“Like any other offeror, a joint venture must be registered in the System for Award Management. And, as one joint venture recently learned the hard way, if a JV is not registered in SAM by the award date, the missing registration could prove costly.
The GAO’s bid protest decision in Continuity Global Solutions-Secure Me WLL Security, JV, B-419875 (Aug. 12, 2021), involved a State Department RFP for the provision of local guard services at the United States embassy in Bahrain. The RFP was issued under the procedures of FAR Part 15 (Contracting by Negotiation) and incorporated FAR 52.204-7 (System for Award Management). Award was to be made on a lowest-price, technically acceptable basis…”
“Continuity Global Solutions-Secure Me WLL Security JV submitted the lowest-priced proposal and was evaluated as technically acceptable. CGS-SM was not registered in SAM, however, so the agency contacted the joint venture to inquire whether it would be registered in SAM before award. CGS-SM explained that it had ‘initiated the SAM registration process and expected the registration to become active within two weeks and prior to award.’
Over the next several weeks, the agency checked SAM on four occasions. Each time, CGS-SM remained unregistered. After six weeks had passed, the agency awarded the contract to another offeror…”
“The GAO dismissed CGS-SM’s bid protest.
As the CGS-SM case demonstrates, a SAM profile doesn’t pop up instantaneously after the process is initiated. Instead, it can take a matter of weeks for the profile to become active. And FAR 52.204-7(a)(4) defines ‘registered in SAM’ to mean an active profile, not just a new profile in process…” Read the full article here.
Source: Reminder: Joint Ventures Must Be Registered in SAM – By Steven Koprince, September 7, 2021. SmallGovCon.
