$5.5 Million Waiting to be Paid for Collapsed Bridge
Mar 21, 2018
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will suspend all remaining federal payments, about $5.5 million, for the work on the collapsed pedestrian bridge at Florida International University that killed six just days after being installed. “Before another dollar is spent on this bridge, we...
GSA, OMB Look to Congress for a Smoother Path to E-Commerce Portal Implementation
Mar 21, 2018
Congress mandated that government buyers be able to purchase common, off-the-shelf items from commercial online portals in the most recent National Defense Authorization Act. The General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), who are charged with putting this...
Estonia’s Utilities Department Re-Announces Road Procurement
Mar 16, 2018
Tallinn, Estonia has announced a public procurement for the primary builder in the construction of the 1.7km Reidi Road project. The contract is anticipated to be for 550 days and bids will be selected on lowest cost – it is worth noting that the procurement was announced last year and was...
Committee Tells Government to Break Tenders Into Lots to Counter Conglomerate Issues
Mar 16, 2018
Alongside the main inquiry into the public sector services provider Carillion collapse, which affected hundreds of contracts, another UK inquiry is looking into outsourcing public services. Local government experts have told MPs on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs...
Germany’s Ministry of Defence Loses Top Procurement Official
Mar 16, 2018
It was announced this week that the senior official in charge of reforming Germany’s defence procurement processes is leaving her post, which according to Chanel NewsAsia is a setback for the attempts in place to bring order to military buying after repeated cost overruns. She was heavily relied...
Publishing Data on Government Contracts – The Shortfall and How To Fix It
Mar 16, 2018
Research by the UK’s Open Contracting Partnership, and OpenOpps, an open data start-up analysing government contracting, shows that of about 450 public contracts of the 208 public bodies spending money with Carillion, less than 50 public contract notices could be verified by searching all of the...
A New Structure For Institutional Cooperation Between Eastern Partnership Countries
Mar 16, 2018
The representatives of Eastern Partnership countries of Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine have met to discuss emerging regional trends, and common and country-specific challenges in tackling corruption risks in public procurement. A new structure for institutional cooperation between the...
Advice for CIOs on Modernizing IT Through MGT Opportunities
Mar 12, 2018
Writing in his regular Reporter’s Notebook column for Federal News Radio, Jason Miller shares advice from former CIO and public sector technology leaders on how agencies should begin the work of applying for modernization funding, either through the central account or via their own agency working...
DoD Lowers $950 Million Cloud Services Contract Ceiling to $65 Million
Mar 12, 2018
Amidst criticism from industry, the Department of Defense (DoD) modified a nearly $1 billion agreement it made with Rean Cloud, LLC, an Amazon partner company. The original agreement, signed in February, tasked Rean with enabling multiple agencies within the DoD to procure cloud solutions in a new...
Cities Are Saving Money By Sharing Translations
Mar 12, 2018
When Philadelphia, the nation’s sixth most populous city, saw its translation costs increase 10 percent last year and project another 5-10% more this year, it knew it had a problem on its hands. So they did something about it, and used technology to save time and money by reusing duplicate...
Contractors Say Regulations Shouldn’t Outlive Their Purpose
Mar 12, 2018
The Section 809 Panel chartered by Congress asked contractors and contracting officers what bothered them the most about long-lasting regulations, especially as they try to streamline the acquisition process. Mike Madsen, executive director of the Section 809 panel, joined Federal Drive with Tom...
Sweden ready to conduct first blockchain transaction
Mar 9, 2018
Two years ago Sweden’s land-ownership authority, the Lantmäteriet, started testing blockchain technology for property sales and is now ready to conduct its first transaction. The organisation is shortlisting volunteers to participate in the buying and selling of property on its own platform....
Sponsored
Perspectives and Insights
I have been interested in the question of getting successful commercial companies, especially tech companies, to sell to the government from the time I was …
The Contractor Accountability and Transparency Act of 2017 (S. 651), introduced by Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., is yet another example of a …
Think you know all about public sector owned professional buying organisations (PBOs) and what they do? Here are ten interesting facts that might just surprise …
Policies and Regulations
It’s no surprise President Trump has been systematically dismantling President Obama’s executive orders, since taking office. Obama himself knew it was a possibility: Frustrated by …
Past performance is an important step in being successful as a federal government contractor. Once firms get into the mid-tier range, they normally have amassed …
A few months back, we published several articles about the very interesting – and somewhat shocking – court case around the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning …