Government Contracting as a Team Sport: The Consideration of Subcontractor Experience

SumCo Eco-Contracting LLC, B-409434, B-409434.2, April 15, 2014
A company’s past experience often comes into play when an agency is going through the evaluation process in a procurement. In many cases, the procuring agency will evaluate a proposal based on the offeror’s past experience with projects of a similar scope and size as the project at issue in the solicitation.

But what happens to an offeror that has experience of its own, but not necessarily of the same size and scope of the work called for in the solicitation? Are they at an automatic disadvantage in the competition? We have previously seen that an offeror lacking experience of its own can rely on the experience of its affiliates, and that a joint venture can rely on the experience of its partners. But can an offeror rely on the experience of its subcontractors? GAO answered this question in the affirmative in a recent bid protest decision.

In SumCo Eco-Contracting LLC, the Army Corps of Engineers issued an invitation for bids (IFB) for beach erosion control at Prospect Beach in West New Haven, NJ. The IFB was a HUBZone set-aside, with the award to go to the lowest-priced, responsible bidder that was an SBA certified HUBZone small business. After determining that the lowest bidder was not a certified HUBZone small business, the agency moved on to the second-lowest bidder, who was a certified HUBZone small business.

Prior to making an award, the agency conducted an analysis as to the second-lowest bidder’s responsibility, specifically inquiring as to whether it had the relevant experience to perform the work called for by the IFB. The second-lowest bidder provided information to the agency that a portion of the work called for by the IFB would be performed by its subcontractor, which had the requisite experience. The agency ultimately decided that the second-lowest bidder was responsible, and moved forward with an award.

The protester challenged the agency’s affirmative responsibility determination, arguing that the agency improperly considered the experience of the non-HUBZone subcontractor in determining the awardee to be responsible. The protester argued that because the awardee, on its own, did not have the requisite experience to perform the work called for by the IFB, its offer should be rejected.

GAO rejected the protester’s argument, noting that contracting officers have broad discretion to determine whether a contractor is responsible. Here, GAO found nothing improper about the contracting officer considering the past experience of the awardee’s subcontractor. In fact, GAO pointed out several FAR clauses (FAR §§ 9.104-1 & 9.104-3) that allow for a contractor to obtain sufficient resources through subcontracting in order to be deemed responsible. As a result, GAO denied the protest.

This decision puts a spotlight on the importance of building a good team when tracking a procurement opportunity. Contractors, particularly small business contractors, cannot always check every necessary box required by a solicitation on their own. By building a team of contractors with diverse knowledge, skills and experience, contractors can raise their game and be more competitive in their pursuit of contract awards.

http://www.icontact-archive.com/ErAYS8VeYd9gNwibGp0L1cOmIHamTV7I?w=4

Section 508 Compliance (Lawsuit Says GSA Discriminates Against Blind Contractors ) !

eTRANSERVICES is a provider of cost saving enterprise transformational services and products.  Our core competencies are Consulting Services, Enterprise Information Technology (IT) Services, Application and Web Services, and Program and Acquisition Support Services.  

We provide one of the only solutions that enables public facing websites to be 99% compliant will ALL aspect of the Section 508 (handicap accessibility) requirements.  Our solution is the only solution sold as Software As A Service (SaasS) and is hosted on the FedRAMP (moderate) approved Amazon cloud.  It is called AudioEye and eTRANSERVICES is the only SDVOSB and HUBZone certified capable of selling the product as of this blog's published date for government clients.

See AudioEye’s Press release: http://www.audioeye.com/audioeye-partners-with-strategic-small-business-etranservices/

The Audioeye Audio Internet Platform was built to accommodate a large range of disabilities. The AudioEye solution provides tools unique to each impairment, creating an all-encompassing accessibility solution wrapped up into a single platform. From users with complete vision loss to those with low sight or users that are hard of hearing or just learning to read, the AudioEye accessibility solution provides the tools to enhance the web access experience.

 

Lawsuit Says GSA Discriminates Against Blind Contractors

A group of blind federal contractors filed a lawsuit against the General Services Administration this week over a contractor website they say shuts out the visually impaired.

The System for Award Management website, SAM.gov, contains numerous buttons, checkboxes, drop-down menus and “mouseovers” that federal contractors must navigate each year in order to keep their contractor status current. Those bells and whistles make it difficult or impossible for screen reading software that blind people use to navigate the Internet to decode the site, the suit claims.

GSA phone-in help desk employees are also not sufficiently trained in disability issues, the suit claims, making it even more difficult for blind contractors to complete their registrations.

The suit was filed as a class action by the American Council for the Blind and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The groups claim GSA violated Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which, among other things, bars discrimination against federal contractors and grantees based solely on a disability.

There are three named plaintiffs who are helping to pursue the lawsuit. They’re all contractors who had difficulty registering or re-registering on SAM.gov. Eventually two of the three had to reveal personal information, such as usernames and Social Security numbers, to either friends or GSA help desk employees in order to complete their registrations.

“It would be one thing if [the Environmental Protection Agency’s] website wasn’t compliant with screen reader software,” Matthew Handley, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told Nextgov. “But this is all the more troubling because this is the agency that’s supposed to be policing all the other agency websites and it doesn’t appear to be policing its own websites.”

GSA had not responded by 5 p.m. Thursday to Nextgov emails and phone calls seeking comment.

GSA manages a large portion of civilian federal contracting for other government agencies and publishes best practices guides for federal digital technology. The American Council for the Blind spent about a year urging GSA to make SAM.gov accessible, Handley said. When those changes weren’t sufficient, he said, they filed suit.  

“We’d just sort of reached a dead end with them and decided we didn’t have any way to push this along without resorting to the court system,” he said.

The council hasn’t done a full investigation but suspects there may be accessibility issues with other federal contracting websites such as the Federal Business Opportunities site, FBO.gov, Handley said. The organizations hope that drawing attention to SAM.gov’s accessibility issues will press GSA and other agencies to fix other websites, he said.

The groups are asking a federal judge to order GSA to make SAM.gov accessible and to reimburse their attorneys’ fees. The plaintiffs cannot seek damages under the statute.

GSA has 60 days to formally respond to the lawsuit.

If you would like to learn more about AudioEye and setup a presentation please contact us immediately. AudioEye benefits organization significantly and requires almost no changes to existing website and code.  Please visit a few AudioEye enable sites to see the capability of this product for yourself at the sites below:

·         www.audioeye.com

 

eTRANSERVICES is a Center for Veterans Enterprises certified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone), and Department of Transportation (DOT) certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firm.  Contracting officer(s) may award contracts to HUBZone small business concerns on a sole source basis without considering small business set-asides (see Subpart 19.5).