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reliability of the Federal Aviation Administration's life-cycle cost estimate for STARS, a system intended to replace outdated air traffic control equipment.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>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>
Harris Corp. and ITT Industries Inc. have been chosen by the Federal Aviation Administration to develop competing prototypes for the agency's Next Generation Air/Ground Communications System, called NexCom.
Seventeen companies have won contracts under the General Services Administration's Connections program, administered by the Federal Technology Service, to provide telecommunications equipment, support services and solutions to federal agencies.
<FONT SIZE=1>	Pearson Government Solutions has been publicly praised by administration officials, including Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, for completing the mammoth job of finding, screening and hiring some 57,000 airport screeners in less than nine months for the Transportation Security Administration.</FONT>
Seven of the top 10 systems integrators providing information technology services to the federal government are also among the top 10 defense contractors.
After months of controversy, Alan Balutis has stepped down as the executive director of both the Industry Advisory Council and the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils.
AT&T Corp. has won approval from the Defense Department to compete with Sprint Communications Corp. and WorldCom Inc. for telecommunications services under the FTS2001 contract.
RS Information Systems Inc. won a five-year, $409 million Energy Department contract, one of the agency's largest small-business awards, for information technology support.
Accenture Ltd. and CPS Human Resource Services, a California agency, have won two Transportation Security Administration contracts worth a total of $767.6 million for HR services.
The rapid pace of acquisitions in the government information technology industry continues, with purchases announced in early January by Science Applications International Corp. and Information Management Consultants Inc.
Lockheed Martin Corp. has been awarded a $32 million contract to modernize the Albania national airspace system. This is the largest contract to be awarded to an American company by the Albanian Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the government's first commercially financed industrial project, the company said.
Raytheon Co., the prime contractor for the Federal Aviation Administration's Integrated Terminal Weather System, said it agrees with an agency investigation that claims the program has suffered from delays and cost overruns caused by expansion of the system's original requirements.
<FONT SIZE=2>	The Federal Aviation Administration is not expected to outsource air traffic control jobs to the private sector, despite a move by the agency to reclassify the jobs as commercial positions.</FONT>
