Contractors with long memories may recall several past attempts to prohibit the government from doing business with companies either accused or adjudged of having committed labor, environmental, or other offenses, often not related to their performance on a government Read more

Contractors absolutely must know the environment in which they operate.  On the business side, this means knowing about acquisition cycle times, relationships, available budgets and other items that, successfully navigated, can make companies money.  On the compliance side this means understanding who may try to take some of that money away and how they Read more

Waiting for CMMC implementation to secure your network?  The Department of Defense recently reminded its contracting officers, and by extension contractors, that there are already requirements in place mandating secure standards for covered contractor information systems.  The memo was meant as a “reminder” to contracting officers, meaning that contractors can expect to see increased oversight in this area very soon.  One existing clause, Read more

In case you missed it, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has made complying with Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) filings a major focus area over the past several months.  A new portal has been created through which covered contractors are required to submit their plans for government review.  GSA sent out an Read more

Experienced contractors will often check with their contracting officer to ensure that some piece of work or business practice is acceptable.  The reasoning is that the CO’s word is the official word on a matter involving a government contract.  While this is a good general practice, more than one company has found itself in trouble, even though “the CO said it was ok.” There are multiple lessons contractors can learn from this.  One is that CO’s are people, Read more