GAO protest success

Contractors who protested a procurement action to the Government Accountability Office had a 13% chance of prevailing in fiscal 2014, according to the GAO’s annual report on such protests.

That was down from 18% the previous year.

The most prevalent reasons GAO gave for upholding a protest were agency failure to follow the evaluation criteria, “flawed selection decision,” “unreasonable technical evaluation” and “unequal treatment.”

The GAO received 2,351 protests and adjudicated 2,458 protests during the fiscal year.

More information:GAO report http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/667024.pdf

SDVOSBs like SEWP

SEWP IV was the top contract vehicle for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs) from fiscal 2010-2013, delivering $1.8 billion to such firms during that period, according to a study by Jennifer Sakole, principal analyst at Deltek.

More than half of those purchases were from the Veterans Affairs Department.

Also in the Top Five for SDVOSBs during the period were GSA Schedule 70, $1.76 billion; VA’s Transformation Twenty One Total Technology (T4), $1.38 billion; VA VETS contract, $878 million; and Navy & Marine Corp’s SeaPort-e contract, $855 million, Sakole said.

More information: Sakole report http://goo.gl/bDV2V4

Fears over VCs in SBIR

Allowing venture capital-owned firms to compete for Small Business Innovation Research awards at two federal agencies has not had a dramatic negative impact as was feared by some small business owners.

According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, the two agencies awarded only $8 million in SBIR awards to VC-owned firms in the last two fiscal years.

That was less than 1% of the SBIR awards for those agencies.

More information: GAO report http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/667098.pdf

GAO decision hits “Rule of Two”

New chair for House small biz

Federal budget CR expires on Dec. 11

Mailed in your bid?

VA cancels CVE mgmt. contract

Column: Take Time for a Tune Up

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