The Contracting Education Academy

Contracting Academy Logo
You are here: Home / Archives for Commerce Dept.

By

Federal contract spending reaches its highest level ever in fiscal 2019, marking 4 straight years of growth

Spending is expected to increase even more for fiscal 2020, exceeding $600 billion even before coronavirus stimulus funding is included.
Click on image above to download report.

Federal contract spending grew for the fourth year in a row to reach $597 billion in fiscal 2019, its highest level yet and a 6% increase over the previous year, according to newly released data.  Spending is expected to exceed $600 billion in fiscal 2020, without even including spending on economic stimulus funds in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The data, compiled by Bloomberg Government, encompasses prime and unclassified contract spending. Bloomberg released the findings in the ninth annual BGOV200 report, which ranks the top 200 federal contractors. The report analyzes market trends, contractors’ performance and other dynamics among 92 federal agencies in 20 purchasing categories during fiscal 2019.

The agencies with the biggest gains in contract spending in fiscal 2019 included: the Housing and Urban Development, Commerce and Defense departments, and the General Services Administration. Some of the top markets were: facilities and construction; professional services; information technology and aircrafts, ships/submarines and land vehicles.

The 200 companies won the same share of total contracts as in 2018 and 2017, which was 64%. The top six companies — all in the defense industry — were: Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co., General Dynamics Corp., Raytheon Co., Northrop Grumman Corp. and United Technologies Corp. This was the same as last year, except McKesson Corp. was number six in 2018 and this year it ranked seventh. In 2019, 37 companies entered the top 200 for the first time.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/06/federal-contract-spending-reaches-its-highest-level-ever-fiscal-2019-marking-4-straight-years-growth/166484/

By

A new rule could allow Commerce secretary to ban certain tech buys

A proposed rule will allow a government department’s secretary to block the purchase of foreign technology that pose an “undue” risk to the U.S. information and communications infrastructure.

The rule, published by the Department of Commerce Nov. 26, establishes procedures for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to “identify, assess, and address” information and communication technology (ICT) transactions he deems risky to national security.

The proposed rule stems from an executive order President Donald Trump signed on May 15, which gave the secretary the authority to prohibit or mitigate transactions that involve ICT technology developed or supplied by entities located in adversarial nations.

Transactions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and the secretary will take a “fact-specific approach” to evaluation, according to the Commerce Department announcement.

Specifically, transactions will be blocked or mitigated if they are found to have an “an undue risk of sabotage or subversion ICTS in the United States; an undue risk of catastrophic effects on the security and resiliency of critical infrastructure or the digital economy in the United States; or an unacceptable risk to national security or to the security and safety of U.S. persons.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fifthdomain.com/civilian/2019/11/26/a-new-rule-could-allow-one-department-secretary-to-ban-certain-tech-buys/

By

NOAA, NASA launched next-gen satellite with known issues, scrubbed performance metrics from contract

The main instrument of the GOES-R next-generation satellite constellation wasn’t working before launch but officials sent it into space anyway.

Persistent problems with the premier sensors of the GOES-R series satellites — designed to provide the next generation of weather observation for North America — were identified before launch and not properly tested or resolved, according to a new inspector general report.

Further, the Commerce Department IG found evidence that program managers changed the evaluation criteria for the contractor after the issues were identified—metrics that would have led to a 40-75% reduction in payment had they remained.

The $11 billion GOES-R series of satellites includes GOES-16—launched November 2016—and GOES-17—launched March 2018—as well as the pending GOES-T and GOES-U still in production. The satellite constellation is equipped with a set of next-generation sensors to better predict weather patterns, including the Advanced Baseline Imager, or ABI, the “most essential instrument for mission success of the GOES-R satellites,” according to the IG.

However, shortly after GOES-17 entered orbit, the cooling system for the ABI instrument malfunctioned, “severely degrading” the amount of data the satellite could collect, NOAA officials said at the time.

“This is a serious problem,” Steve Volz, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, or NESDIS, said during a May 2018 briefing with reporters. “This is the premier Earth-pointing instrument on the GOES platform and the 16 channels … are important elements of our observing requirements.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/08/ig-noaa-nasa-launched-next-gen-satellite-known-issues-scrubbed-performance-metrics-contract/159276/

By

IRS wasted $3.4 million on software it never used, watchdog says

IT management shortcomings led the IRS to waste millions of dollars on licenses and subscriptions for software agency officials never used, according to an internal watchdog.

Because it failed to follow federal acquisition requirements, the agency also deployed a software product that fell far short of its promised functionality, auditors said.

In a recent report, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found the IRS didn’t actively manage its IT assets or monitor the cost of the myriad software subscription and support packages used across the enterprise. As a result, the agency spent roughly $3.4 million between 2015 and 2017 on tools it didn’t need, auditors said.

They also found insufficient management caused the agency to lean too heavily on a separate package of software tools, which put it at risk of penalties and fines from the vendor, IBM.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2019/03/irs-wasted-34-million-software-it-never-used-watchdog-says/155247/

By

Census can move forward after $283 million contract dispute

AT&T will no longer protest a Census Bureau contract to provide mobile devices for workers for the 2020 Census, according to an official from a congressional watchdog agency.

In a letter dated Nov. 8, a Census official told the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that AT&T would no longer contest the $283 million mobile contract awarded to CDW-G, a GAO official involved in the protest told Nextgov. Instead, the companies reached an agreement in which AT&T would assist CDW-G in Census operations as a subcontractor, the Census official wrote.

The resolution of the mobile contract dispute allows work to resume on preparations for the 2020 Census, which are already far behind schedule.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/policy/2017/12/census-can-move-forward-after-283-million-contract-dispute/144320/

Contracting Academy Logo
75 Fifth Street, NW, Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30308
info@ContractingAcademy.gatech.edu
Phone: 404-894-6109
Fax: 404-410-6885

RSS Twitter