Similar Articles |
|
National Defense March 2015 Grandon & Robbins |
Suspension and Debarment of Contractors: Is It Going Too Far? Suspensions and debarments to exclude government contractors from the federal marketplace incite passions on all sides. |
National Defense May 2010 Dorn C. McGrath |
Contractors Must Begin to Update Integrity Database The National Defense Authorization Act of 2009 now requires the government to develop and maintain an information system containing specific information on the integrity and performance of federal contractors and grantees. |
National Defense November 2013 John D. Altenburg |
Winding Down War Zone Contracts As with any arduous task for which a completion date is announced, the government assumed the risk of Afghanistan defense contractor lethargy -- or worse -- when it announced when the war will end. |
National Defense August 2012 Corrigan & Kaprove |
Defense Bill Shows Importance of Ethics and Compliance Programs At one hearing held by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in November, Committee Chairman Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., criticized agencies for using suspension and debarment "all too rarely," and thereby permitting millions of dollars of waste, fraud or abuse. |
National Defense April 2008 McGrath & Connolly |
New Rules For Federal Contracts Effective Dec. 24, 2007, the government-wide federal acquisition regulation (FAR) mandates a written code of ethics for almost all government contractors. |
National Defense July 2005 Dorn McGrath |
When Are Defense Contracts In Effect `Non-Defense'? For several years, Congress has been concerned that the Defense Department's use of "assisting" procurement agencies and other contracting vehicles has concealed poor acquisition planning or attempts to circumvent limits placed on funding. |
National Defense February 2009 McGrath & Connolly |
Final Rules on Mandatory Disclosure Effective Dec. 12, 2008, government contractors will face what rule authors characterize as a "sea change" in how government enforcement authorities expect to govern in the future. |
National Defense May 2010 Stew Magnuson |
DHS Promises More Penalties for Poorly Performing Contractors A senior Homeland Security official has promised more accountability after revelations that the department in its first years rarely ever suspended or debarred contractors for poor performance. |
National Defense May 2013 Canni & Levy |
Agencies Becoming More Aggressive in Pursuit of Contractor Wrongdoing After years of congressional complaints, federal agencies are responding to concerns about how they handle contractor debarments and suspensions. New civilian debarment offices have emerged and are becoming active. |
National Defense September 2013 Ryan C. Bradel |
Proposed Bill Seeks to Rein In Fraud, Abuse Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in February issued a "discussion draft" of newly proposed legislation entitled the Stop Unworthy Spending Act, or SUSPEND Act, aimed at reforming the federal suspension and debarment system. |
National Defense April 2012 McGrath & Jack |
Publicly Available Information Should Be Promptly Reviewed As of Jan. 3, contractors have seven calendar days to review information after it is posted in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System and object to its public release if a Freedom of Information Act exemption applies. |
National Defense February 2009 David H. Laufman |
Mandatory Disclosure Regime Raises Stakes for Contractors A new regulatory enforcement regime has now commenced that underscores the Department of Justice's aggressive approach to procurement fraud and dramatically increases the compliance and disclosure obligations of defense contractors. |
National Defense March 2012 Jacob Pankowski |
Take Heed of Post-Employment Restrictions The new Defense Acquisition Regulation System clause requires offers on Defense Department contracts to represent that all covered ex-department officials expected to work on any resulting contract are in compliance with all post-employment restrictions. |
National Defense June 2008 D'Agostino & Parker |
Self-Disclosure Rules Create Ambiguities It is unclear if a recently proposed disclosure regulation will become final, but the attention it has received from Congress suggests increased mandatory disclosure is likely to occur in some form. |
National Defense January 2012 David Hickey |
Cutting Costs Does Not Require Cutting Compliance Lest anyone think the federal government will tolerate less contractor compliance, the current environment indicates that it is much more likely that the government will pursue allegations of non-compliance, fraud, waste and abuse with even greater vigor. |
National Defense December 2009 McGrath & Connolly |
Industry Should Prepare for Review of Ethics Programs Contractors may soon have more complete answers as to how the Defense Department will verify contractor compliance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation's recent ethics program requirements. |
National Defense October 2006 Fayad & Hickey |
Internal Investigations: Accounting for In-House Costs This article examines the treatment of certain costs for an investigation and related corrective measures under the Federal Acquisition Regulation ("FAR"), and distinguishes those in-house costs that may be recovered from those that may not for government contractors. |
National Defense November 2014 Tompkins et al. |
Executive Orders Require Vendors' Attention While the use of executive orders and the federal procurement process to implement non-procurement policy are not new phenomena, contractors should consider these issues with renewed focus. |
National Defense February 2008 Joseph J. Summerill |
Congress to Enact New Accountability in Contracting Congressional interest in oversight of government contracting began early last year with separate bills during the first three months of the 110th Congress in both the House and Senate that provided for contractor oversight and limited the number of sole source contracts. |
National Defense March 2007 Ebner & Menker |
Message to Industry: `Do the Right Thing' Recent headlines have raised concerns about how federal procurements were handled on a variety of levels. Introduced last fall, a bill entitled the Clean Contracting Act may pass in the 110th Congress. These proposed changes are a harbinger of things that may come. |
National Defense February 2013 Jack & Kaprove |
New Anti-Human Trafficking Rules to Come A new presidential executive order released on Sept. 25 enhanced anti-trafficking compliance obligations covering federal contractors. |
National Defense August 2010 McQuade & Jack |
New Rule Proposed For Organizational Conflicts of Interest The Defense Department issued a proposed rule to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement to impose uniform guidance and tighten existing regulations on organizational conflicts of interest. |
National Defense June 2012 David T. Hickey |
Small Business Compliance Issues Receive Increased Scrutiny The president and his administration, lawmakers, prosecutors, inspectors general, auditors, reporters, whistleblowers, company compliance officers, and industry watchdogs all seek to identify and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse from federal programs. |
National Defense March 2013 Lepow & Specht |
New Defense Legislation a Mixed Bag for Small Business The 2013 National Defense Authorization Act included several provisions related to small businesses, which include expanded opportunities as well as potentially harsher penalties for failure to follow regulations. |
National Defense July 2006 Dorn C. McGrath |
What's Good for the Goose and the Gander Actual bad faith by government officials is relatively rare, but it happens, and making government officials accountable when it does occur is essential to the integrity of our procurement system. |
National Defense October 2012 Goodwin & Kaprove |
Staying Ahead of Proliferating Reporting Databases The government's newest online clearinghouse for past performance information for contractors is called the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System. |
National Defense March 2015 James A. "Ty" Hughes |
Rules Issued to Combat Human Trafficking On Jan. 29, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council issued its final rule amending the federal acquisition regulations to strengthen protections against trafficking in persons in federal contracts. |
U.S. Banker January 2002 |
Trust Big Accounting Firms? Arthur Andersen, the huge accounting firm, hides behind legal technicalities to excuse itself for approving Enron's financial statements. Rather than working for shareholders and investors as it is supposed to, Andersen seems to have done whatever Enron's management wanted it to... |
National Defense January 2013 McGrath et al. |
Tough Penalties for Failing to Comply With Immigration Rules Since 2009, the E-Verify Federal Contractor Rule requires most U.S. government contractors and subcontractors to verify the employment eligibility of employees assigned to federal contracts, and all newly hired employees. |
National Defense October 2011 Steve Epstein |
Defense Department Contractors May See New Hiring Regulations A proposed Defense Department regulation, if implemented, will substantially change how contractors hire, oversee and track certain former civilian and military personnel. |
National Defense January 2009 Reeder & Connolly |
Conflict-of-Interest Plight Can Be Avoided Recently, one of the nation's largest government contractors faced a federal jury verdict that it violated the False Claims Act and breached two contracts with an independent federal agency based on failure to disclose conflicts of interest. |
Mother Jones May/Jun 2002 Ken Silverstein |
Unjust Rewards The government continues to award federal business worth billions to companies that repeatedly break the law. A Mother Jones investigation reveals which major contractors are the worst offenders... |
National Defense October 2009 Stephen Epstein |
Companies Must Beware of New 'Revolving Door' Policies Relationships between government and private contractor representatives must be carefully approached as recent front page stories highlighting allegations of collusion and impropriety have shown. |
National Defense November 2007 Hickey & Connolly |
Ethical Lapses Provide Valuable Training Tool A recently proposed amendment to the Federal Acquisition Regulations would call upon all government contractors to have a written code of ethics and business conduct. |
National Defense September 2012 Richard L. Moorhouse |
Implementing Evolving Disclosure Rules Federal government oversight, scrutiny of contractors and enforcement actions are on the rise. |
National Defense February 2010 Sean M. Connolly |
New Personal Conflicts of Interest Rules Proposed Federal Acquisition Regulations call for contractors to police their employees' personal conflicts of interest or face serious disciplinary action. |
National Defense November 2006 James A. Hughes |
Blended Workforce Poses Conflict of Interest Risks The Acquisition Advisory Panel noted the emergence of a "blended" workforce, where contractors work side-by-side with federal officials. The panel observed that the lines between governmental and commercial functions have blurred. |
National Defense March 2004 Richard J. Bednar |
Small Companies Need Ethics Programs Too The Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct (DII)-- focused on defense industry ethics and conduct programs since its inception in 1986--has developed a "tool kit" to help smaller defense contractors plan ethics and conduct program. |
National Defense December 2011 Moorhouse & Jack |
Frivolous Bid Protests Come With Risks The government and contractors both invest heavily in the lead up to contract formation, and both are expected to behave ethically towards one another with complete integrity. |
National Defense February 2012 Sean M. Connolly |
Update Emerges For New Personal Conflicts of Interest Rule Effective Dec. 2, 2011, the Federal Acquisition Regulation requires U.S. government contractors and subcontractors to prevent personal conflicts of interest that arise during their employees' performance of certain acquisition functions. |
National Defense September 2009 Laura Kennedy |
Tighter Rules For Conflicts Of Interest The new tighter controls on conflicts of interest are forcing defense contractors to become more vigilant to free their relationships from conflicts in all its forms. |
National Defense June 2005 L. James D'Agostino |
Raising the Bar To Meet the Next Wave of Reform Recent procurement scandals have prompted numerous ethics reform initiatives by federal prosecutors, regulators and legislators. Given the volume of spending related to Operation Iraqi Freedom and on-going homeland-security initiatives, the industry can expect the greatest level of scrutiny since Operation Ill Wind in the 1980s. |
National Defense March 2009 Stafford & Goodwin |
Contractors Should Protect Their Reputation The Past Performance Information Retrieval System is a government-wide portal through which contractors can access government performance assessments of their contracts. |
National Defense February 2004 James McAleese |
Safe Harbors of Ethical Conduct Needed in Defense Procurement In light of a recent series of isolated, highly controversial public scandals with respect to several major defense acquisition programs, it is important to create "safe harbors" of conduct so that both government and contractor personnel can work as a cohesive team . |
National Defense July 2015 Terry L. Elling |
How to Recruit Government Workers For many government contractors, current and former government employees -- including military service members -- comprise an experienced and valued source of talent. |
National Defense June 2014 David Robbins |
Embracing Mandatory Disclosure Can Save Contractors Time, Trouble and Legal Fees The mandatory disclosure rule -- which requires federal government contractors to report fraud and overpayments -- is in the news again. |
Entrepreneur February 2006 Joshua Kurlantzick |
For the People Landing government contracts is tough for small firms -- but it can be done. Learn from these entrepreneurs, and Uncle Sam could become your biggest client. |
National Defense February 2007 Corrigan & Hickey |
Contractors Should Get Ready for Scrutiny Federal contractors must be prepared for the change in political and business climate in Congress. Companies can minimize risks by assessing political dangers and self-assessing ethics and compliance programs. |
National Defense September 2010 Bombach & Jack |
Contractors Must Take Ownership of Export Control Compliance A recent change to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement provides an important reminder that all Defense Department contractors and subcontractors must implement effective export controls compliance programs to meet government contracting requirements. |
National Defense October 2015 Berry & Hutchens |
Creating an Ethics Compliance Program Government agencies and mature prime contractors expect emerging contractors to reflect the same "culture of ethics and compliance" that large companies commit substantial resources to implementing. |