The General Services Administration started down the path using the Technology Business Management (TBM) framework more than two years ago.
David Shive, the chief information officer for GSA, said he began with TBM for purely selfish reasons.
Source: How OMB is moving CIOs from cost center to value add – FederalNewsRadio.com
It is the Government’s policy to try to resolve all contractual issues by mutual agreement at the contracting officer’s level without litigation. Often times, it does not seem like this is the Government’s policy at all. There are a few contracting officers out there that fancy themselves as the supreme authority on contractual matters and rebuff any attempts at compromise or resolution. Likewise, there are contractors out there that view any questions or queries from Government officials as personal attacks on their character and integrity. When these two meet, there is little hope of resolution so contracting officers issue their final decision and contractors submit claims.
Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Contract Disputes – Briefly
The military services are not giving small businesses a fair shake when it comes to awarding contracts.
The Defense Department Inspector General Office unearthed some disturbing trends over the past few years for small business owners trying to do business with the military.
“We’ve done five different audits,” said Michael J. Roark, assistant inspector general for readiness and global operations at DoD IG, while testifying before the House Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce on May 17. “The consistent challenges contracting officials face is monitoring prime contractors’ compliance with individual subcontracting plans and determining why individual contractors with subcontracting plans did not meet their small business subcontracting goals.”
Source: Military not giving small business subcontractors a fair shake, DoD IG says – FederalNewsRadio.com
Washington Technology has launched its first podcast — Project 38 — to discuss the future of government contracting.
The idea is to look at the market and where it is headed between now and 2038. We are taking a long-term view of things and will be talking to a variety of industry leaders to explore how the market is changing and what the market might look like in 20 years.
Our first guest is Stan Soloway, founder and CEO of Celero Strategies and former president and CEO of the Professional Services Council.
Source: Project 38: Our podcast series on the future of government contracting — Washington Technology
A contractor’s late bid revision cost it an award, as seen in a GAO bid protest decision.
Source: Late Bid Revision Costs Bidder The Award – SmallGovCon
Contractors are required by contract to have codes of ethical conduct, sound internal controls in business systems used in Government contracting, and procedures to detect and prevent fraudulent activities. Segregation of duties and levels of approvals are controls that will help prevent fraud. However, conspiracies (two or more people acting in concert to override existing internal control systems) are much more difficult to detect and tend to go on for a long time.
Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Fraud Conspiracies are Hard to Detect
The Government filed a motion to dismiss a claim filed by Cooper/Ports America (CPA) with the ASBCA (Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals) because the company was not the contractor within the meaning of the Contract Disputes Act at the time the claim accrued.
Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Contractors Can File Claims Pertaining to Novated Contracts
With even DoD officials acknowledging cyber threats ranging from exfiltrating our top military secrets (“the terabyte of death” per DISA’s Director) to seizing control of SECDEF’s car to sinking Navy vessels with critical infrastructure attacks, both federal agencies and government contractors are in the pressure cooker. For contractors, bad cybersecurity not only opens the door to cyber espionage and privacy breaches followed by costly clean-up and lost trade secrets, but now – with the latest DoD guidance – may put critical contract awards at risk. Join us this Thursday, May 17, at 1:00 PM Eastern, as Crowell & Moring attorneys Paul Rosen, Evan Wolff, David Bodenheimer, and Michael Gruden lead a discussion highlighting recent developments impacting the volatile privacy and cybersecurity sector. Specific topics include:
Source: OOPS 2018 Preview: Contractors and Cybersecurity – Government Contracts Legal Forum
In the most recent report released by GovWin+Onvia, 10 Hotspots in Government Contracting for 2018, our SLED Market Analysis team studied data from our unmatched government market intelligence database. One of the key findings from that report revealed that state, local and education (SLED) government agencies are spending more money on funding pensions.
Source: More Government Bids and RFPs for Funding Pensions and Retirement Plans | GovWin+Onvia
DoD issued a final rule last week that makes contractors and subcontractors subject to approval, review and audit by DoD officials when identifying a contractor-approved supplier of electronic parts.
