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DARPA looks to procurement bots

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for a few good bots to help with procurement.

In a request for information posted Jan. 23, DARPA said it wants information on off-the-shelf options for robotic and intelligent process automation tools that can increase efficiency and expand its ability to manage routine administrative tasks such as proposal evaluation, market research, cost and price analysis and documentation related to price negotiations.

DARPA is also considering integrating robotic process automation into Defense Department IT systems, including the System for Award Management, Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System and the Standard Performance System/Procurement Desktop-Defense. Respondents are asked to provide available information on the software’s security and any interoperability limitations it might have with existing government systems.

Keep reading this article at: https://gcn.com/articles/2019/01/24/darpa-rpa.aspx

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$110,000 settlement reached with tech company and CEO to resolve allegations of false claims on Defense contract

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, has announced that Progressive Technology Federal Systems, Inc. and its Chief Executive Officer have paid a combined $110,000 to settle allegations that the corporation and its CEO made false statements concerning a consultant’s security clearance and failed to disclose an organizational conflict of interest when bidding on a defense procurement contract. 

One way federal government agencies can buy information technology services is by working with the National Institutes of Health’s Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC).   NITAAC is a government-wide program that enables agencies to contract for information technology.  Other federal agencies, including the military, regularly work with NITAAC.

The United States’ allegations relate to a project in which NITAAC was used by the Army and the Air Force for a contract that was awarded to Progressive Technology Federal Systems, Inc. (PTFS).   The United States contends that in 2014, PTFS’s President and CEO, John Yokley, participated in preparing project specifications for a contract to be issued by NITAAC.  The project then was offered by NITAAC for contract bids.  PTFS then submitted its own proposal to take on the contract.  In doing so, however, PTFS stated that it had no conflict of interest relating to the contract.  This statement was false because PTFS had a conflict in that Mr. Yokley had provided input on project specifications that were included in the contract, thereby gaining a competitive advantage for PTFS.  In addition, the project required security clearances, and PTFS falsely stated in its proposal that an individual who would participate in the project as a key “Subject Matter Expert” had an active Top Secret clearance.  PTFS was awarded the contract.  Funding for the contract was later terminated before PTFS could invoice more than $30,000.  The United States claimed that this conduct violated the False Claims Act.

The claims settled by this agreement are allegations.  In entering into this civil settlement, PTFS and Mr. Yokley did not admit liability.  Under the agreement, PTFS paid $65,000, and Mr. Yokley paid $45,000, to resolve the allegations.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/us-attorney-announces-110000-settlement-tech-company-and-its-ceo-resolve-allegations

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DHS turns to existing GSA, NIH contracts to (mostly) replace EAGLE

As with a number of major IT vehicles this year, the Homeland Security Department is tossing out plans to recompete a central IT services contract and is instead opting to rely on governmentwide acquisition contracts beginning early next year.

Rather than recompete the Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading-Edge Solutions, or EAGLE II, for a third generation, Homeland Security officials announced last week a transition to a broader acquisition strategy they’re calling EAGLE Next Gen. The strategy will tap a set of existing contracts to build a suite of IT services offerings for use across the department. Homeland Security officials also expect to compete targeted contracts to supplement niche mission needs.

In a determination made Dec. 17, Chief Procurement Officer Soraya Correa said as of Feb. 4, Homeland Security components will purchase IT services off of six GWACs managed by the General Services Administration and the National Institutes of Health: GSA’s Alliant 2 and Alliant 2 Small Business, 8(a) STARS II, VETS 2, and NIH’s CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP3 Small Business.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/12/dhs-turns-existing-gsa-nih-contracts-mostly-replace-eagle/153731/

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Bypassing procurement can introduce some unwanted visitors

The federal IT procurement safety net may be developing some holes.

Many federal developers are forgoing traditional software purchasing in favor of going directly to the source and downloading code from tens of millions of open source repositories and libraries. While this can certainly expedite innovation, it also has the potential to expose agencies to security risks if they’re not careful.

This backdoor approach to code procurement can let in some unwanted visitors through that door: unknown and dangerous vulnerabilities that may have gone undetected in the code. Without the checks and balances of procurement, how can they be sure that the code they are downloading does not contain some form of malware or another bad actor?  How can they stay agile while keeping their applications and networks safe?

A rigorous procurement process that takes into account security hygiene and quality assurance can help keep the bad stuff from getting into the system. Circumventing that process can create a couple of different challenges.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2018/12/bypassing-procurement-can-introduce-some-unwanted-visitors/153144/

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DoD moving away from LPTA for IT acquisitions

The Department of Defense (DoD) published a new proposed rule in the Federal Register on Tuesday of this week that follows through on legislation to remove the lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) acquisition methodology from IT and cybersecurity acquisitions, in favor of the tradeoff source selection process.

The proposed rule, open to comment until Feb. 4, 2019 would be implemented in the Defense Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), and is based on both the 2017 and 2018 National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAAs), which include language to define when LPTA is to be used.

While initially passed as part of Section 813 in the 2017 NDAA, the 2018 NDAA included some amendments to define when LPTA should be used.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.meritalk.com/articles/dod-moving-away-from-lpta-for-it-acquisitions/

See Proposed Rule by the Defense Acquisition Regulations System on 12/04/2018 here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/12/04/2018-26306/defense-federal-acquisition-regulation-supplement-restrictions-on-use-of-lowest-priced-technically

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