Design To Delivery Inc Blog

Last month, the Navy added 391 companies to its list of approved vendors on the Seaport-e contract vehicle, bringing the total to over 1300 companies. Agencies authorized to award contracts thru the Seaport-e vehicle include the Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Air Systems Command, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, Naval Supply Systems Command, Military Sealift Command, Office of Naval Research, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Strategic Systems Programs and the Marine Corps. The Navy estimates that over $5 Billion worth of contracts will be placed on Seaport-e next year.

The Navy opens this vehicle for new vendors each year in January. Let us know if you want help getting a Seaport-e contract next year. D2DInc helped 2 of this year's awardees with their proposals. Congratulations to them and to all other companies who were added to the contract.

The Treasury Department has raised the interest rate under the Prompt Payment Act from 5-1/4% to 5-3/4% for the period July 1 - December 31, 2007. This is the rate at which contractors are to be paid interest for payments made after 30 days from the government's receipt of the contractor's invoice.

We just saw this article on FCW.com saying that GSA cut 197 companies from the 8a STARS GWAC because they didn't meet their minimum sales threshold. The contract requires companies to report sales of at least $100,000 in the contract's first three years.

Many other GWACs, as well as GSA Schedules, require their holders to achieve a specific minimum amount of sales or face getting their contracts cancelled. If your company is in danger of having this happen, give us a call and we can help you identify opportunities to make some sales and keep your contract!

According to the Cherry Hill Courier Post, the American Small Business League said it's preparing to take the U.S. Small Business Administration to federal court to stop a new policy that allows the SBA to officially report government contracts to Fortune 1000 firms and other large businesses as small business awards for at least five more years.

Without the new policy, the SBA could no longer claim the federal government was reaching the minimum 23 percent small-business procurement goal required under current federal law, the league said.

Under the policy that went into effect June 30, the federal government can officially count federal contracts to hundreds of Fortune 1000 firms toward the government's 23 percent small-business procurement goal through the year 2012, the league said.

D2DInc supports this lawsuit since the government is currently over-reporting the contract dollars going to small businesses. We don't have a problem with large businesses keeping contracts they acquire when they buy small companies, even if those contracts were awarded as a SB set-aside. However, the agency shouldn't be allowed to count the dollars towards their SB contracting goal.

Molly Gimmel, D2DInc's co-founder and Executive Vice President, was featured in this article in the July 20 Washington Business Journal, discussing the proposed implementation of a program for government agencies to set-aside contracts specifically for women owned businesses. Let us know what you think.