SBA will implement an Electronic Procurement Center Representative system to help the agency analyze individual procurements and make it easier for agencies to identify small businesses capable of providing requested goods and services.
"When I was in school and you were caught cheating on a test ... you flunked," Rep. Edolphus Towns said. "It seems that seventh-graders are held to higher standards than nuclear security contractors."
"We need to look at when and under what circumstances is it appropriate to be contracting and when is it not ... ," U.S. Comptroller General David Walker told a Senate committee.
To improve accountability in government procurement, two Democratic lawmakers are promoting the creation of a centralized database that tracks contractor performance and fraud.
Agencies have sent more contracting dollars to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses than in past years, but they're still falling short, an SBA official told a House subcommittee.
Lawmakers would like to know why NOAA awarded a bonus fee to a contractor working on satellite programs that suffer from schedule delays and cost overruns.
In a July 10 memo, Paul Denett, administrator of OFPP, asked agencies to review their IT requirements and check GSA's Veterans Technology Services Governmentwide Acquisition Contract for services.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seeks a vendor to help the agency study the status of commercial equipment for gathering information about solar flares.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has approved reform legislation that would overhaul the Coast Guard's Deepwater acquisition program. It also advanced a Coast Guard authorization bill that provides $917 million for Deepwater in FY 2008.
