By Hon. Jack Delman The Court of Federal Claims recently awarded an equitable adjustment (EA) to a contractor providing reimbursement of legal fees to successfully defend a False Claims Act (FCA) action. The Tolliver Group v. United States, No. 17-1763C, 1/22/20. The Facts In 2011 the Army awarded the contractor a firm fixed price level… Read more »
News & Articles
“Ok Boomer”- Cringy But Not Discrimination (Yet)
By Tyler Freiberger, Esq., Nearly half a century after passage of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the American workplace remains confused as to the line between an innocent joke and potential legal exposure. While jokes involving race at last have found their way to the “hard no” category, the debate over pop culture… Read more »
Current GSA Contractors Alert – Consolidation Mass Modification Rollout Begins
By Julia Coon, The General Services Administration (GSA) has begun issuing the mass modifications for Phase II of the Multiple Award Schedule consolidation. Current GSA contract holders will be receiving a mass modification for each contract updating the Special Item Numbers (SINs) and terms and conditions in accordance with the new consolidated Multiple Award… Read more »
Random Procurement Musings in the Dog Days of January
By William Weisberg, Esq., A dreary day in late January–too late for a “Predictions for the Coming year” blog post, and a little too early for “Emerging Trends in Procurement So Far This year.” So, a few thoughts, (or maybe predictions, anyway): The Amazon JEDI protest is going to come to a head sooner than… Read more »
DOL Breaks Records in Wage & Hour Enforcement: How Employers Can Protect Themselves in 2020
By Edward W. Bailey, Soon after the end of fiscal year 2019, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) reported that its Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”) had made record breaking recoveries against employers. In its year-end report, the DOL revealed that it collected a remarkable $322 million in back-wages owed to workers. WHD’s new administrator, Cheryl… Read more »
GAO Finds That DOD Faced Fraud and National Security Risks From Contracting in 2019
By Heather Mims, Esq. The Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) published a report on November 25, 2019 which recommended that the Department of Defense (“DOD”) should include an assessment of risks related to contractor ownership as part of its ongoing efforts to conduct fraud risk assessments. See Ongoing DOD Fraud Risk Assessment Efforts Should Include Contractor… Read more »
“Cold Take” Alert: There’s A Reason It’s Called “Working At Risk”
By David Warner, Last month, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims issued a decision underscoring the substantial risk contractors incur if they perform work not properly authorized by the appropriate government authority. The decision in Panther Brands, LLC v. United States, No. 16-1157C (Dec. 17, 2019) serves as a stark reminder that, even in the… Read more »
GSA Multiple Award Schedule Mass Modification Will Impact Pending and Current Schedule Holders – January 2020
By JW Butler On October 1, 2019 The General Services Administration (GSA) released the new Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) 47QSMD20R0001. GSA has tentatively scheduled the first mass modification refresh for the MAS Solicitation 47QSMD20R0001 for January 2020. The MAS will be updated to incorporate the below changes in Refresh #1: Implement the 2nd Interim… Read more »
FAR “Fake” News! FAR Amended to Require Reporting of Counterfeit Items
By Hon. Jack Delman Background On November 22, 2019, the DOD, GSA and NASA jointly issued a final FAR rule, effective December 23, 2019, amending the FAR to require contractors and subcontractors to report to the “Government – Industry Data Exchange Program” (GIDEP) certain counterfeit or suspected counterfeit parts as well as certain major or… Read more »
New DOJ Strike Force Aimed at Contractors is Likely Overhyped
By Tyler Freiberger, Esq., The Department of Justice recently announced the new Procurement Collusion Strike Force (“PCSF”), an inter-agency partnership that includes prosecutors from DOJ’s Antitrust Division and 13 U.S. attorneys’ offices, FBI investigators, and several agency Inspectors General offices. The stated goal of this partnership is “deterring, detecting, investigating and prosecuting antitrust crimes” in the government… Read more »
