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 context on why the costs of unwelcome news from your lawyer are higher, generally speaking,...
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 grants. And, if you are irresponsible, the government may debar you. Definition of Responsible The...
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 comply with regulations it can literally be a national security incident, dependingon what happened. ...
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 cannot ask for a reduction in what it has to pay – it’s a fixed...
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 contract. A CNN report provided some scoop on why the feds have taken this stance. ...
