Poor acquisition planning on service contracts has led to late contract awards, cost overruns and insufficient services at four federal agencies, an Aug. 9 Government Accountability Office report shows. Federal regulations require agencies to go through a detailed planning process for all acquisitions so that well-defined requirements, realistic cost estimates and lessons learned from past procurements are in place before an agency seeks proposals from vendors. Looking at the four agencies with the highest obligations on professional, administrative, and management support services — the Health and Human Services Department, Department of Homeland Security, NASA and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) — the GAO…
Browsing: Department of Homeland Security
Like a lot of reporters, I can’t claim arithmetic as one of my stronger skill sets. But I feel a bit better about my math chops after reading that the Department of Homeland Security recently had to correct a six-figure goof related to the number of DHS contract employees. The admission comes in a questionnaire from Rafael Borras, nominated to become the department’s under secretary for management, to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In January, DHS quietly informed Congress that the original estimate for the size of its contract staff—developed, of course, by a contractor—was overstated by…
Two firms have been cut from a $3 billion Department of Homeland Security contracting program because of Small Business Administration suspensions. Neither EG Solutions nor MultimaxArray FirstSource, or MAF, was renewed under one-year contract options exercised this month for the First Source information technology program, DHS spokesman Larry Orluskie said today. Representatives for the two firms did not respond to emailed requests for comment this afternoon. Orluskie noted that the contract, first awarded in 2007, is set to be re-competed next year. Both companies remain under suspensions levied by the SBA in November for alleged abuses of small business contracting…
Richard Skinner, inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, is calling it quits after a 42-year government career. In a letter to President Obama released late this afternoon, Skinner said he will retire effective March 1. “I believe the time has come for me to give my full-time attention to my family and personal endeavors,” he wrote. Skinner became the department’s inspector general in July 2005 after two years as its deputy IG. Since 1969, he has worked in IG positions across the government, including the Agriculture, Commerce and Justice Departments, according to a news release. His service at…
ACORN may have filed for bankruptcy last month, but its name continues to surface: A newly released audit finds that the Federal Emergency Management Agency skirted the rules to award an ACORN affiliate $450,484 in fire prevention and safety funds. The idea behind the fiscal 2007 grant was to let the ACORN Institute develop best practices for community organizations to canvass high-risk neighborhoods and install smoke detectors and other safety equipment, according to the audit by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general. In its grant application, the ACORN Institute claimed to have plenty of experience in that line via…
Congrats to Trudy Givens of Portage, Wisconsin. The long-time Bureau of Prisons employee is this year’s SAVE award winner for her suggestion that the government stop printing and mailing daily hard copies of the Federal Register to almost 10,000 federal employees who are probably using the on-line version anyway. Givens won out over three other finalists with almost 20,000 votes, according to a blog post Monday by Acting Office of Management and Budget Director Jeffrey Zients. The runners-up were Agriculture Department employee Marjorie Cook, Pat Behe of the Department of Homeland Security, and Thomas Koenning from the Department of Labor.…