Under the Contract Disputes Act (CDA), a contractor has 90 days to appeal a contracting officer’s final decision. The 90-day period in which to appeal a contracting officer’s decision to the Board is jurisdictional and may not be waived.
Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Deadline for Filing Appeal Could Be Extended
Roger Cohen is a columnist for the New York Times. He mostly writes about foreign policy, but his most-recent column strays from the beaten path to focus on Airbnb.
The column begins with an account of a recent conversation Cohen had with Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s founder and CEO. “He told me about trying to raise $150,000 in 2008 for his idea of a peer-to-peer home and room rental company. Everyone called him crazy,” Cohen writes. “They scoffed at the notion that people would trust one another enough to allow strangers into their homes. They derided the idea that those strangers would be nice enough, or honest enough, to respect properties.”
Source: Should federal contracting be more like Airbnb? — FCW
This week on Off the Shelf, Jeff Koses, senior procurement executive (SPE) at the General Services Administration (GSA), provides a timely update on GSA’s key policy, program and procurement initiatives.
The Department of Defense prefers to buy goods and services from the commercial marketplace to take advantage of new innovations and save on acquisition costs. However, DoD’s process for determining whether an item can be purchased commercially – and at a fair and reasonable price – is often long and challenging. This was GAO’s (Government Accountability Office) conclusion in a recent report (see Improved Information Sharing Could Help DOD Determine Whether Items Are Commercial and Reasonably Priced.
Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: DoD Needs to Enhance its Commercial Item Determination Process
Those responsible for the Federal Acquisition Regulations and their DoD supplement are working through mandates from the 2017 Defense Authorization Act. The law required lots of picky little changes but also some fairly sweeping ones. Procurement attorney Joseph Petrillo of Petrillo and Powell offered an update on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
Other Transaction Authorities are the latest buzzwords in federal contracting, and for good reason.
OTAs have become critical to rapid prototyping in the defense realm, in some cases cutting off years from the time warfighters wait for new systems and capabilities.
Source: OTAs: preserving the authority — Washington Technology
This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower interviews William Sanders, director of Technology Strategy and Business Development (SLED) for Oracle, and Mike Smoyer, president of the Digital Government Institute and producer of 930Gov.
Source: An analysis of the 2018 GovCon market – FederalNewsRadio.com
Research for our next WT Insider Report is progressing as we collect data on agency debriefings and bid protests.
We did a similar report two years ago, but a lot has happened since then and that convinces us it is time to revisit this topic.
Click here to take the survey and share your insights.
Source: Tell us how you really feel about protests, defriefings — Washington Technology
The Agriculture Department kicked off the much-anticipated phase two of the Centers of Excellence initiative by releasing six solicitations on July 30.
USDA and the General Services Administration, which is acting as the acquisition and technical support for the five areas, want a quick turnaround of responses by Aug. 10, and are planning for oral presentations for the cloud and infrastructure CoE between Aug. 20 and 31.
Source: USDA, GSA accelerating Centers of Excellence efforts by releasing 6 RFQs – FederalNewsRadio.com
FAR Part 44 lays out the case for Government reviews of contractor purchasing systems. The objective of a “Contractor Purchasing System Review” (CPSR) is to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness with which the contractor spends Government funds and complies with Government policy when purchasing and subcontracting. CPSRs provide the contracting officer a basis for granting, withholding, or withdrawing approval of a contractor’s purchasing system.
Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Government Disapprove’s Bechtel’s Purchasing System