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The troubled federal contractor issued a release to try to separate myth from fact about its handling of security clearances.
The General Services Administration tells Federal News Radio it no longer believes it's necessary to close down its seven services schedules to new vendors while it puts together the consolidated professional services contracts. GSA is trying to make it easier for agencies to buy professional services and for vendors to sell their expertise.
Lawmaker asks National Security Director James Clapper to take action against the tax- delinquents and inform them that their potentially harmful financial behaviors put the nation's security at risk.
The Defense Department's acquisition chief outlined a series of changes intended to bolster competition for DoD contracts on Friday, lamenting the fact that the Pentagon has missed its competition goals every year since the goals were created.
The General Services Administration's Federal Acquisition Service will launch the first set of initiatives under its new category management approach, called hallways, in the next six weeks to cover office supplies, IT hardware and IT software. FAS Commissioner Tom Sharpe detailed the strategy to give customer agencies more data to make better acquisition decisions.
The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity award will converge the heterogeneous IT architectures aboard Navy ships - all 630 of them - into a single, standards based architecture.
It looks like congressional reform of how agencies buy technology won't happen. Industry experts hold little hope that any of the multiple bills attempting to fix long-standing problems with IT acquisition will pass before the end of the year. Federal News Radio's Executive Editor Jason Miller joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive with details on why all the pessimism. Read Jason's related article.
IT Alliance for Public Sector experts say there are two major reasons for their fleeting hope—one is the little time lawmakers have in Washington over the next four months; and second is the continued impasse among the Senate and House over the role of agency CIOs. ITAPS says a two-and-a-half month continuing resolution is likely and an omnibus spending bill for 2015 is gaining support.
When it comes to lowest price, technically acceptable policies, the Defense Department wants more than "acceptable" for its acquisition services. Even with looming sequestration forcing DoD to stretch financially, Frank Kendall, undersecretary of Defense acquisition, technology and logistics, said the department must incentivize contractors to provide better value as well as best prices.
Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, sent a letter to Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) back in June detailing how Congress can help DoD improve its acquisition outcomes. The list includes stopping sequestration, continued support of workforce training and simplifying rules and regulations.
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.
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.
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.
The Professional Services Council is the latest group to weigh in after members of Congress sent out the call for contributions to next year's likely round of acquisition reforms. PSC's reply rests largely on the idea that the executive branch can fix most of the current problems on its own.