Digital Government
Treasury faults AT&T over 800 service
The Treasury Department is so dissatisfied with AT&T's 800 service under FTS 2000 that it does not want to use the AT&T network for the Internal Revenue Service if problems cannot be resolved before taxfiling season. The IRS has run into difficulties with reporting systems that collect information
Digital Government
How much documentation is needed to back a contract award?
A government official raised the following issue: When our agency conducts a competitive acquisition the contracting office typically requires those involved to keep fairly detailed records usually in a prescribed format. Some of us think that the procurement process could be streamlined if we didn
Digital Government
Sun, EPS team to offer Java-based mail forms
The U.S. Postal Service announced last month that it will work with Sun Microsystems Inc. and Enterprise Productivity Systems Inc. to develop a series of Javabased applications for electronic forms that should save USPS time and money. Under the agreement EPS will make available on USPS' Internet
Digital Government
Inspectors general fault feds' cost accounting, monitoring
Federal agencies are putting their computer systems at risk because they account poorly for the maintenance of their software according to a report by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency a group of government inspectors general. In a study of five agencies PCIE concluded that in gen
Digital Government
Finding a better way to eliminate bulky MAS requirements
On Sept. 4 the General Services Administration proposed revisions to its earlier interim rule amending the GSA Regulation (GSAR) on acquiring commercial items. The proposed changes served to implement portions of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act and related Federal Acquisition Regulation ch
Digital Government
FEDWIRE
Kantor delays AWIPS decision C ommerce Secretary Mickey Kantor deferred his decision on whether to deploy the National Weather Service's Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System nationwide to give the agency time to address language in the appropriations bill and provide more information on i
Digital Government
FAA denies Wilcox protest
In the first major test of its selfstyled Acquisition Management System (AMS) the Federal Aviation Administration this month denied a protest filed by Wilcox Electric Inc. against the award of a contract to Hughes Aircraft Co. for development of a satellite navigation system. The protest stems fro
Digital Government
ROSTER
The Industry Advisory Council this month announced its government and industry award winners. On the government side IAC recognized Bruce McConnell chief of information policy at the Office of Management and Budget with a special award for outstanding leadership and achievement. Other special award
Digital Government
FEDERAL BYTES
Thompson retirement watch The General Services Administration's chief information officer Joe Thompson caught our attention this month as he began his speech at the Industry Advisory Council conference in Richmond Va. Thompson opened with a notsosubtle allusion to his retirement plans. He reitera
Digital Government
Intercepts
* Room at the top? The Interceptor is picking up mediumstrength signals that no matter the outcome of the election top Pentagon management plans to hit the road by the end of the year. This includes Defense Secretary William Perry and Paul Kaminski the technology and acquisition czar. Also expecte
Digital Government
Market grows for technical document management
The federal technical document management market is moving ahead solidly as agencies work to handle more of their technical and engineering information in electronic format.Technical document management is a segment of the imaging market that focuses on documents such as engineering drawings bluepr
Digital Government
Treasury ponders opening TDA program to other agencies
The Treasury Department may join the growing list of agencies that have opened their technology contracts to the rest of the government if it decides to expand access to three officeautomation contracts early next year. The Internal Revenue Service which runs the Treasury Department Acquisition pr
Digital Government
AWARDS
CACIIMS Services Inc. A $28.2 million award for records management support services. Justice Department Procurement Services Staff National Place Suite 1000 1331 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. Washington D.C. 20530. Computech Inc. $25.7 million for automated commercial systems development and maintenance
Digital Government
Companies competing for FAS4T
The Administrative Office of the U.S Courts (AOUSC) this month chose Computer Data Solutions Inc.'s Business Applications Solutions Co. and American Management Systems to compete for the right to provide financial management system software in a procurement potentially worth about $20 million over
Digital Government
Manager forecasts AWIPS success
Mary Glackin modernization systems manager at the National Weather Service remembers heading home as a child from the New Jersey shore with her family caught in the middle of a hurricane that had hit without much warning. That event appears to have been a defining moment for a woman whose career ha
Digital Government
FAA mulls Corn pact's recompete
The Federal Aviation Administration has taken the first step to recompete the $508 million Computer Resources Nucleus (Corn) contract an outsourcing pact awarded to Electronic Data Systems Corp. in 1992. The FAA recently released an initial screening information request (SIR) through which the FAA
Digital Government
Navy awards BPAs worth $90 million
The Naval Information Systems Management Center has awarded four broad purchase agreements worth a total of $90 million for up to 23 500 desktop PCs and servers. NISMC tapped AmeriData Federal Systems Inc. Digital Equipment Corp. Government Technology Services Inc. and McBride & Associates for the
Digital Government
How should ambiguous contract language be interpreted?
A reader asked the following question: Sometimes during the performance of a contract it becomes clear that one or more of the contract terms is ambiguous as to the parties' respective rights and obligations. How are ambiguities of this sort resolved? Are there general rules that the parties can ap
Digital Government
Cray eyes new DOE performance levels
Cray Research Inc. last week won a $110 million contract with the Energy Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory to build the world's fastest supercomputer to simulate underground nuclear testing. Cray's fouryear contract is the third award under DOE's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiativ
Digital Government