RCGI-Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI) Challenges

Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI) play a key role in a government contractor’s ability to compete for work.  In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 9.504, contracting officers are responsible for evaluating OCI as early in the acquisition process as possible in an effort to avoid or mitigate conflicts that may otherwise be present in the acquisition. 

The Role of the Contracting Officer

A contracting officer’s OCI decision is like a responsibility determination.  While contracting officers are encouraged to mitigate OCI to the maximum extent possible, they can determine a company is ineligible for an award based on an OCI.  The contracting officer’s decision whether an OCI exists or can be mitigated greatly affects business opportunities.  In most cases, government contractors rarely challenge the OCI decision of the contracting officer.  Most commonly, an OCI protest occurs when a company is challenging the OCI potential of a selected awardee.  However, a recent GAO case focused on the Contracting Officer’s decision. 

Archimedes Global Inc. (Archimedes), B-415886.2, June 1, 2018

In this case, Archimedes proposed two incumbent employees as key personnel.  The two incumbent employees had access to competitively beneficial information.  The employees both signed affidavits stating that despite having the ability to, they did not access any competitively useful information to gain an advantage in the proposal.  In addition, both signed non-disclosure agreements.

The Department of Homeland Security found that even though the measures mentioned above were taken to gain confidence that competitive information was not obtained or utilized, the employees could have provided Archimedes with unequal access to non-public, competitively useful information.  The contracting officer stated that although there was no actual OCI, the appearance of an OCI was present.  Based on the appearance of OCI, Archimedes was determined ineligible for award.

Archimedes protested the contracting office’s decision of award ineligibility due to the appearance of an OCI, and the GAO found in favor of Archimedes.  GAO determined that the Government needed hard facts of an OCI to find a contractor ineligible for award based on OCI.  The appearance of OCI was not adequate basis to find Archimedes ineligible for award. 

What to Take Away from Archimedes

While contractors willingly challenge contract awards based on potential OCI, we rarely see contractors challenge the contracting officer’s decision on their own OCI position.  As a contractor, it is important to understand the contracting officer’s decision and the validity of the basis for a contracting officer’s decision.

Assistance with OCI Challenges

The team of experts at Redstone can provide training and advisory services to help your organization be prepared for winning a contract award. From our Government Contractor webinars to personalized consulting services, we have specialists to assist all sizes of businesses and every consulting need.

Redstone Government Consultants are a team of the most senior industry veterans and the brightest new talent in the industry. Many have held senior government positions including leadership roles in the DCAA. Our new talents bring significant accounting and software experience along with fresh perspectives, inspiration and energy to our team. Through our leadership and combined experience, we provide a unique perspective, bringing both government and contractor proficiencies to bear and ensuring rock-solid government compliance for our clients.

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Written by Redstone Team

About Redstone GCI

Redstone GCI is a consulting firm focused on fulfilling the needs of government contractors in all areas of compliance. With a singular mission to help contractors through the multiple layers of “red tape,” we allow contractors to focus on what they do best – support their mission with the U.S. Government. We are home to a group of consultants made up of GovCon industry professionals, CPAs, attorneys, and retired government audit and acquisition professionals.

Our focus and knowledge of audit and compliance functions administered by DCAA and DCMA will always be at the heart of what we do. However, for the past decade, we’ve strategically grown to support other areas of the government contractor back-office with that same level of focus and expertise. We’ve added expertise in contracts management, subcontract administration, proposal pricing, various software systems, HR and employment law, property administration, manufacturing, data analytics/reporting, Grant specialists, M&A, and many other areas. When we see a trend in the needs of contractors, we act to ensure we can provide the best expertise in the market to fulfill those needs.

One thing our clients can be certain of is that with the Redstone GCI Team in your corner, there is no problem too big and no issue too technical for our team to tackle.

Topics: Contracts & Subcontracts Administration