Acquisition

Green Purchasing Facts and Myths

Federal News Radio recently published a helpful article in which Houston Taylor, Assistant Commissioner for Acquisition Management at the GSA, identifies and dispels some common green purchasing myths. Taylor said that many people, “think the green purchasing requirements applies to all contracts for products and services — simply incorrect…The new FAR rule requires all suppliersRead… Read more »

Should government employees “cool-off” before entering the contracting world?

A senate hearing earlier this week focused on Intelligence Community contracting presented several interesting thoughts. Most notably, a bi-partisan panel agreed with a CIA policy which prevents government employees from leaving the agency and immediately accepting contract work. Retirees are exempted. The whole idea is to prevent the “poaching” of the CIA’s top talent, whoRead… Read more »

Study: Privatizing government doesn’t actually save money

The theory that the federal government should outsource its operations to private firms usually rests on a simple premise: It saves money. But why should we believe it saves money? Often the argument is made by pointing to salaries for public- and private-sector employees in comparable jobs and noting that the private-sector employees make less.Read… Read more »

Los Angeles agency moves forward with WiFi for Gold Line

Free WiFi on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (CA) Gold Line is a little closer. Last week the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CA) approved a contract with Xentrans to prepare design specifications and a request for proposals from vendors. According to The Eastsider LA, the process began withRead… Read more »

STARCOM 21 Resurfaces

Deltek Analyst Joanna Salini reports. The state of Illinois’ STARCOM 21 project that roared with controversy earlier this year has resurfaced once again. A lot of backlash resulted from STARCOM 21’s $114 million soul-source contract to Motorola, awarded in May, but that hasn’t stopped the project from expanding. Illinois recently decided to contract out radioRead… Read more »

Watery Labor Dept. Rule Leaves Question: Why?

The Labor Department likely wasn’t thinking of information technology contractors in issuing its new rule, “Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contracts.” But the IT community will feel its effects. The rule sets into regulation an Obama administration order from 2009 seeking to prevent line workers on a services contract from losing their jobs whenRead… Read more »

Wartime Contracting Can Be Improved With Simple Steps

The big theme emerging from the final report to Congress from the Commission on Wartime Contracting is how to stop the loss of billions and billions of contracting dollars. Are there simple steps to improving wartime contracting? FedInsider examines the report and its recommendations about how the problem can be solved. -> Read More http://www.fedinsider.com/2011/09/15/110906-3/

Proposed OGE rules would hit lobbyists and more political law links

WILEY REIN’S ELECTION LAW NEWS. This month’s Election Law News has interesting items on proposed rules from the Office of Government Ethics and Hawaii guidance on gifts, among other topics. MORE ON OGE PROPOSAL. The Hill. “A new regulation proposed this week by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) would prohibit all government employees fromRead… Read more »

Post Award Blues

There is a terrible misconception that once a vendor obtains a government contract money will somehow come rolling in… FALSE. The time consuming process of obtaining the contract is not the hard the work, it is the post award process. To generate revenue for your business you need to have a strategy prior to obtainingRead… Read more »