Defense Department confirms contractors will receive late payments

The Defense Department has confirmed that contractors will receive late payments as a result of the government shutdown, according to FedBiz.

FedBiz quoted Under Secretary Robert Hale as saying that $600 million was lost in productivity due to the nearly 400,000 civilian employees who were furloughed for four days.

While some of the bigger contractors were able to weather the shutdown and still pay obligations, smaller companies could feel some real pain without the cash necessary to handle a delay, be it from federal clients or primes, FedBiz reported.