All Learning Content
European Commission Reports on Progress in Romania under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism
Nov 17, 2017
In 2007, the European Commission established the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism to assess progress against the commitments made by Romania in the areas of judicial reform and the fight against corruption. It reports regularly on progress made and this week released a press release outlining...
Disaggregation of Large IT Contracts – Government Offers Advice
Nov 17, 2017
On the disaggregation of large IT contracts drive, the UK Government Commercial Function has published an advisory document, Government Shared Learning – Exiting Major IT Contracts: Guidance for Departments, which could be of use to other administrations we suspect. It offers advice to...
Why UK Public Sector Outsourcing Is Failing To Deliver
Nov 17, 2017
Civil Service World this week reports on an interview it had with Prof Gary Sturgess, Australia and New Zealand School of Government chair of public service delivery at the University of New South Wales (who was doing a Public Service Transformation Academy (PSTA) workshop on contracting). They...
Is ‘Colorless Money’ the Key to Buying Tech?
Nov 17, 2017
The U.S. Air Force created a new office to evaluate and oversee how it buys technology. Among the ideas being discussed is “colorless money.” As the office director, Maj. Gen. Sarah Zabel, explains, the military has certain funds to use for specifically defined things to include procurement,...
Have Your Say – Consultation on Guidance of EU Public Procurement
Nov 17, 2017
The European Commission invites your views on a draft Guidance on Public Procurement of Innovation. The Guidance on Public Procurement of Innovation supports the wider uptake of public procurement of innovation in the EU and the document will cover added value of public procurement of innovation;...
DHS’ Soraya Correa Discusses Benefits of Agile Development
Nov 16, 2017
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Chief Procurement Officer Soraya Correa wants acquisition officials in on the agile discussion. With agile development emerging as a key to efficient federal business, Correa sees the benefit. Acquisition officials can aid in creating a better strategy for the...
Agencies Fail to Improve in Latest FITARA Scorecard
Nov 16, 2017
The recent Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard has been bad news for many agencies. Six of the 24 agencies evaluated dropped below their June 2017 grade and only three improved their scores. While agencies struggled with software licensing, a relatively recent...
Can Drones Fulfill a Public Safety Role?
Nov 16, 2017
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has set up no-fly zones for drones in various parts of the country for assorted reasons. However, drones have successfully joined in searches and just last week in North Carolina, one located an elderly woman after just 25 minutes of searching. The hope is...
Tax Payer Rip-Offs – Could They Sweep a Left-Wing Government into Power?
Nov 15, 2017
Listening to Jeremy Corbyn’s (Labour party leader) speech to the UK’s leading big-business organisation, the CBI, recently, several things struck me. Firstly, how much better the leader of the Labour Party has become in terms of his public speaking over the past 2 or 3 years. He’s really not...
GAO Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2017
Nov 14, 2017
On November 13, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published its Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2017. The report is required under CICA, wherein GAO must provide Congress a summary of every instance where an agency did not fully implement a recommendation by GAO in...
An Important New Guide to Agile
Nov 13, 2017
Think about it for a bit, and it should become clear why a waterfall style of software development—where one develops requirements and a work plan in advance, and only then sets the contractor about the job of producing the system—became so entrenched in government for so long.
This approach...
VA Awards $158 Million Contract to Digitize Health Records
Nov 13, 2017
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) selected Virginia-based information technology company, CSRA, to help its ongoing efforts to digitize veteran health records ahead of the development of its new electronic health records system. The agency awarded a $158 million task order to digitize more...
