News
TYSONS CORNER, VA.— Since the mid-1990s, US government agencies have had a statutory mandate to purchase commercial market products and services, so long as such so-called “commercial items” meet the agency’s minimum needs. As a result, government agencies purchase more than $100 billion of commercial items annually from companies that range from domestic small business concerns to Fortune 50 multi-nationals.
Veteran government contracts attorneys Gary Campbell and Matt Koehl recently shared important “rules of the road” for commercial market companies selling to US government agencies as part of a November 14th Womble Bond Dickinson webinar presentation, The specific contract compliance requirements addressed during this webinar included:
In the Nov. 14 Womble Bond Dickinson webinar Campbell and Koehl also discussed associated “red flags” which may suggest noncompliance, including:
- Country of origin laws (“Buy American”);
- Government cybersecurity requirements;
- Restrictions on providing gifts & gratuities to government employees;
- GSA schedule contracting;
- Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) / Affirmative Action issues;
- Service Contract Act minimum wage and fringe benefits; and
- Time-keeping rules for professional service employees.
The webinar also identified “red flag” indicators which suggest possible noncompliance with these requirements and provided real-life examples of the fines and penalties that companies have paid for such noncompliance. Campbell and Koehl also shared a compliance checklist to assist commercial item contractors to understand the applicability of these requirements to their companies.
Watch the full webinar here:
Gary Campbell has spent his entire career representing government contractors, both in private practice and as in-house counsel to a Fortune 100 aerospace and defense company. He regularly counsels his clients on a broad range of government contracts issues, including transactional matters, such as proposal responses and contract negotiations; ethics and compliance issues; internal investigations and government audits; mergers and acquisitions; protests and business disputes.
Matt Koehl is a veteran government contracts lawyer with more than 20 years of private law firm and senior in-house law department experience. He represents commercial and defense contractors across a broad range of industries, with a particular emphasis on matters relating to the Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) program.
