State Dept. | The Contracting Education Academy

August 21, 2019 By cs

Former State Dept. employee pleads guilty to procurement fraud

The official had a social relationship with a furniture manufacturing executive, with whom she shared confidential contract information.

A former State Department official pleaded guilty last week to disclosing confidential proposal bids in an attempt to help a furniture company executive win a $1.56 million contract.

In December 2016, Patricia DeLaughter, former manager of the department’s Overseas Office Furniture Program, was working to solicit proposals for furnishing a new U.S. embassy when she and another department official knowingly disclosed the confidential bid prices and design plans of competitors to Steven Anstine, vice president of sales for an Overland Park, Kansas, manufacturing company, according to the Justice Department. Multiple news outlets, including The Post and Courier, identified the company as Bernhardt Furniture.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2019/08/former-state-department-employee-pleads-guilty-procurement-fraud/159170/

April 25, 2019 By AMK

State Dept. contracting officer indicted for bribery and procurement fraud

A 17-count indictment was unsealed today charging Zaldy N. Sabino, a contracting officer with the U.S. Department of State, with conspiracy, bribery, honest services wire fraud, and making false statements.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger of the Eastern District of Virginia, Inspector General Steve A. Linick of the U.S. Department of State and Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement.

According to the indictment, between November 2012 and early 2017, Sabino and the owner of a Turkish construction firm allegedly engaged in a bribery and procurement fraud scheme in which Sabino received at least $239,300 in cash payments from the Turkish owner while Sabino supervised multi-million dollar construction contracts awarded to the Turkish owner’s business partners and while Sabino made over a half million in structured cash deposits into his personal bank accounts. Sabino allegedly concealed his unlawful relationship by, among other things, making false statements on financial disclosure forms and during his background reinvestigation.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/state-department-contracting-officer-indicted-bribery-and-procurement-fraud

July 19, 2018 By AMK

GSA adds Login.gov to sweeping bug bounty program

The General Services Administration is inviting ethical hackers to break into the sign-on portal for citizens applying for government jobs and accessing federal programs.

The agency added Login.gov to its sweeping public bug bounty program, offering anyone who discovers a security gap within the site potentially thousands of dollars in prize money. The site offers citizens a way to access a variety of federal programs using a single username and password, and today some 7 million people go through the site to apply for federal jobs, expedite the airport security process and do business with the government.

The GSA’s Technology Transformation Service kicked off the bug bounty with cybersecurity research platform HackerOne in August, which the office said marks the first such program at a civilian agency. The initiative originally centered on Federalist, a platform agencies could use to build custom websites, but over the last year expanded to include Data.gov, Cloud.gov and now Login.gov.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2018/07/gsa-adds-logingov-sweeping-bug-bounty-program/149678/

January 10, 2018 By AMK

Pentagon task force’s $675 million in contracts to rebuild Afghanistan found wasteful

The Defense Department’s now-defunct business task force for rebuilding war-torn Afghanistan has again been found to have ineffectively spent its budget, devoting more than half of $675 million in contract obligations to indirect or support costs and favoring sole-source providers, a watchdog found.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction on Tuesday released its latest critique of the Pentagon’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, which worked from 2010-2014 to hire companies to help the Afghans with economic development in such areas as mining, irrigation and banking.

That body was disbanded in 2015, with many of its projects incomplete or turned over to the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2018/01/pentagon-task-forces-675-million-contracts-rebuild-afghanistan-found-wasteful/145077

March 10, 2017 By AMK

Report looks at how Trump’s policies, expiring contracts will impact competitiveness

The departments of Education, State and the Army are among those with the most documented bids for contracts expiring in 2017, providing industry with actionable insight on just how competitive the procurement process will be.

This and other facets of vendor competition are examined in a new report by government market analysts Govini, looking at the contracting environment as the Trump administration reveals its new defense agency-centric budget request.

Assigning agencies a “Competitiveness Score,” Govini aims to offer its report to assist vendors in anticipating recompetes, allowing them to craft strategies that align to their competitive strengths.

President Trump’s pledge to expand the military signals there will be a rebuilding effort including new weapons platforms for the Army, but also plenty of opportunities funded through the operations and maintenance budget account. Logistics and base operations are part of the mission readiness and war fighter-focused orders set to expire.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/articles/report-looks-at-how-trumps-policies-expiring-contracts-will-impact-competitiveness

The official had a social relationship with a furniture manufacturing executive, with whom she shared confidential contract information.

A 17-count indictment was unsealed today charging Zaldy N. Sabino, a contracting officer with the U.S. Department of State, with conspiracy, bribery, honest services wire fraud, and making false statements.

The General Services Administration is inviting ethical hackers to break into the sign-on portal for citizens applying for government jobs and accessing federal programs.

The departments of Education, State and the Army are among those with the most documented bids for contracts expiring in 2017, providing industry with actionable insight on just how competitive the procurement process will be.

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