BAA | The Contracting Education Academy

October 21, 2020 By cs

Proposed rule portends increased contractor Buy American Act obligations

On September 14, 2020, the FAR Council published a proposed rule, Case 2019-016 “Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials,” 85 FR 56558, which proposes certain increased and new thresholds for contractors subject to the Buy American Act (BAA).

The proposed changes implement Executive Order 13881 (July 15, 2019). There is a November 13, 2020, deadline for interested parties to submit written comments for consideration in the final rule.

Notwithstanding the potential for the proposed changes to be incorporated into a final rule, the changes will only impact contractors if the basic BAA rules are not overridden by the Trade Agreements Act (TAA) or Balance of Payments Program. The BAA only applies to purchases over the micropurchase threshold and under the threshold for TAA applicability, which is currently $182,000 for supply contracts and $7,008,000 for construction contracts. That said, even when a contract exceeds the TAA threshold, the BAA still applies to certain categories of acquisitions, including, but not limited to, sole source awards, small business set-asides, and certain national security or national defense purchases.

Keep reading this article at: https://governmentcontractsnavigator.com/2020/09/30/proposed-rule-portends-increased-contractor-baa-obligations/

March 15, 2018 By AMK

Acquisition disruption: Innovative concepts in government contracting

Government procurement often gets a (not altogether undeserved) bad rap as a cumbersome process that is lacking in imagination and innovation.

Today more than ever, however, the federal government is making use of cutting-edge procedures and methods to attract commercial companies to government contracting and to encourage modernization and efficiency in procurements.

Here we discuss some of the creative tools being used to benefit both contractors and the government, including other transaction agreements, contests, public-private partnerships, and other novel approaches.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=676092

June 8, 2016 By AMK

Alabama-based Lt. Col. indicted for fraudulently supplying promotional gear from China as ‘Made in USA’

A federal grand jury has indicted a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves for fraudulently supplying, as “100 % U.S. Made,” hundreds of thousands of Chinese-produced baseball caps and backpacks. The items were furnished through Department of Defense (DoD) contracts for promotional items for the Army Recruiting Command.

A three-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court charges that Frederick L. Burnett, 48, through his Alabama-based company, Lamar International Inc., schemed to defraud the DoD on three contracts, worth a total of $6.2 million, between 2005 and 2009. All the contracts were for promotional items — baseball caps and backpacks — to be given to Army recruits.

Burnett certified on all three contracts that he would meet the requirements of the Buy American Act, the Berry Amendment, and federal regulations that require the government to buy domestic products and materials, according to the indictment.

The Buy American Act (BAA) is a law requiring the federal government to buy domestic articles, materials and supplies, primarily to protect American labor. The Berry Amendment is a legal restriction that prohibits DoD from spending its funds on clothing, fabrics, fibers and yarns that are not grown, reprocessed, reused or produced in the United States. The purpose of the Berry Amendment is to protect the viability of the textile and clothing production base in the United States.

According to the indictment:

Beginning in 2005, Burnett, through his company, supplied Army recruiters with 209,706 baseball caps over a three year period. The government paid him $1.4 million for these initial deliveries.
Under a second contract, awarded in 2007, Lamar supplied 590,042 ball caps, and the government paid him about $4 million.
Under the third contract, also awarded in 2007, Lamar supplied the Army with 146,375 backpacks for which he was paid $1.1 million.

In addition to the required compliance with the BAA and the Berry Amendment, both of the 2007 contracts included the requirement, in all capital letters, that the “PRODUCT MUST BE 100% U.S. MADE.”

Instead of providing American-made products however, Burnett negotiated and contracted with suppliers directly from China, along with American companies who he knew were procuring the products from China. He used Chinese-made products to fill orders under all three contracts and hid their foreign manufacture by hiring workers on a cash basis to remove all the Chinese labels and repackage the items he sent to the Army Recruiting Command, the indictment says.

After award of the second contract, a competitor protested the bid, claiming Burnett could only bid as low as he did if he were using foreign suppliers. The government allowed Burnett to proceed with the contract after he submitted documentation that he was using only American-made products and that he would comply with all aspects of the Buy American Act and the Berry Amendment, according to the indictment.

The indictment, handed down on May 25, 2016, seeks to have Burnett forfeit the total dollar value of all three contracts as proceeds of illegal activity. In addition, Burnett faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

DCIS ACID DCIS and Army CID investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney David H. Estes is prosecuting in Birmingham, Alabama.

Readers are reminded that an indictment contains only charges. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndal/pr/army-reserves-lt-col-indicted-fraudulently-supplying-chinese-made-army-promotional-gear

May 11, 2016 By AMK

USAID uses new contracting technique to try to lower barriers to entry

The United States Agency for International Development has started accepting applications for a $30 million grand challenge calling on innovators to submit ideas to combat Zika and “the disease threats of tomorrow.”

“To get ahead of infectious diseases like Zika, we need to move quickly to find and scale new tools and transformative solutions,” USAID Administrator Gayle Smith said in a statement.

The grand challenge is an addendum to the to the USAID Development Innovation Accelerator Broad Agency Announcement for Global Health, and is an example of how the agency is increasingly turning to a contracting technique used elsewhere in the U.S. government to see if the model might work to involve new actors in addressing development challenges.

As USAID looks to partner with a more diverse group of actors, the agency is contending with regulatory restrictions that can be cumbersome or limiting. The Broad Agency Announcement, or BAA, may be a way to address that challenge. The BAA is a new way for the agency to communicate with partners to design solutions before determining what procurement tool may be the best fit.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.devex.com/news/usaid-uses-new-contracting-technique-to-try-to-lower-barriers-to-entry-87858

October 30, 2013 By AMK

Special Ops command seeks contractors for wearable armor technology

U.S. Special Operations Command wants its operators to be protected with what it informally calls an Iron Man suit, named after the fictional superhero.

In September, U.S. Special Operations Command, known as SOCOM, made a Broad Agency Announcement for proposals for prototypes of the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or TALOS.

The goal of TALOS is to provide ballistic protection to Special Operations Forces, along with fire-retardant capability, said Michel Fieldson, TALOS lead, SOCOM.

“We sometimes refer to it as the Iron Man suit, frankly to attract the attention, imagination and excitement of industry and academia,” he said.

“We’re hoping to take products we’re developing in several technology areas and integrating them into a consolidated suit to provide more protection for the [Special Operations Forces].”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.army.mil/article/113332/_Iron_Man__style_suit_in_early_stages_of_development/

On September 14, 2020, the FAR Council published a proposed rule, Case 2019-016 “Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials,” 85 FR 56558, which proposes certain increased and new thresholds for contractors subject to the Buy American Act (BAA).

Government procurement often gets a (not altogether undeserved) bad rap as a cumbersome process that is lacking in imagination and innovation.

The United States Agency for International Development has started accepting applications for a $30 million grand challenge calling on innovators to submit ideas to combat Zika and “the disease threats of tomorrow.”

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