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March 18, 2020 By cs

Acquisition contracts key to agencies opening telework options in face of coronavirus

There’s good news and bad news for agencies looking to ramp up telework in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to federal contracting experts.
According to the CDC, a novel coronavirus was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. It is formally named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The good news is federal acquisition contracts are set up for quick acquisition of essential telework equipment, such as laptops or tablets, said acquisition experts FCW spoke with.

The bad news could be that online scammers are watching the expanding tele-workforce with great interest.

The emphasis on agency telework is growing, and although most agency employees are already assigned computers, there may be some hardware gaps to fill as workforces move to remote locations.

Federal governmentwide acquisition contracts, such as NASA’s Services for Enterprise-Wide Procurement, the General Services Administration’s ordering schedule and the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) are set up to help quickly fill laptops, tablets and other IT commodity orders, they said.

Keep reading this article at: https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2020/03/11/coronavirus-telework-procurement-hardware.aspx

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized.  Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, capacity, coronavirus, COVID-19, GSA, GWAC, industry, IT, NASA, NITAAC, technology, telework

March 22, 2017 By AMK

How an acquisition can jeopardize pending bids

When acquiring a government contractor, review and analysis of the target’s current government contracts is a central focus of due diligence for purposes of assessing the legal and business risks. Pending bids and proposals, however, also present unique issues and challenges and could have a significant impact on the anticipated value of the business.

Post-acquisition, the loss of resources from a former parent company or affiliated company may jeopardize the target company’s pending proposals. This situation could arise both where the proposal is successful and a protester challenges the award to the successor contractor, and where the successor contractor is not the successful awardee and itself seeks to challenge the procuring agency’s award decision. This article discusses recent decisions issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and highlights key issues for both sellers and buyers arising from pending proposals. The decisions highlight the potential impact a merger or acquisition may have on a target company’s outstanding proposals and the importance of careful review of these proposals during due diligence.

The issues presented by pending proposals, like all issues presented in a due diligence review and risk assessment, must be considered in the context of the broader deal. Typically, this will involve negotiation of key provisions in the acquisition and ancillary agreements, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings in the context of a public deal, Hart-Scott-Rodino reviews, and approvals by the U.S. Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission and avoidance of “gun-jumping” under the antitrust laws. Additionally, there is often the need to maintain secrecy and limit knowledge of the deal to a confined, manageable deal team with a “need to know.”

For a publicly traded company, prior to a public announcement of an acquisition, it would be unlawful for the company to share information about the proposed transaction with the procuring agency or others in advance of the public announcement or the required filing with the SEC. Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure) prevents a public company from selectively disclosing material nonpublic information to certain individuals or entities without making public disclosure of such information. The upshot is that when a target has a significant portfolio of pending proposals that could be material to the deal and the future value, and sustainability of the acquired business, the acquirer should appoint a team to review each pending proposal and, based on its terms, decide what needs to be disclosed to the contracting agencies, or risk disqualification or loss of a contract in a post-award protest. This also means that notice to agencies must be coordinated with notices to the SEC and public announcements. Risks concerning pending proposals may, of course, also arise in acquisitions of privately held companies.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=576436

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: award protest, capabilities, capacity, COFC, DOJ, due diligence, FTC, GAO, protest, responsibility, SEC

June 21, 2016 By AMK

Acquisition workforce capacity joins competency as an issue

Many issues influence the ability of the federal acquisition workforce’s to get its job done, according to a survey recently released by the Professional Services Council and Grant Thornton.

Acquisition Policy Survey 2016In the annual Acquisition Policy Survey conducted by the two organizations, the development of the government’s acquisition workforce “showed mixed results.”  The 80 persons who were surveyed reported positive trends in workforce capability, but they identified the persistence of lingering weaknesses in critical skill sets. “Workforce development and the ability to hire the right talent are key challenges,” the report states. “More than a competency gap, this year’s interviewees expressed concern about a capacity gap, wherein the existing workforce, however skilled it may be, simply does not have the time and resources to keep up with demand.”

The significance of budget, communication, innovation and oversight are also reported on in the study.  Here are a few excerpts:

  • “Despite ongoing budget challenges … headaches, inefficiencies, and strain, the acquisition community is committed to ‘getting the job done.'”
  • “… [O]pen communication has not been routinely practiced at operational levels. Instead, communication between government and industry is viewed as inherently risky.”
  • “… [T]he government does not have a consistent, successful strategy for soliciting, evaluating, and contracting for innovative ideas from industry, whether in the ‘traditional’ or ‘cutting-edge’ contracting space. In fact, the government often views the traditional contracting base as being mutually exclusive from innovative offerors.”
  • “Policymakers and oversight bodies need to understand the impact of the requirements they place on an already complex acquisition system that is operating beyond its capacity ….”

Download and read the full text of the Acquisition Policy Survey here: Acquisition Policy Survey 2016

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, budget cuts, capacity, competence, compliance, innovation, oversight

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