GovCon Insights July 7, 2011: Obama Answers GovCon Tweet; VA T4 Awards; Insourcing/Outsourcing Debate; Counting Contractors

VA Awards $12 Billion For Tech Overhaul [InformationWeek] – Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services, Booz Allen Hamilton, Harris Corp. and seven service-disabled veteran small businesses and veteran-owned small businesses accounted for ten of the 14 Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology (T4) contracts awarded by the Veteran Administration. The five-year, $12 billion program, along with an effort to upgrade the electronic health record system with open-source software and align it with the DOD system, is part of CIO Roger Baker’s push for information technology reform and modernization.

Insourcing vs. outsourcing: The never-ending story [Federal Computer Week] – Matthew Weigelt notes that Federal Computer Week articles on insourcing vs. outsourcing federal work drew a lot of comments and comments on the comments, with one reader calling for decisions to be made on a case-by-case basis. Another reader feels the debate does not matter much, pointing out, “The real customers are the American people, and they are not satisfied with either employees of the U.S. government or contractors.”

The challenges of including contractors in the federal workforce size debate [Federal Computer Week] – A hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s federal workforce subcommittee concluded that contractors should be included when considering cutting the federal workforce. Trey Hodgkins of TechAmerica said that counting them is hard because many agencies do not maintain inventories of contract personnel, with Professional Services Council president and CEO Stan Soloway adding that contractor numbers change frequently.

Greenleaf Integrative Strategies Develops Programs To Address Stress Challenges at USAID and Across Government [GovWin] – A video interview of Greenleaf Integrative Strategies medical director Dr. Siddharth Shah by GovWin senior community manager Michael Hackmer. Shah discusses his company’s government contract work, especially U.S. Agency for International Development work dealing with federal employee stress control.

Potential Impacts of Mandatory E-Verify Use in Virginia (and Other States) [GovWin] – A trio of Deltek state/local analysts give their take on Virginia considering mandatory E-Verify checks for state contractor workforces. Their main conclusion is that such a law would increase contractor costs, and ultimately the government and its taxpayers.

Debt ceiling debate likely to continue for weeks [Federal News Radio] – In this audio interview, The Hill staff writer Ian Swanson predicts a deal on the debt ceiling will not be reached until close to the August 2 deadline. Both sides of the political spectrum are currently entrenched in their positions.

Contracting changes ‘overdue’ at PBGC, GAO says [Business Insurance] – A Government Accountability Office report [PDF] released June 29 concluded the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has not moved quickly enough on previous contracting suggestions and is plagued by the lack of a strategic plan for contracting and not routinely analyzing cost benefits or risks. The agency, which uses around 75 percent of its budget on contracting, is moving toward performance-based contracting and has come a long way in procurement in recent years, responded director Joshua Gotbaum.

Babcock & Wilcox announces contract [Forbes/AP] – Babcock & Wilcox announced that its Technical Services Group, CH2M HILL Constructors and Environmental Chemical Corp. will team up on a $333 million Department of Energy contract to decommission the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York. The contractors will remove and dispose of contaminated waste and maintain the former nuclear fuel reprocessing site.

Update: DHS tests show security’s people problem [Computerworld] – The Department of Homeland Security refuted two assertions in an earlier Bloomberg report, that 60 percent of randomly dropped USB and optical drives in government and private contractor parking lotswere plugged into work computers (the number was actually 20 percent) and that a full report would be made later this year. The agency also noted that only two percent of employees who were educated on security precautions plugged in the devices during a follow-up study.

SRS lab donates to Augusta Tech [Augusta Chronicle] – Savannah River Site contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions is donating $10,000 to Augusta Technical College to buy equipment for three new labs. Demand for nuclear workers is expected to grow as new reactors are planned for the area.

High-profile Dem lobbyist joins board of former Blackwater company [The Hill] – Jack Quinn, co-founder and chairman of Democratic lobbyist Quinn Gillespie & Associates, has joined the board of directors of Xe Services. He noted that Xe has valuable services that are needed by the country.

Independent Recovery Audits Of Medicaid Can Save Billions [Forbes] – Romil Bahl, CEO of PRGX, the world’s largest audit recovery firm, feels that the government could save $9-10 billion with the new requirement for states to contract auditors for Medicaid accounting. Chief medical officer Dr. Moira Dolan says problems are more easily spotted when using auditors who have worked on both sides of the medical aisle and understand a patient’s treatment pattern.

DOD Contract Announcements
Contract Announcements for July 6, 2011 [Defense.gov] – The Army awarded Science, Engineering and Technology Associates a $48.2 million contract for a counter-bomber system to provide detection capability of suicide bombers approaching a controlled access site and a $47 million contract to Lockheed Martin for autonomous technologies for unmanned aerial systems to maximize performance requirements and capabilities with mature technologies. Small business J.G.B. Enterprises won a $47 million indefinite-delivery Navy contract to provide the Marine Corps and Army a commercial single integrator responsible for procuring, packaging and shipping specified tactical fuel systems and components, and water supply support equipment systems and components. See the full announcement for details on the other three awards.

GovCon Video Games
Empires & Allies update lets players sell planes, people and more [Games Blog] – Game reviewer Joe Osborne likens the new capability to sell military units in video game “Empires and Allies” to the real military contractor market, minus the consequence of real deaths.

Will He Get Points on His License?
Speed enforcement Jeep attacked on BW Parkway [Baltimore Sun] – A Maryland State Highway Administration contractor with Affiliated Computer Services had his speed enforcement Jeep windshield smashed by a man toting a hammer and a shotgun yesterday on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway near a Northrop Grumman facility. The incident closed the parkway in the government contractor-laden area for around three hours.