Consent to subcontracting. Sometimes the government has to accept the mediation of subcontracts. If a prime contractor has a government-approved purchasing system, the government`s prior consent is limited only to the subcontracting restrictions set by the CO in the « subcontracting » clause of the main contract. In the absence of such approval, consent is required to subcontract for reimbursement, time and materials, working time or letter contracts, and for non-tariffed shares under fixed-price contracts that exceed the simplified acquisition threshold (currently $100,000). For cost-type contracts, the contractor must notify the Agency before subcontracting with costs plus a fixed fee and a fixed-price contract that exceeds the dollar limits established by law. When granting consent, the CO must consider several aspects. For example, OCs cannot accept subcontracts that exceed certain minimum allowable costs or an agreement that requires the CO to negotiate directly with a subcontractor. Commercial subcontracting. The FAR expressed a strong preference for prime contractors and parent subcontractors to incorporate « commercial items » or « non-development items » as components of items delivered to the government. The prime contractor or higher-level contractor has the discretion to make this decision and is not obligated to include a particular FAR clause in its lower-level agreement, except for those required by the regulations covered by the « Subcontracts for Industrial Property and Commercial Components » clause in FAR 52.244-6. In the meantime, if you are an emergency contractor, you should work with your subcontractors to organize their books and records. You know, just in case. In order to maintain control over government agencies and ensure consistency in federal government procurement, Part 52 of the FAR includes many mandatory clauses that must be included in blue-chip government contracts under certain criteria.

(Editor`s note. We refer the interested reader to our issue of GCA DIGEST (Vol. 5, No. 4) for the fourth quarter of 2002, in which we provide a complete list of mandatory and recommended flows of FAR clauses identified by the Committee on Federal Subcontracting Section of the Public Law Group of the American Bar Association. You can call them at 1-800-285-2221 to get a copy of their publication at a cost of $45.) If the FAR allows the COs to include the clause in the main contract by reference, i.e. the quotation, title and date of the FAR as opposed to the whole text, the prime contractors must let the substance of the FAR clauses flow downwards and not simply take them by reference. 6. Subcontractors generally do not have the right to object, but a narrow exception is that they may recover the costs of preparing subcontracting tenders if the supervisor wins a protest. Effect of the default value of the subcontractor.

Under the standard « standard » clauses, the prime contractor is liable for additional costs of the new supply resulting from delays in the provision of goods or services, even if such failure is caused by the subcontractor. An exception is allowed if the non-performance is beyond the control of the customer or subcontractor due to the failure of the subcontractor and is neither culpable nor negligent. In the cases, it has been found that the illness or death of subcontractors` personnel is not excusable because the contractors must provide acceptable labour, but the prime contractors may be excused for subcontractor delays due to production difficulties that go beyond the current state of the art and were outside the consideration of the main parties in the award of the contract. In addition to any other existing registry review authority, the Government shall have the authority to review all records of the Contractor and its subcontractors to the extent necessary to ensure that the means available under this Agreement, including supplies and services, are not made available, directly or indirectly, any person or entity actively targeting the United States or coalition forces; who participate in an emergency operation in which members of the armed forces are actively participating. War. Right of protest of subcontractors. Since subcontracting agreements are essentially private matters between prime contractors and subcontractors, aggrieved subcontractors generally have few rights in a federal proceeding to challenge alleged violations of procurement rules prior to the award of the contract. The General Accounting Office is the usual forum for « protests » – a written objection by an interested party to an invitation or award if the objection alleges irregularities in the award of a contract.

Since an `interested party` is defined as `actual or potential tenderer or tenderer whose direct economic interest would be harmed by the award`, a subcontractor would not meet that definition. This exclusion of interested parties also applies to protest efforts in the U.S. Federal Claims Court and at the agency level, as the definition of interested party is the same. The GSA`s Federal Procurement Schedules are a unique contracting vehicle in federal procurement and affect some of the secondary relationships described here. The association in the MAS GSA program must be between two companies that have each signed GSA MAS contracts. In addition, subcontractors and suppliers are allowed in GSA`s schedules. Suppliers are simply disclosed on a supplier`s price quotes. DSS subcontractors are treated as subcontractors in more traditional federal procurements. Unlike association agreements in the context of GSA MAS, subcontractors do not need to have a GSA schedule, but are only allowed to provide supplies or services included in the GSA Contract of the Prime.

A secondary relationship that is unique to the GSA`s MAS regime is that of traders. Merchants are other organizations that do not have a GSA contract with the government, but can sell to the government outside of the Prime contract. There are a variety of rules that govern this relationship, but like the others mentioned in this section, it must be communicated to the government. The Tucker Act allows the U.S. Federal Claims Court to rule on any claim brought by or against a contractor under Section 10(a)(1) of the CDA, including a dispute over the termination of the contract. 28 U.S.C§ 1491(a)(2). However, subcontractors generally do not have the right to claim and recover contractual damages from the government under CDA, as they are generally not in contract freedom with the government. See Demodulation, Inc.c.

United States, 123 Fed. Cl. 98, 103 (2015) (citing United States v. Johnson Controls, Inc., 713 F.2d 1541, 1550 (Fed. Cir. 1983)); see also United States v. Blair, 321 U.S. 730, 737 (1944). Experience as a subcontractor.

If the application does not have restrictions on subcontracting, it is considerably possible to use subcontractors to improve the proposals, as the government can accept a proposal with large subcontracts and no supplier can be penalized solely for proposing subcontractors. Agencies may take due account of the experience of a proposed subcontractor in assessing the qualification of the prime contractor if the application allows the subcontractors to carry out the work concerned and if the call for tenders does not prohibit such evaluations. There is also no prohibition for more than one supplier proposing the same contractor. .