Starting Feb. 2, Susan Brita will be the new deputy administrator of the General Services Administration, FedLine has learned. Brita is the staff director for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management. The subcommittee has oversight of GSA’s Public Building Service and federal real property management. She replaces Barney Brasseux, a GSA career veteran, who recently retired. This announcement fills one gap in the agency’s leadership team which has seen an unusual amount of turnover in recent weeks. Just before Christmas, Stephen Leeds took over the role of acting administrator from Paul…
Browsing: Procurement
Update: My colleague at MarineCorpsTimes.com reports Trijicon will no longer inscribe its products with Bible verses. The U.S. military plans to continue to use tens of thousands of gun sights that are inscribed with references to Bible passages, AP reports. Army officials are investigating whether Trijicon, the company that makes (and scripturally inscribes) the sights, violated any procurement rules by including the markings on the aiming devices. The Army told AP the company didn’t break rules that prohibit proselytizing by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. I blogged about this earlier this week and wondered whether the company did anything legally…
The Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation has a new look, which went live yesterday. The site has lots of nifty new tools right on the home page, such as a series of rotating charts that show various trends for both Recovery Act and fiscal 2009 spending. My personal favorite is the fiscal 2009 chart (if you follow the link, click on “trend”) that shows month-by-month spending levels for the fiscal year. This may come as a surprise, but most government spending happens in September, just as the fiscal year is ending. It’s shocking, I know. But it is also fun…
If a company inscribes a rifle with code from the Bible, but is neither required to nor prohibited to take such an action by the contract, have any rules been broken? That’s the question I have after reading this ABC News report about rifle aiming equipment manufacturer, Trijicon, inscribing its military scopes with references to New Testament passages about Jesus Christ. The article suggests the inscribed scriptural references violate military rules banning proselytizing in the war zone. The rules exist out of concern U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan would be viewed as a new Crusade. But it is not…
What do “The Jetsons” and “The Transformers” have in common? DARPA! USA Today reports that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for ideas to develop a flying car, not unlike those seen on the 1960s cartoon show, the Jetsons. The project, dubbed “Transformer (TX),” which USA Today muses is reminiscent of the 1980s cartoon where robots morphed into vehicles and saved the day, will: Demonstrate a 1 to 4 person transportation vehicle that can drive and fly, thus enabling the warfighter to avoid water, difficult terrain, and road obstructions as well as IED and ambush threats. The vehicle…
I did a quick post yesterday on Sen. George Voinovich’s hold on Rafael Borras, announced at yesterday’s DHS management hearing in the Senate Homeland Security committee. One other colloquy from that hearing worth mentioning: Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., got into a discussion with Elaine Duke, the current undersecretary for management, about how many contractors work at DHS. McCaskill has been trying to get a hard number for years; the department finally sent her a spreadsheet last month, which lists 10,520 contractors in the Washington area. But it turns out even that figure might not be accurate. Here’s Duke: The figures…
The two councils that amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation published seven new rules in the Federal Register today. The one I found the most interesting was this rule, which finalizes an interim rule encouraging food service contractors to donate “wholesome excess food to nonprofit organizations that provide assistance to food-insecure people in the United States.” That its publication comes during the holiday season, when we’re all more aware of the needs of local food banks, is likely a coincidence. But it serves as a nice reminder that in these tough economic times, when demand is outpacing donations in many places,…
Contractors could face suspension, debarment or financial penalties if they fail to return and report an improper payment made by the government…even if the improper payment is the government’s fault. That’s what an executive order meant to curb the government’s rate of erroneous payments will say, Peter Orszag, Office of Management and Budget director, told reporters during a Nov. 17 briefing on the value of improper payments made by the government in 2009. Currently, contractors face no penalties when the government discovers an improper payment was made. All contractors have to do is pay back the sum without interest or…
Contractor employees supporting acquisition offices may soon be required to disclose their financial investments, personal relationships and other involvements that could constitute a “personal conflict of interest.” The proposed rule, which was published in the Federal Register Friday, would only apply to contractor employees who support or advise the government in planning acquisitions, determining supplies and services to purchase, developing and approving contract documents, evaluating contract proposals, awarding contracts, administering contracts, terminating contracts and determining if costs are fair and reasonable. Contractors must obtain assurances from employees in these roles that they don’t have financial interests that would bias their…
A Kuwaiti company was indicted for overcharging the government on an $8.5 billion food service contract to feed troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan, the Justice Department announced today. The company, Public Warehousing Company (PWC), faces criminal charges of conspiracy to defraud the government, committing major fraud against the government, making false statements to the government, submitting false claims to the government and wire fraud. The allegations stem from a series of false invoices the company submitted to the Defense Department between 2003 and 2005. According to Justice, the company conspired with unnamed suppliers to inflate prices by hiding overhead…