SmallGovCon Week in Review: March 21-25, 2022

Happy Friday, Readers. It’s been an exciting March Madness so far and we are looking forward to our hometown Kansas Jayhawks basketball game later today. There have been some major upsets and we are hoping the Jayhawks can hang in there on the road to the championship. Fingers and toes are crossed.

This week in federal contracting there were several announcements such as the Senate passing a 2022 Federal spending bill and the Department of Labor Announcing a Proposed Rule for Modifying Procedures to Identify, Remedy Discrimination in Federal Contracting. You can read more about these announcements and a few other noteworthy articles below. Have a great weekend!

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: October 25-29, 2021

Happy Friday and Happy Halloween! As always, there was a lot of news in the federal government contracting world this week including an announcement from the SBA concerning a new community navigator pilot program which will provide $100 million in funding to 51 organizations to help support local community entrepreneurs. Also, the GSA announced it will be making revisions to its commercial platform initiative. You can read more about these and other federal government contracting related topics in the articles below.

Have a great weekend!

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GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service Over-Reported Small Business Contracts by $89 Million

Every year, when the SBA releases its annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard, I hear from a few folks who mistrust the data. “I think small business awards are being over-reported,” is a pretty common theme for Scorecard skeptics.

A new GSA Office of Inspector General report is a reminder that it’s not paranoia if people are really out to get you. According to the GSA OIG, the GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service over-reported small business contracts by a whopping $89 million in just two fiscal years.

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GovCon Basics: Common Procurement Methods and Terminology

The acronyms and terminology used in federal government contracting can be a labyrinth–one sadly devoid of David Bowie. In this post, we’ll clarify some of the common methods used for government procurements, the regulations defining them, and the terminology associated with them.

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GSA Releases IT Security and Authentication Solutions for Federal Agencies

GSA released a Draft Identity, Credentialing, and Access Management (ICAM) Solutions Catalog in response to an Executive Order and a new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policy. These ICAM Solutions will assist federal agencies in managing and monitoring user access to information systems in order to ensure secure operations and could change security and authentication procedures for federal contractors.

From the President on down, cybersecurity, including authentication, is a pressing concern for all federal contractors.

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GSA Demystifies DUNS Replacement ID

Change can be confusing. Change can be frustrating.” No, this is not from the cover of a self-help book. This is GSA’s acknowledgment that, often, we fear change.

To combat fears about changes to the DUNS number, GSA recently released a Q&A providing some answers on the new Unique Entity ID (UEI) Standard, which is set to replace the current DUNS system in December 2020. The Q&A followed GSA’s online meeting on the topic in July, which hosted over 700 attendees. GSA answered general questions about the transition, the UEI that will be used, and how to obtain a new identifier. Let’s take a look.

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