SmallGovCon Week in Review: March 28-April 1, 2022

Posted on by

Happy April 1st, everyone! In honor of April Fools’ Day, here are some noteworthy pranks over the years. In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees. In 1985, Sports Illustrated writer George Plimpton tricked many readers when he ran a made-up article about a rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour. And in 1996, Taco Bell, the fast-food restaurant chain, duped people when it announced it had agreed to purchase Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell. 

So be careful out there, readers, and don’t be fooled! But it’s no joke that there have been some important federal contracting updates this week, including a bipartisan bill introduced in Congress that would tighten contractor oversight related to conflicts of interest and increasing use of large sole-source 8(a) awards. Have a great weekend!

  • DOD Small Business Contracting: Use of Sole-Source 8(a) Contracts over $22 Million Has Increased [GAO]
  • Lawmakers aim to strengthen transparency in the lucrative — and murky — federal contracting process [ABCNews]
  • GSA Administrator Statement on the President’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget [GSA]
  • Senators look to root out contractor conflicts of interest [FSW]
  • The Hiring Surges in Biden’s 2023 Budget Proposal [GovExec]
  • Administrator Guzman Announces Expansion of the Women’s Business Center Network to All 50 States [SBA]
  • Federal contractor launches pre-award challenge over $15B Polaris solicitation [FedScoop]
  • Pentagon expects to award up to $9 billion in cloud contracts in December [CNBC]
  • On April 4, say goodbye to DUNS and hello to UEI [FedNewsNet]
  • Postal inspectors’ digital intelligence team sometimes acted outside of legal authorities, report says [FedNewsNet]
  • DOD Acquisition Officers Will Learn to Better Acquire and Transition Commercial Technologies [DoD]
  • Fayetteville Woman Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison for Multi-Million Dollar Contract Fraud Schemes [DoJ]
  • Texas Man Sentenced for Selling Chinese-Made Military Helmets and Body Armor to Federal Agencies [DoJ]
  • Former NGO Procurement Official Pleads Guilty to Bribery [DoJ]
  • DOE unveils new efficiency standards for federal buildings [ConstDive]
  • OD’s JWCC enterprise cloud award delayed until December [FedScoop]
  • Inspection Report: DOE-OIG-22-28 [OIG]
  • ​DOD Acquisition Officers Will Learn to Better Acquire and Transition Commercial Technologies [DoD]
  • Preventing Organizational Conflicts of Interest in Federal Acquisition Act [Congress]