SPAWAR | The Contracting Education Academy

July 31, 2018 By AMK

Navy’s new acquisition tool speeds up tech prototyping

A research and development collaboration management company has been awarded a contract to helm a technology prototype consortium as part of a new acquisition process employed by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic, in Charleston, South Carolina.

SPAWAR awarded an other transaction authority to Advanced Technology International, of Summerville, South Carolina, for consortium management for SPAWAR’s Information Warfare Research Project (IWRP).

Under the contract, Advanced Technology International will manage a group of defense contractors who will complete projects for the government that address SPAWAR technology needs, and the consortium will facilitate competition for projects. Topics will be open to competition beginning in August 2018, the SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic said.

The contract is worth $100 million over three years.

IWRP OTA is an acquisition tool that allows nontraditional industry partners to work with organizations across SPAWAR to prototype technology that supports naval information warfare capabilities. IWRP focuses on information technology areas such as cyberwarfare, cloud computing and data science.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.c4isrnet.com/home/2018/07/02/the-navys-new-acquisition-tool-speeds-up-tech-prototyping/

January 4, 2017 By AMK

DoD contractor agrees to $4.5 million settlement for alleged False Claim Act violations

Advanced C4 Solutions, Inc. has agreed to pay $4.535 million to the United States to settle allegations that it submitted inflated invoices to the government for work performed at Joint Base Andrews.

Advanced C4 Solutions, Inc. is a Florida-based company that was operating as an 8(a) small business certified by the Small Business Administration (SBA). On June 10, 2010, Advanced C4 was awarded a contract to supply project management and labor services for an Air Force technology project. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Navy’s Space and Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), which was administering the contract in support of the United States Air Force.

Among other things, the contract required the Advanced C4 to design, construct, and implement certain local area network and wide area network systems that would be utilized by Air Force personnel and other components of the U.S. Armed Forces on Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. The contract required the company to accurately provide invoices to the United States for work performed under the contract, including work by subcontractors. Labor costs were required to be billed according to the job classifications set forth in the contract and the number of labor hours worked by personnel at each job classification. The contract also provided that the Advanced C4 could only utilize pre-approved subcontractors. Pursuant to this provision, the company entered into subcontractor agreements with several entities, one of which was Superior Communication Solutions, Inc. (SCSI).

spawar Advanced C4 Solutions and its subcontractors began work under the SPAWAR contract in June 2010. Andrew Bennett was the Advanced C4’s project manager who was tasked with overseeing the work performed by the company and its subcontractors under the contract. In this capacity, Bennett was responsible for verifying the accuracy of all invoices submitted by subcontractors to the company and, in turn, all the invoices submitted by the company to SPAWAR.

The settlement agreed to on Dec. 28, 2016 resolves allegations that Bennett, while an employee of Advanced C4, knew that SCSI created false invoices that charged for labor hours that were not actually worked, and charged the United States at job classification rates for personnel that did not have the requisite credentials to be billed at those rates, and yet submitted those SCSI invoices to the government for payment anyway. SPAWAR subsequently paid these invoices not knowing they were false.

In related cases, Bennett, of Tampa Florida, James T. Shank, of Perry, Georgia, and a third individual were indicted on federal criminal charges related to their actions in this matter. Bennett and Shank pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their conduct related to the SPAWAR contract. The third defendant is scheduled for trial beginning on January 30, 2017.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/defense-contractor-agrees-4535-million-settlement-alleged-false-claim-act-violations

December 28, 2012 By AMK

Alaska native firm played role in failed medical review board software project

Work on a botched program to develop software for the Defense Medical Examination Review Board was performed by an Alaska native company, said Steven Davis, a spokesman for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. The command’s Atlantic center contracted with software engineering firm Barling Bay LLC to support development of a medical records system that has come under fire for failing so severely that responsibility for the work was transferred to the General Services Administration.

Barling Bay is a subsidiary of Three Saints LLC, a holding company headquartered in Anchorage. Under federal law, Alaska native firms receive preferential treatment in government contracts.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., chairwoman of the contracting oversight panel for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, charged in a Dec. 7 letter to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert that SPAWAR’s management of the contract for service academy exams was “so inadequate that the General Services Administration had to assume responsibility.” The review board determines the medical qualification of more than 50,000 applicants annually for appointment to a U.S. service academy, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/health/2012/12/alaska-native-firm-played-role-failed-medical-review-board-software-project/60280/?oref=govexec_today_nl

A research and development collaboration management company has been awarded a contract to helm a technology prototype consortium as part of a new acquisition process employed by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic, in Charleston, South Carolina.

Advanced C4 Solutions, Inc. has agreed to pay $4.535 million to the United States to settle allegations that it submitted inflated invoices to the government for work performed at Joint Base Andrews.

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