Senators debating health-care reform legislation have unanimously approved a proposal requiring members of Congress and their staffs to obtain health insurance through new state-based purchasing exchanges set up by the health-care reform bill under consideration. Lawmakers and their staffs could no longer buy health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program beginning in 2013Read… Read more »
By now you’ve most likely read the news stories and early blogs about GovDelivery’s acquisition of GovLoop, the government social networking site that has rapidly grown from zero to nearly 20,000 members in just over a year. GovLoop founder Steve Ressler broke the news on GovLoop via a blog post, and GovDelivery CEO Scott BurnsRead… Read more »
From The Acquisition Corner As acquisition reform continues to gain steam, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy are continuing to craft guidance and procedures to improve the acquisition process in hopes of saving money on contract costs and reduce the use of “high-risk” contract types. These improvements willRead… Read more »
From The Acquisition Corner An interesting post by Bill Gormley of Washington Management Group described parallels on two of my passions, baseball and improving the acquisition process. It is an interesting read and a fun way of discussing what can be a somewhat difficult process and subject. Some specifics points he makes and my take:Read… Read more »
Here’s the ultimate irony, one with dramatic consequences to US families: a federal policy to stimulate our flagging economy that actually puts more of our jobs at risk. “Buy American” provisions found within this year’s $788 billion stimulus spending package expose US workers in several manufacturing sectors to job loss. It’s that the stipulations ofRead… Read more »
So which is better, Centralized or Direct Bills when using GSA contracts? I get the impression that most agencies do NOT examine their GSA monthly invoices closely anyway so… Is it better to simply let GSA pay vendors the way it’s done with Centralized billing or should the vendor send bills directly to the customerRead… Read more »
From The Acquisition Corner One of the most blatant examples of contractors running amok with little to no oversight has come to light recently as a result of an investigation and subsequent report by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO). This report was created based on information from current and former employees of ArmorGroup NorthRead… Read more »
By: Anthony Rainey Anthony Rainey is treasurer and CFO of Hyattsville, MD. In 1975 Peter Drucker (Management: Tasks, Responsibilities and Practices) identified five prioritization and performance approaches of successful organizations: They clearly define the nature and scope of their function, mission and activities. They set clear objectives. They set priorities, concentrate on the objectives andRead… Read more »
GovLoop’s Acquisition2.0 group is an amazing group of over 300 people from government and industry who share a passion for making the government buying process more efficient, transparent and collaborative. The group shares ideas on everything from career advice to detailed FAR cases to improving the entire acquisition process. Out of this group came anRead… Read more »
The night before last – and in the night – Birmingham City Council without much fanfare switched over to its rejigged website. Within moments the twittersphere was alight. It was crashing, it had obvious faults and it looked terrible. Over the next 36 hours reviewer after reviewer found fault after fault. This would not beRead… Read more »