Contracts/Awards
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Ronald Youngs, the director of the Defense Contract Management Agency's cost and pricing center, and Eileen Larence, a director for Homeland Security and Justice Issues at the Government Accountability Office, are retiring after more than 65 years of combined federal service.
December 23, 2014 -
J. Robert Beyster (1924-2014) died Monday of natural causes. As the founder of SAIC and Leidos, Beyster believed in solving national security problems for the federal government at a fair price.
December 23, 2014 -
Government-issued contracts usually include pages of boilerplate. Contractors ignore it at their peril. Buried in all that fine print might be clauses that can burn you. Contracting legal expert Tim Sullivan has authored the blog, "10 Myths of Government Contracting." He's been exploring these myths on the Federal Dive with Tom Temin. Today, Sullivan tackles the 10th and final myth: Solicitations are filled with standard provisions that don't require careful reading. Sullivan says, to the contrary. Make sure someone combs over all that boilerplate.
December 23, 2014 -
Contracting expert Tim Sullivan says there is no excuse for not being aware of every provision in a government contract.
December 23, 2014 -
Business development and capture guru Carl Dickson discusses how contractors can improve their content marketing and business development efforts. December 22, 2014
December 22, 2014 -
The Justice Department settled two different cases with large contractors, both of which allegedly overcharged the agencies under the False Claims Act.
December 22, 2014 -
NASA SEWP Program Manager Joanne Woytek and Rob Coen, acting director the NIH's GWAC program will discuss a wide range of issues including interagency contracting and strategic sourcing. December 16, 2014
December 16, 2014 -
Government contracting can be a very useful tool for enhancing social and economic changes that Congress deems worthy. Contracting veteran Tim Sullivan has authored the blog, "10 Myths of Government Contracting." Sullivan has been exploring these myths on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Today Sullivan tackles the penultimate myth - number 9: Only the big guys succeed. That myth seems easy to debunk given the amount of small business contracting the federal government does ... but not everyone reads past the headline of the big awards.
December 16, 2014 -
A Veterans Affairs hospital construction project is shaping up to be a classic failure. Late and over-budget, the billion dollar Denver facility is only 62 percent complete. And now a court rules, the contractor could legally walk away from the whole thing. Judges for the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals say the VA has acted in bad faith. This mess has not escaped notice of the Government Accountability Office. David Wise, the director of physical infrastructure issues at GAO, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to explain more of what went wrong and whether it can be salvaged.
December 16, 2014 -
For cybersecurity, research and development and defense contracting, the Washington D.C. region carries a lot of weight. Now that Congress has passed a 2015 federal budget, lots of companies are looking to see how cyber, R&D and defense programs are likely to fare in the coming year. Jonathan Aberman has been looking into this. He's the managing director of Amplifier Ventures in Northern Virginia and the founder of the non-profit Tandem NSI, which brings new companies to the federal market. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive for some analysis.
December 16, 2014 -
Congress ranks small business right up there with motherhood and apple pie. Small businesses should take advantage of this fact, says contracting expert Tim Sullivan.
December 16, 2014 -
Mark Amtower hosts a roundtable discussion of content marketing, thought leadership, and trends in the federal market. December 15, 2014
December 15, 2014 -
USAID's Ebola Grand Challenge opened the door for a new set of vendors to offer their products and services to the government. Contractor Doug Burr wonders if this could be a new way for agencies to procure products.
December 15, 2014 -
An interesting bid protest decision flew under the radar that signals yet another challenge to FedBid, the reverse auction contractor.
December 15, 2014 -
When awarding a competitively-bid contract on past performance, you better make sure you look carefully at references the bidders provide. Immigration and Customs Enforcement found this out the hard way. It lost a protest when a services contractor complained ICE didn't do its due diligence on past performance. The Government Accountability Office agreed. In this week's Legal Loop Segment, procurement attorney Joe Petrillo of Petrillo and Powell tells Tom Temin on the Federal Drive about the lessons learned from the case.
December 11, 2014