defense contractors | The Contracting Education Academy

December 6, 2013 By AMK

Pentagon tightens cybersecurity rules for defense contractors

The Pentagon has approved new rules that would require defense contractors to tighten their computer security procedures and to report any cyber intrusions that resulted in the loss of controlled technical information.

An amendment to defense acquisition rules published on Nov. 18, 2013 would require defense contractors to incorporate established information security standards on their unclassified networks and to report any intrusions that result in loss of technical information on those networks, a Pentagon statement said.

The statement said the rules would apply to all new contracts that use or generate unclassified but valuable technical information, such as data concerning defense system requirements, designs, engineering, production and manufacturing capabilities.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/19/us-usa-defense-cyber-idUSBRE9AI17O20131119

September 4, 2013 By AMK

Pentagon buying official forecasts much tougher 2014 for defense contractors

The Pentagon’s acquisition staff is preparing to delay and potentially cancel programs in the coming weeks as it readies for another year of significant budget cuts, the military’s top procurement official said in an interview last week.

Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said he’s already holding off on some spending.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next year, and I don’t want to make major commitments to contracts that we may terminate once we get into [ fiscal 20]14,” he said. “We’re going to have to make some hard choices, I think, in the next few weeks about what we do with some of our programs.”

Kendall said that he expects the defense industry to bear a disproportionate impact from the automatic spending reductions, known as sequestration, in the coming year.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/pentagon-buying-official-forecasts-much-tougher-2014-for-defense-contractors/2013/08/30/a8ae5dce-0e6b-11e3-bdf6-e4fc677d94a1_story.html

February 22, 2013 By AMK

Pentagon fails to explain sole-source contracts, GAO says

The Defense Department has made scant headway in justifying its awards of sole-source contracting as required under a fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill, the Government Accountability Office found.

From October 2009 to September 2012, the Pentagon awarded 51 sole-source contracts worth more than $20 million, GAO said in a Feb. 8 letter to the Armed Services Committee chairmen, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif.

But in a review of eight of the most recent contracts, Defense contracting officers failed in six cases to comply with 2011 changes in the Federal Acquisition Regulation. “Six contracts did not meet the new justification requirement because contracting officials were not aware of the requirement or because they were confused about the type of justification to complete,” auditors found.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2013/02/pentagon-fails-explain-sole-source-contracts-gao-says/61231/?oref=management_agenda_nl.

October 15, 2012 By AMK

Defense acquisition not just realm of program managers

Large defense programs claim any number of stakeholders, including the services’ program managers and their counterparts in the defense industry.

But other key players — such as congressional staff and lobbyists — also have some skin in the game.

Understanding their role in the defense acquisition process was the focus of a special forum hosted by the Defense Acquisition University Alumni Association last week.

Bill Bahnmaier, the president of the association, told In Depth with Francis Rose the way the roles interrelate is often obscured because there’s rarely a “direct link” between them.

The program manager for a particular acquisition program usually deals with the vendor through its respective program manager — not the company’s lobbyists.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/399/3070301/Defense-acquisition-not-just-realm-of-program-managers.

August 22, 2012 By AMK

Sequestration could hit Washington area with recession, economist warns

The Washington metropolitan area could see a devastating recession from federal cuts associated with sequestration, an economist is warning.

Sequestration — across-the-board cuts to the federal budget that will take effect in January if lawmakers can’t agree on an alternative — would result in major job cuts in Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland, according to Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University, who spoke to WTOP.com.

The Washington region receives 20 percent of federal payroll and procurement money, WTOP reported, and sequestration job losses in the area could affect 65,000 federal workers and 96,000 contractors.

Keep reading this article at http://www.govexec.com/management/2012/08/sequestration-could-hit-washington-area-recession-economist-warns/57444/?oref=govexec_today_nl.

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