Contracting

  • A Government Accountability Office probe of USASpending.gov, the government's awards website, found that while contracting information was generally correct, only 2-to-7 percent of awards listed on the site perfectly matched agency data. GAO recommended better record keeping policies be set by the Office of Management and Budget to avoid inconsistencies.

    August 04, 2014
  • For the first time since 2005, the government awarded at least 23 percent of all prime contracts to small businesses. The Small Business Administration reported Friday small firms received $83 billion out of a possible $355 billion in 2013.

    August 04, 2014
  • President Barack Obama signed an executive order Thursday creating yet another set of compliance requirements for more than 24,000 companies that work for the government. Vendors will have to certify they have not violated any of the 14 federal labor laws in order to win new contracts.

    August 01, 2014
  • The Army says the alternative and renewable energy industry should not look to the military as a giant source of investment capital for new technologies. But there are a few exceptions to that rule.

    August 01, 2014
  • Carolyn Watts Colvin, the nominee to be Social Security Administration commissioner, vowed to Senate lawmakers to soothe turbulent relations between the agency and its labor unions. Colvin also said she plans to tackle troubled IT systems that still run COBOL.

    August 01, 2014
  • Sonny Hashmi issued a memo requiring agency software developers to look at open source before they consider traditional commercial solutions.

    July 31, 2014
  • President Obama is renewing and expanding a policy that will let the government pay its contractors faster. Contractors will get to pay their subcontractors faster, too. The White House says QuickPay has generated more than a billion dollars for small businesses, freeing up their capital to invest and hire employees. For how this is playing out at the ground level, Tom Temin and Emily Kopp spoke with Necole Parker, principal and CEO of the Elocen Group, on the Federal Drive. She described how QuickPay has benefited her company.

    July 31, 2014
  • Service's latest strategy document sees a future in which it will need to be more flexible and adaptable, including in its acquisition and personnel policies and organizational structures.

    July 31, 2014
  • Sonny Hashmi, chief information officer at the General Services Administration, joins Federal News Radio for a free online chat to discuss everything from mobility to zero-based budgeting and collaboration, among other topics.

    July 31, 2014
  • After spending $1 billion on a failed border security fence project, the Homeland Security Department restarted the project a couple of years ago. But it didn't get far. A $145 million award for seven new surveillance towers has been halted thanks to a successful protest. Raytheon filed the protest against the winning bidder, EFW, an affiliate of the Israeli defense contractor Elbit. The Government Accountability Office sustained the protest. In this week's legal loop segment, Procurement Attorney Joe Petrillo joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to sort out the case.

    July 31, 2014
  • Federal workers to see as much as 50 percent less cubicle or office space as part of how agencies are reducing office space costs. Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) pressed GSA and others on their preparation to more efficiently deal with 100 million square feet of leased space that is scheduled to expire in the next five years.

    July 31, 2014
  • Improving acquisition compliance and ethics may involve less rulemaking and more culture shaping according to panelists at the National Contract Management Association's World Congress conference. At the conference, agency leaders discussed the need to streamline and pursue innovative approaches to federal acquisition policies.

    July 30, 2014
  • The Homeland Security Department's acquisition shop is in a far different place today than it was when Nick Nayak became the chief procurement officer in 2010. The acquisition team — and Nick himself — have won a number of recognitions for progress and excellence. Nick's last day at DHS was the first week of July. In this exit interview, Francis Rose asked him what he'd say to the contracting community about the future of acquisition on In Depth.

    July 30, 2014
  • President Barack Obama's nominee Anne Rung takes another step forward in becoming administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

    July 30, 2014