GAO | The Contracting Education Academy

June 15, 2020 By cs

GSA to take corrective action again on DoD’s $7.6 billion cloud contract

The Defense Department’s $7.6 billion cloud email and collaboration contract continues to be hung up by protests nearly 10 months after the initial award.

The General Services Administration (GSA) told the Government Accountability Office (GAO) it would take corrective action for a second time on the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS). GAO dismissed the latest protest from Perspecta on June 8.

GSA told GAO it will amend the solicitation, ask for revised proposals, and take other steps to address the pre-award complaint.

Under DEOS, the Pentagon wants to implement Microsoft Office 365 and associated capabilities including word processing and spreadsheets, email, collaboration, file sharing and storage.

This was the second time Perspecta filed a complaint with GAO after GSA awarded DEOS to General Dynamics-IT in August.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contractsawards/2020/06/gsa-to-take-corrective-action-again-on-dods-7-6b-cloud-contract/

June 4, 2020 By cs

Federal procurement spending up $120 billion since 2015

Agencies spent more on procurement in fiscal 2019 than in any of the previous 10 years.

**Click on graphic above to see full GAO infographic.**

And no surprise, agency pending on multiple award contracts for IT and services spiked last year.

Now that all of the 2019 numbers are final, the predictions of a banner year for contractors and agencies when it came to buying products and services came true.

The Government Accountability Office found agencies spent $584 billion on procurement last year, up $20 billion over 2018 and more than $120 billion since 2015.

Bloomberg Government reported that agencies spent $448 billion on procurement in 2014 and a six-year low of $442 billion in 2015.

The Defense Department accounted for $381 billion while civilian agencies spent $205 billion.

Of that, GAO said agencies procured 83.5% of all contracts competitively, up from 64.4% in 2015. DoD continues to struggle with competition as GAO found the Pentagon’s rate dropped to 53.8% in 2019 from 55.4% in 2015.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2020/06/federal-procurement-spending-up-120b-since-2015/

June 1, 2020 By cs

Census Bureau seeks industry input on cybersecurity acquisitions strategy for next decade

With data collection for the 2020 census underway, the bureau is thinking about how artificial intelligence and other capabilities might help address sore points.

With government watchdogs eyeing its operations, the U.S. Census Bureau issued a request for information as it decides on acquisitions it might make to improve cybersecurity in a number of areas.

The centuries-old decennial census is being conducted digitally for the first time this year, a herculean effort that is projected to cost $15.6 billion and opened the count to new cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

“The purpose of this request for information is to provide information to the United States Census Bureau to help determine an acquisition strategy for cybersecurity for the coming decade,” reads the document posted to betaSAM.gov. “The USCB believes industry holds the most current and best practices in these areas impacted by cybersecurity and seeks recommendations on how to best acquire the needed industry knowledge and expertise and achieve benefits in accordance with federal requirements.”

The Census Bureau’s cybersecurity posture has received some stern criticism from the Government Accountability Office in the years leading up to the current count. And the RFI is looking for input to address some of the very weaknesses GAO flags.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2020/05/census-bureau-seeks-industry-input-cybersecurity-acquisitions-strategy-next-decade/165621/

April 3, 2020 By cs

Simplified acquisition procedures afford agencies a lot of latitude, GAO decision reminds us

Not being included, or being purposely excluded, may remind some of adolescence, and may remind others of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) simplified acquisition procedures.

The recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision in Phoenix Environmental Design, Inc. (Phoenix), B-418304 (March 2, 2020) deals with facing the latter form of disappointment.

The underlying purchase order in this matter was issued by the Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, to address the Southeast Idaho National Wildlife Refuge Complex’s (NWRC’s) urgent need for herbicide. The Southeast Idaho NWRC’s need was compounded by an unplanned wildfire, which provided soil conditions that would facilitate the elimination of “cheatgrass,” an invasive species in the area. The Southeast Idaho NWRC expressed its need for fifteen gallons of herbicide to the agency on October 10, 2019, stating that it needed the herbicide by October 25 because of concerns that a freezing event would occur and eliminate the efficacy of the herbicide.

To respond to the pressing request, the agency solicited quotations as a small business set-aside pursuant to FAR §§ 13.003 and 13.104, which provide for simplified acquisition procedures in lieu of full and open competition. The agency solicited quotations from three vendors – one was a local vendor and the other two vendors were businesses that had submitted the lowest prices in response to a prior solicitation for herbicides. Phoenix had also submitted a bid for this prior solicitation, though it had quoted the second highest price. While Phoenix had, throughout the years, repeatedly notified the agency that it was interested in all of the agency’s herbicide requirements, the agency did not solicit a quotation from Phoenix.

The formal purchase order was issued to Wilbur-Ellis Co. on October 17 and on October 18 the Southeast Idaho NWRC picked up the herbicide from the vendor’s facilities. On October 22, Phoenix requested that the contracting officer cancel the award, and after being informed that such would not occur, on October 25, Phoenix filed a protest at the agency level. Following the denial of that protest, Phoenix filed the instant protest with the GAO.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/simplified-acquisition-procedures-93132/

A helpful explanation of what simplified acquisition is appears at: http://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/?p=2851

March 13, 2020 By cs

Risk is high that GSA’s latest telecom contract suffers same fate as last two

The General Services Administration’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) program is facing the same fate as its predecessor — delays in transition will cost the government millions of dollars and push IT modernization further back on the priority list.

The difference between the failure of Networx and the potential problems EIS is facing, however, is the recognition by some lawmakers that it’s not entirely GSA’s fault.

The House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations wants to hold agency chief information officers and other leadership accountable for not moving fast enough to take advantage of the new contract.

“We learned a tremendous amount of lessons and, in fact, I credit GSA for incorporating those lessons learned from the Networx transition into their guidance and disseminating those lessons to the agencies,” said Carol Harris, director of IT acquisition management issues at the Government Accountability Office, during a subcommittee hearing on March 4. “Now the onus is on the agencies to get their house in order and move quickly to ensure that they are moving onto EIS as quickly as possible.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/hearings-oversight/2020/03/risk-is-high-that-gsas-latest-telecom-contract-suffers-same-fate-as-last-two/

The Defense Department’s $7.6 billion cloud email and collaboration contract continues to be hung up by protests nearly 10 months after the initial award.

Agencies spent more on procurement in fiscal 2019 than in any of the previous 10 years.

With data collection for the 2020 census underway, the bureau is thinking about how artificial intelligence and other capabilities might help address sore points.

Not being included, or being purposely excluded, may remind some of adolescence, and may remind others of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) simplified acquisition procedures.

The General Services Administration’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) program is facing the same fate as its predecessor — delays in transition will cost the government millions of dollars and push IT modernization further back on the priority list.

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