Acquisition

GSA expects to award STARS II in July

GSA officials pushed back the award date for a month to get better prices from bidding companies on the governmentwide, small-business IT contract.

Acquisition

Congressman wants to halt insourcing

Republican congressman, expressing concern for small businesses, urges a moratorium on returning formerly contracted work to the government.

Acquisition

Biz groups want Congress to protect outsourcing

A coalition of business groups is asking Congress to uphold outsourcing and limit insourcing in the upcoming fiscal 2012 spending bills.

Acquisition

Turnabout: GSA pulls back major contract

After apparently awarding a contract to small businesses, GSA rescinds it almost immediately and urges bidders to rethink their prices.

Acquisition

Senators try to block politics from procurement

A Senate committee has approved legislation that would bar any rule to force companies that bid on federal contracts to report who they supported with political contributions.

Acquisition

Continuity after Kundra

The departure of federal CIO Vivek Kundra puts continuity in the spotlight, writes Steve Kelman.

Acquisition

Obama to use government to increase investment in business

Agencies will talk about federal programs and incentives available to investors doing business with U.S. companies.

Acquisition

GAO will finish its bid protest work

The Defense Information Systems Agency contended that GAO's authority to review certain bid protests ended on May 27, leaving Technatomy’s protest without merit.

Acquisition

Ginman officially named director of defense procurement policy

Richard Ginman takes place of Shay Assad in defense procurement policy, as Assad moves to pricing policies.

Acquisition

Baucus bill would highlight veterans' small-business contracts

A senator wants to put the spotlight on agencies’ work to award contracts to service-disabled veteran small business owners.

Acquisition

Offensensitivity: Are you joking?

FCW cartoonist John Klossner recounts his adventure trying to make a joke about a very grim topic.

Acquisition

DOD wants truer picture of former feds' jobs

A proposed rule would require companies to assure agencies that they comply with rules governing former federal officials before the companies receive a contract award.

Acquisition

5 ideas for improving the acquisition process

Five experts share their ideas for improving different steps of the acquisition life cycle.

Acquisition

Defense bill: 4 provisions to turn back the clock on insourcing

The House's defense authorization bill changes course on past efforts to restore contracted work to federal employees.

Acquisition

GAO: Agencies question usefulness of contract inventories

Some agency officials fear their in-depth inventories of service contracts will turn out to be useful to no one due to funding, manpower shortages.

Acquisition

House members support contractors in fight over pay

The tax has been tagged as a way to decrease the tax gap and make delinquent companies pay their share of taxes, although many lawmakers disagree.

Acquisition

Reporting political contributions would be bad for business, senator warns

Efforts to bolster competition and reach small businesses would be hurt if the administration begins to require companies to include political contributions in their contract bids, a senator says.

Acquisition

Some contractors owed taxes before getting stimulus infusion, GAO finds

The Government Accountability Office reviewed 80,000 contractors that got economic stimulus law funding and found that at least 3,700 owe unpaid federal taxes.

Acquisition

The 1,500 Commandments for contracting officers

How can contracting officers think about ways to make more creative and cost-effective acquisitions when just following the rules is a full-time job?

Acquisition

Want better contracts? Get creative.

Cost-reimbursement and fixed-priced contracts are just two ends of the contracting spectrum, writes Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at Deltek FedSources.