Acquisition

Competition in Contracting Starts with the Program Office

http://www.fedinsider.com Non-competitive award of contracts continues to be a bugaboo of federal contracting. Like weeds, it is resistant to attempts at hacking it back. A recent look at contracts from several departments, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, found that although the level fluctuates, about a third of contract obligations are attributed to non-competitive contracts.Read… Read more »

Finally, A Name!

The Obama management agenda finally has a name: the Accountable Government Initiative. In a memo from President Obama to the 7,000 members of the senior executive service, he highlights six initiatives and their progress to date. He also says: “I have tasked our Chief Performance Officer, Jeff Zients, with leading the Accountable Government Initiative,. .Read… Read more »

New 2 Gov: What’s The Deal With Acquisition?

*********************************************************************** Not a Govloop Member? 30 Secs & Free to Join for Great Info & Perks *********************** Alright first off thank you guys for the responses to the last post. Your input and knowledge is totally what I’m looking for out of this. Writing this blog I kind of feel like a bad comedian whoRead… Read more »

Privacy News Highlights – August 15th

Some top privacy news Biometrics US – U.S. Scans Afghan Inmates for Biometric Database Wired reports on the U.S. military’s new detention facility in Parwan, Afghanistan, as “an emerging datafarm” where all detainees brought to the facility are given medical exams and have their irises scanned and fingerprints taken to be stored in a militaryRead… Read more »

Is the Networked World Killing your Contracts & Procurement: What About Innovation?

Excerpt from Tim Cummin’s Blog Impacts Of The Networked World On Contracts & Procurement The impacts of the networked world have been significant for most of the world’s population, but perhaps more so for those in the world of contracts and procurement than many others. · Emerging generations are ‘no longer capable of deep thought’Read… Read more »

Project of the Week: Challenge.gov

1. What is Challenge.gov and what was the impetus for the project?Challenge.gov is a platform which allows federal agencies to post challenges, and at the same time, allows the public to find challenges. The impetus: In a March 8, 2010 memorandum, OMB Deputy Director for Management Jeffrey Zients provided legal guidance on the use ofRead… Read more »

Last One In Wins!

I attended a sales seminar where the presenter and the audience were agreeing that being called in to give a buyer “three bids’ was a bad thing, a waste of time. I musta had a depraved upbringing, because I always found a high percentage of those calls resulted in transactions. The way I see it,Read… Read more »

Lessons from Northrop Grumman Failure in Virginia?

This week witnessed one of the most dramatic government information technology failures ever, with an outage that paralyzed twenty six state government services for days in Virginia. The Department of Motor Vehicles was the most visible outage, leaving thousands of frustrated motorists and forcing law enforcement to relax enforcement to allow time for drivers’ licenseRead… Read more »