SAM & The Excluded Parties List: What Does It Mean?

If you are new to the world of government contracting, you’ve probably done some research about the System for Award Management (SAM) database. This database includes all of the contractors approved to do business with the federal government, and it also contains a list of companies that aren’t allowed to bid on contracts. Here’s a quick look at the Excluded Parties List and how to ensure your business doesn’t appear on the list.

A few years ago, the government created a centralized database for government contracting. This is the System for Award Management or SAM. Before SAM, there were multiple databases, including the Central Contractor Registry (CCR), the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), the Federal Agency Registration (Fedreg) and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS). All of those are now merged into SAM, and while you may still hear people talk about CCR and ORCA, these no longer exist.

Government agencies use SAM to find potential contractors and to review information about contractors that have submitted bids. If you are marked as having “an active exclusion,” the agency cannot do business with you. There are several reasons why a company might be excluded from government contracting.

For instance, if you are an individual that has been barred from entering the United States for any reason, this would mean you cannot do business with the government or rather act as the Entity Administrator for a business that wishes to bid on government contracts. Along those same lines, if an entity has violated national security protocols, this also would cause that entity to become excluded.

Other reasons for being excluded might be an entity that has been convicted of tax fraud or even an entity that has student loan debt possibly could be excluded. Basically, if you owe the government money or have violated certain federal laws, this easily could result in exclusion, but anytime a government agency suspects that an entity or people within that entity have acted in an unethical manner, they might decide to push for your exclusion from receiving future government contracts.

While being excluded certainly is serious, it’s not the end of the matter. In some cases, the exclusion will only be temporary, and once the exclusion has expired, you will be eligible to apply to be reinstated and then you can begin to bid on contracts again. Of course, most companies or entities will never need to worry about the exclusions list, because they, no doubt, won’t engage in an unethical conduct.

The easiest way to avoid ending up with an “excluded” status is to ensure that all of your business practices align with current federal regulations. Read each bid carefully to ensure that your company can provide the services or products needed and that these are in compliance with federal regulations.

For most contractors, exclusions aren’t a big problem, but registration with the System for Award Management (SAM) can be a huge hassle. This is where we can help. If you’ve been struggling with your SAM registration and have become frustrated with the process, give us a call and hire us to handle these registration tasks for you. While it is free to sign up in the System for Award Management, SAM is not an easy system to use; especially if you have no experience with government contracting and government speak. We do charge for our registration services, but we can save you the 15 or more hours it might take to complete the registration process and we will ensure that everything was done correctly, so that you can gain approval as quickly as possible and start bidding on government contracts.