Acquisition

When the Lack of Oversight on Government Contracts Has Dire Consequences

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 »

The Role of Performance Indicators During Fiscal Stress

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 »

Project of the Week – Better Buy Project

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 »

Lessons from the great 2009 Birmingham City Council website disaster

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 »

Do You Manage Multilingual Websites?

Join Lee Vann for Web Managers University’s Best Practices of Multilingual Websites: http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/fall2009/bestpracticesofmultilingualwebsites.shtml Do you need to build a multilingual online presence and don’t know where to start? This webinar will provide strategies for building a business case for multilingual websites and for effectively building, maintaining and marketing foreign language sites. Using the exploding U.S.Read… Read more »

Action Needed Now on Acquisition Workforce Reforms

From the Acquisition Corner A recent piece in FCW from Dee Lee, now executive vice president of federal affairs and operations at the Professional Services Council (PSC), highlights the need to temper acquisition workforce analysis with action. Her piece is a follow up to her Aug. 5 testimony before Congress to discuss the multi-sector acquisitionRead… Read more »

Federal IT Dashboard: Putting the “R” in ROI

Kudos to OMB and Federal agencies for completing the ratings of 100% of their major IT investments, which by the way was no small undertaking . So we now have a complete and well presented view via the Federal IT Dashboard (http://it.usaspending.gov/) of how well our “major” Federal IT investments are adhering to cost, scheduleRead… Read more »

Crazy Crazy UNproductive day!

Oh what a bad day! Let’s see. First I almost was hit by a crazy truck driver who wanted to move back and forth between lanes in rush hour traffic. (I really need to telework) Then I get to work and my CAC pin does not work. Now let’s examine this for a moment. ItRead… Read more »

Speeding Up the Acquisition Process is a Challenge

From The Acquisition Corner An interesting action plan for speeding up the procurement process for Recovery procurements was recently proposed by Dr. Allan Burman, who served as administrator of federal procurement policy in the Office of Management and Budget. His plan, which was conducted as an interview with CGI Initiative for Collaborative Government, outlined anRead… Read more »

GovLoop Project of the Week – ActiveGovernment

It seems more people are trying to be more involved and active in the cities and counties in which they live; me included. With the advancement of technology and the ability to handle multiple tasks online, there is no doubt a greater need for cities and counties to beef up their online systems for citizenRead… Read more »