Several federal agencies are not letting eligible companies compete for IT contracts, reasoning that only a current or other favored supplier can handle work demanded by a 30-day cybersecurity exercise.
But that exercise was supposed to have ended last July, and some of these so-called sole-source contracts issued by the departments of Homeland Security and Labor, among others, appear to strain, if not outright violate, federal contracting rules, according to procurement attorneys.
A keyword search through the government’s business opportunity website for “cyber” contracts posted July 30 or afterward turned up eight such noncompetitive deals. Because many contracts are not disclosed online or are published in unsearchable PDFs, the total number may be much higher, say federal acquisition experts.
Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2016/03/federal-agencies-are-using-last-summers-cyber-sprint-justify-sole-source-it-contracts/126528