surveillance | The Contracting Education Academy

August 14, 2019 By AMK

New rule bans government purchase of Chinese telecom gear

Three departments in charge of federal purchasing policy have unveiled an interim rule amending Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to ban agencies from purchasing telecommunications and video surveillance equipment from five Chinese firms, including Huawei.

The interim rule from the General Services Administration, the Department of Defense and NASA took effect Aug. 13 and stems from a provision in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) prohibiting federal agencies from purchasing telecommunications and video surveillance equipment, along with any “substantial or essential component of any system, or as critical technology as part of any system” from the Chinese tech firms or their affiliates. The regulation language will apply to all new contracts and procurements as well as existing indefinite delivery contracts, as well as options picked up for existing contracts.

While the NDAA does allow for the issuance of individual, one-time waivers to agencies, the rule requires contractors to identify as part of their offer any telecommunications equipment or services that will be provided to the government, including those provided by subcontractors. Acknowledging that such a rule could result in a heavy “information collection burden” on federal agencies, the three departments are updating the System for Award Management to allow contractors to disclose these parts and components on an annual basis.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2019/08/07/china-telecom-regulation-johnson.aspx?m=1

July 31, 2017 By AMK

How Homeland Security spent millions on a nonexistent service: No QASP

The Homeland Security Department did such a poor job of monitoring a contractor’s implementation of new performance management software the DHS inspector general found that the “failure literally meets [the Government Accountability Office]’s textbook definition of ‘waste.’”

The Performance and Learning Management System, intended to manage employee training and performance and for which the Human Capital Office spent $24.7 million since 2013, still doesn’t meet the department’s needs, Inspector General John Roth wrote in a report released on Wednesday.

Though PALMS was projected to achieve cost savings of more than $52 million over five years, delays in operations resulted in pointless expenses, such as subscription fees totaling $5.7 million for a nonexistent service.

One big problem, according to the IG: “Despite concerns raised by several internal stakeholders, DHS accepted PALMS as operational in January 2015 without verifying that it worked as it was supposed to.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/07/how-homeland-security-spent-millions-nonexistent-service/139276/

June 8, 2017 By AMK

The reality of risk in third-party contract relationships

Government organizations rely on outside third-parties to provide the goods and services they need to operate effectively. Contracting with an outside third-party exposes these organizations to significant risks.

Picture these scenarios:

A contractor prepared and submitted inflated invoices and false change orders for labor and materials on a project to build a water treatment plant for a State agency resulting in overbilling of $4.8 million.
A municipal government contracted with a fire safety company to annually inspect and re-size firefighter safety equipment. However, the company failed to perform this critical function, putting the safety of firefighters in jeopardy.
A freight merchant submitted false fuel and weight claims to the U.S. Government totaling $13 million for oversized air shipments when the standard load was actually delivered via ground transport.

Scenarios like these are just a few of the many risks affecting organizations that work with third-party vendors. As Government organizations continue to rely on outside suppliers or service providers, their exposure to risk and fraud increases.

You might be asking, “What measures could these organizations have taken to prevent and detect these scenarios?”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=596650

May 16, 2017 By AMK

Union urges Congress to make Pentagon quantify services contracting

The American Federation of Government Employees is asking Congress to step in and require the Defense Department to “improve the oversight and management for the vast sums it spends so carelessly on contracted services,” its president said in a late-April letter to congressional chairmen.

“Anything less is handing a blank check to the Pentagon to waste [money] on contracted services,” wrote national president J. David Cox in a letter urging that Congress require implementation of Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations that would establish more detailed long-term projections in spending on such services as information technology, research and development, and facilities maintenance.

“This action is needed to ensure that funds are properly allocated to the readiness and recapitalization priorities of the Department of Defense and not diverted to headquarters contracts,” Cox said.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/05/union-urges-congress-make-pentagon-quantify-services-contracting/137594/

March 13, 2015 By AMK

DoD doesn’t know cost or performance of non-major acquisition programs, GAO says

The Defense Department doesn’t have the information to determine the cost or performance of its non-major acquisition programs, says a March 2 Government Accountability Office report.

These non-major programs, called category II and III programs, range from a multibillion dollar aircraft radar modernization program to soldier clothing and protective equipment programs in the tens of millions of dollars, the report says.

GAO found that the accuracy, completeness and consistency of DOD’s data on these programs were undermined by widespread data entry issues, missing data and inconsistent identification of current category II and III programs.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/dod-doesnt-know-cost-or-performance-non-major-acquisition-programs-gao-says/2015-03-03

GAO Report 15-188 can be downloaded here: http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/668783.pdf

Three departments in charge of federal purchasing policy have unveiled an interim rule amending Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to ban agencies from purchasing telecommunications and video surveillance equipment from five Chinese firms, including Huawei.

The Homeland Security Department did such a poor job of monitoring a contractor’s implementation of new performance management software the DHS inspector general found that the “failure literally meets [the Government Accountability Office]’s textbook definition of ‘waste.’”

Government organizations rely on outside third-parties to provide the goods and services they need to operate effectively. Contracting with an outside third-party exposes these organizations to significant risks.

The American Federation of Government Employees is asking Congress to step in and require the Defense Department to “improve the oversight and management for the vast sums it spends so carelessly on contracted services,” its president said in a late-April letter to congressional chairmen.

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