Effective Oct. 28, 2022, new procedures for verifying the parties to a joint venture through revised representations are required. The new procedures address the disconnect between the Small Business Administration (SBA) regulations implemented in October 2020 and those of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). The new and revised representations now require joint ventures to “enter the name and unique identifier of each party to the joint venture” when completing FAR 52.212-3 and/or 52.219-1.” (87 FR 58219).

However, the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) has not fully integrated the new representations yet, and the interface between SAM.gov and the SBA does not yet reflect the new representations.

To address this disconnect, the Principal Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting issued Class Deviation 2023-O0001 on Oct. 26, 2022. Department of Defense (DoD) contracting officers are now directed to include the following statement in all solicitations:

A small business joint venture offeror must submit, with its offer, the representation required in paragraph (c) of FAR solicitation provision 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Products and Commercial Services, and paragraph (c) of FAR solicitation provision 52.219-1, Small Business Program Representations, in accordance with 52.204-8(d) and 52.212-3(b) for the following categories:

(A) Small business;
(B) Service-disabled veteran-owned small business;
(C) Women-owned small business (WOSB) under the WOSB Program;
(D) Economically disadvantaged women-owned small business under the WOSB Program; or
(E) Historically underutilized business zone small business.

Offerors should read the solicitations carefully, and respond accordingly. They should be prepared to identify each party to a joint venture by name and unique identifier so that contracting officers can assess if they need to refer the joint venture to the SBA for size or socioeconomic status determination.