Maryland Medical Marijuana Commission Under Scrutiny for Procurement Issues
May 11, 2017
The agency in charge of medical marijuana in Maryland is facing questions about its procurement procedures. Auditors from Maryland’s Office of Legislative Audits recently found the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission may have violated state procurement law by using a memorandum of understanding...
18F Founders Argue for Share-in-Savings in IT Procurement
May 11, 2017
Chris Cairns and Dr. Rob Read, the co-founders of the General Services Administration’s (GSA) 18F organization, make an argument for government to use “share-in-savings” (SiS) contracts to help tackle IT procurement challenges. “With SiS, agencies can launch IT projects with little or no...
Treasury Releases Update to USASpending.gov
May 11, 2017
The U.S. Treasury Department has released a new beta version of USASpending.gov, an update to the spending data site three years in the making. The beta version of the site provides standardized data on agency appropriations and expenditures, which can be organized by agency and by category, as...
Slew of Commercial Buying Regulations Added in the Last Decade
May 10, 2017
Jason Miller of Federal News Radio reports that since 2009, there have been 114 new regulations added to the Federal Acquisition Regulation and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement. That number comes from an analysis by the Aerospace Industries Associations. About a third of those...
Inside the Service Contracting Industry
May 10, 2017
Inc. magazine takes a “peek inside the biggest industry you never hear about,” federal services contractors. The article profiles a number of contractors, and looks at how those companies are providing services to the government, what various changes in the federal government mean to those...
Dispute Between Maine Governor and Treasurer Throwing Contracting Space into Tailspin
May 10, 2017
Maine’s construction industry is in a holding pattern as new contracts aren’t being awarded, following a dispute between Governor Paul LePage and Treasurer Terry Hayes. LePage claims Hayes did not follow procurement regulations when she awarded a contract to an out-of-state bonding agent. Hayes...
Federal Employee Union Wants Congress to Step in on DoD Contracting
May 8, 2017
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal employees wrote a letter to Congress, is asking lawmakers to require the Department of Defense to “improve the oversight and management for the vast sums it spends so carelessly on contracted services.” “Anything...
Mississippi Procurement Reform Prioritizes Reverse Auctions
May 8, 2017
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has signed into law a bill to reform the state’s bidding and procurement process. According to the Northside Sun, there are a few key provisions, including an emphasis on reverse auctions, the creation of a Public Procurement Review Board to oversee smaller...
New Study Busts Myths about FedRAMP
May 8, 2017
Coalfire—a cybersecurity risk management company and a third-party assessment organization evaluating companies cloud providers under the Federal Risk Authorization and Management Program (FedRAMP)—has published a new study finding the program is more efficient than is currently perceived....
DHS Looking for Info on Tech Commercialization
May 4, 2017
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate has published a request for information, seeking assistance in bringing the technology it funds to market. The S&T is looking for help commercializing some of the successful technology it has sponsored. The RFI states DHS is...
Embracing the Promise of the Cloud
May 4, 2017
Route Fifty has published a new special report, “Embracing the Promise of the Cloud,” looking at government case studies of how organizations have used cloud innovations to solve myriad problems. The free paper looks at how cloud solutions have changed transit in New York City, on the roadways...
DoD Changing Acquisition Office to Foster Risk-Taking
May 4, 2017
At a Senate hearing on defense innovation, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work told lawmakers the Department of Defense (DoD) will soon present its plan and timeline for dividing the acquisition, technology and logistics office into two separate offices, as mandated by the 2017 National Defense...
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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 …