In a world that is flat, trade laws can make all the difference.This is as true in public procurement as in the software, steel orwheat markets. For non-U.S. companies, there is increasinginterest in tapping into the U.S. public-contracting market.
Commentary: Organizational conflicts of interest continue to be a hot topic in federal acquisition and a potential risk area for contractors. Federal courts have confirmed in two recent decisions the importance of following OCI rules.
It's protest season again. It comes around at the end of the government fiscal year when a spike in the number of new contracts inevitably is followed by a wave of bid protests.
A new rule issued by DOD in April aims to ensure that "pass-through" charges on DOD contracts and subcontracts ? such as indirect costs and profits charged by prime contractors ? are not excessive.
A number of contracting reforms are taking shape. After months of stops and starts, it appears that a handful of "accountability in contracting" measures will be heading to conference as part of the Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2008.
Everyone loves home cooking. It could be your mother's potato salad, your uncle's barbecued ribs or even your own three-egg deluxe omelette. There's something special about the things we make at home.
It's a depressing sign of getting old: You witness the discrediting of a bad idea, then, after a period of dormancy, its resurrection as the new best thing. It's happened with fondue, leggings, open classrooms and now, in the procurement arena, fixed-price development contracting.
Imagine you're applying for a job, and it looks like a match made in heaven. The employer needs someone with exactly your skills and experience, and you like the stature, salary and challenge of the position. But there's a catch.
Imagine you're applying for a job, and it looks like a match made in heaven. The employer needs someone with exactly your skills and experience, and you like the stature, salary and challenge of the position. But there's a catch.
The federal government has long imposed unique ethical responsibilities on its contractors. Following the defense procurement scandals of the 1980s such as Operation Ill Wind, Congress considerably increased the number and types of ethical considerations governing federal contracts.
Although the European Union is steadily erasing the borders among its member states, defense spending among EU members remains largely segregated along national lines.
The Defense Department has issued guidance on choosing subcontractors for subsystems and components of major programs, seeking to ensure that systems integrators are not biased when deciding whether to work with a sister division or an unaffiliated company.
The federal government July 2 published a proposed rule to authorize governmentwide use of share-in-savings contracts for federal IT projects. A final rule likely will take effect in the last quarter of 2004.
Contractors sometimes need to add supplies or services to their Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts to respond to an agency's request for quote. But when must these additions be done: By the time quotes are submitted or by the time the blanket purchase agreement or FSS order is issued?
The Homeland Security Department issued interim rules Dec. 4, 2003, that established its own acquisition regulation, known as HSAR. The rules supplement the Federal Acquisition Regulation and establish a uniform acquisition process for the entire agency, except the Transportation Security Administration.
On Aug. 14, a law took effect that places substantial new obligations on the marketing and lobbying activities of companies doing business with the state of New York. Known as Executive Order 127, "Providing For Additional State Procurement Disclosure," it requires contractors to establish new training and compliance programs for doing business in New York.
