Contracting

  • The Department of Health and Human Services chose Verizon to provide data services under the Networx telecommunications contract.

    September 21, 2010
  • Pakistan Defense Minister Mukhtar said Pakistan does not want a war with India, but if India tried to impose a war behind the facade of a Kashmir dispute, then Pakistan would fully defend its territory. Mukhtar said India\'s concern over the presence of Chinese troops in Gilgit-Baltistan is incorrect. He said China is Pakistan\'s friend and has helped the country in tough times. He also said the Chinese troops were in no way interfering with Pakistan\'s sovereignty. Mukhtar\'s remarks sound a lot like an admission about the accuracy of the Indian accusations, implicitly confirming the presence of Chinese soldiers in far northern Pakistan.

    September 21, 2010
  • The GWAC is focused on providing health IT services along with other general technology functions. Vendors must have specific health IT capabilities to bid on the contract. NIH said a small business RFP of the contract will be issued soon.

    September 21, 2010
  • A proposed rule change by the Labor Department would give preference to contractors that hire disabled workers. All comments on the proposed change must be submitted by Tuesday.

    September 20, 2010
  • The Defense Intelligence Agency has signed a 523,482-square-foot lease at Boston Properties\'s Patriots Park in Reston, with plans to fill the entire two-tower property by 2013.

    September 20, 2010
  • A recent hearing by the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan took a look at whether Defense has made adequate plans and actual progress to improve the federal workforce that oversees billions of dollars in contracting activity. Former Congressman Chris Shays is the co-chairman of the Commission brings us up to speed.

    September 20, 2010
  • According to Japanese government sources, Japanese Prime Minister Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao likely will not meet on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in late September. This is a modestly significant development because such meetings are almost standard practice. China previously postponed a visit to Japan because of the maritime confrontation in which a Chinese fishing boat apparently deliberately rammed Japanese patrol boats. This latest development means that the fishing boat dispute continues to fester and escalate. It also reinforces the NightWatch assessment that the fishing boat incident is almost a strategic confrontation.

    September 20, 2010
  • On the heels of a number of management changed made official yesterday, Steve Kempf, the commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, has named Houston Taylor as the assistant commissioner for the Office of Acquisition Management.…

    September 17, 2010
  • What industry really thinks about the Pentagon\'s cost cutting plan from Stan Soloway of the Professional Services Council

    September 17, 2010
  • \"CIOs that are adopting desktop virtualization can be CIOs that can say \'yes\' to things; before they had to say \'no\' because there was no way to manage those devices.\"

    September 16, 2010
  • How sure are you that the contractors you\'re working with at your agency are handling sensitive information in the way that they should - or that you expect they will? John Needham is the Director of Acquisition and Sourcing Issues at GAO.

    September 16, 2010
  • A number of leadership changes at the General Services Administration. GSA Administrator Martha Johnson has announced that Gail Lovelace, who has served as the chief people officer for the General Services Administration, will be taking…

    September 16, 2010
  • The UN Food and Agriculture Organization called a meeting for September 24 to address the highest increase in food prices since 2008. That was the year of world-wide riots fueled by speculators and shortages. Wheat production is down from last year, but is still the third largest harvest on record. The problem leading to riots is usually not supply, but distribution and availability at reasonable cost. For countries as poor as Mozambique, even slight price increases make living impossible. Other countries at risk of disorders are China, Egypt, Pakistan, Senegal and Serbia. More food riots are unavoidable this fall.

    September 16, 2010
  • VA, SBA, EPA and HUD are the first to go through the review process and see dramatic changes. OMB controller Werfel said the goal for each agency is to invest only in top priorities, saving $1 billion a year by eliminating or reducing the size of agency modernization projects.

    September 16, 2010