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Oracle sues again: JEDI case going to federal appeals court

Oracle has appealed its claims court loss to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in yet another escalation in the Pentagon’s troubled acquisition of its general services cloud.

Oracle is appealing a decision from U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Eric Bruggink that said Oracle couldn’t be harmed during the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud computing procurement because it didn’t meet contract requirements.

But the ruling also said the Department of Defense did not accurately follow acquisition regulations in its decision to make the JEDI cloud a single award.

“The Court of Federal Claims opinion in the JEDI bid protest describes the JEDI procurement as unlawful, notwithstanding dismissal of the protest solely on the legal technicality of Oracle’s purported lack of standing,” said Dorian Daley, Oracle’s general counsel, in a statement. “Federal procurement laws specifically bar single-award procurements such as JEDI absent satisfying specific, mandatory requirements, and the court in its opinion clearly found DoD did not satisfy these requirements.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/it-networks/cloud/2019/08/27/oracle-sues-again-jedi-case-going-to-federal-appeals-court/

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Pentagon aims to expedite security clearance process with $75 million award

Perspecta Enterprise Solutions LLC won a $75 million other transaction agreement on May 14 to continue modernization of the federal security clearance process, in particular with machine learning and related technology.

The Defense Security Service and Defense Information Systems Agency awarded the 24-month OTA, which covers improvements to National Background Investigation Services information technology.

Perspecta will help DSS — which will eventually be renamed the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency — expedite background investigations, adjudications, continuous vetting and insider-threat programs by creating a Security Enterprise Architecture and Data Services prototype.

When a new employee or transfer needs clearance, the prototype will use machine learning and natural language processing to pull from disparate data sources to fill out form information. Previously a full investigative package was prepared manually and handed over for adjudication.

Keep reading article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/security-clearances-perspecta-enterprise-solutions-ota/

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Defense Digital Service awards ‘Civilian Hiring as a Service’ contract

The Defense Digital Service Tuesday awarded a contract worth up to $7 million to five companies to participate in a pilot program designed to revamp the way the Pentagon recruits top technical talent.

The Civilian Hiring as a Service Pilot, or CHaaS, was borne out of a necessity for the Pentagon to attract cutting-edge talent in cybersecurity, user experience design, product management and computer science to compete with foreign adversaries.

Today’s federal hiring system—anchored by the USAJobs.gov portal—is too passive and “isn’t meeting the growing need for talented technical people,” according to a statement from DDS. Tech recruiting problems are exacerbated by lengthy hiring times—the Office of Personnel Management lists the average hiring time at 105 days—lower public sector pay rates for techies and an aging federal tech workforce.

“The government doesn’t utilize common private sector practices, and government hiring often creates hurdles, poor candidate experience, and lengthy timelines which can deter talented technical people,” DDS officials said in a statement. “Now we are working to help the DOD rethink how it approaches cyber hiring and pilot a new way to recruit tech talent and fill critical positions. If we are going to bring in the best talent, it must become far easier for these people to join.”

Keep reading article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/05/defense-digital-service-awards-civilian-hiring-service-contract/157206/

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Thornberry unveils potential punishments for DoD’s slow implementation of acquisition reforms

After spearheading the passage of dozens of reforms to the defense acquisition system over the last five years, House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) is proposing some measures to speed up the Defense Department’s implementation of those changes.

In a draft bill, which may be folded into the committee’s version of the 2020 defense authorization legislation, Thornberry is proposing a handful of measures to quicken DoD’s execution of its new powers and hasten efficiencies mandated by Congress in previous laws.

“The Pentagon’s record of implementing important reforms is mixed. This year, Thornberry’s bill is focused on compelling DoD to implement those reforms Congress has already passed into law,” a factsheet from Thornberry’s office states.

One of the more dramatic provisions in the bill prods DoD into reforming its fourth estate — the agencies that do not fall under military services. The 2019 defense authorization act mandated the Pentagon come up with a plan to reduce the fourth estate by 25%. DoD’s report to Congress was late and Thornberry felt it was inadequate and failed to identify mandatory savings.

Keep reading article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2019/05/thornberry-unveils-potential-punishments-for-dods-slow-implementation-of-acquisition-reforms

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Defense contracting fraud: A persistent problem

During the five year period from 2013-2017, there were 1,059 criminal cases of defense contracting fraud resulting in the conviction of 1,087 defendants, including 409 businesses, according to a newly released Department of Defense report to Congress. There were another 443 fraud-related civil cases resulting in judgments against 546 defendants.

During that same period, the Department of Defense entered into more than 15 million contracts with contractors who had been indicted, fined, and/or convicted of fraud, or who reached settlement agreements. The value of those contracts exceeded $334 billion, according to the DoD report. See Report on Defense Contracting Fraud, DoD report to Congress, December 2018.

The report was prepared in response to a requirement in the FY2018 defense authorization act at the initiative of Sen. Bernie Sanders. It was released this week under the Freedom of Information Act.

A previous report covering the period of 2001-2010 was produced by the Department of Defense in 2011, also at the request of Senator Sanders. The earlier report likewise found extensive fraud including criminal and civil offensive in defense contracting.

“Simply put, the Pentagon continues to be riddled with waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer funds to a degree unmatched across the federal government,” Sen. Sanders said in 2017. “It is unacceptable that the Department of Defense continues to lose vast sums of taxpayer money because of fraud perpetrated by major defense contractors. This has got to end.”

Keep reading article at: https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2019/05/defense-contracting-fraud

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