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March 30, 2021 By cs

GSA could be vulnerable to security threats from ‘trusted insiders’

The General Services Administration needs to bolster its efforts to protect against insider threats from current and recently separated employees, a watchdog reported recently.

The GSA inspector general reviewed the agency’s processes to thwart harmful actions from “trusted insiders” to its personnel, facilities, operations and resources. GSA has about 12,000 employees throughout its central office, Federal Acquisition Service, Public Buildings Service, Office of Governmentwide Policy, 11 national staff offices, 11 regional offices and two independent offices. An October 2011 executive order and subsequent policy from November 2012 laid out requirements for agencies’ insider threat programs. In 2014, GSA established its own program (a two-person team that reports to the senior designated official who is the associate administrator of GSA’s Office of Mission Assurance) and in 2017 the National Insider Threat Task Force certified it met the minimum standards. However, the inspector general found some areas of concern since then.

“We found that GSA’s [insider threat program] does not consistently collaborate with other GSA staff offices to gather key threat information proactively and does not communicate insider threat risks and program challenges to the GSA administrator as required,” said the report.  “Instead, the [program] senior designated official has taken a reactive approach that leaves GSA susceptible to insider threats.”

Another issue was that after the National Insider Threat Task Force deemed GSA’s insider threat program was at full operational capacity in November 2017, GSA’s insider threat working group disbanded because staff thought it was no longer needed.  The group had members from the Office of Human Resources Management, Office of GSA IT, Office of the Chief Financial Officer and Office of Mission Assurance.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/oversight/2021/02/watchdog-says-gsas-insider-threats-program-needs-improvement/172147/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, cybersecurity, cyberthreat, GSA, IG, OIG, security controls, security threat

December 3, 2020 By cs

Contractor agrees to pay $18.98 million for alleged overcharges and use of unqualified labor

Cognosante LLC has agreed to pay the United States $18,987,789 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by using unqualified labor and overcharging the United States for services provided to government agencies under two General Services Administration (GSA) contracts, the Justice Department. 

Cognosante, which is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, provides health care and IT services and solutions to federal agencies.

GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contracts allow the federal government to leverage its buying power to achieve favorable pricing.  Under MAS contracts, contractors negotiate with GSA to set maximum prices for goods and services subsequently ordered by agencies across the federal government.  These contracts provide streamlined access to the federal marketplace.

The settlement resolves allegations that Cognosante overcharged the United States for services performed under two GSA MAS contracts, including by providing false information concerning Cognosante’s commercial discounting practices during contract negotiations.  It also resolves allegations that Cognosante charged the United States for labor that failed to meet the qualifications in one of the contracts.

Cognosante investigated and disclosed to the United States the contractual violations resolved in the settlement.  It received credit for its disclosure and cooperation.

The settlement was the result of a joint investigation by the GSA OIG, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, and the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch.  The claims resolved by the settlement agreement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.    

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-contractor-agrees-pay-1898-million-alleged-false-claims-act-caused-overcharges-and

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: abuse, DOJ, false claims, False Claims Act, false information, fraud, GSA, IG, Justice Dept., MAS, multiple award, multiple award contract, OIG, overcharge, settlement, unqualified labor

November 30, 2020 By cs

Contractor admits to giving gifts to USDA officials to influence contract awards and obstructing federal grand jury investigation

The former vice president and CEO of Communications Resource, Inc. (CRI), has pled guilty in federal court in the District of Columbia to one count of conspiracy to violate the Procurement Integrity Act and one count of obstruction of justice.

According to court papers, Eric Schneider of Virginia admitted to giving gifts to multiple officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to influence the award of contracts worth over $19.2 million to CRI and another company he controlled.

  • Schneider admitted to giving USDA officials Corvette wheels, concert tickets, PGA tour tickets, meals, alcohol, strip clubs, parking, concierge medical services, prescription drugs, and other cash tips.
  • Schneider further admitted that, as part of the conspiracy, he drafted or instructed employees to draft procurement documents in such a way as to favor the award of a multi-million dollar contract to CRI.
  • Schneider then provided the documents to a USDA official to whom he provided gifts, for use in the procurement process as if they had been prepared by the USDA.
  • Schneider also admitted to directing two of his company’s employees to destroy documents responsive to a federal grand jury subpoena.

Schneider pled guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  A sentencing date has not yet been set.  The maximum penalty for conspiracy is five years in prison and a fine of not more than $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss of the offense.  The maximum penalty for obstruction of justice is ten years of imprisonment.

The Washington Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Beltsville Field Office of the United States Department of Agriculture, Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigated the case, along with assistance from the Department of Health and Human Services OIG, the Department of State OIG, and the Small Business Administration OIG.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/usda-contractor-admits-giving-gifts-usda-officials-influence-award-contracts-and

 

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: abuse, acquisition workforce, bribery, conspiracy, DOJ, FBI, felony, IG, Justice Dept., obstruction, obstruction of justice, OIG, Procurement Integrity Act, USDA

November 25, 2020 By cs

Employee of government contractor pleads guilty to fraud and kickback charges

An employee of a government contractor had pled guilty to his involvement in a scheme to overbill a contract administered by the General Services Administration (GSA) by approximately $1.25 million, and solicit and receive kickbacks from a subcontractor in exchange for providing that subcontractor valuable contract modifications.

Elmer Baker of Gulf Breeze, Florida, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute and four counts of wire fraud in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  Sentencing will be scheduled for a later date.

According to admissions made in connection with the plea agreement:

  • Baker served as the project manager for his company on the contract administered by the GSA.
  • After his company awarded a subcontract to a construction company for work on the facility, Baker began receiving kickbacks in the form of meals, golf sessions, vacations, and other things of value.
  • In or around 2015, Baker began demanding monetary kickbacks that were valued at 10 percent of the amount of each of the subcontract modifications that he awarded the subcontractor.
  • Baker sent the subcontractor fake invoices to make it appear as though the payments he was receiving were for legitimate work, and he set up a shell company to receive the payments.
  • Additionally, Baker took the subcontract estimates provided to him and illegally inflated them in his requests to the GSA.
  • Over the course of several subcontract modifications, Baker defrauded the GSA out of approximately $1.25 million.

Prosecution of his case was handled by the Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, the nation’s leading prosecuting authority on government procurement fraud and corruption matters.

The GSA Office of Inspector General, FBI’s Washington Field Office, and the State Department Office of Inspector General were in charge of investigating this case.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/employee-government-contractor-pleads-guilty-fraud-and-kickback-charges

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: abuse, Anti-Kickback Act, bribe, bribery, FBI, fraud, GSA, IG, kickback, modification, OIG, State Dept., wire fraud

March 6, 2020 By cs

Contracting official sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for role in bribery scheme to rig VA contracts

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs official Dwane Nevins has been sentenced to serve 18 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for corruption offenses.  He took cash bribes and then extorted undercover small business owners so that he could have his “Christmas.”

We first reported on the allegations against Nevins in September 2018.  Then, in January of this year, we reported on the sentencing of a businessman who conspired with Nevins.  Sentencing of one more individual in this case is scheduled later this month.

According to Court records, Dwane Nevins — a small business specialist at the VA’s Network Contracting Office in Colorado — agreed to take bribes offered by co-defendants Robert Revis, Anthony Bueno, and an undercover FBI agent to help them manipulate the process for bidding on federal contracts with the VA.

  • Revis and Bueno, working with Nevins, agreed to submit fraudulent bids from service-disabled-veteran-owned small businesses under contract with their consulting company so that federal contracts would be set aside for only those companies.  As Bueno put it, the conspirators would then “own all the dogs on the track.”
  • Nevins, Bueno and Revis worked to conceal the nature of the bribe payments by either kicking back to Nevins a portion of the payments made to their consulting company, or by asking their consulting company’s clients to pay Nevins for sham training classes related to federal contracting.  At one of those sham trainings in Las Vegas, Nevada, Nevins accepted a $4,500 cash bribe from the undercover FBI agent.

After complaining about not being paid by Revis and Bueno for his participation in the scheme, Nevins used his official position at the VA to extort approximately $10,000 from an undercover FBI agent, telling the agent that “the train don’t go without me.  You know what I mean?  I’m the engine.  I’m the caboose.  I’m the engine room.”  Nevins also told the undercover FBI agent “this is a business and businessmen need to get paid . . . . so I can have my Christmas, you know what I’m saying?”

Anthony Bueno was previously sentenced in this case to 30 months imprisonment.  He was also sentenced to 63 months imprisonment for his role in a separately indicted wire fraud scheme in which he used false representations about investment opportunities to take over a million dollars from several victims.

Robert Revis pleaded guilty in April 2019 to an Information charging him with a single count of supplementing the salary of a federal official.  His sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 2, 2020.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/former-veterans-affairs-official-sentenced-18-months-federal-prison-role-bribery-scheme

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: abuse, acquisition workforce, bid rigging, bribe, bribery, conflict of interest, DOJ, extortion, FBI, fraud, IG, indictment, Justice Dept., kickback, OIG, SBA, SDVOSB, service disabled, small business, VA, veteran owned business, waste

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