Week of August 31, 2026
Ten seats on a Navy construction vehicle, newly set aside.
CLOSING WITHIN 48 HOURS OF PUBLICATION
THIS WEEK IN 8(a)
If you are teaming on any vehicle in this issue, work out how much of the award will leave your company before you sign anything.
SBA is auditing the 8(a) program and decertifying participants, and two recent False Claims Act settlements in the veteran-owned program went after pass-through arrangements, where the certified firm held the contract and somebody else did the work. Investigators are looking at corporate structure, teaming agreement terms, the actual division of labor, and how the profit is split. The test is what happens on the ground, whatever the org chart says.
The limits are specific and they are worth knowing exactly. On a services contract you may pay no more than 50% of what the government pays you to firms that are not similarly situated. General construction is 85%, specialty trade construction 75%, with materials excluded from the calculation.
The phrase carrying the weight is "similarly situated." Money paid to a subcontractor holding the same certification you do does not count against the cap. That distinction is the whole difference between a compliant team and a pass-through, and it is cheaper to get right before award than during an audit.
BY THE NUMBERS
A sole-source intent names one firm an agency plans to award without competition. It stays contestable until award. Sources sought and presolicitations come earlier still, before a solicitation exists, which is the window where a response can change whether the work becomes an 8(a) set-aside. The sources-sought figure covers only the sectors this digest tracks, not everything posted to SAM.gov.