Contracts are essential in business. But most people in business see contracts as documents containing language and terms that only a lawyer can interpret.
A recent decision by the Government Accountability Office reflects the federal government's scrutiny and continued oversight of purchases from General Services Administration Schedule contracts.
In October, Darleen Druyun, a former Air Force procurement officer and former Boeing Co. executive, was sentenced to nine months in federal prison for helping Boeing win Air Force business at the same time she was negotiating a job with the company.
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).
An organization convicted of a criminal offense is sentenced according to Federal Sentencing Guidelines drafted by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and a key mitigating factor in sentencing is whether the organization has an effective compliance and ethics program.
The Small Business Administration has proposed revising its size standards mainly by moving to a system that determines a company's small-business status based solely on the number of employees.
There are currently 37 size levels that apply to 1,151 industries and 13 subindustry activities in the North American Industry Classification System. Thirty of the standards are based on annual revenue (or "receipts"), five are based on number of employees, and two are based on other measures.
Now that the government's efforts in constructing a physical infrastructure in Iraq are under way, it is moving toward erecting a communications and information architecture in the country.
Last year was full of drama: war in Iraq and struggles for many major government contractors. Although 2004 will be unique on its own, many events of this new year have been foretold by the events of 2003.
In response to Enron and other corporate debacles, and to increased federal regulation, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, companies are again examining their in-house compliance and ethics programs.
Defense contractors often escape the harsh and probing glare of the media spotlight because government procurement is considered too dull to stir the public's interest. Not this summer.
In 2002, hackers broke into a California state payroll database and gained access to confidential personnel data for more than 250,000 employees. The state did not become aware of the security breach for a month and took another two weeks before notifying state employees. On July 1, California Senate Bill 1386 went into effect to decrease the chances of such a crime happening again.
<FONT SIZE=2>The Homeland Security Act of 2002 signed into law by President Bush in November also included provisions that make it easier for the federal government to procure anti-terrorism technology. These provisions were included in the Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act of 2002, also known as the Safety Act, which was enacted as part of the Homeland Security Act.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>Over the past few years, there has been a big push toward arbitration and away from resolving disputes through traditional litigation processes. The common claim of alternative dispute resolution enthusiasts is that arbitration is faster and cheaper than litigation. But is arbitration indeed a more streamlined, economic method of resolving disputes than litigation?</FONT>
There's something many companies selling products or services in the commercial marketplace don't know: If they sell a product or service to a government contractor, they'll likely be considered a government subcontractor and, therefore, may be subject to certain statutes and regulations -- even if they have not entered into a specific contract with the government contractor to perform work related to the prime contract.
With more and more federal agencies relying on outsourcing, contractors are providing a wide variety of support services on behalf of the government, including travel arrangements, fingerprinting and various security checks on people and banking services to agency employees. Many contractors, however, are unaware that in taking on these contracts, they now are subject to the terms of the Privacy Act of 1974.</FONT>
News of a corporate scandal,like the accounting troubles recently disclosed by companies such as Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc., can significantly affect a company's business in the federal as well as commercial marketplace.
One of the thorniest issues for federal contractors is determining if and how the Service Contract Act applies to a specific contract. Although the SCA has been around for a while, many of its requirements are misunderstood.
Nondisclosure agreements are almost as commonplace in the technology sector as Web addresses. However, few companies understand how to best use this legal instrument to their advantage.
