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Department of Labor Issues New Health & Welfare Fringe Benefits Rates for Contracts Covered by the Service Contract Act

Client Alert | 1 min read | 08.08.17

On July 25, 2017, the Department of Labor issued its annual memorandum increasing the health and welfare fringe benefits rate (H&W rate) for contracts covered by the Service Contract Act from $4.27 per hour to $4.41 per hour, with corresponding increases from $1.78 per hour to $1.91 per hour for Hawaii. In a new measure, the DOL set the H&W rate for contracts covered by Executive Order 13706, Establishing Paid Sick Leave for Federal Contractors, at $4.13 per hour ($ 1.63 per hour in Hawaii) to account for the additional paid sick leave benefits covered contractors must provide under E.O. 13706. These new H&W rates must be included in all bids or other service contracts awarded after August 1, 2017, but the rates do not automatically apply to existing contracts until contracting agencies modify the contracts with an updated wage determination.

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Client Alert | 4 min read | 10.30.26

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: GAO Sustains Protest Where Agency Tried to Fix PIA Violation with a Second PIA Violation

Recent sustain decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Fluor Federal Solutions, LLC and Reliance Test & Technology send a clear message: when an agency tries to fix a Procurement Integrity Act (PIA) violation by committing a second one, the cure can be just as fatal as the disease. The cases involved the U.S. Air Force’s $1.8 billion procurement for O&M services at Elgin Air Force Base. During discussions, the Air Force inadvertently released a pricing overview slide with all offerors’ bottom-line evaluated costs to Reliance Test & Technology, which immediately notified the agency of the error. In response, the Air Force decided to level the playing field by providing the same information to all the other offerors in the procurement, stating, “[o]fferors may consider this disclosure in their [final proposal revision].”...