The Transportation Security Administration is mismanaging its contracts and faces a $3 billion funding shortfall over the next two years, according the Department of Transportation's inspector general.
The General Accounting Office is questioning the reliability of the Federal Aviation Administration's life-cycle cost estimate for STARS, a system intended to replace outdated air traffic control equipment.
<FONT SIZE=2>State governments will rely heavily on e-government this year to squeeze every bit of efficiency from their operations as they stagger under the weight of huge and growing budget deficits.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>When John Engler ended his run as Michigan governor last month, after 12 years in office, and began looking for a new job, he didn't want a cushy boardroom appointment or a figurehead executive post.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>The White House is asking for significant funding increases in fiscal 2004 for Defense Department transformation efforts, such as satellite communications, space-based radar and cryptology, that are rich in information technology, a senior defense official said at a briefing last week. </FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>The Office of Management and Budget is on a mission to search out and destroy duplicative spending on information technology products and services. </FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>In this era of best value and creative new approaches, who really bids in the traditional sense anymore? And who believes they can establish a long-term, win-win relationship by first clobbering their potential partner in a bitter round of litigation? </FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>The civilian and defense Federal Acquisition Regulation councils published an interim rule in the Jan. 27 Federal Register that simplifies how agencies buy for defense or recovery from terrorist attacks.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>Lawmakers are pushing appropriators to restore $40 million to the E-Government Fund, money the Senate axed from the omnibus fiscal 2003 appropriations bill.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>The Transportation Security Administration's effort to put federal screeners at every U.S. airport exceeded its contract by nearly $600 million, according to a new report.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>Further easing of competitive</FONT><FONT SIZE=2> procurement requirements were contained in the Homeland Security Act passed in November 2002. Those provisions were implemented by changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation issued as an immediately effective interim rule Jan. 27. </FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>Government buyers and large federal contractors will look for small-business partners at events nationwide this year through a new Small Business Administration program, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington and Hewlett-Packard Co. of Palo Alto, Calif.</FONT>
Deirdre Lee, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, Wednesday put the department's contracting officers on notice that the General Accounting Office and Congress will be watching how they implement the requirements of Section 803 of the 2002 National Defense Authorization Act.
The chairman of the House Government Reform Committee will propose a modified version of his Services Acquisition Reform Act that includes a provision to allow agencies to use time-and-materials and labor-hours contracts to buy services.
The Commerce Department's 2004 budget request includes funding to strengthen the nation's measurement and standards infrastructure, modernize the Patent and Trademark Office, homeland security standards, and continue development of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's environmental satellites.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation councils issued a proposed rule Jan. 31 to help small businesses by amending the regulation in an attempt to curtail contract bundling. The proposed changes would implement Office of Management and Budget's recommendations for increasing federal contracting opportunities for small businesses by unbundling contracts where possible and mitigating the effects of bundling when it's necessary.
The General Accounting Office has chided the Office of Federal Procurement Policy for responding too slowly to its recommendations to ensure more competition on Federal Supply Service schedule buys.
Agencies are making progress on key administration management goals such as e-government, financial management and competitive sourcing, but plenty of work still needs to be done, according to a new scorecard.
Installing financial management systems could be a hot market area for systems integrators as at least four major agencies are expecting to spend more than $500 million over the next four years to overhaul their systems.
