General Services Administration
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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 -
The Government Accountability Office denied the sixth and final protest of the OS3 strategic sourcing contract awards. GSA expects the contract to save the government $90 million a year.
December 08, 2014 -
Office of Federal Procurement Policy administrator Anne Rung has released a memo detailing a road map to create a new model for federal contracting. The administration will expand the concept of category management across the government, while also developing a cadre of IT acquisition experts and revamping the government's relationship with its vendors.
December 04, 2014 -
Federal agency inspectors general are submitting annual reports to meet the requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act. But your agency's networks may not actually be more secure because of that compliance, and those reports. Dave McClure is chief strategist of the Veris Group and former associate administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies at the General Services Administration. He also performed IT oversight at the Government Accountability Office. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he explained whether FISMA compliance for cybersecurity is counter intuitive.
December 03, 2014 -
The General Services Administration isn't taking advantage of two key opportunities that could make a big difference on the quality of its Schedules program. That's according to Roger Waldron -- he's president of the Coalition for Government Procurement. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he explained the two opportunities GSA's missing out on.
December 02, 2014 -
Cybersecurity within the Commerce Department has traditionally been overseen and managed by its 14 individual bureaus. Those agencies will still operate their own IT systems, but a new Commercewide oversight center will aggregate all information about the department's vulnerabilities into a single dashboard to be used by senior management.
December 01, 2014 -
The Federal Risk Authorization and Management Program will send a draft baseline standard for FISMA high systems around the government for comment in the next month. Matt Goodrich, the acting director of the FedRAMP program, said the high-impact baseline would apply only to non-classified technology systems as characterized under the Federal Information Security Management Act.
November 28, 2014 -
In writing a new tipsheet for agencies about engaging the public, the White House is practicing what it's preaching.
November 26, 2014 -
Agencies spend more and more each year on professional services. Now the General Services Administration is hatching a plan to round up all of the professional services contractors and herd them into one big multiple award schedule. It'll be called the Professional Services Schedule. Miguel Garrido, a quantitative analyst with Bloomberg Government, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to explain the impetus for the move, how it will work, and who the new schedule will benefit.
November 26, 2014 -
The U.S. Digital Service team is working with VA and other agencies to hire and train employees to apply the agile development approach to projects. Mikey Dickerson, USDS director, said the goal is two-fold: to create lasting agile development capacity in agencies and to ensure agencies think about citizens' needs first and foremost.
November 25, 2014 -
The General Services Administration is tightening up its Integrated Technology Service, the organization that manages all of the agency's IT contracts. The news comes on the heels of GSA's plans to consolidate some of its largest professional services contracts, too. Larry Allen is president of Allen Federal Business Partners and author of the Week Ahead newsletter. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he said all of this consolidation feels like déjà vu all over again.
November 20, 2014 -
Commissioner Norman Dong sees the Public Buildings Services' role as helping other agencies cut administrative costs and creating more collaborative places to work.
November 19, 2014 -
Top challenges for the Department of Health and Human Services are out from the HHS Office of Inspector General. Ten management and performance challenges are on the list, along with recommendations from the IG's office. Dan Levinson is the HHS Inspector General -- he joined Brian Miller of Navigant and former IG at the General Services Administration -- on In Depth with Francis Rose to break down the list.
November 18, 2014 -
The Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation will change the way it provides public feeds of procurement data on Nov. 21. The General Services Administration, which runs FPDS-NG, said the public ATOM feeds will be updated by masking select data elements, specifically company's DUNS number.
November 17, 2014 -
The Obama administration has been trying to measure and benchmark the costs and best practices of back-office functions that all agencies do. The Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration say it's the first step toward long-term and meaningful improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. Their efforts are starting to impress even skeptical agency managers. Federal News Radio's Executive Editor Jason Miller joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to discuss how some agencies are doing an about face when it comes to understanding the value of this benchmarking initiative.
November 14, 2014