As 2010 is now officially in the books, one issue that we can expect to continue its trend in 2011 is contract protests. An interesting piece in the November-December 2011 Defense AT&L magazine discussed this issue, and illustrates the realities of the federal contracting environment. Mainly, budgets are tightening, competition for those shrinking dollars isRead… Read more »
Voters have signaled that they aren’t happy with the role of government. Surveys also say they are upset with government employees and don’t trust government. Yet research shows that citizens base their perceptions on their personal experiences. So would improving customer service help? In the 1990s, the Clinton-Gore Reinventing Government effort thought the answer wasRead… Read more »
The Obama Administration is committed to using technology to better engage citizens in their government. Ironically, legislation crafted in the 1950s to open citizen access to government documents may be a barrier to today’s Open Government initiatives. The Federal Records Act of 1950 creates a framework to manage agency records. It puts the National ArchivesRead… Read more »
From The Acquisition Corner With the end of the fiscal year comes the right of passage for government contracting personnel and contractors alike; the end-of year budget dump or as I like to call it, the end of fiscal year feeding frenzy. This time of year is characterized by the worst practices in federal contracting:Read… Read more »
Now is the perfect time for the Obama administration to tackle the problem of government contractor corruption. Local government agencies are strapped for cash and small businesses are suffering in all sectors, making fraud and waste politically intolerable. Anti-corruption actions would bolster support for the administration among business owners and improve confidence in government amongRead… Read more »
The Electronic Privacy Information Center and a coalition of groups that include the American Civil Liberties Union are petitioning (.pdf) the Homeland Security Administration to suspend full body scans at airports. The petition goes into a number of points–the fact that the images can be stored, the fact that the images could be associated withRead… Read more »
Opening Session: Closing Session: See the in depth session on Customer Services in the Customer Engagement Forum. .
From The Acquisition Corner As part of the Obama Administration’s call for reform of the federal acquisition process, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently issued a second set of memos with guidance on increasing competition for better outcomes. These memos are a continuation of original OMB guidance released in July, which outlined waysRead… Read more »
From The Acquisition Corner Recent reporting by Federal Computer Week (FCW) highlights an issue that is not being addressed by acquisition reform initiatives; reforming the contract protest process. Writing in the Editor’s Notebook blog at Washington Technology, Nick Wakeman discusses the protest by Unisys and General Dynamics of TSA’s contract award to Computer Sciences CorpRead… Read more »
From The Acquisition Corner There has been some discussion recently on a case study of shortening the procurement cycle from the lessons learned of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle. The MRAP is an armored all-terrain vehicle whose purchase and desire for rapid deployment was motivated by the continuing deaths of troops in IraqRead… Read more »