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November 9, 2017 By AMK

Admin tells agencies to strip contract provisions guarding against wage theft

Federal contractors will not face requirements aimed at protecting employees from wage theft and unsafe working conditions under a rule the Trump administration finalized on Monday, Oct. 6, 2017.

The rule follows a resolution Republican lawmakers passed and President Trump signed in March under the Congressional Review Act, which voided an Obama administration push for more transparent compliance with workplace laws for employees working on federal contracts. While most of the provisions of the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces initiative were never enforced after a federal court blocked their implementation, the Trump administration noted at least one key reform may have made its way into some contracts.

President Obama pushed a rule known as “paycheck transparency,” which required contractors to provide detailed statements on their hours worked and compensation earned. That provision was never enjoined in court, meaning some federal contracts signed in 2017 with an estimated value of more than $500,000 may have already included the requirement. The goal of provision was to ensure employees were protected against wage theft by their employer.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2017/11/trump-admin-tells-agencies-strip-contract-provisions-guarding-against-wage-theft/142337

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces Act, federal contracts, labor law, labor violation, paycheck transparency

September 21, 2017 By AMK

Here’s how the government could better track contract spending

All legal entities in the world should subscribe to a common identification system, so the public can track their relationships, according to a new report.

Doing so could disrupt the monopoly Dun & Bradstreet has on the identification numbers contractors use to work with the federal government. But if the public and federal government want to better understand where money goes, they’re going to need to use a common identification system, the report from records giant Lexis Nexis and the Data Foundation, a government-transparency focused advocacy group, argued.

When government agencies track awards to contractors, they sometimes use their own identification systems for internal purposes. In the U.S., federal procurement officers also use Dun & Bradstreet’s “DUNS Number” to tag every contractor; those businesses are required to register for their own number through Dun & Bradstreet itself. But those contractors also use proprietary ID tags, and often both groups silo their identification system by the industry the business is in.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/big-data/2017/09/heres-how-government-could-better-track-contract-spending/141012

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: contract data, D&B, Dun & Bradstreet, DUNS, federal contracting, federal contracts, Legal Entity Identifier, spending, transparency

September 14, 2017 By AMK

Banking on uncertainty: Why this year’s spending spree will be different

This year, some extraordinary pressures have come to bear around federal spending.

There’s the seeming chaos in Washington, with the new administration failing to fill hundreds of mid- and senior-level jobs. There’s the dire sense in most agencies that next year’s budget will be smaller. And there’s the fog and uncertainty that come with operating under a series of continuing resolutions.

A change of party in the White House typically puts the brakes on spending at least temporarily, as agencies sort out their new priorities. This time around? Double it, with an administration that governs by tweet and a POTUS who appears to thrive on keeping agencies off balance. The chaos inside the Beltway is bipartisan and cuts across every agency not focused on security or defense.

Despite these factors, observers say, the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 is shaping up to be business as usual. “The No. 1 reason you get cut is if you don’t spend the money that you have,” said David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council. “So the proposed cuts give people an incentive to spend, and those forces outweigh the uncertainty.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/smr/year-end-spending/2017/09/11/banking-on-uncertainty-why-this-years-spending-spree-will-be-different/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition reform, end-of-year spending, federal contracting, federal contracts, government reform, procurement reform, spending

October 14, 2016 By AMK

Congress appears poised to gut government contracts for small business

M.L. Mackey and her husband started their company, Beacon Interactive Systems, 22 years ago. Since 2002, they have made their living primarily selling software to the Navy. As far as defense contractors go, theirs is a small business, to be sure: In the last 14 years, Beacon has booked almost $14 million in direct sales to the government, and done even more work as a subcontractor on other projects.

small-business-policyBut recent work building shipboard operating software for energy management — a project, Mackey says, that has been “extremely well received from the waterfront to the Pentagon” — has led Mackey to think bigger. “We’re actively transitioning our Navy products into maritime internet of things and manufacturing internet of things products,” she said. The company, she says, has formed strategic partnerships to launch itself back into the private sector as a prelude to building an internal sales force. Meanwhile, she anticipates that within a few years, she’ll be bidding on, and winning, much larger Navy contracts — worth as much as $15 million.

Mackey credits Beacon’s success building the energy management software to a close working relationship with Navy program managers. “We were able to brainstorm and iterate directly with our fleet customer and develop a technology that directly addressed their needs,” she says. “When they wanted to do more, they were able to directly engage with us. And we as a company have more of the I.P. we need to bring to the private sector market expansion. But none of this would have happened if I didn’t have a prime contract.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/robbmandelbaum/2016/09/30/congress-appears-poised-to-gut-government-contracts-for-small-business/#4009748a2e3d

 

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: federal contracting, federal contracts, set-aside, small business, small business goals, strategic partnerships

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