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Fairness in Procurement Alliance
669 Treehouse Circle Saint Augustine, FL 32095 904.347.4726 Phone 866.381.0908 Fax Raul@FPAportal.org Email
FPA
To: Agency: From: Subject:
ADVOCACY ALERT
Daniel O’Rourke
eMail: daniel.o'rourke@sba.gov
SBA Office of Inspector General (OIG) Phone: (202) 205-6648 Raul Espinosa
Date: October 19 , 2009
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Requesting Enforcement of Statutory cc. Congressional Small Business Committees Penalties for Size Misrepresentation SBA General Counsel for Procurement Law On behalf of our 34 trade group partners and their combined constituency of ten million small businesses, the Fairness in Procurement Alliance (FPA) is respectfully requesting for the SBA OIG to begin enforcing the statutory penalties for size misrepresentation for unlawfully taking contracts reserved for small business.
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FPA is also requesting the OIG to begin exploring new entrepreneurial solutions FPA has offered to – on the one hand – prevent large businesses from taking reserved contracts and - on the other - prevent the government from taking credit for small business contracts awarded to large businesses. On its Report 5-15, the SBA OIG reported that these two issues were “the biggest challenges facing the SBA,” yet the SBA OIG has done nothing to prosecute violators on Size Protests cases. In 2005, to help demonstrate that the Size Protest System did not work and needed strengthening, I authored a White Paper accounting through numerous examples how size protest did not deliver justice. The Paper, available on the link below, also offered several alternatives, which could. https://console.prweb.com/prfiles/2008/10/03/162468/TheSizeProtestSystemMustbeFixed.pdf To further emphasize how inefficient Size Protests continue to be, I will highlight the fact that it took three separate Size Protests to convince SBA that Unisen, Inc., was not a small business. On July 1st , 2009, SBA finally declared that Unisen, Inc. (# Protest 6-2009-071), was indeed a large business and thus ineligible to pursue small business contracts, but. . . it the decision did not deter Unisen from continuing to pursue reserved contracts. On October 8th, in order to bring this subject to a head, I filed yet another Size Protest against Unisen, Inc., (see accompanying communication.) But that’s not all, I also uncovered the fact that, in FY08, Federal Agencies unlawfully took credit for $3.1B worth of small business contracts awarded to 47 multi-billion dollar companies. This showed both that the abuses reported by the SBA OIG in 2005, have continued and that the SBA Report Card for FY2008 is wrong and misleading. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/9438670/Multi-Billion-Dollar-Firms-which-Took-31B-in-Reserved--Contracts-in-FY08 Section 16(d) of the Small Business Act, 15 USC 645(d), provides severe criminal penalties for knowingly misrepresenting the small business size statutes of a concern in connection with a procurement program. Also, pursuant to 13 CRF 121.1009(g)(5), Unisen, Inc., and most likely many of the reported 47 firms which received $3.1B in reserved contracts in FY08 also misrepresented their size. What Is the SBA OIG going to do anything about these reports? By way of a copy of this communication, I am asking both Congressional Small Business Committees, including the Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Reform to hold hearings on ways to strengthening the Size Protest System.
The mission of FPA is to bring fairness to public procurements so that small and disadvantaged businesses can both compete and prosper at the federal, state and local levels.
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FitNet Purchasing Alliance. Saint Augustine, FL 32095
SIZE PROTEST
To: Agency From:
Todd Novinger
email: todd.novinger@mountainhome.af.mil
Mountain Home AFB Phone: (208) 828-6477 Raul Espinosa
Date:
October 8th, 2009
Set Aside Sol. F3F3JF9134A001
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copies SBA Region VI; Size Standards; OIG; General Counsel; Office of Advocacy; Government Contracting; GSA, Air Force OSBDU; OIG; FPA
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Please accept this communication as a timely Size Protest from an interested party challenging the set aside award to Unisen, Inc., a large business. The protest involves Set-Aside Sol # F3F3JF9134A001. Unisen Inc., dba Star Trac is, by its own admission, as well as by SBA size standards, a ‘large business’ ineligible to receive contracts reserved for small businesses. Kindly forward the file to the SBA Region VI office and to the SBA OIG. For the record, Lindsey Helms at Mountain Home AFB Contracting Office informed me - on September 30th - of this award apparently made on August 13th. I had called to inquire about the status of my offer in connection with the award since I was an interested party, but had not been provided with the results as I had requested on my offer. Additionally, no award results had been posted on Fedbizopps as required by the FAR. We have included, for your information, a copy of the SBA Size determination (6-2009-071) confirming that Unisen, Inc., is NOT a small business. Frankly, Unisen, Inc., should have known better than to bid on this restricted procurement and accept a small business award AFTER the SBA size decision was made. The record will show that Unisen has continued to claim they are a small business on the CCR, on their ORCA database, and on their GSA Contract documentation (GS-07F-9162G) Section 16(d) of the Small Business Act, 15 USC 645(d), provides severe criminal penalties for knowingly misrepresenting the small business size statutes of a concern in connection with a procurement program. Also, pursuant to 13 CRF 121.1009(g)(5), Unisen, Inc., dba Star Trac was prohibited from bidding or receiving small business contracts after July 1st, 2009, yet they not only pursued Set-Aside Solicitation # F3F3JF9134A001, but accepted and performed on the small business contract issued to them. Additionally, the Air Force, unfairly took credit for this small business contract offered to a large business. By way of a copy of this communication, I am alerting the interest parties in the government, in Congress and on the Advocacy community of the situation requesting that the alleged violation be pursued to the fully extend of the law.