set-aside | The Contracting Education Academy

July 17, 2020 By cs

Former HR official steered sole-source $5 million training contract to friends, VA’s IG says

A former top human resources executive at the Department of Veterans Affairs improperly steered a contract to benefit two of his friends, the agency’s inspector general found in a recent report.

Peter Shelby, who briefly served as VA’s assistant secretary for human resources and administration, violated ethics laws and abused his position to award a $5 million contract to two friends.

The contract “resulted entirely in waste,” James Mitchell, VA’s acting assistant inspector general, said.

The contract was for leadership development and training for VA employees and applicant assessment tools. Shelby was friendly with the owner of the service-disabled veteran-owned small business that received the $5 million contract. He was also friends with the vice president of Blanchard, one of the subcontractors on the project, who had endorsed Shelby for the assistant secretary position back in 2017.

According to the IG, Shelby directed his staff to pursue a contract with the small business under a specific VA sole-source authority, which allows the department, under limited circumstances, to avoid the usual competitive bidding procedures. But in this case, those authorities were misused to benefit Shelby and the preferred small business, the IG said.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/veterans-affairs/2020/07/former-va-chco-steered-5m-training-and-development-contract-to-friends-ig-says/

July 13, 2020 By cs

GSA opens bids for largest governmentwide small business contract to date

The final request for proposals is out for GSA’s IT services-focused 8(a) STARS III contract, which will have a ceiling of $50 billion.

Shortly after canceling one IT contract vehicle for small businesses and raising the ceiling on another, the General Services Administration released the final request for proposals for its largest small business governmentwide contract to date: the third iteration of the 8(a) Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resource for Services, or STARS III.

The $50 billion governmentwide acquisition contract, or GWAC, is reserved for Small Business Administration 8(a)-certified businesses providing IT services. The contract will be open to all federal buyers and includes two sub-areas for emerging technology and IT services performed outside of the continental United States, or OCONUS.

“We are excited to expand the scope of the STARS III GWAC to cover OCONUS performance and address emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and virtual reality,” Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Julie Dunne said Monday in a statement. “STARS III will increase opportunities for hundreds of 8(a) companies at a time when we’re heavily relying on their expertise to modernize the federal government’s IT infrastructure and improve virtual service delivery for citizens and employees in the U.S. and abroad.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2020/07/gsa-opens-bids-largest-governmentwide-small-business-contract-date/166663/

June 11, 2020 By cs

Could NITAAC’s $40 billion governmentwide IT contract be a boon for small businesses?

The National Institute of Health’s Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) has about two years to award its next great governmentwide acquisition contract called CIO-SP4.

While this may seem like a lot of time, NITAAC already is getting comments back on its draft solicitation.

Keith Johnson, the contracting lead for the CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP4 vehicles for NITAAC, said industry feedback was due back to his organization by May 15 and he expects the final solicitation for the $40 billion IT products and services GWAC to be more responsive to small businesses and agency customers alike.

“The draft has a direction in terms of some items that we would like to change, but all of that is preliminary,” Johnson said in an interview with Federal News Network. “For example, we would like to go to one GWAC. Currently we have a small business GWAC and an unrestricted GWAC, and the scope of both of those contracts mirror each other. There are a number of reasons why we would like to do that. Most notably, as a benefit to our small business owners.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contractsawards/2020/06/could-nitaacs-40b-governmentwide-it-contract-be-a-boon-for-small-businesses/

June 5, 2020 By cs

Contractors to pay $2.8 million to settle False Claims Act allegations of fraudulently obtained small business contracts

Tulsa, Oklahoma-based contractor Ross Group Construction Corporation (Ross Group), and its corporate affiliates, have agreed to pay over $2.8 million to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by improperly obtaining federal set-aside contracts reserved for disadvantaged small businesses, the Justice Department announced this week.

To qualify as a small business for purposes of U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) programs, companies must meet defined eligibility criteria, including requirements concerning size, ownership, and operational control. The settlement with Ross Group resolves allegations that the company fraudulently induced the government to award certain small business set-aside contracts to several affiliated entities that did not meet eligibility requirements.

The government alleged that Ross Group created two companies, PentaCon LLC and C3 LLC, to obtain small business set-aside contracts for which Ross Group itself was ineligible. Also alleged was that Ross Group maintained operational control over the day-to-day and long-term management decisions of the two purported small businesses, including controlling their financial affairs and business operations, and that, as a result, neither PentaCon nor C3 satisfied the size and eligibility requirements to participate in the set-aside programs. Ross Group, PentaCon, and C3 allegedly concealed their affiliation from the government and knowingly misrepresented the eligibility of PentaCon and C3 for the set-aside contracts.

The settlement with Ross Group and its corporate affiliates resolves a lawsuit filed under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act, which permits private parties to file suit on behalf of the United States for false claims and share in a portion of the government’s recovery. The civil lawsuit was filed in federal district court in the Western District of Oklahoma and is captioned United States ex rel. Southwind Construction Services, LLC v. The Ross Group Construction Corporation, et al., Case No. 15-0102-R (W.D. Okla.). As part of the resolution of this matter, the whistleblower will receive approximately $520,000.

The settlement is the result of a coordinated effort among the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma, DCIS, the Inspector General Offices of the SBA, General Services Administration, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Army Criminal Investigation Division Major Procurement Fraud Unit.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/oklahoma-contractors-pay-28-million-settle-false-claims-act-allegations-concerning

May 21, 2020 By cs

SBA issues final rule implementing certification for women-owned small businesses

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) on May 11, 2020, published its long-awaited Final Rule implementing important changes for Women-Owned Small Business Concerns (WOSBs) and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business Concerns (EDWOSBs) participating in the Procurement Program for Women-Owned Small Business Concerns (Program).

Among other things, the Final Rule requires a certification for businesses competing for set-aside or sole source contracts under the Program, and to those seeking to be awarded multiple award contracts for pools reserved for WOSBs and EDWOSBs. It also changes EDWOSB requirements to be consistent with the 8(a) Business Development (BD) Program.

The rule becomes effective on July 15, 2020; however, it’s important to note that many of the specific changes do not go into effect until Oct. 15, 2020.

Some of the important points are summarized here in more detail: https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/government-contracts-procurement-ppp/934468/sba-issues-final-rule-implementing-certification-for-women-owned-small-businesses

A former top human resources executive at the Department of Veterans Affairs improperly steered a contract to benefit two of his friends, the agency’s inspector general found in a recent report.

The final request for proposals is out for GSA’s IT services-focused 8(a) STARS III contract, which will have a ceiling of $50 billion.

The National Institute of Health’s Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) has about two years to award its next great governmentwide acquisition contract called CIO-SP4.

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