The House Armed Services Committee is getting in on the acquisition reform action. Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., and Ranking Member John McHugh, R-N.Y., announced a special panel to suggest acquisition reforms for the Defense Department. The panel will evaluate the performance of the current system, assess its failures and make recommendations to fix it. The findings will guide the fiscal 2011 defense authorization act, a committee statement said. The White House gave special attention to waste, fraud and abuse in Defense Contracting when it announced its contracting reforms on Wednesday. During a Wednesday news briefing, Obama said: In Iraq, too…
Browsing: Procurement
Should the taxman call to “tell you how it will be,” at least you’ll know it’s a fed. That’s because the Internal Revenue Service terminated its controversial outsourcing of tax collection Thursday. An agency program review found tax debt collection was cheaper and more lucrative when performed by federal employees. IRS commissioner Doug Shulman said: IRS employees have more options available to them to resolve difficult collection cases Contracts with two private debt collection firms expired March 6. The agency will hire 1,000 new tax collectors in fiscal 2009 to target collection on areas of greatest need. IRS will recruit displaced…
Update,10:40 a.m.: The President has made the big contracting reform announcement. He called the government’s contracting system “broken” and said it was “plagued by massive cost overruns and outright fraud.” He added: We need more competition for contracts and more oversight when they’re carried out. Ending the “unnecessary” use of sole-source and cost-based contracts, ensuring that government work isn’t improperly outsourced and opening more contracts to small businesses will save the government $40 billion of the $500 billion spent on contracts annually by increasing competition and reducing waste, he said. These estimated cost savings are part of the $2 trillion…
During a news briefing this morning at the Old Executive Office Building to roll out his 2010 budget, President Obama provided a little more detail about some of the nearly $2 trillion in proposed cuts he mentioned during his joint session to Congress on Tuesday. The highlights — or lowlights, depending on your view: Nearly $200 million at the Interior Department by cutting programs to clean up abandoned coal mines that have already been cleaned up. Nearly $20 million by modernizing programs and streamlining bureaucracy at the Agriculture Department. Tens of millions of dollars by cutting an Education Department student…
A provision in the omnibus spending bill could halt public-private job competitions for federal work. The provision introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., would temporarily suspended public-private competitions for federal employees’ jobs conducted under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76. Other bill provisions indroduced by the lawmakers would: Require agencies insource work currently performed by contractors and to allow federal employees to perform new work. Require agencies determine the size of their contractor workforces. Prevent agencies from outsourcing functions performed by 10 or fewer employees without holding a competition. The American Federation of Government…
Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag told agency officials gathered for the first recovery plan implementation meeting today to make sure they have enough contracting and acquisition personnel to oversee stimulus spending. In addition to following the reporting guidelines he laid out in 62 pages last week, Orszag said: I would identify the need for sufficient numbers of acquisition and contract officers to oversee the money flowing through the system, to make sure that it is well spent. Earl Devaney, who was named the chair of the Recovery Transparency and Accountability Board earlier this week, expressed similar sentiments:…
With pressure mounting to purchase environmentally friendly products, sorting through the various federal programs to determine whether there are specific products identified that meet environmental standards can be daunting. After all, federal agencies are rating scores of products — everything from awards and bed linens to vending machines and water coolers — for recycled and biobased content, energy and water savings and absence of environmentally harmful chemicals or gases. Agencies are required to buy environmentally preferable products, but finding out whether green alternatives exist for products being purchased is often a time- consuming and frustrating exercise. Now there is a tool…
In case you haven’t heard the White House held a fiscal responsibility summit today. One of the sessions was on procurement. White House pool reporter Jon Ward of the Washington Times braved what he called a “wonky session†to bring us the following nuggets: Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., will introduce a bill to require the Defense Department to reexamine contracts when costs exceed 25 percent of original estimates. Levin said the military must stop trying to add the latest technology and accept what they have to prevent cost hikes and delays. Deputy Secretary of State for Management, Jack Lew, said government…
Federal agencies are wasting no time advertising new business opportunities created under the economic stimulus package, which became law last Tuesday. Here is what Federal Times has found on FedBizOpps so far: On Feb. 18, the day after President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Navy issued a solicitation for a $400 million small business construction contract. This multiple award contract will be awarded to five small businesses. The businesses will be hired to perform new construction, repair, demolition and renovation projects at Navy facilities worldwide. Those projects will be funded through stimulus package appropriations. On…
The tough financial times have hit a top federal contractor. BearingPoint, a management and technology consulting firm, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy today, according to this announcement on the company’s Web site. The company pledged to continue “business as usual†while it restructures to reduce its debt. BearingPoint has already negotiated the terms of the restructuring with its creditors and expects the process to move quickly, the company said. BearingPoint ranks 74 among the top 100 recipients of government procurement dollars, raking in $790 million in federal contracts in 2008, according to USASpending.gov. In a related press release, CEO…