Tag: Federal Contracting

Imagine you are ready to hit the road after getting your first car. You have all the essentials, know all the safety tips, but you are missing the absolute most important thing you will need to actually drive. Your license! Without your license, you will not be able to do much out on the road, and you’re screwed if you get pulled over. Having a SAM Registration for your business is the number one most important part for federal contracting. Before you can get certifications and before you can get a capabilities statement, you need a SAM Registration.

What is SAM and Why Is It Important?

The SAM Registration is your license to federal government contracting. It is managed by the government’s System for Award Management (SAM) portal, where all businesses and federal agencies go to update and renew their SAM. The webpage SAM.gov is home to thousands of SAM Registration, even harboring its own list of federal contracts up for bidding. This is where prime contractors and agencies will go to ensure that your SAM is active. If your SAM is not active (i.e. expired), then you will not be able to participate in any federal contracting and you are at risk of not receiving payments on current contracts. 

In simpler terms, SAM is to ensure that your business is allowed to work with and receive payments from the federal government and/or its prime contractor (if you plan to be a  subcontractor). When you are going through the SAM Registration, you are asked lots of questions that answers are required for. A majority of them will be FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations) questions, which is a list of regulations set forth by the joint efforts of the DoD Department of Defense), GSA (General Services Administration), and NASA (National Air and Space Association). 

To ensure that you are able to do business with the federal government, your registration will go through two validations once submitted. The first being the IRS (Internal Revenue Services), which will match and approve your EIN and taxpayer name and address. This lets the federal government know that you are a company that does (or does not) pay taxes and has received your EIN or TIN (SSN, if you are sole proprietor). Next, the registration will enter the CAGE/DLA review, where it is revived by the CAGE department of the DLA (Defense Logistics Agency). Here, they will look for any discrepancies and may have additional questions based on your registration provided.

Maintaining and Renewing Your Registration

If your SAM Registration were to expire, you would not be able to participate in any federal contracting until the registration is renewed. The reason the registration expires is so you can ensure that your business information within SAM is up-to-date, as it gives you a chance to change any necessary fields. Most companies will not have much to change in their registration. However, if you do, this is the time to do so!

Expired registrations that are currently involved in a contract either as a prime or subcontractor will not receive payments on work until the registration is renewed. As SAM’s purpose also serves as federal contracting dollar review (tracking where it’s going, to who, and for what purpose), this is extremely important and can cause issues especially if you are in the middle of OR getting prepared for contract work. Additionally, if you do not renew in time, you are at risk of contract termination all together.

You also will want to check when your SAM Registration expires to avoid losing your competitive edge in the federal marketplace. If you lose track of your expiration date and are getting ready to bid on a highly competitive contract, you do NOT want to miss out on it because you allowed the registration lapse or expire.

Common Mistakes with SAM Registrations

Information in the Secretary of State

When registering in SAM, a lot of businesses make the same mistakes when going through the process. Making minor mistakes will cause the registration (both new and renewal) times to. take longer for review. You want to ensure that any documents and information with the IRS and your Secretary of State are correct and/or updated. During entity validation, SAM will pull information from the Secretary of State. This can cause issues during that entity validation process, especially if there is a difference in company address or the name itself. If there is a difference that needs to be corrected, you will be asked to upload applicable documentation to correct it in SAM before being able to proceed. You may need to update the information in the Secretary of State in order to make. changes in SAM, so do your due diligence with the the SoS.

Information from the IRS

SAM also will send the registration over to the IRS for review, ensuring your EIN and taxpayer name and address are labeled correctly. If they are not, you will need to reference your tax statement or documents from the IRS to double check your EIN and taxpayer name and address. If something is wrong or incorrect, you will need to take the time and fix it with the IRS first before proceeding with the registration in SAM.

NAICS Codes

You also want to ensure that you have the correct NAICS Codes listed on SAM. Your NAICS codes tell prime contractors and agencies what your companies provides as a good or service. Having the correct NAICS codes listed in SAM will ensure a fast procurement process for federal contracts.

General Information and FAR Questions

Ensuring that general information like your name, bank information, size metrics, and other fields are extremely important to ensuring an easy procurement process. If your bank information is wrong, you will not be properly paid by the government for the. contracting work. There is no validation process for the banking information so you will need to make sure you put the correct number, as the only the last four digits of the account and routing are available to see. Changing it or fixing the bank information can cause a major delay in the registration, possibly ending in needed to deactivate and delete the current registration and creating a whole new one.

With the FAR questions, answering honestly and correctly will ensure no issues with the registration, Any information that is incorrectly received may result in consequences and the registration may have to be renewed OR you may have to start the registration from the beginning all over again.

Getting Help with SAM

If you need assistance with your SAM Registration or have any questions about the process, do not hesitate to reach out to the FEDCON Help Desk at 1-855-233-3266. Our team is dedicated to ensuring that you get the contracts that you deserve and that you are well on your way to becoming a federal contractor. The SAM Registration process can be extremely tedious and time consuming, but so is the rest of the federal marketplace. Having a team by your side to help you may be what you need.

What is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)?

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is a U.S. law that was enacted in 1977 to prevent United States businesses to bribe foreign officials to gain business advantages. This is ensures that U.S. businesses cannot offer, pay, or promise to pay money or anything of value to foreign government officials (this includes political parties or candidates) for the purpose of influencing decisions to assist the business financially.

What does FCPA have to do with Federal Contracting?

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) directly impacts federal contracting by prohibiting U.S. companies, including federal contractors, from bribing foreign officials to secure an business competitive advantages. International contractors must make sure that they are in compliance with the FCPA in order to avoid criminal and civil penalties that could end in the debarment from federal contracts. The government often requires contractors to develop anti-corruption compliance programs and perform due diligence on foreign partners to avoid violations.

FCPA and Federal Contracting: Staying Compliant

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) plays a very important role in making sure that businesses that are involved in federal contracting are running their operations in a honorable and open manner especially when dealing with foreign officials. It is therefore important for contractors and vendors who are working with the U.S. government to have strict compliance measures in order to avoid violations that may have severe legal and financial consequences.

Key Compliance Strategies for Contractors and Vendors

Implement a Strong Compliance Program Establish

• Promote clear company policies and procedures that are in conformity with the FCPA.
• Ensure that compliance programs are checked regularly to reflect changes in laws and practices.

Conduct Due Diligence on Third Parties Check

• Ensure that subcontractors, vendors, and consultants also adhere and review that they are and remain compliant with FCPA.
• Make sure any and all agreements are in writing and include anti-corruption clauses.

Provide Employee Training

• Provide frequent training on FCPA compliance and ethical standards.
• Ensure your employees know the consequences of bribery and improper payments with federal contracting.

Monitor and Report Transactions

• Preserve the records and documentation of all the payments made, putting in place internal measures to prevent and detect all forms of suspicious activities.

Avoid Improper Payments and Gifts

• It is prohibited to offer or give a bribe, a kickback or a facilitation payment.
• To avoid such things, define strict policies for the provision or receipt of gifts, entertainment or hospitality.

Self-Reporting and Cooperation

• Allow for anonymous reporting of concerns by the employees. If you have any violations, you should investigate and prosecute and if there is anything to be raised to the authorities, raise it.

If the above compliance strategies are put into practice federal contractors and vendors will be well positioned to avoid legal pitfalls, act with ethical integrity and thus remain qualified to receive government contracts.

You want to guarantee that your business remains in FCPA compliance so you do not lose out on any federal contracting. If compliance is not met, the company will be barred from receiving and participating in future federal contracting, losing any access to current federal contracts.