Acquisition Policy
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The Government Accountability Office is refining the concept of reasonable determination in government contracting. A recent bid protest decision added new complexity to this term and will impact the growing trend of mergers and acquisitions in the federal contractor community. Federal News Radio’s Executive Editor Jason Miller writes about GAO’s decision in this week's edition of Inside the Reporter’s Notebook. He joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss it.
September 09, 2015 -
Joanne Woytek, program manager for NASA SEWP V, joins host Roger Waldron to give us an update of the program, which is off to a fast start since being awarded in May. September 8, 2015
September 08, 2015 -
A request for information to update the IT schedule receives initial positive reviews, but modernizing the largest multiple award contract has never been easy.
September 08, 2015 -
GAO says contracting officers should make a new determination of responsibility if a company is sold while bidding on a contract.
September 08, 2015 -
GSA's office of integrated technology services and the Defense Information Systems Agency are in discussions to determine whether cloud is a "sufficiently defined" market to warrant a new multiple award contract of its own.
September 03, 2015 -
In lieu of a government shutdown, a continuing resolution can be an improvement opportunity for agency leaders and transition officers.
September 02, 2015 -
Jack Horan, Government Contracts Partner at Dentons LLP, joins host Roger Waldron to talk about recent developments under the Civil False Claims Act. September 1, 2015
August 31, 2015 -
Procurement protests get a bad rep for taking long to sort out minor details. GAO's Ralph White says that's far from true. He debunks some common procurement myths.
August 28, 2015 -
Veteran owned small businesses might have too many options to help them earn federal contracting opportunities. And the differences between the Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Concern and Vets First program are confusing. Marci Love Thomas is senior counsel at the General Counsel's government contracts practice and former senior attorney adviser at the Small Business Administration. She tells In Depth with Francis Rose about the differences between the two programs.
August 27, 2015 -
Congress doesn't come back to Washington until after the Labor Day holiday, but pretty much everyone watching the budget process thinks Congress will pass a continuing resolution of some kind. Larry Allen is the president of Allen Federal Business Partners and author of the Week Ahead newsletter. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that a CR isn't just bad for agencies — it's bad for contractors too.
August 27, 2015 -
GSA officials want feedback on new digital tools designed to help acquisition workers cut back on cost and time when choosing contracts.
August 27, 2015 -
The Department of Defense has been working on guidelines to help its contracting officers decide whether potential noncompetitive contracts are worth their advertised prices. The new guidelines address different ways agencies can tackle situations where they don't have information available to them.
August 26, 2015 -
The Acquisition Gateway at the General Services Administration is the culmination of a series of initiatives the administration and the agency have been focused on for a long time. Category management and hallways are just two of the initiatives rolled into the Acquisition Gateway. Laura Stanton is acting assistant commissioner for the Office of Strategy Management at the General Services Administration. She tells In Depth with Francis Rose the idea for the Acquisition Gateway sprung from talking to acquisition professionals in government.
August 25, 2015 -
The Coast Guard is seeing many of its projects growing into programs of record with acquisition plans and contracts that are both on schedule and on budget thanks to a new strategy.
August 25, 2015 -
The Defense Department is working on new training and guidance to help its contracting officers decide whether potential contracts are worth the price. The Government Accountability Office sampled 32 commercial contracts. DOD contracting officials asked for cost, pricing and other information to help them determine if contracts were reasonably priced for 12 of them. Bill Woods is director of acquisition and sourcing management issues at GAO. He said it's too early to say whether the Pentagon's training and guidance is working, but he tells In Depth with Francis Rose that contracting officers DO have some challenges.
August 24, 2015