USMC command did not monitor small biz subbing

Contracting officials at the Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, VA, did not hold large prime contractors accountable for meeting small business subcontracting goals, according to an audit by the Defense Department office of Inspector General.

The IG found that the accountability was lacking on 12 prime contracts with a total value of $222 million.

Specifically, the officials did not track compliance with small business subcontracting plans on four contracts, did not determine why primes were not meeting their subbing goals on two contracts, and awarded six contracts without subcontracting plans and without the required determination and approval, the audit said.

Overall, the audit reviewed a nonstatistical sample of 40 contracts, valued at $1.3 billion. That’s about half the command’s total contracts.

Despite those findings, the audit said contracting officials generally provided small businesses an adequate opportunity to compete for the contracts.

More information: http://goo.gl/xaT2RD

Bill would adjust size standards for small farmers

The small business size standard for agricultural enterprises is $750,000 in annual receipts and has not been updated in 15 years, according to Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-FL, chair of the House Small Business Committee’s subcommittee on agriculture, energy and trade.

Unlike other size standards, it was established by Congress and not through rulemaking by the Small Business Administration.

Now there is proposed legislation, HR3714, introduced by Rep. Mike Bost, R-IL, to cancel the $750,000 standard and to allow the SBA to update the size standard through its rulemaking.

Curbelo is supporting HR 3714.

“It seems to me that small farmers and ranchers have been neglected for too long. The size standard setting process for agricultural enterprises needs to be modernized,” Curbelo said in an opening statement at a Nov. 19 hearing on the bill.

More information: UMD report: http://goo.gl/SbR4nh

$30M small biz fraud

A Maryland couple fraudulently obtained over $30 million in government service contracts in a scheme also involving theft from employee benefit funds and evading taxes, officials said in a release.

Shaun Tucker of Keymar, MD, was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to forfeit $30 million and his residence, and to pay restitution of $1.6 million.

His wife, Joanne Tucker, also faces prison time and financial penalties. She will be sentenced Dec. 3.

More information: http://goo.gl/Wjyt6W

Shutdown said unlikely

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, told reporters that the calls from conservatives to defund Planned Parenthood are unlikely to lead to a government shutdown this month.

“I do not hear people shutting the government down over it right now,” McCarthy told reporters on Nov. 30, when asked about the Planned Parenthood funding dispute, according to The Hill. “I think security is becoming the top issue, especially [in] the last two weeks.”

More information: http://goo.gl/VhmBLU

MD couple guilty

Sandra Nixon, also known as “Lisa Hart,” of Silver Spring, MD, was sentenced to six months in prison for conspiring to defraud Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, the Defense Department announced.

Her husband, Mark Nixon, who was a civilian DOD employee, was sentenced to 42 months. Each was ordered to pay $750,000.

The couple set up a fraudulent robotics company and won more than $5 million in federal contracts through the conspiracy.

More information: http://goo.gl/axq7T9

8(a) contractor indicted

Anthony Nwagbara Daniels, also known as “Tony Daniels,” of Silver Spring, MD has been charged with fraudulently obtaining federal contracts. Daniels was the chief executive of Danison Inc., which was certified as an 8(a) Business Development Program business.

The Air Force says Daniels fraudulently obtained a $1.1 million demolition contract at Joint Base Andrews.

More information: http://goo.gl/lDv6Ja

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