debarment | The Contracting Education Academy

April 26, 2017 By AMK

Changes coming to SAM.gov

The General Services Administration (GSA) is planning to test a new version of the System for Award Management (SAM.gov).

This means that plans GSA made as far back as 2001 may be realized sometime in 2018.

At present, SAM.gov is the federal database where vendors register to do business with the government. When it went live in mid-2012, SAM was introduced as portal where, over time, several different government databases would be consolidated. Federal Agency Registration (FedReg), the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) were among the systems to be first consolidated under the SAM umbrella.

The 2012 introduction of SAM initially was delayed and, once launched, many problems were encountered by vendors and government agencies alike. Since then, SAM experienced a data breach in 2013, cost overruns, accessibility issues, and periodic interface difficulties with SBA’s small business database.

GSA now plans to resume work on the original vision for SAM: the consolidation of as many as 10 websites.

A new test site, at beta.sam.gov, reportedly is to launch between July 1 and Sept. 30, 2017.

The objective of the consolidated web site is to reduce the federal contracting burden on contractors and government officials alike by creating a single place to access a range of data, including contractor registration information, contract award data on prime contractors and subcontractors, and information about companies excluded from pursuing government work.

Eventually, the functions of 10 existing sites — including SAM.gov, the Federal Procurement Data System (fpds.gov); Federal Business Opportunities (fbo.gov), the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System (fsrs.gov), and the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (fapiis.gov) — will become a part of the SAM beta site. Once testing is completed, all of the added functionality will become a part of a new SAM.gov site. The sites that are merged into SAM.gov then will be retired.

Improvements, such as search features, will continue to be made to existing sites as the new site is being tested, GSA says.

August 25, 2016 By AMK

ISDC reports a ‘plateauing’ in suspension and debarment activity

After a steady climb in the past five years, the number of suspensions and debarments in remained relatively static in FY15.

Each year, the Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee (ISDC) reports to Congress on the status of the Federal suspension and debarment system. With its mission of assisting agencies to build and maintain efficient and effective suspension and debarment activities, the ISDC is uniquely situated to provide comments and insight on the status of suspension and debarment practices generally.

In its Fiscal Year 2015 report, the ISDC commented on an interesting trend in agency suspension and debarment proceedings. Fiscal years 2010 through 2014 saw a steady trend of increased suspension and debarment activity—with actual suspensions and debarments increasing from 1,585 in FY 2010 to 2,938 in FY 2014. The ISDC observed that “Data for FY 2015 . . . shows a plateauing of the number of suspension and debarment actions,” with suspensions and debarments remaining relatively static at 2,791.

Suspensions

Proposed Debarments

Debarments

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2016/08/isdc-reports-a-plateauing-in-suspension-and-debarment-activity/

December 29, 2015 By AMK

Suspension and debarment: A new approach

Contractors and government contracts attorneys are likely to see — if they haven’t already — a rise in the number of cases in which individuals, rather than corporate entities, are targeted by government officials for suspension and debarment.

This is significant because, under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), the misconduct of an individual can be imputed to the contractor, causing the contractor to lose its ability to receive federal contracts.

Attention to the misconduct of individuals was encouraged by a September 9, 2015 memorandum from Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates entitled “Individual Accountability for Corporate Wrongdoing.” The memorandum instructs government officials “consistently” to “focus on individuals” throughout an investigation. Ms. Yates followed up her memorandum with remarks prepared for a conference held November 16, 2015 in Washington, D.C., in which she stated that the memorandum ushers in “a new policy designed to ensure that individual accountability is at the heart of [the government’s] corporate enforcement strategy.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=447276

See FAR Subpart 9.4 on the subject of Debarment, Suspension and Ineligibility here: https://www.acquisition.gov/sites/default/files/current/far/html/Subpart%209_4.html

February 24, 2015 By AMK

AF lifts suspension of reverse auctioneer FedBid

Just a few weeks after the Air Force suspended contracts with FedBid, a Vienna, Va. reverse-auction company and requested the company’s debarment, the service lifted the suspension after reaching an administrative agreement, according to a Feb. 20, 2015 Air Force document.

The suspension stems from a Veterans Affairs Department inspector general report that said Susan Taylor, Veterans Health Administration deputy procurement officer, pressured staff repeatedly in emails to speed up the acquisition process and pick FedBid for the reverse auction contracts.

The IG report says Taylor, “improperly disclosed non-public VA information to unauthorized persons, misused her position and VA resources for private gain, and engaged in a prohibited personnel practice when she recommended that a subordinate senior executive service employee be removed from SES during her probation period.”

The agreement will end both the suspension and debarment proceedings as long as FedBid “maintains the business honesty and integrity required of a government contractor and that the company operates in strict compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and terms of its governance contracts and subcontracts.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/air-force-lifts-suspension-fedbid/2015-02-23

January 30, 2015 By AMK

Air Force suspends, begins debarment process of reverse-auctioneer FedBid

The Air Force has suspended FedBid from federal procurement activity, both new contracts and follow-ons, as of Jan. 26, 2015 and proposed the reverse auction company for debarment.

FedBid’s listing in the System for Award Management (SAM) says the Air Force suspended and is proposing debarment with proceedings pending.

The Air Force wrote in the listing on SAM that it deemed FedBid ineligible for new contracts or follow-on deals “based upon adequate evidence of conduct indicating a lack of business honesty or integrity, or a lack of business integrity, or regulation, statute, executive order or other legal authority, pending completion of an investigation and/or legal proceedings.”

“As promised in our previous reporting on VA’s contracting and relationship with FedBid, the OIG referred FedBid to the Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee for an independent decision whether the company should be debarred. Through the Committee’s processes the Department of the Air Force agreed to be the lead agency,” said an VA OIG spokesperson in an email to Federal News Radio.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/395/3789803/Air-Force-suspends-begins-debarment-process-of-FedBid–

After a steady climb in the past five years, the number of suspensions and debarments in remained relatively static in FY15.

Contractors and government contracts attorneys are likely to see — if they haven’t already — a rise in the number of cases in which individuals, rather than corporate entities, are targeted by government officials for suspension and debarment.

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