Competitive sourcing fight continues on the Hill

The House is debating an amendment that would restrict use of the revised Office of Management and Budget A-76 Circular.

U.S. to help Indonesian utility

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency wants technical assistance for PLN, Indonesia's national electric power utility, to develop a comprehensive IT solution. The contractor must provide a strategy and an overall evaluation of the company's requirements, including the use of commercial software and hardware. The contractor also must prepare a detailed IT implementation plan model for one generation company, one transmission company and one distribution company.

Bidder protests e-recreation award

Spherix Inc. of Beltsville, Md., has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Agriculture Department's award to ReserveAmerica of the $128 million contract for the consolidated National Recreation Reservation System.

GAO: Tax haven firms have edge

A federal watchdog agency has concluded that companies incorporated in overseas tax havens likely have an edge over domestic competitors in pursuing federal contracts.

Congressional moves against outsourcing on the rise

Two new amendments attached to Senate spending bills threaten to curtail the Bush administration's effort to compete government jobs with the private sector.

GSA to provide some free access to federal contract data

<font color="CC0000"> (UPDATED) </font color> Access to all of the raw contract data through the Federal Procurement Data System?Next Generation will be provided for a one-time $2,500 fee.

Outsourcing plan gets federal scrutiny

A groundbreaking effort by Florida to turn welfare eligibility ruling over to the private sector is facing intense scrutiny by federal agencies that oversee public assistance programs.

'Strategic sourcing' pays off

One of the first things Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) did when he took office last year was look for ways to whittle down the state's $2 billion budget shortfall.

Infotech and the law: Court tightens law protecting contractors' pricing info

A new ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia provides greater protection for a government contractor's pricing when it's requested by a competitor, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

OPM postpones E-Learning procurement

Vendors submitted more than 1,000 questions, solicitation to be re-issued.

Special Report: Microsoft cozies up to integrators

In the past 18 months, Microsoft has overhauled its public-sector group, added government experts and begun working with systems integrators to win contracts.

GSA jump-starts share in savings

No schedule or multiple-award contract has ever been dedicated to share in savings ? until now. The General Services Administration last month awarded blanket purchase agreements to six companies to sell share-in-savings information technology projects to 19 federal agencies.

OPM releases draft RFP for new benefits system

Request for proposals covers a defined-benefits system that will give federal employees and retirees access to their government retirement account information.

E-gov projects looking for vendor input

The Business Gateway initiative wants vendors to provide information on how they would develop and implement an online form processing system.

GSA schedules Networx conference

Revised strategy for the Federal Technology Service Networx contract to be presented next month at an industry conference.

Forecast says federal IT spending to slow

Slowdown marks a fundamental shift in how government views technology purchases, market researcher says.

Cal State consortium seeks homeland security, defense technologies

The consortium is soliciting technologies from industry, academic institutions and government labs to support the Defense and Homeland Security Departments.

Performance-based contracting rules debut

Proposed rule tells industry and agencies how to do performance-based contracting for services.

Infotech and the law: Putting the 'share' in share-in-savings rules

The federal government July 2 published a proposed rule to authorize governmentwide use of share-in-savings contracts for federal IT projects. A final rule likely will take effect in the last quarter of 2004.

Tech Success: Unisys, Daon help travelers fly through lines

On July 7 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport the nation's first registered travelers sped through screening by placing their fingers on biometric readers in a pilot program launched by the Transportation Security Administration and Unisys Corp.