By Pamela J. Bethel Government contractors and subcontractors need to carefully scrutinize the Supreme Court’s important June 16 ruling on a key False Claims Act. In a unanimous decision that has delighted lawyers for claimants under the FCA, the Court endorsed a potent theory of FCA liability known as “implied false certification.” The closely watched...
Category: Government Contracts
Baltimore Sewage Project Is Great Opportunity for City, and for Contractors
Earlier this month, Baltimore City reached an agreement with federal and state environmental agencies that commits the city to greatly reduce the amount of sewage that overflows in Baltimore within less than five years. The agreement is a modification to a 2002 consent decree between the Maryland Department of the Environment, the U.S. Environmental Protection...
What Are the Real Issues With Minority Contracting?
Governing magazine, a prestigious nonpartisan publication that covers state and local government issues, just published in its April 2016 issue a critical article that indicates that in some parts of the country, programs intended to help women- and minority-owned contractors are failing to do so successfully and that often, these contracts actually benefit nonminority companies....
A Compliance Checklist for Federal Contractors — Part 1
We may not often think of them this way, but government contractors are perhaps the most heavily regulated sector of our economy. Any company that wishes to work steadily in the federal contracting field needs to be aware of dozens of statutes that govern its behavior. In fact, it will take more than one...
Plans Change: How Government Contractors Can Avoid a ‘Bait and Switch’
By Taimur Rabbani Government contracts are a major source of revenue for many companies. However, there are inherent risks throughout the contracting process, all the way from bid submission through the completion of a project. A recent GAO bid protest decision helps illustrate one concern for companies early in the contracting process. According to the...
Prospective Contractors and Subcontractors: Be Aware of TINA
By Taimur Rabbani Is your business pursuing a U.S. government contract, or seeking to subcontract for a U.S. government contractor? There are several legal and regulatory schemes that you should be aware of that are relevant to this process. Among the most significant of them are the regulations implementing the Truth in Negotiations Act (TINA)....
No, the Government Contract Preference Programs are Not Broken
By Carol L. O’Riordan We believe that the various government contract programs that give a degree of preference to disadvantaged groups are a good idea, and we work hard to put our clients in a position to benefit from them, but we also recognize that they can be abused. Two years ago, we wrote in...
Employers Beware: D.C. Beefs Up Enforcement of Wage Laws
By Anthony Marchese Last year, the District of Columbia amended its Wage Theft Prevention Act, as well as other local labor laws that apply to companies with workers in the District. The stated purpose of the changes, which took effect in February 2015, is to increase the remedies, fines, and administrative penalties and to beef...
D.C. Making Changes to Its Small Business Preference Rules
On February 26, 2015, the District of Columbia’s Department of State and Local Business Development (DSLBD) made an announcement requesting public comments on recent changes made last fall to the D.C. local law concerning contract preferences for small businesses and other “Certified Business Enterprises” (CBEs). These changes were made by the Small and Certified Business...
SBA Changes Contract Qualification Rules for Small Businesses
As we noted in an earlier blog post this month, the Small Business Administration has released a proposed rule that would affect, in several ways, the operation of several special business preference programs for federal contracts. These include the 8(a) program for disadvantaged small businesses, the HUBZone program for businesses in historically underutilized business zones, and...