The Contracting Education Academy

Contracting Academy Logo
  • Home
  • Training & Education
  • Services
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Archives for SecDef

October 31, 2019 By cs

Son of Pentagon chief works at company that bid for contract

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has removed himself from decision-making on a cloud computing contract potentially worth $10 billion, citing his son’s employment with one of the original contract bidders.

In a written statement last week, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Esper recused himself from decisions on the so-called JEDI contract “out of an abundance of caution to avoid any concerns regarding his impartiality.”

The Pentagon is in the final stages of determining the winner of the initial $1 million Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract, which could be worth as much as $10 billion over 10 years if all options are exercised.

Hoffman did not identify Esper’s son by name. His son Luke is identified on his Linked-In page as a “digital strategy consultant” at IBM, which was an original bidder for the JEDI contract.

IBM was dropped from the competition, along with Oracle, and both companies have complained that the contracting process is rigged in favor of Amazon Web Services Inc., a division of Amazon.
Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-industry/2019/10/son-of-pentagon-chief-works-at-company-that-bid-for-contract/

 

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: cloud, conflict of interest, DoD, JEDI, Pentagon, SecDef

May 19, 2016 By AMK

Contracting reform tops list of Senate NDAA acquisition changes

After moving acquisition milestone authority to the services last year, the Senate Armed Services Committee now has contracting in its sights for reform in the 2017 defense authorization bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Breaking NewsAs the Defense Department continues to court traditionally non-defense companies, the Senate Armed Services Committee is trying to smooth contracting methods for them.

The committee’s version of the bill tried to wean DoD off of its reliance on cost contracts in favor of fixed price contracts.

“The whole culture of cost contracts cuts across everything. … Cost contracts are almost a drug,” said a committee staffer. “Really, what has happened over the course of decades is that the Department of Defense’s dependence on [cost contracts] has created some really, really negative incentives for the contractors and for the government.”

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/defense/2016/05/contracting-reform-tops-list-senate-ndaa-acquisition-reforms/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition reform, acquisition workforce, bid protest, budget, Congress, cost-plus, DoD, fixed price, innovation, NDAA, procurement reform, research, SecDef, Senate Armed Services Committee

Popular Topics

abuse acquisition reform acquisition strategy acquisition training acquisition workforce Air Force Army AT&L bid protest budget budget cuts competition cybersecurity DAU DFARS DHS DoD DOJ FAR fraud GAO Georgia Tech GSA GSA Schedule GSA Schedules IG industrial base information technology innovation IT Justice Dept. Navy NDAA OFPP OMB OTA Pentagon procurement reform protest SBA sequestration small business spending technology VA
Contracting Academy Logo
75 Fifth Street, NW, Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30308
info@ContractingAcademy.gatech.edu
Phone: 404-894-6109
Fax: 404-410-6885

RSS Twitter

Search this Website

Copyright © 2023 · Georgia Tech - Enterprise Innovation Institute