The first guiding principle of the Federal Acquisition System is to satisfy the customer in terms of cost, quality and timeliness of the delivered product or service -- a great principle, even if measuring the results is sometimes easier in concept than in execution.
Find a need and fill it. That business truism has served Deltek Systems Inc. well during the past two decades as the company has made itself the dominant provider of government cost accounting software.
The Homeland Security Department's Science and Technology Directorate has received more than 500 e-mail messages to science.technology@dhs.gov, many offering research proposals for homeland security projects, Charles McQueary, the department's undersecretary for science and technology, told the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.
	The House-passed Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2004 includes the Services Acquisition Reform Act, attached by SARA sponsor Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.
	Federal agencies must pay an interest penalty to their contractors when they make late payments under cost-reimbursement contracts for services, according to a final rule published in the Federal Register. The rule went into effect May 23.
Every year, federal agencies spend billions of dollars on commercially available IT products and services through the Federal Supply Schedule program. Now state and local governments have the same opportunity under a law that took effect May 7.
Deloitte Consulting has operated quietly in the federal marketplace for three years, while amassing the bulk of its government work in the state and local arena. A high-profile e-government job with the Transportation Security Administration, however, could put a spotlight on its federal business.
	The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking ideas to evaluate concrete structures without any type of destruction, and for instrumentation to monitor these structures. Research proposals are sought for testing to identify and detect very small cracks (micrometers) and other flaws in concrete. Also needed are reliable monitoring techniques, such as embedded and surface-mounted sensors to verify the performance of an entombed structure as predicted by performance assessment modeling.
	The Army Corps of Engineers needs a construction contract for a remote control system at the Berlin Lake Dam in Berlin Center, Ohio. The work consists of furnishing plant, labor, material and equipment to install and test the remote control system, including networking different vendors' equipment to a common communication network and computerized control system; and providing systems integration services and furnishing and installing all materials, hardware, software and testing for a communicating network for the control system. The plans are available on CD-ROM and will be provided free of charge. For more information, see Fedbizopps.gov, solicitation no. DACW59-03-B-0008. Responses are due July 15.
	The Naval Air Warfare Center aircraft division at Patuxent River, Md., needs engineering and technical support for improving avionics and sensors on naval air platforms. Support services include engineering and technical labor and materials for technology assessment, systems engineering, hardware and software design and development and laboratory and field testing.
A new report from the IBM Endowment for the Business of Government refutes six common arguments against putting government work up for competition with the private sector.
A senate committee chairwoman today turned up the heat on the Homeland Security Department's investigation of a senior government career official's claim of a Ph.D. from a Wyoming university that, according to its literature, requires no attendance and scant course work.
The Defense department's CIO says open-source software should be held to the same levels of security and licensing accountability as commercial software.
Sen. Joe Lieberman is placing technological innovation front and center in his 2004 presidential bid. If elected, he promises significant increases in government-sponsored research and development.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has asked the FCC for a rule that would allow additional broadband spectrum for advanced wireless applications needed by first responders.
Federal agencies must pay an interest penalty to their contractors when they make late payments under cost-reimbursement contracts, according to a final rule published in the Federal Register.
