It’s official: If you intend to pursue a federal contract, your business must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) before you submit a bid, proposal, or quotation. The new rule that makes this clear goes into effect on October 26, 2018.
Any wiggle room that may have existed in the past has been eliminated. SAM registration is now imperative if you are interested in federal contracting.
It used to be that SAM registration was required before a contract could be awarded. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) at Subpart 4.1102(a) made that clear. But that requirement was always a bit ambiguous since another provision of the FAR (Subpart 52.204-8(d)) said that bidders and proponents had to complete the representations and certifications in SAM as a condition of making their offer. As a matter of practical interpretation, most federal contracting officers simply made sure that an offeror’s SAM registration was complete before awarding the offeror a contract.
That latitude goes away on October 26, 2018. On that date, FAR Subpart 4.1102 is officially amended to require all entities (i.e., vendors, including joint ventures) to be registered in SAM at the time they submit an offer (a bid or proposal) or submit a quotation to a federal agency. In essence, vendors who are not registered in SAM are ineligible to submit offers or quotes – effective October 26, 2018.
Keep in mind that the SAM registration process can take time to complete. If you’re planning to compete for a federal contract in the future, you should complete your SAM registration as far in advance as possible. And, if you are already registered in SAM, remember that your SAM registration must be renewed at least annually – and renewed whenever any part of your registration needs to be updated.
If you need help with your company’s SAM registration, feel free to contact a Procurement Counselor with the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC). All of our contact information is listed by location at: https://gtpac.org/team-directory.
If you are located outside of the state of Georgia, you can find the procurement technical assistance center (PTAC) nearest you at: http://www.aptac-us.org/contracting-assistance.
Remember:There is never a fee to register in SAM as a government contractor. PTACs are available with no-cost help to get you through the process.
SAM is located at: https://sam.gov. But before beginning the SAM registration process, you must first take care of the following: