All Learning Content
FEMA Chief Says Agency Did Not Approve Controversial Whitefish Contract
Nov 1, 2017
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spoke to Congress, offering testimony that also criticized the $300 million Whitefish contract in Puerto Rico. FEMA Administrator Brock Long told the Senate homeland security committee there was “a lot wrong” with the controversial $300...
UK Government Publishes 18-Month-Old SME Spending Numbers – Why So Late?
Nov 1, 2017
We discovered this week that the UK government has issued the data showing central departments’ spend with smaller suppliers (SMEs) for 2015/16 – a mere 18 months after the period in question. A possible reason for the delay and certainly the reason why this was slipped out with no publicity...
OpenDataSoft Targets Mid-Sized Cities with 500 New City Portals
Nov 1, 2017
OpenDataSoft, a private software company specialized in transforming structured data into API and visualizations, has released city-specific sites featuring publicly available data using the Amazon Web Services platform. The initiative, called Open Data America, is set to release data portals for...
HHS’ Opioid Code-a-Thon: Challenges Go Mainstream and Mission-Critical
Oct 31, 2017
I have been a fan of challenges—also known as procurement contests—for years. I wrote about them for the first time in 2009 when one of the only examples around was a contest DARPA had launched in to see who could develop an all-terrain vehicle, and have returned to the topic several times...
Protest of Approved-Source Restriction Must Be Filed Before Proposal Deadline
Oct 30, 2017
I was grocery shopping the other day, and I had to make the tough choice between the name-brand cereal and the store-brand cereal. I don’t know about you, but with some products, the name brand has a certain flavor that the store brand just can’t replicate. When it comes to government...
Webinar Recording: Modernizing IT Through Agile Share-in-Savings Contracts
Oct 30, 2017
To watch the full video, scroll down!Governments at all levels are grappling with the need to invest in new technologies and modernize their legacy systems. But lack of resources and capital investment dollars can often prevent that from happening. Vendors are ready to take risks and put more...
GAO’s Decision to Charge $350 Per Filing Could Stop Unnecessary Protests
Oct 30, 2017
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) plans to start assessing a fee for vendors filing complaints beginning in March 2018. Ralph White, the managing associate general counsel for procurement law for GAO, said the agency is developing a new electronic protest docket system and will move...
Presumptive Awardee Ineligible to Challenge Solicitation Terms, Says GAO
Oct 30, 2017
If you’re a winner under a solicitation, you can’t challenge the ground rules under which you won–at least under the facts of a recent GAO bid protest decision.
In that decision, GAO concluded that the protestor of a solicitation’s terms lacked standing when the protester was subsequently...
Puerto Rico Moves to Cancel Controversial Whitefish Power Contract
Oct 30, 2017
The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) said it will cancel the $300 million contract with Whitefish Energy, the small Montana-based company, to restore power to the storm-hit U.S. territory after uproar over the deal. The initial decision was met with concerns after it was revealed the...
8(a) Program: Participant Terminated For Missing Annual Review
Oct 30, 2017
Participants in the SBA’s 8(a) Program must timely submit their annual review packages to the SBA.
In a recent decision, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals held that the SBA may terminate a participant from the 8(a) Program for failing to provide the required information–even if the 8(a)...
Audio Forum At Sport Production Summit: “Remote Production Is Already Here
Oct 28, 2017
At the inaugural Audio Forum event on 14 September, representatives of Calrec, Net Insight and Dome Productions spent an hour exploring the outlook for remote production audio in broadcasting. The illuminating session – which was sponsored by Calrec and supported by Resolution Magazine in its...
Watch Presentations from the Public Procurement Technology Symposium
Oct 27, 2017
Access videos from each symposium presentation! (To navigate to other videos in this playlist, go to the left-hand corner of the video frame and click the playlist icon.)
You can watch videos from the following presentations:
Welcome to the Public Procurement Technology Symposium
Raj Sharma,...
