Contracting

  • Every major agency has an inspector general. Some are enthusiastic about sharing their office's work with the general public. Others prefer to let their reports speak for themselves. Brian Miller used to be an inspector general -- he's the former IG of the General Services Administration and now managing director at Navigant. He joined In Depth with Francis Rose for the beginning of an ongoing look into the world of inspectors general. He said there's an apprehension in some offices towards publicizing the work they do.

    July 01, 2014
  • InSysCo received a multi-year contract to help the tax agency move to a data-centric organization.

    July 01, 2014
  • Ford Heard, the Veterans Affairs associate deputy assistant secretary for Procurement Policy, Systems and Oversight, said his office will launch the acquisition corps and program management framework in the coming months to further professionalize the agency's acquisition workforce. A Federal News Radio survey of chief acquisition officers and other senior acquisition managers says workforce training and retention remain among their biggest priorities and challenges.

    July 01, 2014
  • Author John Jantsch will talk about his new book: "Duct Tape Selling: Think Like a Marketer-Sell Like a Superstar". June 30, 2014

    June 30, 2014
  • The House and Senate Armed Services Committees are trying to pay close attention to defense acquisition reform. Dave Wennergren is senior vice president of technology policy at the Professional Services Council and the Pentagon's former chief information officer. Beth McGrath is director of Deloitte Federal Practice and the Defense Department's former deputy chief management officer. They joined on In Depth with Francis Rose to discuss acquisition reform.

    June 30, 2014
  • The Department of Veterans Affairs is building a "special ops" team of acquisition experts. Ford Heard, the associate deputy assistant secretary for procurement policy, systems and oversight at the VA, joined Federal News Radio's Executive Editor Jason Miller and Francis Rose on In Depth. They discussed the latest results of Federal News Radio's Chief Acquisition Officer Survey.

    June 30, 2014
  • The Defense Department's request for its overseas contingency operations is about $20 billion less than initial estimates. Former Defense officials say realistic goals and managed expectations usually spelled success for weapons systems.

    June 30, 2014
  • Ford Heard, the Veterans Affairs Department's associate deputy assistant secretary for Procurement Policy, Systems and Oversight, joins Federal News Radio for an online chat on June 30.

    June 30, 2014
  • The Science and Technology Directorate issued a Broad Agency Announcement and four specific solicitations to get industry, academia and others thinking about how to improve cybersecurity. Over the next nine months, the agency will review white papers, proposals and make awards, with expectations of the development of commercial or open source projects in the next year or two.

    June 27, 2014
  • A series of management blunders and agency misbehavior in recent years ranging from the General Services Administration to the Veterans Affairs Department, haven't only put agency leaders in the hot seat — and sometimes out of work. They've also highlighted the importance of better risk-management planning by agencies, current and former federal officials told Federal News Radio as part of a special discussion on risk management.

    June 26, 2014
  • The five-year contract by the Office of Personnel Management allow high tech company Sevatec to provide Learning Management System support services.

    June 26, 2014
  • Training should not be about checking items off a list, says GSA Chief Learning Officer Mike Casey. It should be more like a "self-weeding garden."

    June 26, 2014
  • How much should contractors charge the government for labor for a project? Perhaps not surprisingly, it depends on the type of contract and what the government instructed the contractor to do. It gets murkier when subcontractors are involved. In a long running case between QinetiQ and the General Services Administration, GSA is asking for millions it says the company overcharged. The company sued, saying it was doing what the government asked for. In this week's Legal Loop, procurement attorney Joe Petrillo joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to sort out this highly-watched case.

    June 26, 2014
  • The nomination of Shaun Donovan to be director of the Office of Management and Budget as well as a variety of bills dealing with federal IT reform and cybersecurity updates crowded the docket of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee business meeting Wednesday.

    June 26, 2014