FedBizOpps | The Contracting Education Academy

June 2, 2014 By AMK

DOL could go it alone with acquisition platform

The Labor Department is seeking information on commercial capabilities that could help it better manage acquisition information as a subscription.

The department is interested in a dashboard that could provide access to regular acquisition news updates, and access to Government Accountability Office and other legal decisions, it writes in a May 12 request for information posted to Federal Business Opportunities.

This platform would also provide easy access to forms, templates and checklists, as well as other acquisition related tools and information.

Although the post is not a direct solicitation, even the department’s interest in such technology is notable given the concurrent efforts already underway within government to address the acquisition process.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/dol-could-go-it-alone-acquisition-platform/2014-05-15

April 28, 2014 By AMK

SAM ‘inelegant and cumbersome’ says GSA CIO

The System for Award Management (SAM) is operational but it’s not what the future of acquisition systems should look like, said Sonny Hashmi, chief information officer at the General Services Administration (GSA).

Commonly called “SAM,” the consolidated acquisition system launched in August 2012 to bring together three previously separate systems.

“It is still inelegant and cumbersome. We have done just enough to make it operational,” said Hashmi during an April 11 chat on GitHub.

Shortly after the system went live, SAM ran into a variety of problems that required the back-end security architecture, business process management layer and database schema to be completely reconfigured.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/sam-inelegant-and-cumbersome-says-gsa-cio/2014-04-16

If you encounter a business having trouble getting registered in SAM, be sure to tell them that they should not pay anyone to register their company in SAM. SAM registration is free! For details, please visit: http://gtpac.org/sam-gov-registration-is-free-and-help-with-sam-is-free-too

October 3, 2013 By AMK

How agencies bury noncompetitive procurements

I get a daily FedBizOpps feed of widget and gadget procurements and awards, and have spent literally hours the past two days poring through year-end sole source contract awards.

These are taxpayer dollars expended in an end-of-fiscal-year “use it or lose it” frenzy, but eyeballing these sole source awards is a manual process that requires opening multiple windows to divine what agencies bought and how much they spent.

In many cases agencies don’t disclose what they spent on the sole source contracts, which raises my reporter antenna.

The justification for these non-competitive awards all contain standard boiler plate language — only Vendor X can supply the gadget, software or service and if the contract is not extended or the gizmo acquired, vital operations will cease, often with a threat to national security.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/defense/whats-brewin/2013/09/how-agencies-bury-noncompetitive-contracts/70834

September 13, 2013 By AMK

FBI to sole source mobile forensic contract

The FBI plans to award a sole-source, fixed price contract to New Jersey-based Cellebrite USA, Inc. for mobile forensic casework tools. The contract does not yet have a price.

According to a notice posted Aug. 28 to FedBizOpps, FBI’s market research determined that the Cellebrite UFED System is the “only hand-held, cellular exploitation device worldwide that requires no PC or associated phone drivers.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercemobilegovernment.com/story/fbi-sole-source-mobile-forensic-contract/2013-09-11

July 13, 2012 By AMK

FedBizOpps.gov contractor under FBI investigation

The federal contractor running three governmentwide websites, including FedBizOpps.gov, is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly trying to access without permission websites of their competitors in the education sector.

The Eastern District Court of Virginia in Alexandria issued a search warrant March 5 to the FBI. The FBI conducted the search before March 19 of Symplicity Corporation’s offices in Arlington, Va.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=490&sid=2923841.

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