Emergency Contracting | The Contracting Education Academy

March 18, 2019 By AMK

VA procurement and security clearance processing land on GAO’s high-risk list

The Veterans Affairs Department suffers from “fundamental management weaknesses and is one of the most challenged in the federal government,” Comptroller General Gene Dodaro told a Senate panel recently.

Leadership instability, high-level vacancies and a lack of accountability are all problems at the sprawling, decentralized VA, which appears three times on the newly released biennial list of high-risk programs compiled by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie “has a plan but there’s not a lot of detail” for implementing GAO recommendations in such areas as the department’s outdated procurement system that relies too heavily on expensive emergency procurements, Dodaro said.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2019/03/va-procurement-and-security-clearance-processing-land-gaos-high-risk-list/155354

May 17, 2018 By AMK

Officials mishandled trans-Africa airlift contract, Pentagon watchdog finds

Just days after the Pentagon released a post-mortem on a fatal ambush of U.S. combat troops in Niger last year, the department’s watchdog criticized U.S. Africa Command for mishandling a contract for conducting emergency evacuation services and airlifting cargo across the continent.

Defense Department rules required the command to conduct what is called a Service Requirements Review Board to analyze and verify its requirements before U.S. Transportation Command awarded a $900 million contract for trans-Africa airlift support.

The command’s contracting staff “did not take responsibility as the requiring activity” for the contract, with Transportation Command officials assuming that as long as they received funding and a performance work statement, “the requiring activity had validated the requirements,” said the report dated May 8.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/defense/2018/05/officials-mishandled-trans-africa-airlift-contract-pentagon-watchdog-finds/148229

December 8, 2017 By AMK

DoD class deviations allow for greater contracting flexibility in times of crisis

The Department of Defense (“DoD”) has issued two Class Deviations that provide defense agencies with greater flexibility when procuring in times of crisis.

These Class Deviations allow for the use of simplified acquisition procedures and excuse certain procurement obligations when DoD is responding to a cyber-attack or providing relief in support of domestic or international disasters.

On November 8, 2017, DoD issued Class Deviation 2018-O0001, which expands the types of procurements treated as commercial item acquisitions and exempts acquisitions in support of cyber-attacks, international disaster assistance, and “emergency or major disaster” relief from requirements to (i) comply with item unique identification, (ii) receive two offers, and (iii) limit the use of time and materials contracts. This Class Deviation also delegates authority for determinations relating to these acquisitions from the Secretary of Defense to the various heads of contracting activities within DoD.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2017/11/dod-allows-for-more-contracting-flexibility-in-times-of-crisis/

December 5, 2017 By AMK

Top FEMA official: Hit the ‘reset button’ on disaster recovery roles

State and local governments should own the disaster recovery process by creating integrated, outcome-based mitigation plans like Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s administrator said Thursday at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill.

To that end, Brock Long asked the House Appropriations Committee for additional authority in FEMA’s third supplemental request for $44 billion to go beyond simply rebuilding communities to pre-disaster standards, per the Stafford Act, and address resiliency.

Too often FEMA finds itself in the role of first responder and even the only responder, Long said, as was the case in Puerto Rico, which faces massive amounts of deferred maintenance on antiquated infrastructure and its energy grid in particular. The average age of power plants in the U.S. commonwealth is 44 years, compared to the national average of 18.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.routefifty.com/public-safety/2017/11/fema-brock-long-congress/144205/

October 31, 2017 By AMK

DoD acquisition ‘slow by design,’ can’t handle cybersecurity defense

The Defense Department isn’t built to handle cybersecurity defense well.

Its acquisition system is designed to develop and purchase large, expensive weapons systems while holding to the tenets of competition, transparency and integrity. That means it can’t keep up with cybersecurity defense.

“The defense acquisition process is slow by design,” Lt. Col. Dan Schoeni, judge advocate at the Air Force, said on Cybersecurity Month. “And that’s completely understandable — when you’re spending billions of dollars of other peoples’ money, the number-one thing on taxpayers’ minds is fraud, waste and abuse. They’re concerned about, ‘Where are our tax dollars going?’ So the system has been built, has been skewed in favor of overarching principles.”

But taking seven-to-10 years to develop a new fighter jet or weapons system is one thing; taking that long to develop cybersecurity systems is another. It can’t keep up with the speed of attacks, much less the speed with which the threat environment itself evolves.

Schoeni said Congress has tried to help by expanding authorities for purchasing cybersecurity technology, including rapid acquisition and special emergency procurement, but neither one does enough.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/cybersecurity-2017/2017/10/dod-acquisition-slow-by-design-cant-handle-cybersecurity-defense/

The Veterans Affairs Department suffers from “fundamental management weaknesses and is one of the most challenged in the federal government,” Comptroller General Gene Dodaro told a Senate panel recently.

Just days after the Pentagon released a post-mortem on a fatal ambush of U.S. combat troops in Niger last year, the department’s watchdog criticized U.S. Africa Command for mishandling a contract for conducting emergency evacuation services and airlifting cargo across the continent.

The Department of Defense (“DoD”) has issued two Class Deviations that provide defense agencies with greater flexibility when procuring in times of crisis.

State and local governments should own the disaster recovery process by creating integrated, outcome-based mitigation plans like Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s administrator said Thursday at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill.

The Defense Department isn’t built to handle cybersecurity defense well.

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