This month, and with great fanfare, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its creation of a Procurement Collusion Strike Force. We know what you’re thinking, and no – this
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OIG
Price Reductions Are Dead; Long Live Price Reductions
By Jonathan Aronie on
You no doubt have heard by now about GSA’s 23 June effort to “embrace modern technology while moving away from outmoded practices” – specifically, its implementation of the new Transactional Data Reporting Rule (“TDR Rule”) and its concurrent elimination of the Price Reductions Clause (“PRC”) and the Commercial Sales Practices Format (“CSPF”). See 81 Fed. Reg. 41104 (June 23, 2016). The new rule covers certain GSA Multiple Award Schedules as well as the Agency’s GWAC and IDIQ contracts. As it represents the most significant change to the GSA MAS program since 1994 (when GSA removed federal sales as a PRC trigger), the new rule has the potential to change significantly the way Schedule contractors (and others) do business; hence, my willingness to interrupt your otherwise enjoyable day with a treatise on GSA Schedule contracting.
Continue Reading Price Reductions Are Dead; Long Live Price Reductions
OIG Investigations (Without Subpoena Bells and Whistles) Coming to a Program Near You
By Scott Roybal & Joseph Barton on
The Inspector General Act of 1978 aimed to “consolidate existing auditing and investigative resources to more effectively combat fraud, abuse, waste and mismanagement in the programs and operations of [the executive branch].” To fulfill this mandate, the Act created the Offices of Inspector General (“OIG”) in various executive departments and agencies, including the Department of Defense (“DOD”), and authorized them to conduct and supervise audits and investigations to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse. The DOD OIG’s primary investigative weapon has been the subpoena. More recently, however, the DOD OIG has subtly expanded its investigative arsenal by calling upon the Defense Contract Audit Agency (“DCAA”) to step up its fraud inquiries and by conducting more “Quality Assessments” and “Audits” without sounding the warning shot of the subpoena.
Continue Reading OIG Investigations (Without Subpoena Bells and Whistles) Coming to a Program Near You
From Attestation Reviews To Examinations: The GSA OIG Expands The Scope Of Its Pre-Award Audits
So there I was, just sitting there minding my own business. It was the third day of the GSA OIG’s site visit being conducted as part of a routine pre-award audit (or as the OIG called it, a pre-award “attestation review”), and all was going well. The auditor, who was quite a nice guy frankly, had had many questions, as was to be expected, but nothing for which this particular mid-sized GSA Schedule contractor did not have a reasonable response. No Price Reductions Clause violations. No overbillings. No resume qualification issues. Overall, a pretty darn good preliminary report if you ask me. But then, out of the blue, he says, “okay, I’d like to interview your personnel now.” Interview my personnel?! Come again!?
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