Marine Corps | The Contracting Education Academy

February 1, 2021 By cs

Bus brokerage exec admits to bribing Marine Corps official in exchange for $2 million in contracts

Darrel Fitzpatrick, who also went by the name Patrick Fields, pleaded guilty on January 21 to Conspiracy to Commit Bribery, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 371 and 201(b)(1). Sentencing is set for April 29, 2021.

Fitzpatrick faces up to five years imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and a mandatory special assessment of $100.

According to court papers, in 2019:

Fitzpatrick was a senior account manager at a bus brokerage company in Atlanta that provided transportation to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.
That same year, Fitzpatrick started a competing transportation brokerage company called National Charter Express.
Fitzpatrick agreed to pay kickbacks to Erik Martin, a civilian employee of the Marine Corps Reserves, in exchange for Martin directing contracts to the company where he worked and, subsequently, to National Charter Express.
The conspiracy resulted in at least $2,000,000 in transportation contracts being corruptly awarded to companies associated with Fitzpatrick.
In exchange for the contract awards, Fitzpatrick wired and attempted to wire Martin over $250,000 in bribes.

The Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), and the United States Secret Service investigated this case.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edla/pr/atlanta-man-admits-bribing-us-marine-corps-official-exchange-2000000-transportation

Also see “Federal Employee Pleads Guilty to Taking $250K in Bribes over Military Transport Contracts” at: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/01/06/guilty-plea-military-transportation-bribery-case.html

May 7, 2020 By cs

Navy contract spending jumps 30% in April amid coronavirus pandemic

The federal contracting community has gotten used to seeing major upticks in contract outlays in the last couple months of the fiscal year.

But for the Department of the Navy, April’s numbers rivaled those figures: Contract obligations this month are already up 30% compared to the same period a year ago, and almost double the figures from April 2018.

To be sure, the coronavirus pandemic was a big factor in the increase in dollars-on-contract. Like most other parts of the government, the Navy and Marine Corps are spending a lot to respond to the pandemic itself and to keep vulnerable parts of their supply chains afloat.

But that’s not the whole story, said James Geurts, the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. The Navy Department’s ability to get cash out the door more quickly is also the result of reform efforts that have been underway for the last two-and-a-half years and emergency planning that predated the COVID crisis.

“I’m seeing some remarkable efficiencies,” he told reporters on a conference call Tuesday. “I think a lot of that is getting rid of layers of bureaucracy that weren’t needed. Some of it is also creating better partnerships with industry so that we can leverage cost and pricing data we already have, and we don’t have to send out an RFP and get a proposal back just to confirm that data. And some of it is just a continued sense of urgency and mission focus.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2020/04/navy-contract-spending-jumps-30-in-april-amid-covid-pandemic/

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized. Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

March 6, 2019 By AMK

Oracle providing post-deployment system support to the Army

Oracle America Inc., Redwood City, California, has been awarded $18,850,000 for fixed-price-level-of-effort task order.

The order was placed under a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract (M67854-17-D-7609) for continued post-deployment system support including, service management, service operations; production and pre-production system sustainment; solution development environment; enterprise training and training devices; product lifecycle support; and service transition for change requests and engineering change proposals.

Work will be performed in Stafford, Virginia (50 percent); and Quantico, Virginia (50 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 20, 2019.

Fiscal year 2019 operations and maintenance funding, from the Marine Corps, in the amount of $18,850,000 will be obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

The base contract was awarded on the basis of a sole source justification in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation subpart 6.302-1 (Only One Responsible Source). The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Source: https://www.afcea.org/content/oracle-providing-post-deployment-system-support-army

December 14, 2018 By AMK

Marine cyber command is getting in on other transaction contracting

The Marine Corps cyber arm is about ready to sign its first contract using the lightly regulated Other Transaction Authority given to select agencies to spur research, development and acquisition of bleeding-edge technologies without having to abide by the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command, or MARFORCYBER, officials expect to sign their first OT contract on or before Dec. 17, Command Executive Director Gregg Kendrick told Nextgov. Kendrick said MARFORCYBER, in conjunction with Marine Corps Systems Command, has been working on the contract since May, though the hard work began in earnest in July.

The project will focus on cybersecurity and big data, including how to protect the Marines’ troves of data, as well as how to use that data to better protect the rest of the enterprise.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/12/marine-cyber-command-getting-other-transaction-contracting/153339/

March 1, 2018 By AMK

Here’s how the Marines’ cyber warriors are buying new equipment

The service cyber components that feed up to Cyber Command are responsible to man, train and equip their cyber warriors, meaning each service ends up using their own acquisition and service-specific models to do so.

While Cyber Command possesses limited acquisition authority, this capability is nascent meaning the individual services still are charged with equipping their cyber forces based upon minimum operating capabilities operating capabilities Cyber Command’s Capabilities Development Group outlines.

Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command does not possess direct acquisition authority and so they have to work through a variety of vectors including other commands within the service to procure both offensive and defensive capabilities.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/marine-corps/2018/02/21/heres-how-the-marines-cyber-warriors-are-procuring-equipment/

Darrel Fitzpatrick, who also went by the name Patrick Fields, pleaded guilty on January 21 to Conspiracy to Commit Bribery, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 371 and 201(b)(1). Sentencing is set for April 29, 2021.

The federal contracting community has gotten used to seeing major upticks in contract outlays in the last couple months of the fiscal year.

Oracle America Inc., Redwood City, California, has been awarded $18,850,000 for fixed-price-level-of-effort task order.

The Marine Corps cyber arm is about ready to sign its first contract using the lightly regulated Other Transaction Authority given to select agencies to spur research, development and acquisition of bleeding-edge technologies without having to abide by the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

The service cyber components that feed up to Cyber Command are responsible to man, train and equip their cyber warriors, meaning each service ends up using their own acquisition and service-specific models to do so.

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