State Dept. | The Contracting Education Academy

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

July 28, 2016 By AMK

Government sues contractor, alleging false claims on State Dept. contract

The United States has filed a False Claims Act complaint against DynCorp International Inc. (DynCorp) alleging that it knowingly submitted inflated claims in connection with a State Department contract to train Iraqi police forces.

The contract is known as a civilian police or CIVPOL contract. DynCorp, which is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Tucker Holdings, Inc.

Background

In April 2004, the State Department’s Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs awarded the CIVPOL contract to DynCorp to provide training for civilian police forces in Iraq and other services needed to support that effort, such as trainers, guards, translators, vehicles and living quarters for contractor personnel.

Complaint

In its complaint, the government alleges that DynCorp knowingly allowed one of its main CIVPOL subcontractors to charge excessive and unsubstantiated rates for hotel lodging, translator, security guard and driving services and overhead expenses, and included these charges in the claims it submitted under the CIVPOL contract to the State Department.

The complaint also alleges that DynCorp added its own markup to its subcontractor’s excessive charges, thereby further inflating the claims it submitted to the government.

The civil complaint in this action is the result of an investigation by the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the State Department’s Office of Inspector General.

The case is captioned United States v. DynCorp International, Inc., No. 1:16-cv-01473 (D.D.C.). The claims asserted in the complaint are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-files-suit-against-dyncorp-international-alleging-submission-false-claims-under

June 29, 2016 By AMK

State Department employee not protected when he refused to violate a contracting regulation

The State Department acted properly when it punished an employee for refusing to carry out a rule-breaking assignment, a federal court has decided, setting a new precedent in the federal workforce.

The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a ruling originally determined by the Merit Systems Protection Board in Rainey v. State, in which an employee argued the department improperly gave him a poor performance review and took away responsibilities when he refused to carry out a directive that went against federal rules. Instead, the court affirmed in a precedent-setting opinion, State was permitted to take those actions because rules and regulations do not qualify as federal statute.

The Whistleblower Protection Act protects a federal employee from retaliation “for refusing to obey an order that would require the individual to violate a law.” Timothy Rainey was instructed by a supervisor to compel a contractor to rehire a fired subcontractor, according to court documents. Such a request violates a provision of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), and Rainey refused to carry out the order.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/oversight/2016/06/federal-court-agencies-can-punish-employees-refusing-break-rules/129000