http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/ 15 en Copyright 2008 Thu, 08 May 2008 05:56:34 -0400 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.36 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Military outsourcing has reached another milestone of sorts, according to a story by Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus that deserved much better play. Here's what it said, in case you missed it over the weekend: "U.S. commanders in Iraq are for the first time seeking private contractors to form part of the small military teams that train and live with Iraqi military units across the country, according to a notice for prospective bidders published last week." Then this: "Anthony H. Cordesman, a former Pentagon official and now a scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, described the new effort as an understandable step, given the current stresses facing the U.S. military. "'There is a lot of pressure on the active Army, and during this transition period where the military is converting to noncombat roles, a shift to contractors as trainers for the expanding Iraqi military is a http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/05/very_special_forces.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/05/very_special_forces.html Thu, 08 May 2008 05:56:34 -0400 A Pennsylvania contractor has acknowledged overcharging the government for millions worth of components for radar systems. A USAToday story said that Herley Industries "gave federal auditors false information and withheld data about the cost of making some electronic components used in E-2C Hawkeye aircraft radar. They said the company admitted that the government was overcharged about $2.5 million on about $3.2 million in contracts." This isn't a lot of money, of course, but I'm intrigued by a Herley press release from a few years ago. It said that Herley had acquired another company called Innovative Concepts of McLean. That's not particularly noteworthy either, except for the fact that Innovative Concepts has received millions in earmarks from one of our hometown lawmakers, Rep. Jim Moran(D-Va.). It also has been represented by a lobbying firm that is deeply involved in defense and appropriations issues. That would be the PMA Group. Who http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/05/on_the_feds_radar.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/05/on_the_feds_radar.html Wed, 07 May 2008 07:00:00 -0400 My colleague Mike Rosenwald has an intriguing piece today about a biotech company called Emergent BioSolutions and its controversial former arch-rival VaxGen. "The effort to protect the country from another anthrax attack will take an unexpected turn today when Rockville firm Emergent BioSolutions plans to announce that it has bought for $2 million an anthrax vaccine from a California company that federal health officials dropped in 2006," Rosenwald wrote. It appears once again that the economics of survival can make for strange bedfellows. "VaxGen of South San Francisco has struggled to survive since losing its $877.5 million contract for a next-generation anthrax vaccine. Having accumulated a $254 million deficit, VaxGen has struck an unlikely deal with Emergent, its once-bitter competitor still eager to compete for millions of dollars under the Bush administration's $5.6 billion Project BioShield program." The story of VaxGen's rise and fall has not been sufficiently explored. Did http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/05/it_lives.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/05/it_lives.html vaccines Tue, 06 May 2008 07:00:00 -0400 As you know by now, GSA chief Lurita Doan has resigned. She said she did so at the request of the White House, but no one has been able to answer the question: Why now? After all, both she and the White House stood firm in the face of intense criticism for almost a year, since the Office of Special Counsel urged the president to discipline her "to the fullest extent" for alleged violations of the Hatch Act. She has kept her head low for the most part in recent months. Another questions: Where is the agency headed? There are scads of issues up in the air, involving personnel, pricing practices, and whether the agency provides proper oversight. Matthew Weigelt at Federal Computer Week had this piece. Robert Brodsky and Elizabeth Newell had this piece in Government Executive. Their logic doesn't hang together exactly, but they may be onto http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/05/doan_resigns.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/05/doan_resigns.html Thu, 01 May 2008 11:39:27 -0400 Hate to seem like I'm picking on defense contractors and the hardworking DoD acquisition workforce. But people. Please. What is going on here? Officials from the Government Accountability Office, in testimony before House lawmakers released yesterday, said cost overruns and missed deadlines are getting worse. The GAO review found that average delays in delivery were 16 months. Last year, the average delay was 21 months.The estimated total acquisition cost growth rose from $42 billion to $295 billion. I know we've heard all this before. But. "Every dollar spent inefficiently in acquiring weapon systems is less money available for other budget priorities--such as the global war on terror and growing entitlement programs," the GAO reported. That's right, and on schools and roads and bridges and, well, a lot of other things the government might want to spend money on. Right? http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/oh_my.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/oh_my.html defense Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:01:07 -0400 Government Inc. has been fretting lately and for the umpteenth time about cyber security. Signs are that it's a lot worse out there than we want to admit. I was startled by a recent chat in one of the most secure rooms in the universe, where a government official said as an aside that many company computers are so besieged by on-line attacks that executives consider themselves already engaged in a cyber war. Anyway, I was reminded about all of this by a very interesting blog at Government Computer News. GCN senior writer John Rendleman said this: "The Defense Department is increasingly concerned that software it procures from contractors is in some cases being written overseas and may include unexpected or harmful lines of code, according to the Pentagon's chief information officer." I'm working to get my mind around the implications. Out-source code? For those who missed it, GNC http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/cyber_insecurity.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/cyber_insecurity.html computer security Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:54:51 -0400 The Senate has approved a measure to bolster the roles of inspectors general, the figures in government who have perhaps the main role in providing eyes and ears for American taxpayers. The Inspector General Reform Act of 2007 would ensure that the IG jobs are filled with qualified folks who can operate independently of the agencies they're responsible for overseeing. Under the legislation, the IG reports and audits would be more readily available to the public. Sounds like a nice deal for we the people. Does it have a chance of working? A lot of people in and out of the government would like to stop the scrutiny and heat that aggressive IG's bring to bear. I've even heard former government officials -- one who speaks almost in oracular terms about procurement -- say that IG oversight impedes the creativity of government workers. I'm trying to empathize with that http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/igs_and_oversight.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/igs_and_oversight.html Inspectors General Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:31:10 -0400 The House yesterday approved the Federal Spending Accountability Act, which mandates the creation of a database of contractor misdeeds that could be used in award decisions. Introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the legislation presses an idea that has been bouncing around in Congress for a while: to hold companies responsible for bad behavior. It was approved by a voice vote just hours after going to the floor for debate. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) introduced a similar bill in the Senate a short time later. Here's what they had to say in a press release: "Right now, there is nothing stopping a fraudulent contractor from bouncing from federal agency to federal agency, fleecing U.S. taxpayers the whole way," said Maloney. "The federal government's watchdogs -- federal suspension and debarment officials -- lack the centralized information they need to crack down on fraudulent contractors. Congress can and should do more http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/databases_and_loopholes.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/databases_and_loopholes.html Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:00:40 -0400 Contractors want to kill a federal effort to create a database of civil, criminal and administrative proceedings against them. The reason: It would be unfair to contractors. So says a story last week in DefenseNews. The Federal Spending Accountability Act, introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), went to the floor of the House for debate this morning. It calls for the creation of a data systemt to "'track fraudulent federal contractors and prevent them from continuing to do business with the federal government,'" the DefenseNews story says. That's tough stuff, and the National Defense Industrial Association is not happy with it. Lawrence Farrell, president of the NDIA, told DefenseNews that's because it would not have a mechanism for rebuttals. In a letter to lawmakers, he said that it "appears to undermine the fundamental principles of due process." "Farrell, a retired Air Force general, said the "NDIA fully supports the http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/unfair.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/unfair.html politics Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:24:02 -0400 The dispute between the GSA Chief Lurita Doan and GSA Inspector General Brian Miller continues to simmer like a fine sauce. You will recall that Doan complained two years ago that Miller was not going along with streamlining efforts at the agency, while Milller accused her of trying to crimp his ability to oversee contracts and GSA operations. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who pays close attention to oversight and IG operations, chided them both. The dispute received some fuel last year, when the then-counsel Miller's office, Kevin Buford, accused Miller and his acting deputy at the time of violating personnel rules and retaliating against subordinates who complained. An Oct. 5 letter to the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency asked for an investigation of Miller and his former deputy, Robert Samuels. Just over a week later, other lawyers in the IG office joined in to complain. Naturally, that perked up http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/getting_along.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/getting_along.html GSA Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:17:45 -0400 Hoosier lawmaker Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D) asks a good question: Should contractors working abroad have to pay the U.S. government billions in unpaid taxes? His answer: Yes! And he's moving ahead in making it a law. On Monday -- yes, one day before Tax Day -- the House approved his Contracting and Tax Accountability Act, H.R. 4881. The Senate sponsor is Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Robert Brodsky at Government Executive wrote about it. And here's a press release. "Every year, on April 15th, Hoosiers play by the rules and pay their taxes; I don't think it's too much to ask companies that receive millions, sometimes billions, in taxpayer dollars to do the same. Not only do these bad actors cheat our government of tax revenue, they also gain an unfair advantage over businesses that are doing the right thing," Ellsworth said in the release. "This bill is a practical http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/hoosier_daddy.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/hoosier_daddy.html Contract workers Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:00:00 -0400 The promised hearing on The Loophole took place as planned. And just as expected, we got a potpourri of opinions from various quarters, including the Justice Department, Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the contractor world. Informed observers will recall that said loophole was inserted into a proposed OMB rule exempting U.S. contractors in foreign countries from having to report waste, fraud or abuse they encounter while doing work for the government. Critics saw dark happenings meant to unleash contractors abroad. Some government officials said it was a bureaucratic misstep. This is no small thing. The rule was supposed to apply to all U.S. contracts. That's more than $400 billion a year. Here are some excerpts from prepared testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement. Among the things they discussed was proposed legislation that would close the loophole http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/loophole_the_hearing.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/loophole_the_hearing.html homeland security Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:00:00 -0400 It turns out that even some of the biggest beneficiaries of earmarks are finding them to be too much of a good thing. That according to the folks at Taxpayers for Common Sense. The group keyed to a new Defense Department Inspector General's "Report on the Cost, Oversight, and Impact of Congressional Earmarks." In a posting yesterday, the group's blog lifts a quote from the report by a senior Air Force official as saying earmarks can knock a service off the path of its top priorities. "When Congress adjusts the service's priorities, the results are in some cases, a force less capable than the one submitted by the President," Assistant Secretary of the Air Force John H. Gibson says in a response to the IG findings. "In other words," the blog says, "the Air Force is saying that earmarks can hurt our country's national security." "This DOD Inspector General http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/earmarks_and_misdirection.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/earmarks_and_misdirection.html earmarks Fri, 11 Apr 2008 05:59:37 -0400 Here's one that would put a song in the hearts and minds of any investor: SAIC and seven other contractors just scored an intelligence analysis contract with the Defense Intelligence Agency. The potential value on the deal: $1 billion. The DIA will call on the contractors for a wide-array of analysis, according to a piece in Washington Technology by William Welsh. The other contractors include BAE Systems Inc., Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., CACI International Inc., Concurrent Technologies Corp., L-3 Communications Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., and SRA International Inc., the Washington Technology story said. "Under the contract, SAIC will support the DIA mission with services in areas including foreign cultures, regional dynamics, illicit drugs, infectious disease and health, and emerging and disruptive technologies to provide effective analysis for the Defense Intelligence Enterprise," SAIC said in an April 7 announcement. Oh, my, that sounds like a lot of analysis. Has anybody ever http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/intelligence_riches_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/intelligence_riches_1.html intelligence Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:00:00 -0400 So who exactly put that loophole in the proposed OMB rule last year? You know, the one that would exempt U.S. contractors in foreign countries from having to report waste, fraud or abuse they encounter while doing work for the government? No way to know exactly just yet. That's because the White House has missed a congressional deadline for turning over documents about the decision. This according to the Associated Press, which first wrote about the mystery. This is no small thing. The rule was supposed to apply to all U.S. contracts. That's more than $400 billion a year. In a story yesterday, the AP said: "The Bush administration has delayed delivering documents to Congress explaining how a multibillion-dollar loophole exempting overseas work from scrutiny was slipped into a rule intended to crack down on fraud in government contracts." "A House panel will hear April 15 from White House and http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/loophole.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2008/04/loophole.html omb Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:00:07 -0400