At the start of every year, Onvia’s market research team compiles a look-ahead for the coming 12 months, as we did in this year’s 2018 State & Local Government Contracting Forecast.
Source: 4 Government Contracting Insights to Prepare You For Success in 2018 | Onvia
Federal contracting officers are moving towards more openness in procurement, which is a step forward in the cumbersome federal procurement process, according to Michael Fischetti, executive director of the National Contract Management Association.
Source: Tracking government “openness” changes in contracting
The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) rules governing the acquisition of commercial items should give those making relatively small purchases more choices, and small businesses more hope for getting a piece of the federal spending pie.
Source: New NDAA purchasing rules should benefit government shoppers, small business – FederalNewsRadio.com
The Government Accountability Office will report on best practices and successes agencies have had in upgrading their technology.
Source: IT Modernization and Reform to Get New Oversight in 2018
As the new calendar year gets underway, it’s a good time for federal contractors to review the rules for something they hope never happens. Sometimes it’s easy to forget the government can terminate any contract at any time for convenience. In that case it’s sorry Charlie. Given the policy changes the Trump administration is pursuing, who knows what contracts are in danger? Procurement attorney Joseph Petrillo of Petrillo and Powell offers his take on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
Source: Joseph Petrillo: Who knows what contracts are in danger?
In 2011, The Navy awarded a contract to Fluor Federal Solutions (Fluor) to provide base operations support services at four Navy installations in Florida. In 2015, Fluor submitted an REA (Request for Equitable Adjustment) proposal (actually a consolidated REA of previously submitted REAs). In 2016 (seven months later), the Navy denied Fluor’s REA stating that the submission was insufficient to reverse the Navy’s position on previously submitted REAs. Fluor then submitted the consolidated REA as a certified claim.
In 2017, Congress placed limits on the utilization of Lowest-Price Technically-Acceptable procurement procedures in Department of Defense acquisitions.
A former NSA contractor who allegedly stole a historic amount of classified data plans to plead guilty to one count on Jan. 22.
Source: Former NSA contractor plans guilty plea — Washington Technology
With the holidays over and the New Year just beginning, there are a few important items security leaders must check off their to do lists. For example, complying with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-171 regulations, which went into effect on Dec. 31.
Source: Five golden rules for contractors to meet new DoD cyber mandate
Readers of this blog will know that the GAO interprets its protest timeliness rules quite strictly. A recent GAO case provides us with an opportunity to review a nuanced piece of those timeliness rules. Specifically, how withdrawal of an agency-level protest affects the deadline to file a GAO protest, and what counts as a withdrawal of an agency-level protest versus an “initial adverse agency action.”
SOURCE: “Deemed Withdrawal” of Agency-Level Protest Sinks Subsequent GAO Protest
