Top 10 stories: Competitive sourcing leads the list

The top 10 stories readers followed during the month of May.

1. Mikulski gives competitive sourcing the boot
A bill introduced by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) would indefinitely suspend the Bush administration’s competitive-sourcing initiative under OMB Circular A-76 and make permanent changes to those rules.

2. Not so fast, DOD IT
The Veterans Affairs Department and Commerce Department are the top agencies for IT spending increases in the proposed fiscal 2010 budget — at 20 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively. The Defense Department came in third with a proposed 3.4 percent increase, according to a preliminary analysis by Input.

3. Unisys reboots around services
The company has created four business units and four areas of core competence in a restructuring effort designed to increase its bottom line.

4. Lucky 7 win Rapid Response contract
Seven companies have won spots on the Army’s five-year, $16.4 billion Rapid Response Third Generation contract, which is open to all government agencies for systems integration and other technology services.

5. Lockheed readies CANES team
The defense contracting giant has tapped General Dynamics Corp., ViaSat Inc., Harris Corp. and American Systems Corp. to go after the Navy’s Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services contract.

6. DHS wins last place in contract performance
The Homeland Security Department conducted only 13 percent of the required performance assessments on thousands of federal contracts in fiscal 2007, the worst record of federal agencies reviewed, according to the Government Accountability Office.

7. Help us spend our money
The Commerce Department intends to award a contract by June 30 to obtain assistance in distributing the $4.7 billion in economic stimulus funds devoted to broadband expansion, according to a planning document.

8. Networx on dial-up speed
To date, agencies have moved only 15.6 percent of their telecommunications services from the General Services Administration’s FTS 2001 contract to Networx. GSA said that at this rate, it will take more than nine years for agencies to complete the transition.

9. No future for Future Combat Systems?
The Defense Department’s chief arms buyer says the Obama administration is on the verge of canceling the Army Future Combat Systems program in its current form and moving the portions it likes to a new program.

10. Cyber plan opens big
President Barack Obama’s announcement that he will soon name a cyber coordinator to lead a five-point program aimed at protecting the security of computer networks has provoked early praise and some questions from the contracting and business communities.