Contracting

  • Current and former officials at the General Services Administration will face a gauntlet of congressional hearings this week, following reports of excessive spending on a 2010 regional training conference and other programs. In an interview on In Depth with Francis Rose, former Virginia Congressman and Chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tom Davis shared his insights and what to look for during the hearings.

    April 15, 2012
  • Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has broadened the scope of Congress' probe into the GSA conference scandal, requesting a list of all overnight conferences attended by more than 50 employees at 23 federal agencies and departments.

    April 13, 2012
  • Internal emails from the General Services Administration show high-level agency officials were aware of a spending problem months before the scandal burst into public view. And as early as last summer, officials disagreed over how to reprimand the employees responsible for excessive spending at a 2010 regional training conference.

    April 13, 2012
  • VA will award a contract for human resources services to a private sector cloud provider later this year. GSA still is in the planning stages, while the Coast Guard is refreshing its HR system that has been in a private cloud since 2003. OMB listed HR systems as a possible function to move to a shared service provider in 2012.

    April 13, 2012
  • In 2008, Congress mandated the Pentagon to keep an inventory of service contracts and review it annually to make sure government work wasn't being improperly outsourced. But the Government Accountability Office, in a recent report, found a lack of guidance from the top has led to challenges in implementing that requirement.

    April 12, 2012
  • BCA does not specify how those cuts would be implemented. One interpretation is every program is cut by the same amount, which would be by about 13 percent. The other interpretation of the act is the overall spending would have to be reduced by 13 percent and the Pentagon could pick and choose the programs to cut, said Kevin Brancato, a defense analyst for Bloomberg Government.

    April 12, 2012
  • Allan Roth of CBS MoneyWatch and Federal Times reporters Andy Medici and Steve Losey join host Mike Causey on today's program. April 11, 2012

    April 11, 2012
  • The Hacker group Anonymous appears to be planning attacks on companies and elected officials that support certain cybersecurity legislation. So far, hackers have claimed credit for taking down the websites of Boeing, TechAmerica and USTelecom over the past few days.

    April 11, 2012
  • In a letter to employees, Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini and IG Brian Miller asked employees to be more vigilant to prevent waste, fraud and abuse. They said one of the most troubling aspects of the PBS conference incident was no one reported it or took action to stop it.

    April 11, 2012
  • Douglas Packard comes to the job from the Army's Mission and Installation Contracting Command in Fort Eustis, Va.

    April 11, 2012
  • The Special Forces Command gave Harris Corporation an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity award worth a potential $400 million. Special Forces will buy multi-band, multi-mission radios over a five-year period.

    April 11, 2012
  • Members of Congress and media watchdogs are thoroughly outraged over GSA's meltdown in the Nevada desert. But those guardians of public morality and safety are also delighted at the foul-up, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. And we love those YouTube videos too.

    April 11, 2012
  • McKenna Long & Aldridge Partner Jason Workmaster and David Dowd, partner at Mayer Brown will discuss what contractors can do to avoid liability issues. April 10, 2012

    April 10, 2012
  • Douglas Packard has been appointed to the Senior Executive Service for the Defense Department and will serve as the no. 2 official for procurement at the Defense Information Systems Agency.

    April 10, 2012