by a company’s criminal violation of the Clean Air Act (“CAA”) qualify as “crime victims” under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (“CVRA”). The District Court further held that, as crime victims, the affected citizens could provide victim impact statements at sentencing and could claim reasonable financial restitution for the harms that resulted from CITGO’s criminal actions. The citizens now seek almost $30 million in restitution.

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