Victor Ferlise, Michael Ferlise and Wendy McCutcheon will be attending the upcoming National Veterans Small Business Engagement (NVSBE) in Minneapolis. NVSBE is the premier event for Veteran-Owned Small Businesses and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses to connect with Procurement Decision Makers, program specialists, and contracting experts from the federal and commercial marketplaces.
Monthly Archives: October 2016
GAO no longer has protest jurisdiction over civilian agency task order awards, at least for the time being.
Effective October 1st, task order “fair opportunity” awards by civilian agencies are not protestable, regardless of dollar value, except in very narrow circumstances. (i.e. if the task order is outside the scope of the underlying IDIQ, or exceeds its maximum ceiling or effective period. Those sort of challenges can still be made before the GAO or Court of Federal Claims.) The statute creating GAO jurisdiction over fair opportunity task order awards in excess of $10M by civilian agencies contains a “sunset” provision that causes the jurisdiction to expire after FY ’16. (The statute creating such jurisdiction for DoD agencies did NOT have that sunset provision, and accordingly their situation is unaffected.)
The FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (both the House and Senate versions) contains language that would reestablish GAO jurisdiction over such protests if they exceed $10M. However, until the Act is effective, contractors wishing to challenge such awards made by civilian agencies will have no formal recourse.