Who Am I? A philosophical question that people have asked themselves for centuries is, “Who am I?” A big question that arguably we spend our lives trying to answer but never really get there. A question that is closely related to “Who am I” that you may be asking of your business is, “Am I...
Today I had to deliver unwelcome news to a client – it is costly to do this. There are essentially two buckets of costs when a lawyer delivers unwelcome news: The cost of the lawyer’s time – borne by the client The cost of a broken heart – borne by the lawyer. Read on for...
Thoughts of suspension and debarment bring to my mind Bobby Darin’s song, Call Me Irresponsible: Call me irresponsible Yes I’m unreliable Why? Because acquisition regulations require federal government contractors to be “responsible” businesses and the Uniform Guidance regulations require the same of non-profits and other entities that are awarded federal government cooperative agreements and federal...
Defense contracting…not for the faint of heart for a number of reasons. Two that always jump to my mind: Defense contractors are on the front line of our national security, which if you think about it, it is sobering. ALL – THE – REGULATIONS. Combining these two means that if a defense contractor fails to...
Stating the obvious – fixed price contracts, in their essence, are when you agree to perform services or provide goods for a fixed price. Carrying this through – if cost of performance increases – the contractor cannot increase the price – it’s a fixed price contract. Similarly, if cost of performance goes down, the government...
The Story Federal Acquisition Regulations and Uniform Guidance regulations prohibit federal government agencies from purchasing certain Chinese telecommunications and video surveillance equipment. Regulations even prohibit the federal government from working with contractors who use banned Chinese telecommunications or video surveillance equipment – even if the contractor doesn’t use the equipment to perform the federal government...
The U.S. Government is not known for being agile or innovative. Its procurement processes and programs are complex with legal requirements that are difficult to identify, understand and follow. And, generally speaking, the Government has the reputation for not necessarily being interested in innovative ideas. So, many small, agile, innovative businesses don’t ever think about...
Given my practice area, people often ask me why people commit white-collar crimes. I ask myself this question; and, just as often, I ask myself how can I help my corporate clients mitigate the risks of committing a crime? Despite my lifelong quest to answer both these questions, I have no good answers. Unfortunately, the...
According to FAR Part 16, the Federal Government uses fixed-price contracts when it wants to place most of the risk and responsibility for performance on the contractor. This means that fixed-price contracts are generally not subject to being adjusted as a result of the contractor’s costs or profits increasing or decreasing in performance. As a...
There are times when companies that have Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting requirements AND that perform classified work for the U.S. federal government find themselves in a quandary because… The SEC requires companies to file financial reports in certain instances so the public has the information it needs to make decisions about investing in the...
