Contract Management articles from July 2003

Contract Management archives from July 2003

Reader response corner.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2003... Human Intervention and Electronic Contracting I enjoyed William Bishop's article, "DOD Contracting in an Electronic Age," in the April 2003 issue of Contract Management magazine. There is much discussion regarding systems and the need to...

Experience the profession. (President's Forum).
July 1, 2003... During my term as national president, I hope to encourage current and future members to "experience the profession." I believe that past leadership and the national staff has truly created the foundation for this experience through their...

Ten tips for effective contract administration. (Professional Development).
July 1, 2003... You have developed a thorough scope of work within a sound request for proposal document. The procurement process has gone smoothly, and you have negotiated one of your best contracts. With such a successful process behind you, it is easy to...

The management of downsizing risk: the emphasis on reducing costs by reducing employee numbers raises the issue of associated risks and effects that come with efforts to downsize, especially in the government.
July 1, 2003... The proposition of assessing risk in the workplace is one that every business must face. The insurance industry and financial industry have their own specific reasons for assessing risk. Similarly, many firms specialize in assessing the risk of...

Perils and pitfalls--inadvertent forfeiture of intellectual property rights: strict compliance with contract clauses and regulations is necessary to avoid inadvertent forfeiture of valuable intellectual property rights to the government.
July 1, 2003... One frequently overlooked area of contract administration is the importance of adequately protecting a contractor's intellectual property rights from the government. This involves careful administration of contract clauses and regulatory...

Protecting intellectual property your company uses but does not own.
July 1, 2003... Establish an implementation roadmap that mitigates the risk of your company faltering, when you suddenly find that you are the "proud new owners" of IP you did not develop and code you did not write. We all understand that protecting our...

Called up for active duty--what does it mean to your company?
July 1, 2003... What current laws and regulations do you need to know when Reserve and National Guard employees are called up for active duty? What are the effects on your company's contracts programs and workloads? The War in Iraq has resulted in a call...

Exchange rate mistakes. (Case Commentary).
July 1, 2003... Eight line items of construction of multiple facilities at the Naval Support Activity (NSA), in Souda Bay (Crete, Greece)--four of which were subjected to option exercise--were solicited in July 1996. Elter S.A. (Elter) submitted price offers...

e-Contracts and escrow agreements made easy. (E-Business).
July 1, 2003... This e-business was reviewed in mid-May 2003. Do you handle escrow agreements for your software source code or intellectual property? Do you know how to handle two- and three-party agreements? Do you have standard, preferred, or master...

Contract Manager Suite 6.1. (Information Technology).
July 1, 2003... This product was reviewed in early May 2003. The market for the enterprise contract management system (ECMS) has grown significantly over the last few years, as documented in Contract Management (CM) magazine. This growth is based upon a...

Size certification. (Small Business Briefs).
July 1, 2003... Currently, small business-sized regulations provide that the Small Business Administration (SBA) determines the size of a firm, as of the date the firm submits to the procuring agency a written self-certification, indicating that it is small as...

Central contractor registration. (Small Business Briefs).
July 1, 2003... Under a proposed amendment to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), all contractors, both large and small, will be required to register in the central contractor registration database before the award of any contract, basic agreement, basic...

Waiver of Non-manufacturer Rule. (Small Business Briefs).
July 1, 2003... The SBA is considering waving the application of the Non-manufacturer Rule for overhead fiber optic ground-wire (North American Industry Classification System Code 335921), ancillary hardware components, (NAICS 334417), and other ordnance and...

Federal Supply Schedule Contracts. (Small Business Briefs).
July 1, 2003... The GSA has issued an interim rule, effective May 7, 2003, amending the GSA Regulation to provide for use by state and local governments of Schedule 70 of the Federal Supply Schedules (Federal Register, May 7, 2003). These public entities may...

FSS and BPAs. (Small Business Briefs).
July 1, 2003... In an effort to "significantly improve the application of acquisition basics" in the use of the MAS managed by the GSA, amendments have been proposed to the FAR to incorporate policies for services and to strengthen the procedures for...

Executive compensation. (Small Business Briefs).
July 1, 2003... The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies setting forth the "benchmark compensation amount," which limits the allowability of compensation costs under government...

Tour operators: calculation of average annual receipts. (Small Business Briefs).
July 1, 2003... The SBA has adopted a final rule--effective May 5, 2003-changing the way average annual receipts are calculated for the tour operator industry (NAICS 561520). The size standard remains at $6 million. The revised calculation excludes receipts...

Per diem rates. (Small Business Briefs).
July 1, 2003... Effective April 28, 2003, the GSA has amended the Federal Travel Regulations to remove the per diem rate tables from Chapter 301, Appendix A. Continental U.S. per diem rates are now available at www.gsa.gov/perdiem Notices of changed rates will...

Changed acquisition thresholds. (Small Business Briefs).
July 1, 2003... On April 4, 2003, Deidre Lee, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, issued a memorandum with a matrix--this is a useful tool for understanding the new thresholds for support acquisition to meet needs in urgent situations and...

GSA can assist contracts professionals. (GSA Case Study).
July 1, 2003... Case #1 GSA'S Federal Technology Service (FTS) has developed a service offering that embeds new security features into the existing telecommunications service offerings. Named the multi-tiered security profiles (MTSP), this service allows...

Bills regarding Defense Authorization Act for FY04 passed in Senate and House. (Legislation).
July 1, 2003... Senator John Warner's bill and Representative Duncan Hunter's bill, both titled "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004," have passed the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively. If enacted, Senator Warner's bill...

Bills regarding public disclosure of non-competitive contracting introduced in House. (Legislation).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Representative Jerry Kleczka has introduced two hills m the House of Representatives, one of which is titled "Sunshine in Iraq Reconstruction Act of 2003," requiring public disclosure of non-competitive contracting for the reconstruction of the...

Bill regarding preferential hiring of veterans for reconstruction in Iraq introduced in House. (Legislation).(Representative Bob Filner introduces Bill)
July 1, 2003... Representative Bob Filner has introduced a bill, titled "Let U.S. Veterans Rebuild Iraq Act," in the House of Representatives. If enacted, the bill would require contracts entered into by the federal government for the reconstruction of Iraq to...

Bill requiring competitive procurement procedures for certain FPI products introduced in House. (Legislation).(Federal Prison Industries)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Representative Carolyn Maloney has introduced a bill in the House of Representatives, requiring the head of an executive agency to use competitive procurement procedures, or make an individual purchase under a multiple-award contract, if a...

Bush administration announces changes to OMB Circular A-76--effective immediately. (Regulations).
July 1, 2003... The Bush administration has revised the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Circular A-76 to streamline and expedite the competitive sourcing process between federal workers and the private sector for work that is not "inherently...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue final rule regarding use of term "United States" in FAR. (Regulations).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have issued a final rule, regarding the use of the term "United States" in the FAR. As previously reported, the...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue final rule regarding cost principles. (Regulations).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued a final rule, proposing changes to the cost principles at FAR 31.205-10 (Cost of Money), FAR 31.205-28 (Other Business Expenses), FAR 31.205-45 (Transportation Costs), and FAR 31.205-48 (Deferred Research and...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue final rule regarding Prompt Payment under cost-reimbursement contracts for services. (Regulations).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued a final rule to amend the FAR to require agencies to pay an interest penalty, when making an interim payment under a cost-reimbursement contract for services more than 30 days after the agency receives a...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue final rule regarding electronic signatures. (Regulations).
July 1, 2003... The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued a final rule to amend the FAR, regarding the use of electronic signatures in federal contracting. As previously reported, the agencies issued a proposed rule to amend FAR 4.502 (Policy) and provide that...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue final rule regarding past performance evaluation of FPI contracts. (Regulations).
July 1, 2003... The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued a final rule to amend the FAR and remove the prohibition on evaluating Federal Prison Industries (FPI) contract performance. Currently, FPI past performance information is gathered for use in future source...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue final rule regarding commercial items contract terms and conditions. (Regulations).
July 1, 2003... The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued a final rule amending the FAR, to update provisions regarding commercial items contract terms conditions in order to implement various statutes and Executive orders. FAR Part 12 (Acquisition of Commercial...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue interim rule regarding increased FPI waiver threshold. (Regulations).
July 1, 2003... The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued an interim rule to amend the FAR and increase the blanket waiver threshold for small dollar value purchases from FPI. According to the agencies, the purpose of this rule is to increase the dollar threshold...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue proposed rule regarding Application of Cost Principles and Procedures and Accounting for Unallowable Costs. (Regulations).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued a proposed rule to amend FAR 31.201-6 (Accounting for Unallowable Costs) and FAR 31.204 (Application of Principles and Procedures). If adopted, this rule would, inter alia: (1) amend FAR 31.201-6, to specific...

DOD issues final rule regarding other Transactions for Prototype Projects. (Regulations).
July 1, 2003... The DOD has issued a final rule to amend 32 C.F.R. Part 3 (Transactions Other than Contracts, Grants, or Cooperative' Agreements for Prototype Projects), to incorporate requirements specified in section 803. of the National Defense...

DOD issues proposed rule regarding Competition Requirements for Purchases from Required Source. (Regulations).(Department of Defense)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The DOD has issued a proposed rule to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement Section 811 (Applicability of Competition Requirements to Purchases from a Required Source) of the National Defense...

DOD issues proposed rule regarding transactions other than contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements for prototype projects. (Regulations).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The DOD has issued a proposed rule to implement section 822 (Follow-on Production Contracts for Products Developed Pursuant to Prototype Projects) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 (Pub. L No. 107-107). Section 822...

DOD issues proposed rule regarding information assurance in IT acquisition. (Regulations).
July 1, 2003... The DOD has issued a proposed rule to amend provisions of the DFARS relating to information assurance in the acquisition of information technology. Information assurance refers to measures that protect and defend information and information...

GSA issues interim rule regarding Federal Supply Schedule Contracts. (Regulations).
July 1, 2003... The GSA has issued an interim rule to amend the GSA Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) to implement section 211 of the E-Government Act of 2002 (Pub. L No. 107-347). Section 211 allows the administrator of GSA to authorize the use of federal supply...

OFAC issues interim final rule regarding amendments to Iraqi Sanctions Regulations. (Regulations).
July 1, 2003... The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury has issued an interim final rule amending the Iraqi Sanctions Regulations, adding four general licenses. These licenses authorize the following transactions involving...

International Contract Management--Better Business by Crossing Borders. (Commercial Contract Management Conference Wrap-Up Report).
July 1, 2003... It was early April, just weeks after the United States attacked Iraq on Thursday, March 20, 2003. With much apprehension, approximately 200 people came from all over the world to NCMA's Commercial Contract Management Conference (CCMC),...

NCMA Outstanding Fellow Award winner named. (NCMA Association News).
July 1, 2003... JOAN F. S. WYSOSKE, CPCM, is the director of change orders for Humana Military Healthcare Services, Inc. (HMHS), in Louisville, Kentucky. The company administers two multi-billion dollar contracts for the TRICARE Program, under the Department...

Best article in CM magazine for 2002--Delaney Award winner announced. (NCMA Association News).
July 1, 2003... Every year, hundreds of authors--NCMA members and non-members alike--contribute their time and energy to make Contract Management magazine one of the most highly valued member benefits, offering original ideas to the community of contracting...

NCMA's national officers for 2003-2004. (NCMA Association News).
July 1, 2003... Gary B. Zura, CPCM, Fellow, is the deputy for contracts and policy management to the vice president of Sandia Corporation, a subsidiary of the Lockheed Martin Corporation, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is responsible for the management and...

Chapter Bulletin Board. (NCMA Association News).
July 1, 2003... DAHLGREN CHAPTER The keynote speaker for the May 2003 meeting, Reuben Pitts (head of the Surface Ship Program Office in the Combat Systems Department Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division), is presented with a speaker's gift by...

Protecting intellectual property during the Internet-age.
July 1, 2003... What are the problems relating to IP protection? Here's an approach to solve some of these challenges, using a comprehensive program process alongside technology. The authors are represented by the Carrera Agency, a talent management agency...

Copyright Term Extension is constitutional.
July 1, 2003... In light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, now is an appropriate time to review intellectual property portfolios--including copyright registrations, renewals, and licensing agreements. Publishers, film producers, artists, authors,...

Guiding your intellectual property through escrow arrangements.
July 1, 2003... In the end, the escrow agreement helps to motivate the developer to quickly resolve any disputes with end-users, while providing a tool for the end-user to limit risk if a resolution is not reached. Intellectual property (IP) encompasses...