Working for your Uncle Sam

By Edmund S. Tijerina

ImageIf you want to do business with the federal government, be ready to fill out forms - lots of forms.

"Make sure you have a very long line of patience, there is a long list of paperwork and you have to document everything you do," said Craig Jorgensen of Waukesha-based Voss Jorgensen Schueler Co. Inc., which worked on a renovation of the federal courthouse in downtown Milwaukee. "The federal government has multitudes of people working on this project."

Luckily, federal officials point out, red tape has been digitized.

"It behooves contractors to be getting into the computer age," said Torana Robertson, supervisory contract specialist with the General Services Administration's Great Lakes office in Chicago. She says that the GSA is moving away from putting its listings and processes on paper and making sure they're posted online. It has become contractors' responsibility to locate the appropriate Web sites, she said.

A mountain of paper grows as contractors substantiate their compliance with the GSA's minority-hiring policies. With many of the minority-owned and women-owned firms already working on such high-profile projects such as Miller Park in Milwaukee, there weren't as many to fill the goals for the federal courthouse project, Jorgensen said.

"We didn't reach the goals, but they were very understanding," he said.

But even before you get to fill out lots of paperwork to comply with the terms of a contract, there's a lot of paperwork that you need to wade through even to get to that point. How do you know where to start? The big jobs will be advertised in The Daily Reporter's public notices and listed in the Bids Wanted section.

Contract Facts

A couple of little known items about federal contracts:

  • The federal government does not have to follow city building codes.

"It's not that we're going to put anything less than safe in there, but if they want to do something differently than how it is in the code, they can," said Craig Jorgenson of Voss Jorgenson Schueler Co. Inc.

  • The checks really do come from where everybody knows the government's money is stashed: Fort Knox, KY.
The General Services Administration also publishes a 50-page book, "Doing Business with GSA," that lists the different processes in working with the federal government.

Among the topics:

  • Finding contracting opportunities and how to market your services to the government
  • How the government structures contracts and the contract requirements
  • Bidding procedures and how to prepare bids
  • Negotiation procedures
  • Responsibilities and rights of contractors
  • Getting paid

Contractors also may contact the GSA's local offices. Their nearest office, in Chicago, may be reached at their Web site, or by phone, 312-353-5383. Of particular interest to contractors is a section of the site www.greatlakes.gsa.gov/bcs that covers many of the topics in the GSA's book, as well as a listing of federal bidding opportunities.

The publication of government business opportunities, Commerce Business Daily, is published six days a week. It lists proposed government procurements, subcontracting leads, sales of surplus property and overseas business opportunities.

For a subscription, write to the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. 20402. An Internet version, CBDNet, is available at cdbnet.gpo.gov , while an even more comprehensive site, the Electronic Posting System, allows contractors to download solicitations for bids directly from the government site.

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