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jaimegracia
Small Businesses as Primes: Beware the Scorpion
As the 2012 Fiscal Year comes to a close, procurement shops are in full gear awarding contracts in the shadow of sequestration. Many large firms are also trying to close business after months of business development, only to see last minute decisions to make their solicitation a small business set-aside. This creates another potential avenue … Continue reading
Buying In Now Effectively Policy Across Government
In a recent breakfast hosted by the Coalition for Government Procurement, Administrator Joe Jordan effectively punted on the notion of best value versus the realities of federal procurement; lowest priced offers win contracts. …Generally speaking, he said industry likes best-value procurements. They allow companies to propose higher prices, since officials will consider other evaluation criteria beyond price. … Continue reading
DHS Rule to “Protect” Small Businesses – Thanks for Nothing
Federal Computer Week reported on a proposed change to the Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation, the supplement to the Federal Acquisition Regulation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in order to help small businesses fend off rapacious primes contractors from “windfall” payments on Time and Material contracts. “Help” like this is not desired by small … Continue reading
Contractors and Procurement Officials: Customer Service Is A Two Way Street
There seems to be a development that is coming more and more to the forefront: the case of the out-of-control Contracting Officer (KO). There are usually two paths to interactions with a KO, one being the KO who is overwhelmed with the workload, doing the best they can to handle it, and simply have very … Continue reading
Smaller Piece Of The Pie For Small Businesses
With the end of the fiscal year upon us, the “feeding frenzy,” as I like to call it, is in full swing. With possible sweeping budgets on the horizon through sequestration, and overall declines in revenues, agencies are unloading end-of-year dollars at a dizzying pace. It should be particularly good times for small businesses, as … Continue reading
Service Contract Inventories: Missed Opportunities For Transparency
Last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report in April 2012 detailing a continuing issue at the Department of Defense (DoD) that is not foreign across government; the lack of transparency when it come to service contracts. The GAO report looks at two issues inherent in the struggles at DoD; lack of … Continue reading
Ensuring Small Businesses Representation: Enforce the Rules
The issue of subcontracts management is a badly needed topic that has gotten little attention recently, either through proposed legislation, or anywhere else. I attended the Acquisition Excellence 2012 Conference a few weeks ago, jointly sponsored by the American Council for Technology (ACT) – Industry Advisory Council (IAC) and the General Services Administration, discussing with … Continue reading
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jaimegracia
