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Failure to have active SAM registration at time of bid was not fatal

Government contractors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) and complete required representations and certifications annually.

FAR 52.204-7 requires bidders, with some limited exceptions, to be registered in SAM at the time of bid and to continue to be registered until time of award, during performance, and through final payment.

Recently, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) addressed the issue of whether a bidder’s failure to have an active registration in SAM at time of bid renders the bid nonresponsive and ineligible for award in Master Pavement Line Corp., B-419111 (Dec. 16, 2020).

GAO concluded that SAM registration is a matter of responsibility, not bid responsiveness.

In that case, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued an Invitation for Bids (IFB) for the repair of signs and guiderails, as well as other safety repairs.  The IFB included a checklist for bid submission that advised that bidders had to be registered in SAM prior to contract award.  Master Pavement submitted a timely bid and was the apparent low bidder.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=cf98267d-d76e-4b8d-9df5-cc7f0ffae5bc

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Bidders ‘stunned’ by sudden cancellation of federal contract

The invitation was to bid on a massive, high-stakes contract, estimated to be as high as $5 billion. Dozens of companies went for it, working for months to polish their proposals, then waiting for more than a year to see if they had won.

But instead of granting awards that would be part of the federal government’s largest training and human resources contract, the Office of Personnel Management issued a terse notice earlier this month that weighed in at five words: “This solicitation is hereby cancelled.”

The risk of losing is inherent in the business of federal contracting, but the sudden cancellation of such a high-profile contract with no explanation struck many as an unnecessarily secretive and bad way of doing business. The head of the Professional Services Council, an industry group representing more than 370 companies, fired off a letter saying many companies were “stunned” at the cancellation and the way it was handled.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bidders-stunned-by-sudden-cancellation-of-federal-contract/2014/02/26/65978f12-9f14-11e3-b8d8-94577ff66b28_story.html 

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