SmallGovCon Week In Review: September 16 – September 20, 2019

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another weekend of college football. Here in Lawrence, there is some renewed interest in the Jayhawks after last week’s surprise Friday night upset over Boston College. Let’s hope the Hawks can keep the intensity up tomorrow.

It also means it’s time for another roundup of some of the more interesting updates from the federal government contracting world. This week, we look at stories including that Federal, state, and local authorities are intensifying scrutiny of minority contracting programs; the House Small Business Committee Chairwoman pushes for improvements to SBA’s 8(a) Program; and whether AI can help decide if work is inherently governmental.

GSA answers 105 questions about the transition From DUNS to unique IDs [Nextgov]
The Utah PTAC is gearing up for their annual “2019 PTAC Procurement Symposium” [EventBrite]
DOJ announces UPS has agreed to pay the U.S. $8.4 million to resolve allegations that it overcharged federal agencies for package delivery services under a GSA contract [U.S. Department of Justice]
The Health and Human Services Department’s decision to wind down its acquisition services for outside agencies has left customers with many unanswered questions [Nextgov]
Federal Times sits down with GSA Administrator Emily Murphy and FAS Commissioner Alan Thomas to discuss their procurement reform efforts and vision for GSA’s future [Federal Times]
House Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia M. Velázquez pushes for improvements to the SBA’s 8(a) Program [Committee on Small Business]
New Jersey defense contracting firm owner receives 42-month prison sentence for defrauding the U.S. Department of Defense [U.S. Department of Justice]
The DHHS has built a recurrent neural network to help acquisition staff determine if work is “inherently governmental” [FCW]
Federal, state, and local authorities are intensifying scrutiny of minority contracting programs across the country in the wake of a recent Times investigation [Los Angeles Times]
U.S. government contractor says a recent breach has cost his company $500,000 to $1 million in what he deemed a “learning experience” that should be shared with other organizations to raise their network defenses [cyberscoop]
The Treasury Department plans to invest more than $1.5 billion over the next decade to migrate its systems and data to the cloud [Bloomberg Government]
The government contracting world is deeply vulnerable to fraud, says a former federal investigator [Government Executive]