Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Contractors attempt to get on the Presidential candidates’ radar

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More than in past election years, a top contractors group has been diving in to prepare for the coming presidential transition, in part with the release on June 9, 2016 of a new survey highlighting concerns over capabilities of the government’s acquisition workforce.

Professional Services Council - PSC“We are working with the Partnership for Public Service and other groups on a number of papers and a multi-pronged strategy” for meeting with the teams of the major presidential candidates, said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel of the 400-company Professional Services Council, at a panel at the ACQUIRE Conference & Expo in Washington, D.C.

Getting an audience with the candidates or staff isn’t easy, added David Berteau, the council’s president and CEO, “because candidates don’t want to be take away one ounce of energy from getting elected.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2016/06/contractors-eye-presidential-transition-continuity-acquisition/128984

See article about the Acquisition Policy Survey with link to survey results here: http://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/?p=9709

VA needs better oversight of major construction projects, IG tells House panel

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The Veterans Affairs Department used inaccurate milestones for several of its health care center construction projects and hasn’t properly tracked project costs, said Linda Halliday, VA assistant inspector general for audits and evaluations before a Nov. 20 House panel.

“VA needs better oversight, improved capital planning and stricter asset management to gain assurance that it can address construction and lease challenges more effectively,” Halliday said at the House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing.

As of August 2013, only four of seven leases that came under IG review for an Oct. 22 report (.pdf), had been awarded and no HCCs had been built, despite VA’s target completion date of June 2012, Halliday said in prepared testimony.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/va-needs-better-oversight-major-construction-projects-ig-tells-house-panel/2013-11-21

 

 

DoD acquisition heroes during Iraq, Afghanistan? Small biz, universities and DARPA

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You didn’t hear much about them during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but DARPA, small businesses, and universities were the people who most impressed retired Gen. Hoss Cartwright when he was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as he and the services scrambled to find weapons to give American troops a combat edge.

“DARPA was incredible to our ability to gain advantage. Small businesses and universities were hotbeds of innovation for us,”  Cartwright said during a panel at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on lessons learned from the last dozen years of war. He made no mention of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, or BAE Systems — or any of the other large defense companies.

What made them special? “Their willingness to take risks… made a huge difference and saved countless lives on the battlefield,” Cartwright said. And he said that in Afghanistan and (previously) Iraq, “[the] battlefield is not driven by platforms” — tanks, ships, planes — which take so long to design, build, and deploy.

Another avenue of innovation at the Pentagon sprang from the acquisition processes of Special Operations Command (SOCOM), which has the right to just buy things in small quantities if it really needs them.

Keep reading this article at: http://breakingdefense.com/2013/11/dod-acquisition-heroes-during-iraq-afghanistan-small-biz-and-darpa/

Contractors start to feel the shutdown pain

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As the government shutdown drags on, contractors both large and small are raising alarms about ripple effects on their workforces and cash flow that threaten to worsen if the budget stalemate continues.

The Aerospace Industries Association on Thursday called on Congress to accelerate the process toward a solution or risk private-sector furloughs and certification delays that could wreak havoc on schedules for aircraft delivery and space launches.

“A number of our member companies have notified us that if this shutdown continues — which is affecting all of the Defense Department’s functions involved in contracting – they will be forced to furlough tens of thousands of workers,” said AIA President and CEO Marion C. Blakey in a statement. “The most immediate concern is the absence of Defense Contract Management Agency inspectors…..required to audit and approve parts and operations throughout the manufacturing process for military products. The manufacturing process must stop if these inspections and certifications are not performed, choking off the flow of new equipment to our armed forces.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2013/10/contractors-start-feel-shutdown-pain/71356

Audit finds rampant trouble with women and minority contracting program

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Minnesota has failed for three years to meet federal requirements for a program designed to steer millions of dollars in state transportation projects to minority- and women-owned businesses.

The program has been so plagued by mismanagement and weak oversight that some firms were awarded multimillion dollar contracts for which they might not have otherwise qualified.

In one case, nearly $1.6 million for buying materials on the Union Depot project in St. Paul was funneled through a minority- or women-owned firm to a non-minority-owned contractor. In another case on the same project, nearly $2 million was improperly credited to a non-minority-owned firm.

The findings and others, included in an internal audit of the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, have led to a shake-up in the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Office of Civil Rights and may result in additional investigations.

“This is absolutely a wake-up call,” said state Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, chairman of the Transportation and Public Safety Committee. Given the gravity of the issues raised by MnDOT’s internal audit, Dibble said he may ask the Legislative Auditor’s Office to conduct its own independent review.

Transportation department officials said they are moving quickly to address the shortcomings cited in the audit of the DBE program.

“This is a high priority for Commissioner [Charles] Zelle and the agency. We need to ensure that all contractors have an opportunity to work on MnDOT projects,” MnDOT spokesman Kevin Gutknecht said in an e-mail. “MnDOT fully supports diversity and believes that a diverse workforce, internally and externally on MnDOT projects provides a stronger and better outcome and better projects.”

The 30-year-old DBE program has long been plagued with fraud and oversight problems at both the federal and state levels. In 2010 and 2011 alone, U.S. Department of Transportation fraud investigations led to $88 million in recoveries, restitutions and fines, along with 10 federal indictments and eight criminal convictions.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.startribune.com/local/east/224726392.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue 

AGC predicts more bundled contracts, cost overruns, litigation

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The federal government could lose approximately 270,000 employees, or about 13 percent of the federal workforce, if automatic budget cuts—called sequestration—occur, according to a recent industry group report. Because federal contract officers’ positions are not protected from those cuts, the possibility of agency hiring freezes and layoffs of such essential staff is a distinct possibility. If this happens, agencies could see increased litigation and cost overruns and contractors could see more bundled federal contracts.

Keep reading this article at: http://news.agc.org/2012/07/27/looming-budget-cuts-could-impact-federal-acquisition-workforce/

Move over, FAPIIS – POGO freshens up its contractor database

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The federal government’s largest contractors have paid $25.3 billion in fines and penalties for everything from A to Z: from improper accounting practices to selling the government defective Zylon body armor. These and more than 1,400 other misconduct instances can be found in the Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD), which has now been updated with fiscal year 2010′s top 100 ranking.  [Note: The FCMD is published by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), a nonprofit watchdog group.]

The top 100 features 7 new contractors, including international accounting firm Deloitte LLP, package delivery company United Parcel Service (UPS), and linguistic services provider Mission Essential Personnel. The FCMD now includes misconduct information on 160 of the federal government’s largest suppliers of goods and services.

The top 100 contractors received $276 billion in contracts last fiscal year,
accounting for slightly more than half of the $536 billion in contracts awarded
that year. As of today, these 100 contractors have accumulated 821 misconduct
instances. Thirty-eight of the top 100 have zero or one instance, a reminder
that misconduct need not be accepted as a cost of doing business with the
federal government.

As has occurred in the past, the USAspending.gov data on which the top 100 ranking is based
contains errors. Therefore, you will see double listings for Booz Allen
Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.

Among the instances you will find in the FCMD:

POGO’s FCMD complements the federal government’s contractor responsibility
database, the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System, or
FAPIIS. POGO was pleased to discover the recent addition of several new useful
features to FAPIIS, which is on its way to becoming an indispensable resource
that strengthens accountability over the more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money
spent each year on federal contracts and grants.

– Neil Gordon is a POGO Investigator.  Published Sept. 29, 2011 at http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2011/09/move-over-fapiis-pogo-freshens-up-its-contractor-misconduct-database.html.

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