What Can CB&H’s Government Contractor Services Group Do For Your Business in 2010?
What Can CB&H’s Government Contractor Services Group Do For Your Business in 2010?
The previous decade was a tough one for all businesses, including contractors and subcontractors to the federal government. Unfortunately, successfully delivering innovative, world-class solutions for federal customers did not, and does not protect government contractors from being pilloried as under delivering for the soldiers and taxpayers we serve. Historic levels of incoherence, with regard to requirements definition and regulatory consistency, have significantly increased the cost of operating as a compliant contractor.
Today, it is essential that government contractors have access to best-in-class professional advice from experts possessed of the training and experience necessary to provide value-added and comprehensive regulatory compliance and proposal support.
Featured below are just some of the several initiatives that CB&H’s Government Contractor Services Group completed for our clients throughout 2009, in order to help them compete, succeed and thrive in this contracting environment.
* Given the current, zero-tolerance environment many contractors face when dealing with government contracting offices, contract administration is rising in ever-growing importance. We provided comprehensive contract administration solutions for many clients, including internal needs, as well as assistance dealing with Contracting Officers and Contracts Specialists.
* We succeeded in resolving many payment disputes related to compliant administration of prime and subcontracts to government customers. In so doing, we also discovered unrecognized efficiencies in client business practices, resulting in increased revenues and profits, cost savings, and additional cost recoveries – and sometimes all three!
* The Multiple Award Schedules offered by the General Services Administration (GSA Schedules) provide great opportunities for all types of companies to sell their products and services to federal customers. We succeeded in assisting our client’s realization of their strategic growth goals by getting them on the appropriate GSA Schedules and offering the necessary continuing compliance and management of the Schedules once they are awarded.
* Every day we get calls from contractors seeking guidance regarding the full range of issues associated with federal government customers, including the requirements of the FAR and its Supplements, the Small Business Administration’s government contracting programs, and the Recovery Act of 2009, to name just a few. We were available to respond to these needs 24/7 and found that becoming a trusted government contracting advisor allowed us to stay on top of current compliance issues.
* Given our experience sitting on the government side of the negotiating table performing proposal evaluations for Contracting Officers, we offered our clients corresponding services on the contractor side, to include RFP review and assessments, proposal cost volume development, and/or proposal color team reviews. We reviewed and suggested changes to a small contractor’s cost proposal, which resulted in the company being awarded its first cost-type contract.
* Even some mature businesses are struggling to deal with the oversight measures being inconsistently enforced on them by government auditors. We succeeded in taking a small contractor from a situation in which DCAA determined they had a non-compliant accounting system and lacked the financial capability to perform on a federal subcontract, through a DCAA revisit and into a situation where they are now DCAA-approved to be awarded cost-type prime Task Orders by the Navy.
* The importance of establishing expectations and clarifying the regulatory context in contractual agreements can be even greater for small contractors without the ability to fall back on other revenues if one major contract takes a turn for the worse. We provided an emerging small contractor with prime contractor liaison services which resulted in the client’s prime removing many onerous and administratively burdensome requirements from both the Teaming Agreement and Subcontract Agreement.
* Many professionals have unique and valuable solutions to offer federal customers, yet lack the specific acumen regarding the distinctive government contracting landscape to succeed in building a company within the current environment. We assisted a start-up contractor through the growing pains of developing budgets on which to base provisional rates and preparing for a steep growth curve the executive team is driving.
* Large contractors can also face serious pitfalls without the proper compliance structures in place. We performed a thorough contracts review of a large ($250 million) government contractor to evaluate the status of the contract management function and the degree of compliance with industry best practices.
* As the largest customer in the world, purchasing more than $500 billion worth of goods and services from contractors each year, the U.S. federal government occasionally sees fit to use its market power to make unusual demands on solutions providers. In one case, we developed a compliant response to a government auditor request that our client provide cost and pricing type information retroactively on a contract released two years before. In addition to the retroactive nature of the request, it was further complicated by the fact that it was made by an Audit Manager from a major federal government intelligence agency, whose approach can sometimes differ from that of DCAA. We succeeded in responding to the request and working with the Manager to ensure that she got what she needed, while leaving our client’s business (and profit margins) intact.
* A determination of purchasing system inadequacy eliminates a contractor’s right to buy what it wants when it wants and puts the decision into the hands of the government. CB&H performed several purchasing system reviews covering not only hardware or materials procurement but subcontract efforts in the anticipation of the government’s performance of a CPSR, and to ensure that the procurement process is being performed efficiently and effectively.
* With the implementation of DCAA’s audit pass-fail mentality, we were asked to perform business systems compliance reviews for a number of our clients. These reviews included: the accounting system (including compliance with the new ethics requirements); the billing system; the labor recording and distribution system; the client’s process for identifying and eliminating unallowable costs; and the system for handling other direct costs and indirect costs. Failure to have adequate business systems can result in the loss of a contractor’s ability to bid on and receive new business.
* Some of our clients have lost sizeable contracts due to not having an adequate Disclosure Statement at the time of proposal. We have prepared Cost Accounting Standards Board Disclosure Statements (CASB-DS-1) for three different clients, made presentations, and published articles on the importance of having an adequate Disclosure Statement in support of your accounting procedures and processes, whether you are CAS-covered or not.
* Contractors consider it a sin to leave money on the table during contract negotiation, but will not request monies due them during contract performance. Delays and changes in a contracts scope or period of performance cost money. We were instrumental in a contractor’s preparation of a request for equitable adjustment on a cost-type contract allowing them to recover more than $500,000 of cost and fee.
* In today’s economy and extremely competitive marketplace, contractors are becoming concerned with optimizing the recovery of their indirect costs. Throughout the past year, we had many clients ask us to review their indirect rate structure and cost allocation practices in the light of new proposals or in an effort to improve overall financial performance. The results of our reviews have made our clients more competitive and increased overall cost recovery.
* We were continually asked to prepare incurred cost submissions for our clients. We have prepared them in the formats required by both DCAA and NIH. These efforts not only provided our clients with a compliant calculation of their actual indirect rates, but also provided a good insight into their indirect cost allocation process and potential cost recovery optimization.
* We received calls on a daily basis from contractors seeking guidance in responding to DCAA positions of non-compliance with either FAR 31.2 or with the requirements of the Cost Accounting Standards. We were available to respond to those needs 24/7 and found that becoming a trusted government contracting advisor allowed us to stay on top of the most current compliance issues.
At Cherry, Bekaert & Holland, our first priority is to serve our clients. We strive to direct and assist our clients in the best possible way, and commit to continue to providing quality service in 2010. Contact a member of the CB&H Government Contractor Services Group today to learn more about what we can do to add value to your business in the year ahead.
