Congress passed a $1.3 trillion spending measure late last week, a move that funds federal agencies through September 30th. It will take about one month before individual agencies will receive their allocated spending numbers, but business should significantly pick up from now till the end of year. New starts that had been put on hold can now commence. Specifically, the Read more
General Dynamics is likely now to be successful in its bid to acquire CSRA, a merger Bloomberg Government estimates will create the largest provider of IT services to the federal government. If true, the combined company would supplant Leidos, the current holder of the Read more
Newly unemployed reader A. McMaster of Washington, D.C. writes, “My new company has a federal client that loves baseball. We’d like to take him to our suite for National’s home opener. We do this for our commercial customers who don’t buy nearly as much from us. Can we take our federal client?” Sorry, A., but you strike out here before you even get to the plate. Federal ethics rules prohibit a gift from a “covered source” (that’d be any contractor) that is valued at more than $20 per occasion. Similarly, federal employees are prohibited from taking gifts valued at more than $50 a year from the same source. Even bleacher seats and a coke put you past the $20 limit. Both you and your customer can get in trouble if you offer, and they accept, any gift that exceeds these amounts. Even though federal employees receive regular ethics training, people being people will still sometimes accept things they know they should not. Your customer may get a slap on the wrist, but you could end up being personally added to the Excluded Parties List (yes, this has happened to contractor’s bearing gifts). Keep yourself in the game and make sure you and your company know the rules about gifts. If you’re really looking for someone in federal, Allen Federal sings a mean rendition of “Take Me Out To the Ballgame”.
GSA is asking Congress to raise the Micro-Purchase threshold to $25,000 for all federal agencies as part of its plan to implement a previous Congressional mandate to establish commercial e-commerce portals. The recommendation was just one legislative change GSA requested as part of the agency’s Phase I report released late last week. Other legislative changes include revising open market commercial buying rules to look more like the Read more
On the heels of a recent Air Force’s moratorium on speaking to the press, the Pentagon’s #2 official has issued guidance saying that DOD personnel should, indeed, continue to speak with contractors. The March 2nd memo issued by Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan states, “Leaders must talk with personnel about the importance of having dialogue with Read more