GovConLaw Blog

On September 4, 2018, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) announced that it was reducing the surety bond guarantee fee under its Surety Bond Guarantee program. Government construction contracts require the prime contractor to post payment and performance bonds....

It seems that government contractors are increasingly facing government affirmative defenses of fraud in response to their appeals. Contractors need to be aware of the differing jurisdictional standards when confronted with a government affirmative defense of fraud,...

The most popular forum for filing a bid protest is the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”). However, pursuing post-award protests with GAO requires strict compliance with specific time periods in which to file a protest. GAO’s timeliness rules require that a...

The General Accountability Office (“GAO”) has joined the electronic filing club for bid protests. All new protests after May 1, 2018 are required to be filed and administered using GAO’s new Electronic Protest Docketing System (“EPDS”). The only exceptions are for...

Protests are not uncommon in government contracts. Contractors often disagree with the contracting agency’s evaluation of their proposals and sometimes want to challenge the agency’s source selection decision. Part of the strategy in pursuing a protest is deciding the...

One area of government contracting that can be particularly frustrating for government contractors is learning why you didn’t get the contract award. When the Government is using sealed bidding, it’s usually easily to find out why you lost. You compare your bid...

As experienced government contractors know, submitting the lowest price doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll win the contract when the solicitation provides for a best value award. It’s critical that contractors submit a well written proposal. Below are some tips on...

Quite a lot if you’re submitting a bid protest to the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”). Government contractors often use names other than their official legal name or fail to make distinctions between the various affiliated companies that make up a group or...

Recently, the Department of Labor introduced a new voluntary pilot program – the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program.  The pilot program is a self-audit program that seeks to more quickly resolve employer violations of the Fair Labor Standard Act...

Most government contractors are familiar with the requirement in federal government contracts that products and construction materials supplied to the Government must comply with the Buy American Act (“BAA”) or, if applicable, the Trade Agreements Act (“TAA”). Failure...

By now, many government contracts are feeling the impact of the recent 25% tariff on imported steel through increased prices of steel and steel-based products.  The price impact has not been limited to imported steel.  Rather, there has been a marked increase in the...

P&A is committed to delivering timely, relevant content that is both substantive and practical in order to help readers become better informed about the issues affecting contractors doing business with the Federal Government. That’s why we’re pleased to introduce this...