Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Email scam netted $3 million worth of top-secret US military equipment

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A crew of international con artists allegedly convinced a US defense contractor to send them millions of dollars worth of sensitive military gear they weren’t even supposed to know existed, according to court documents obtained by Quartz.  Some of the items shipped to the fraudsters are not known to the public and are reportedly so top-secret, “even a photograph [is] considered controlled.”

The “highly sensitive communications interception equipment” was valued at $3.2 million, and requires a license to export out of the country.  The manufacturer is named in legal filings only as “Company B,” based in Maryland.  Members of the ring posed as a Navy contracting officer named “Daniel Drunz” to acquire the restricted technology.

Continue reading at:  Quartz

Latest Executive Order proposes major changes to Buy American rules

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For the third time since he entered the White House, President Trump has issued an Executive Order aimed at maximizing the Government’s procurement of American-made products.  While the two previous “Buy American” Orders were primarily aimed at enforcing existing Buy American rules, the latest Executive Order proposes significant changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rules on Buy American preferences—rules that have been in place for more than 60 years, and have guided how contractors manufacture products and source components to comply with the Buy American Act.  As a result, the impacts of this latest Order on government contractors subject to the Buy American Act and their existing supply chains could be significant.

The latest Executive Order on “Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials” comes on the heels of two prior Executive Orders aimed at enforcing the “Buy American” policy: EO 13788, “Buy American and Hire American” issued in January 2017, which directed federal agencies to strengthen enforcement of existing Buy American laws and close “loopholes” to maximize the procurement of American-made products in Federal procurements; and EO 13858, “Strengthening Buy-American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects,” issued in January 2019, which called for maximizing the procurement of American-made products in federally-funded infrastructure projects.  The President’s newest Order—billed by White House Director of Trade and Industrial Policy Peter Navarro as the President’s “third pillar to his Buy American platform”—goes further than merely enforcing existing rules, and instead calls for significant changes in two key aspects of the FAR rules on Buy American preferences.

Continue reading at:  Wiley Rein

House passes NDAA with federal employee amendments

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In a 220 to 197 vote that fell primarily on party lines, the House voted to pass the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that includes provisions to grant federal employees 12 weeks of paid family leave and to block the breakup of the Office of Personnel Management.

The legislation now must be reconciled with the Senate version of the same bill, which does not include the family leave or OPM amendments.

Continue reading at:  Federal Times

Section 809 chairman shares quick fixes for defense acquisition, no Congress needed

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Three reports and nearly 100 recommendations later, the Section 809 panel is set to wrap up July 14.  While many of the panel’s suggestions will take time and resources to enact, the chairman says there are several that could be implemented “with a stroke of a pen.”

The panel, created in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, looked deeper at ways the Defense Acquisition System could deliver capabilities to warfighters easier and quicker than near-pier competitors and non-state actors.  Dave Drabkin, panel chairman, said the Defense Department wasn’t doing the best job.

“We looked at various aspects of the system that needed to be fixed, from our perspective,” Drabkin said on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.  “One of our driving forces is we realized from the very beginning, or we all knew but we agreed, that the department doesn’t value speed, it doesn’t value time.  However long it takes, it takes.  So if it takes 18 months to buy a computer, it takes 18 months.  In the private sector, it doesn’t take that long.”

Aside from speeding up the process and maybe eliminating some of the extra layers needed to approve acquisitions, Drabkin said Ellen Lord, undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment, and her team could start with a few quick fixes.

Continue reading at:  Federal News Network

GSA offers first look at unique IDs to replace DUNS

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By December 2020, every organization—vendors, grantees, coops—doing business with federal agencies will have a new, 12-character identifier, as the government moves away from the proprietary DUNS number.

The DUNS, created by Dun & Bradstreet in 1962, has been the official entity verification number since it was codified in the Federal Acquisition Regulation in 1998.  The General Services Administration, which administers the program, opened the contract to new vendors last year.

GSA awarded the new contract in March to Ernst & Young, which will administer the new ID number, including managing the transition from Dun & Bradstreet.

As that transition work begins, GSA released the technical details of the new numbers and set a virtual meeting for July 25 for all interested parties to learn more.

Continue reading at:  Nextgov

Agencies meet small business contracting goals

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Agencies fulfilling their obligations for awarding contracts to small businesses broke a record with $120 billion in awards in fiscal 2018, the Small Business Administration announced on Tuesday.

Governmentwide for the sixth straight year, agencies met their goal of 25% for qualified small-business procurements, though fell short in the subgroups of women-owned businesses and Historically Underutilized Business Zones, or HUBZones.

The overall government rating was an A, and eight agencies received an A+ on the annual scorecard, SBA said.  The $120 billion total marked an increase of $15 billion over last year.

“Through these businesses, we strengthen the economy, and support the American workforce in the process,” said Acting Administrator Chris Pilkerton.  “The federal prime and subcontract awarded to small businesses in fiscal 2018 equate to more than one million jobs created.  Every contract that gets in the hands of a small business is a win-win for our nation, the entrepreneurs, their employees and the communities they support all across the country.”

Continue reading at:  GovExec

Federal government spent $1.7 billion on temporary help services in 2018

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The value of federal government contracts with temporary help service agencies has more than doubled under the Trump administration, according to a new report.

The study by the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit that advocates worker rights, found the government spent $1.7 billion on the contracts in 2018, five times the amount it spent in 2008.  The largest increase came in the past two years — from $812 million in 2016 to $1.7 billion in 2018.

“The Trump administration’s desire to privatize government-provided healthcare services is the largest factor driving increased use of temporary help services,” the report stated.  Such contracts cover traveling doctors and nurses, as well as contract dentists, pharmacists, therapists, social workers and medical billing staffers.

Continue reading at:  SIA

Commercial space companies have received $7.2 billion in government investment since 2000

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Early investments from a government agency, like NASA or the Air Force, can be a crucial step in the evolution of commercial space companies from scrappy startups to successful businesses.  That’s according to a new report from Space Angels, an investment firm focused on the space industry, which quantified how much money government agencies have invested in private aerospace firms over the last 18 years.

The analysis reveals just how important a role the government still plays in the private space industry.  It found that early public investment can sometimes be the difference between life and death for a company.  “I think it’s really important for people to recognize that it isn’t just the private sector deciding to do something,” Chad Anderson, CEO of Space Angels, tells The Verge.  “The government has played a key role in the development of entrepreneurial space companies.”

Continue reading at:  The Verge

CBP reportedly suspends subcontractor over cyberattack

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The US Customs and Border Protection has reportedly suspended a subcontractor following a “malicious cyberattack” in May that caused it to lose photos of travelers into and out of the country.  Perceptics, which makes license plate scanners and other surveillance equipment for CBP, has been suspended from contracting with the federal government, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

On June 12, CBP had confirmed that in violation of its policies, a subcontractor had “transferred copies of license plate images and traveler images collected by CBP to the subcontractor’s company network.”  The subcontractor’s network was then compromised by a cyberattack that affected under 100,000 people who entered and exited the US in a vehicle through several specific lanes at one land border during a 1.5-month period.

Continue reading at:  CNET News

GSA to transition from DUNS to new unique entity ID by Dec. 2020

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Starting in December 2020, the D-U-N-S® number will no longer be the official identifier for doing business with the U.S. Government.  GSA has published an update outlining how it plans to transition away from DUNS numbers to a new unique entity ID for government contractors by Dec. 2020.  On July 10, 2019, a notice published in the Federal Register indicates that GSA will be holding a public meeting regarding the transition on Thursday, July 25, 2019, starting at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), and ending no later than 2 p.m., EST.

Background

Currently, the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) utilizes the Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) ® nine-digit number as the unique identifier for entities throughout the federal awarding lifecycle, in SAM.gov, in other Integrated Award Environment (IAE) systems, on required forms, and in downstream government systems.

In 2016, the government revised both the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR) to remove any proprietary references to D&B and the DUNS® number as the unique entity identifier.  This allowed the government to decouple the required unique identifier from the supporting entity validation services.

As such, the U.S. government is moving to a new unique entity identifier for federal awards management, including, but not limited to, contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements, which will ultimately become the primary key to identify entities throughout the federal awarding lifecycle, in SAM.gov, other IAE systems, on required forms, and in downstream government systems.  The DUNS® number will be phased out as the entity identifier for entity record within SAM.

Through December 2020, IAE systems will be transitioning from the DUNS® number to a SAM-generated Unique Entity ID (UEI).  The standard for the new UEI was developed by an interagency working group.  This new entity identifier will be the authoritative identifier once the transition is complete.

More information can be found at gsa.gov/entityid.  Questions related to government implementation can be directed to entityvalidation@gsa.gov.  All media questions should be directed to the GSA Media Affairs at press@gsa.gov.

Public Meeting

The GSA public meeting will be conducted virtually where information on the awards management Unique Entity ID standard will be presented.  The public meeting will be held on Thursday, July 25, 2019, starting at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), and ending no later than 2 p.m., EST.

Procedures for Attendance

To register for the meeting please email entityvalidation@gsa.gov and the meeting information will be sent to you.

For more information please check out GSA’s Unique Entity Identifier Update and its recent notice in the Federal Register.

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