NSA | The Contracting Education Academy

April 30, 2019 By AMK

Watchdog questions NSA’s $636 million in award fee incentive contracts

The highly secretive National Security Agency may have relied too heavily on the contractor incentives provided in cost-plus award fee contracts, according to a new inspector general report calling into question some $630 million in awards.

A review of 54 contracts awarded using that method in fiscal years 2016 and 2017 showed that more than half “did not have a valid Determination and Finding justifying use of this contract method,” the NSA inspector general said in an April 3 report. Fifty-one of the 54 “lacked the required cost-benefit analysis of the expected benefits versus the additional administrative costs of monitoring and evaluating the contractor’s performance.”

The review was launched “because of the magnitude of the agency award fee contract pools and the significant potential financial risk to the agency and administrative burden associated with effectively managing award fee contracts,” the IG said.

So-called award fee contracts have long been permitted under the Federal Acquisition Regulation for work of a nature that makes it neither feasible nor effective to devise predetermined objective targets applicable to cost, schedule and technical performance, the report noted. Such awards are also appropriate if the likelihood of a company meeting the agency’s acquisition objectives will be enhanced by using a contract that “effectively motivates the contractor toward exceptional performance and provides the government with the flexibility to evaluate both actual performance and the condition under which it was achieved.

Keep reading article at: https://www.govexec.com/contracting/2019/04/watchdog-questions-nsas-636-million-award-fee-incentive-contracts/156173/

January 2, 2019 By AMK

What to expect from ‘other transaction authorities’ in 2019

If there is one term that has punctuated government contracting in 2018, it is “OTA.”

The use of OTAs or “other transaction authority” agreements has grown significantly in the federal government over the last year, due to this contract vehicle’s ability to help federal agencies rapidly incorporate new technologies required to ensure the success of today’s complex missions.

Although this style of contract is not new to the federal contracting community (in fact, it was brought onto the scene in the 1950s to aid NASA in the space race), we can expect to see additional use of OTAs to gain access to groundbreaking technologies faster and more efficiently in 2019.

There are three things you can expect to see from OTAs in the next year and beyond.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2018/12/what-expect-other-transaction-authorities-2019/153713/

October 15, 2018 By AMK

Two intelligence officials and a business owner indicted for bid rigging

Three individuals have been indicted by a federal grand jury on a variety of charges relating to procurement fraud and unlawfully disclosing and obtaining bid information concerning a contract estimated to be worth almost $1.5 million.

Kevin Kuciapinski was an active duty U.S. Air Force Major working at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Randolph Stimac was an employee of the National Security Agency (NSA). Both were stationed at the Aerospace Data Facility-Colorado on Buckley Air Force Base. The third defendant, Mykhael Kuciapinski was the owner and CEO of Company G, a company that attempted to do business with the U.S. Government. She was also the wife of Kevin Kuciapinski through July 2015.

According to the indictment released by the Justice Department, beginning on August 1, 2013, and continuing through November 24, 2015, the defendants conspired with each other to unlawfully obtain and disclose source selection information prior to the award for services related to a contract for services related to NSA, a category of intelligence that involves the collection, processing, and dissemination of foreign communications in order to obtain foreign intelligence necessary to the national defense, national security, or the conduct of the foreign affairs of the United States. The alleged plan and purpose of the conspiracy was for Kevin Kuciapinski and Randolph Stimac to provide a competitive advantage to defendant Mykhael Kuciapinski’s bid or proposal by providing her information and source selection information for the contract in question.

This case was investigated by the NRO Office of the Inspector General, NSA, Defense Criminal Investigative Services, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and the IRS-Criminal Investigation.

The charges contained in the indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/two-intelligence-officials-and-business-owner-indicted-bid-rigging

January 16, 2018 By AMK

Former NSA contractor admits to stealing confidential documents

A former National Security Agency contractor at the center of one of several pending leak cases has pleaded guilty to one of 20 counts he faces for removing classified information from the agency and storing those documents in his home for decades.

Harold Martin III, 52, was arrested in August 2016 and later indicted on 20 counts of willful retention of national defense information. According to the indictment, over the course of 23 years working as a contractor for the intelligence community, Martin took documents from the agencies he was working for and kept them in his Maryland home, some of which included top secret and sensitive compartmented information.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2018/01/former-nsa-contractor-admits-stealing-confidential-documents/144956/

Background on this story can be found in this 2016 New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/20/us/harold-martin-nsa.html

December 4, 2017 By AMK

The ‘huge’ hole in the government’s Russian software ban

The Trump administration’s order barring certain Russian software from government networks doesn’t fully cover one troubling vulnerability — the teeming ranks of government contractors.

That omission could leave open gateways for hackers looking to pilfer government secrets, cybersecurity specialists warn, something that has reportedly happened in recent years with contractors from the CIA and the NSA. But legal experts say the government has only limited ability to require contractors to uproot Kaspersky Lab’s products from their computers.

“It’s a huge area of risk, especially with some of the recent breaches at the NSA and the CIA where it was clear that these contractors were the source of it,” said Trevor Rudolph, the former head of an OMB team that helps agencies improve their cyber defenses.

Matt Keller, who advises government clients on digital security programs as a vice president at GuidePoint, dubbed the issue a “moderate to high risk” for federal agencies.

It’s impossible to quantify the risk exactly, but hundreds of thousands of federal contractors hold top secret clearances.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/24/the-huge-hole-in-the-governments-russian-software-ban-259473

The highly secretive National Security Agency may have relied too heavily on the contractor incentives provided in cost-plus award fee contracts, according to a new inspector general report calling into question some $630 million in awards.

If there is one term that has punctuated government contracting in 2018, it is “OTA.”

Three individuals have been indicted by a federal grand jury on a variety of charges relating to procurement fraud and unlawfully disclosing and obtaining bid information concerning a contract estimated to be worth almost $1.5 million.

A former National Security Agency contractor at the center of one of several pending leak cases has pleaded guilty to one of 20 counts he faces for removing classified information from the agency and storing those documents in his home for decades.

The Trump administration’s order barring certain Russian software from government networks doesn’t fully cover one troubling vulnerability — the teeming ranks of government contractors.

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