pandemic | The Contracting Education Academy

July 8, 2020 By cs

Federal contract spending reaches its highest level ever in fiscal 2019, marking 4 straight years of growth

Spending is expected to increase even more for fiscal 2020, exceeding $600 billion even before coronavirus stimulus funding is included.

**Click on image above to download report.**

Federal contract spending grew for the fourth year in a row to reach $597 billion in fiscal 2019, its highest level yet and a 6% increase over the previous year, according to newly released data. Spending is expected to exceed $600 billion in fiscal 2020, without even including spending on economic stimulus funds in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The data, compiled by Bloomberg Government, encompasses prime and unclassified contract spending. Bloomberg released the findings in the ninth annual BGOV200 report, which ranks the top 200 federal contractors. The report analyzes market trends, contractors’ performance and other dynamics among 92 federal agencies in 20 purchasing categories during fiscal 2019.

The agencies with the biggest gains in contract spending in fiscal 2019 included: the Housing and Urban Development, Commerce and Defense departments, and the General Services Administration. Some of the top markets were: facilities and construction; professional services; information technology and aircrafts, ships/submarines and land vehicles.

The 200 companies won the same share of total contracts as in 2018 and 2017, which was 64%. The top six companies — all in the defense industry — were: Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co., General Dynamics Corp., Raytheon Co., Northrop Grumman Corp. and United Technologies Corp. This was the same as last year, except McKesson Corp. was number six in 2018 and this year it ranked seventh. In 2019, 37 companies entered the top 200 for the first time.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/06/federal-contract-spending-reaches-its-highest-level-ever-fiscal-2019-marking-4-straight-years-growth/166484/

July 7, 2020 By cs

Contractor confidence in government market less certain amid pandemic

Before the coronavirus outbreak, the contracting community expressed “high confidence” in public sector sales for 2020, expressing optimism in steady government buying following 2019’s lengthy government shutdown that set many companies back.

Now, amid a pandemic with no end in sight, a largely remote workforce and other contractor challenges, the contracting forecast for 2020 and beyond is much less certain.

“We saw a strong performance across the board in 2019, and as we entered 2020, the outlook was rosy,” said Amy Champigny, senior product marketing manager at Deltek. “Now, to some degree, that has happened, but not in the way people expected. The COVID-19 pandemic is going to force a lot of contractors to think carefully about how they come out of this.”

Champigny spoke with Nextgov about Deltek’s Clarity Government Contracting Industry Study, a wide-scale survey of hundreds of government contractors regarding issues, trends and opportunities impacting the market. At the time the survey was fielded—between Jan. 6 and March 2—70% of contractors expected government sales to be higher in 2020 than 2019. Now, “consensus expectations call for significant negative growth in the second half of 2020, and there is not yet a clear path to recovery,” the authors state.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2020/06/contractor-confidence-government-market-less-certain-amid-pandemic/166406/

July 1, 2020 By cs

Pandemic oversight committee launches contract spending tracker

The committee stated in its first report that financial management could be a top challenge for agencies.

**Click on image above to see contract spending compiled by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.**

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, established by the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, has launched an online tool to track the federal government’s contract spending. The committee is one of the various entities overseeing the government’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic and is composed of 21 inspectors general. The relief package appropriated an unprecedented amount of money, so there has been increased pressure to ensure the funds are not misspent. As of last Tuesday, the federal government has committed to 7,474 contracts with 4,115 vendors and spending of $15.9 billion, according to ProPublica.

“Users can download the entire dataset to conduct their own analysis by examining contracts by category – for example medical services and equipment, janitorial services for government buildings, and personal protective equipment and safety supplies for government workers,” said the committee. There is also “an interactive map for users to explore the total amount of contract spending by state and county.”

The committee is using numbers from the Federal Procurement Data System to track the spending and will update the tracker weekly. The committee noted that contract documents aren’t usually made public because of their proprietary information, but individuals can try to obtain them through Freedom of Information Act requests.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/oversight/2020/06/pandemic-oversight-committee-launches-contract-spending-tracker/166370/

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/

June 30, 2020 By cs

Pentagon requesting ‘lower double digit billions’ to support COVID-hit defense contractors

The U.S. Department of Defense’s chief purchasing officer said the Pentagon has filed a budget request in the “lower double-digit billions” to support defense contractors disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Ellen Lord, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, said the Pentagon submitted the multibillion-dollar request to the White House Office of Management and Budget in order to sustain the hiring and workforce levels of key defense contractors.

When asked during a press conference to provide a more precise estimate of the “lower double-digit billions” Lord did not provide further specifics.

The funding request, made under Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, authorizes the federal government to reimburse Federal contractors for paid leave where they have been sickened by the coronavirus, or where conditions have required healthy workers to stay home.

Keep reading this article at: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/06/pentagon-requesting-lower-double-digit-billions-to-support-covid-hit-defense-contractors/

June 26, 2020 By cs

CMMC regulations on the way despite pandemic

The Defense Department’s new high-profile cybersecurity regulations are on schedule for implementation this year despite potential setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Katie Arrington, chief information security officer at the office of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said the Pentagon will begin rolling out the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification version 1.0 rules this year.

The requirements are part of the Defense Department’s push to protect industrial base networks and controlled unclassified information from cyberattacks. The CMMC rules will require contractors to be certified by third-party auditors, which will ensure that companies are adhering to certain standards. Organizations will be required to meet different levels of security requirements depending on the type of work they are doing, with level 1 being the lightest and level 5 the most stringent.

Acquisition officials unveiled their roadmap for implementation in January, before the COVID-19 pandemic roiled U.S. society and industry. The plans included releasing solicitations with CMMC requirements baked in for pathfinder programs this year.

“We are on track to do that,” Arrington said during a Project Spectrum webinar in May. “We’re still on target to release some initial [requests for information] in June. … Stay tuned, but the work hasn’t stopped and we’re still doing our absolute best to stay on track.” Project Spectrum is intended to help small businesses improve their cybersecurity and is supported by the Defense Department’s Office of Small Business Programs.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2020/6/22/cmmc-regulations-on-the-way-despite-pandemic

Spending is expected to increase even more for fiscal 2020, exceeding $600 billion even before coronavirus stimulus funding is included.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, the contracting community expressed “high confidence” in public sector sales for 2020, expressing optimism in steady government buying following 2019’s lengthy government shutdown that set many companies back.

The committee stated in its first report that financial management could be a top challenge for agencies.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s chief purchasing officer said the Pentagon has filed a budget request in the “lower double-digit billions” to support defense contractors disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Defense Department’s new high-profile cybersecurity regulations are on schedule for implementation this year despite potential setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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