The dark side of DOD's acquisition reform bid

Tech initiatives could be at risk in DOD's tug of war between efficiency and spending.

Ginman officially named director of defense procurement policy

Richard Ginman takes place of Shay Assad in defense procurement policy, as Assad moves to pricing policies.

New ethics language needed for 'at-risk' federal contracts

The Administrative Conference of the United States is considering a proposal that would require new federal acquisition language on certain types of federal contracts defined to be at special risk.

Marines go shopping for $880M worth of new computers

The Marine Corps is planning to spend $880 million to buy more than 400,000 desktop and laptop computers as well as a smaller number of commercial and rugged tablet computers through a five-year Marine Corps Common Hardware Suite procurement contract.

How smaller budget may mean more business

Budget cuts might create more business for systems integrators. What three trends must you understand?

Oklahoma program pays primes for job creation

A new program in Oklahoma will pay prime contractors cash for bringing jobs to the state.

New NASA priorities open billions in new opportunities

As NASA reduces its focus on space operations, opportunities in other science and technology areas will grow.

Lockheed might outsource F-35 to Japan

As part of its sales pitch to Japanese buyers, Lockheed Martin said it would consider building some of the fighter jets in Japan.

DOD increases scrutiny of contractor pricing

New pricing chief Shay Assad says the Defense Department is going to pay more attention to how much it pays for goods and services.

GTSI wins $450M to bring the FAA better IT

GTSI is tasked with bringing cost-saving IT services to the Federal Aviation Administration as part of the SAVES program.

Are inventories of service contracts worthless?

Some agency officials worry that their inventories of service contracts will never be used for anything meaningful.

Competition suffers with shift to federal R&D centers

More agency are looking to federally funded R&D centers as alternative to contracts. The idea hurts competition and is a blow to transparency.

Lawmakers try to separate politics, contracting

Two bills would prohibit contractors from including information in a contract proposal about political contributions to candidates or causes.

House members back contractors in pay fight

The tax has been tagged as a way to decrease the tax gap and make delinquent companies pay their share of taxes, although many lawmakers disagree.

Dell to supply VA with $476M in PCs, services

Dell Corp. will provide the Veterans Affairs Department with PCs, technology and services at more than 1,200 VA sites nationwide under a four-year, $476 million contract that will include approximately 600,000 PCs and monitors.

Why your high win rate is hurting your business

A high win rate looks good, but it can be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Columnist and capture management expert Bob Lohfeld explains what your win rate really means.

Taxes owed on $24B in Recovery Act work

GAO says that more than 3,700 recipients of Recover Act funds own back taxes.

Creativity needed to improve procurement

Cost-reimbursement and fixed-priced contracts are just two ends of the contracting spectrum, writes Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at Deltek FedSources.

Robert Reich is wrong on contractors' political contributions

Editor Nick Wakeman says former Clinton administration official Robert Reich is well intentioned but wrong to support a proposal for contractors to disclose their political contributions when bidding for contracts.

GSA preps replacement for Networx

The General Services Administration is laying the groundwork for the follow-on acquisition to replace the Networx program, while still in the thick of the Networx transition.