Where Your Product Was Really Made: Buy American and the Trade Agreements Act
When you sell the government a product, you are certifying where it came from. The Buy American Act and the Trade Agreements Act set strict…
4 min read
From the TIKC Advisory Team · Topic
Compliance & Regulatory Alerts
Compliance and regulatory alerts for government contractors: CMMC and cybersecurity requirements, DFARS clauses, FAR changes, supply chain prohibitions, and enforcement trends. Stay ahead of the rules that govern federal contracts — with clear action steps for small business contractors from Team Integrity Knowledge Center.
202 published stories
More in Compliance & Regulatory Alerts
When Competitors Become Co-Conspirators: Bid Rigging and Collusion
A quiet word with a competitor about who wins which job feels like cooperation. It is a federal antitrust crime. Bid rigging and collusion carry…
4 min read
The Penalty That Can End Your Company: Suspension and Debarment
Suspension and debarment do not fine you, they switch off your ability to win federal work entirely. They turn on a judgment about whether you…
4 min read
The Gift That Became a Crime: Gratuities, Favors, and Bribery
A meal, a round of golf, a small gift to a government official can feel like ordinary relationship building. In federal contracting it can be…
4 min read
Hiring From the Other Side of the Table: The Revolving Door Rules
Hiring a former government official can bring priceless expertise, or a disqualifying conflict. The revolving door rules restrict what former officials may work on, and…
4 min read
The Information You Are Not Allowed to Have: The Procurement Integrity Act
The Procurement Integrity Act polices the information that flows around a competition: bid and proposal data, source-selection information, and the job offers that can quietly…
4 min read
BREAKINGFederal Contracting News
The Set-Aside That Was Performed by the Wrong Company. A $4.8 Million Lesson.
A federal IT contractor and its owner agreed to pay $4.8 million after allegedly paying fees to 8(a) firms to win set-aside work, then doing…
5 min read
Who Pays for Your R&D: Independent Research and Development and Its Limits
Independent research and development can be a recoverable cost that funds your innovation, but only when it is genuinely independent and properly classified. Charge required…
4 min read
Teaming Today, Competing Tomorrow: The Information Wall You Have to Build
You team with a company on one bid and compete against it on the next. Without a real information wall, the sensitive data you shared…
4 min read
The Numbers That Report Your Progress: Earned Value and the Integrity It Demands
On big contracts, Earned Value Management is how the government sees whether you are on cost and on schedule. Massage those numbers to look healthy…
4 min read
The Cover-Up That Is Worse Than the Problem: Obstruction and Altering Records
When an audit or investigation looms, the instinct to clean up a file is a catastrophic one. Deleting an email or backdating a document can…
4 min read
Buying From Yourself: Related-Party Deals and the Self-Dealing Trap
Subcontracting to a company your owner, spouse, or affiliate controls can quietly inflate costs, defeat competition, and create a conflict of interest the government will…
4 min read