The Contracting Education Academy

Contracting Academy Logo
You are here: Home / Archives for DHS

By

Riding the acquisition innovation avalanche

You know a transformation is afoot when the Navy chooses as its acquisition chief a man known as “Hondo,” who is famous for an Iron Man exoskeleton project and a “Thunderdrone” UAV tournament.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James “Hondo” Geurts is the father of SOFWERX, the U.S. Special Forces Command’s technology incubator, where the super suit and the drone coliseum are housed. SOFWERX is dedicated to fomenting creative collisions among divergent thinkers, and Geurts is the personification of the most expansive explosion of innovative in federal acquisition in a quarter century.

As Geurts often says, we are in the Age of Surprise. Timelines are shorter. The technology gap between the United States and its adversaries is disappearing.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2018/03/riding-acquisition-innovation-avalanche/146745/

By

ICE broke contracting rules in establishing its largest detention facility

The nation’s largest immigrant detention facility was procured improperly, according to a watchdog report, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2014 using an existing agreement with a town in Arizona as a vehicle to establish the center 900 miles away in Texas.

Since 2014, ICE has spent $438,000 annually for Eloy, Ariz., to serve solely as a middleman for a 2,400-bed detention facility in Dilley, Texas, according to the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general. The agency first contracted with the city of Eloy in 2006 to establish the Eloy Detention Center, which the city subcontracted to a company called CCA. ICE reached the agreement with Eloy through a process known as an intergovernmental service agreement, or IGSA.

After an influx of unaccompanied minors and families illegally crossed the border in 2014, ICE looked to boost its detention capacity in south Texas. The agency asked CCA and another contractor to submit proposals for a facility, but only CCA responded. The contractor negotiated directly with ICE on the provisions of the agreement. Rather than create a new contract, ICE went to the city of Eloy and requested that it modify its IGSA to enable CCA to run the South Texas Family Residential Center. The Eloy City Council gave its consent, and the agreement was altered. The provision was set to expire in October 2016, but ICE extended it until 2021.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/oversight/2018/02/ice-broke-contracting-rules-establishing-its-largest-detention-facility/146278

By

DHS OIG issues report on the suspension and debarment program

On January 25, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued report no. OIG-18-41, “DHS Needs to Strengthen Its Suspension and Debarment Program” (Report).  While many may feel that the review, findings, and recommendations of the DHS suspension and debarment program are of little or no consequence to them, there are some interesting takeaways that may provide some important signals to the government contracting community at large.

This Report stems from an October 2016 request by the ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who requested the OIG review the suspension and debarment practices of DHS. As set out in the Report, the OIG found that:

  1. The DHS Suspension and Debarment Instruction is outdated and is missing needed information and guidance;
  2. DHS did not adequately document a majority (5 of 7) of administrative agreements approved between fiscal year 2012 and February of 2017;
  3. DHS did not have a centralized system to track suspension and debarment activities, which may have contributed to DHS’s inaccurate FY2016 reporting of suspension and debarments;
  4. For an 8-month period, FEMA’s suspension and debarment staff did not promptly update government-wide systems to reflect debarments and administrative agreements; and
  5. Staffing levels within DHS may be hindering efficient and effective handling of suspensions and debarments.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=87d53f1f-3a3f-4efe-8dbe-cc61998edecd

By

Homeland Security’s ‘innovation station’

A variety of systems cultivated under a Homeland Security rapid development program may be fielded late next year, bearing the first major fruits of the 2-year-old effort.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) kicked off its Silicon Valley Innovation Program in 2015 in an attempt to dramatically reduce the time to develop and deploy technology. The program focuses on all areas of the DHS mission, including information technology, finance, energy, health and first responders.

Program officials work largely with smaller companies, often startups that do not normally collaborate with the government. The businesses, in many cases, already have products and commercial customers, but their technologies need to be further developed and adapted to suit DHS needs.

“We actually have [entrepreneurs] whose venture capitalists have told them not to work with government because it’s too slow,” reports Melissa Ho, managing director of the DHS Silicon Valley Innovation Programs Office. But now, she says, startups want to work with the DHS “because we’re a customer that can validate their technology and because we have a way of contracting with them faster.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.afcea.org/content/homeland-securitys-innovation-station

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