debarment | The Contracting Education Academy

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–

May 27, 2014 By AMK

Contractor suspensions and debarments doubled over the last 4 years

The number of contractor suspensions and debarments government-wide have doubled since fiscal 2009 because agencies have developed better management tools and a more active referral process, a May 21 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says.

Agencies can use suspension and debarment to exclude individuals, contractors and grantees from receiving future contracts, grants and other federal assistance due to various types of misconduct.

A previous GAO report found agencies issuing the most procurement related suspensions and debarments shared common characteristics: dedicated staff, detailed policies and procedures, and an active referral process.

Many agencies that previously faltered in rooting out contractor misconduct have taken the lead from those stronger agencies, the latest report says.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/gao-contractor-suspensions-and-debarments-have-doubled-over-last-4-years/2014-05-22

March 14, 2014 By AMK

GSA acquisition database integration pushed back to 2018

The General Services Administration (GSA) pushed back the planned completion date of an integrated acquisition database to 2018 because of development problems and cost overruns, GSA Assistant Commissioner Kevin Youel Page told a Senate panel March 6.

“We’ve suffered our own missteps,” Page said during a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee subcommittee on financial and contracting oversight.

Plans were made in 2001 to combine governmentwide acquisition databases into a single system called the Integrated Acquisition Environment.

But the project has been plagued with problems.

A March 2012 Government Accountability Office report says cost overruns, which grew by 89 percent, were largely due to mistakes GSA has made. GAO initially estimated it would cost about $95.7 million, but the 2012 estimate came in at $181.1 million.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/gsa-acquisition-database-integration-pushed-back-2018/2014-03-07

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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