Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Pentagon races to empty its coffers by month’s end

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The federal government is primed to spend as much as $300 billion in the final quarter of fiscal 2018 as agencies rush to obligate money appropriated by Congress before Sept. 30 or return it to the Treasury Department.

The spending spree is the product of the omnibus budget agreement signed six months late in March coupled with funding increases of $80 billion for defense and $63 billion for civilian agencies. The shortened time frame left procurement officials scrambling to find ways to spend the money.

Through August, defense and civilian agencies obligated some $300 billion in contracts. But to spend all the money appropriated to them by Congress, they may have to obligate well over $200 billion more in the final quarter of fiscal 2018, which ends in two weeks.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defenseone.com/politics/2018/09/unprecedented-government-spending-spree-picks-speed/151348

Boosting small business demands big ideas

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There are 28 million small businesses in America, and Defense Contract Management Agency’s small business team wants as many of them as possible to join the defense industrial base.

“Our mission is to provide small business support to our defense and government customers by ensuring subcontracting compliance and optimizing subcontracting opportunities,” said Tatia Evelyn-Bellamy, the director of DCMA’s Small Business Office and Small Business Compliance Center. “Our strategy is to actively assist customers in developing aggressive but reasonable subcontracting plans for their contractors and review contractor subcontracting program compliance.”

In line with the agency’s over-arching mission of warfighter support, Evelyn-Bellamy explained her team’s effort “in assisting military partners with pre-award and post-award subcontract management, and working with prime contractors to achieve subcontract success” helps foster business innovation and new technology, supports the warfighter, strengthens and sustains the military and economic industrial base, and promotes private enterprise.

It is a massive undertaking that the office’s name naturally undersells. Small businesses account for 54 percent of all U.S. sales and provide 55 percent of all U.S. jobs. To support this large group of American taxpayers, the agency’s small business team partners with other DCMA departments to create an environment of support.

“We maintain a collaborative relationship with senior leaders, program managers and the Contracts Directorate to ensure customers and contractors develop acquisition strategies to identify and receive quotes, bids, or proposals from small business vendors,” said Rosalyn Wiggin, a small business professional within the SBO. “Our joint effort educates customers on small business regulation requirements and the benefits of small businesses — particularly their responsiveness to requirements and agility to perform in a more cost-effective manner compared to current large business suppliers and service providers.”

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s categorization of “small” depends on the industry. It is then further defined by average number of employees over the past 12 months or average annual receipts over the past three years. Prospective contractors should visit the administration’s website for more information. As a first-glance qualification test, SBA guidelines maintain businesses must meet the following parameters to qualify for small-business government contracts:

  • Is organized for profit;
  • Has a place of business in the United States;
  • Operates primarily within the U.S. or makes a significant contribution to the U.S. economy through payment of taxes or use of American products, materials or labor;
  • Is independently owned and operated; and
  • Is not dominant in its field on a national basis.

DCMA’s collaborative effort begins once business owners determine they qualify for small-business government contracts. Many owners may find it difficult to navigate regulations, especially those new to government contracts. It is a challenging environment that can at times punish inexperience, but Evelyn-Bellamy said her team maintains passion in pursuit of its mission.

“We are committed to expanding the small business industrial base,” Evelyn-Bellamy said.

In support of that commitment, DCMA SBO works with its DoD and industry counterparts to include the Navy’s Office of Small Business Programs, local Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, the National 8(a) Association, the National Defense Industrial Association, veterans’ groups and many more.

In addition to supporting these organizations, the agency’s small business team conducts training sessions, when appropriate, for both contractor and government personnel on existing and emerging small business issues.

“We support many groups whose goals are to educate, inform and train small business personnel and our industry counterparts on current programs, processes and initiatives,” said Eric Claud, an SBO professional. “It really is all about increasing small business opportunities for prime contractors, and particularly subcontractors, across the Department of Defense and the federal government.”

All of these efforts can make a huge difference in the financial health and success of small and socio-economic disadvantaged businesses. According to the SBA, “most government agencies ‘set aside’ a percentage of their acquisitions for small and disadvantaged businesses. In some cases, these set-asides might consist of certain types of tasks on larger contracts. In other cases, entire contracts may be designated for small businesses.”

In other words, there are often government-contract opportunities available to small business owners. Whether owners are qualified and prepared to properly apply is another story. DCMA’s small business team hopes to ensure that answer is always yes.

This article was originally published in the 2017 DCMA INSIGHT magazine. You can read the original here: http://www.dcma.mil/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=rX-EzAgRqWU%3d&tabid=2273&portalid=31

Strict notification and disclosure requirements apply to defense contractors

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Businesses that seek to obtain and preserve contracts with the United States government, or to deal in certain enumerated defense articles and services, are subject to strict privacy regulations imposed by the U.S. government.

For those under contract (or subcontract) with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplements (DFARS) place stringent minimum security requirements and reporting obligations that must be met, otherwise a business could face financial penalties or termination of its contract.

Businesses that export and import defense articles or services and related technical data must comply with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which comprise approval, registration and records maintenance requirements. If a violation of ITAR is voluntarily reported, the penalties imposed by the U.S. Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) can be reduced.

Businesses subject to DFARS and ITAR should have a compliance program in place that includes an appropriate response to any security incident.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=d5fda8c7-68e4-4a1c-a4f5-7e387e51741d

Defense contractors to face new cost accounting oversight with creation of Defense Cost Accounting Standards Board

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Section 820 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (NDAA) establishes a new Defense Cost Accounting Standards Board (D-CASB) to oversee the application of the cost accounting standards (CAS) to defense contracts.

The amendments made by Section 820 shall take effect on October 1, 2018.

Originally issued between 1970 and 1980 by the Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB), the CAS are a series of accounting standards “designed to achieve uniformity and consistency” in the measurement of costs, the assignment of costs to cost accounting periods, and the allocation of costs to government contracts. 48 C.F.R. § 9901.302(b).

When first proposing what is now Section 820 of the NDAA, the Senate Armed Services Committee expressed its concern that the current CAS “favor incumbent defense contractors and limit competition by serving as a barrier to participation by non-traditional, small business, and commercial contractors.”

The Committee also viewed the CASB with disapproval, noting how the CASB does not currently have a quorum and has not met in over three years. Thus, the Committee doubted that “any credible reform will emanate out of [the CASB] in the future,” and opted to favor instead a new D-CASB that “will be better suited to meet national security needs.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.governmentcontractslawblog.com/2017/04/articles/department-of-defense/cost-accounting-standards-board/

Pentagon cyber shortfalls leave data at risk, key senators warn

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The Pentagon isn’t taking strong enough action to ensure that defense contractors are protecting highly technical but unclassified information from hacking, according to the top lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The Senate panel “has gathered information that suggests DoD is simply not doing enough to protect controlled, unclassified information,” the lawmakers, including ailing Republican Chairman John McCain and Jack Reed, the panel’s top Democrat, wrote to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in a previously undisclosed letter obtained by Bloomberg News.

“We are concerned with existing regulations and best practices” not being followed in matters such as contracts lacking appropriate cybersecurity clauses, computer networks operating without multifactor authentication for access, strong remote user policies and “insufficient third-party verification of compliance with cybersecurity standards,” the lawmakers wrote last month.

The vulnerability of U.S. systems to hacking has been highlighted in recent years by incidents including attacks on banks and energy infrastructure, as well as efforts to infiltrate state election systems in 2016 and this year. Earlier this year, five pipeline operators in the U.S. said their third-party electronic communications systems were shut down by hackers. The U.S. says the biggest foreign hacking threats come from Russia, China and Iran.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-23/pentagon-cyber-shortfalls-leave-data-at-risk-key-senators-warn

The Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) has produced a video, template and other resources designed to help contractors comply with the DoD/NIST cybersecurity rules.  These resources are available  at: http://gtpac.org/cybersecurity-training-video/

Reforms deliver wins for small businesses

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By some metrics, 2017 was a banner year for small business federal contractors. In May 2018, the Small Business Administration announced that, for the first time, the federal government exceeded $100 billion in prime contract awards to small businesses in fiscal year 2017.

Despite reaching this milestone, small business federal contracting still has room for improvement. For example, the SBA’s data also show that the percentage of total federal contracting dollars earned by small businesses declined for the second year in a row, falling to 23.8 percent from a historic high of 25.7 percent for fiscal year 2015.

Given these mixed results, is there a case for near-term optimism for the small business contracting community? Recent changes to federal caps on the use of micro-purchasing and simplified acquisition methods hold the promise of more agile acquisition, benefitting small businesses.

Indicative of the big changes forthcoming is a June 2018 White House Office of Management and Budget memo streamlining small business contractors’ access to federal contracting opportunities.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/7/27/reforms-deliver-wins-for-small-businesses

Defense agencies continue awarding contracts to suspended firms, report finds

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At least nine major contractors, working primarily for defense-related agencies, have benefited from waivers under a 1981 law that allows federal officials to override the firms’ suspensions for such misconduct as fraud, bribery and theft.

That’s according to a new study of 22 contract decisions released this week by Bloomberg Government. Using a Freedom of Information Act request filed with the General Services Administration, the publication also found that some agencies had failed to forward the required documentation on the waivers to GSA.

Such household names as IBM, BP and Boeing have benefited from the law, wrote reporter Sam Skolnik.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/contracting/2018/08/defense-agencies-continue-awarding-contracts-suspended-firms-report-finds/150424

Pentagon moves to cut procurement red tape in a bid to catch up with technology

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The defense acquisition bureaucracy inside the Pentagon is being downsized from 17 to eight offices. Senior civilian management positions are being pared down from 353 to 233, and military posts from 61 to 42. Contracts that required 83 checks and approvals will need just 22. Weapon systems that were centrally managed by the Pentagon are being turned over to the military services.

“We are rethinking how we do business,” Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, told reporters on July 27th.

With China and Russia threatening to out-innovate the United States in areas like advanced missiles, additive manufacturing, space weapons and artificial intelligence, the Pentagon is not just in a competition against adversaries but also in a race against itself.

How the Pentagon buys technology in the digital age has long been a cause for concern and is a major theme in the defense policy bill for fiscal year 2019 that a House-Senate conference passed last week. The bill includes dozens of provisions for “rapid innovation,” “rapid prototyping” and “rapid acquisition.”

Keep reading this article at: https://spacenews.com/pentagon-moves-to-cut-procurement-red-tape-in-a-bid-to-catch-up-with-technology/

Small business advocate wins $475,000 in legal fees after 4-year fight with federal government

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After four years and expenses of more than $700,000, a California-based small business advocate on Thursday won an agreement from the Justice and Defense departments to pay his legal fees for litigation forcing the government to release confidential contracting data.

Lloyd Chapman, the outspoken founder of the Petaluma-based American Small Business League, declared victory in what he called an “historic” move by Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to require the government to pay Chapman $475,000.

Neither Justice nor the Pentagon would comment on the case to Government Executive, but Chapman’s award was confirmed by his Washington attorney, Jon Cuneo of Cuneo, Gilbert & Laduca.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/contracting/2018/08/small-business-advocate-wins-475k-legal-fees-after-4-year-fight-government/150280/

NIST to host CUI information security workshop on Oct. 18th

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in coordination with the Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), will host a Workshop providing an overview of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) on October 18, 2018.

The agenda for the Workshop shows a full day of panels, including those addressing DoD’s “Safeguarding Covered Defense Information and Cyber Incident Reporting” Clause (DFARS Cyber Rule), overviews of NIST Special Publications (SPs) 800-171 and 800-171A, and Government expectations when evaluating contractor implementation of the 800-171 security controls.

In addition to the panels described in the agenda, the Workshop may provide an opportunity to address questions about DoD’s April 2018 draft guidance for the Department’s assessment of contractors’ System Security Plans (SSPs) and implementation of the security controls in NIST SP 800-171.

The NIST Workshop is open to all interested stakeholders and is free to attend. Registration for in-person attendance can be made at the NIST website and is required by October 11, 2018. NIST has stated that the Workshop also will be available via webcast.  Advanced registration is not required for the webcast.

More information available at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2018/07/cui-workshop/

See GTPAC’s video, template and other resources designed to help contractors comply with the DoD/NIST cybersecurity rules at: http://gtpac.org/cybersecurity-training-video/

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