Tuesday Afternoon Newsstand

A bipartisan panel investigating procurement abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan will examine this week whether billions of taxpayer dollars are at risk from inadequate contractor business systems and deficiencies in the government’s subcontracting rules. GovExec reports that the congressionally appointed Commission on Wartime Contracting has begun exploring the challenges federal oversight officials face when the systems used by some of the largest wartime contractors – for billing, compensation, cost estimates and purchasing – fail to provide timely and accurate information.

Vacancies in the Homeland Security Department’s acquisition workforce may put Recovery Act spending at risk. The department’s inspector general warns in a newly released advisory report that, in 2008, the Government Accountability Office reported that the department only had 61 percent of the required acquisition staff and 38 percent of the optimal level of contract specialist positions filled. Federal Times also reports that the IG report says the existing shortage of skilled, federal acquisition personnel adversely affects the capacity of the department to manage mission-critical programs and represents a risk to Recovery Act investments.

The Energy Department must be more transparent in how it transfers to the private sector licensing rights to technologies developed by national laboratories. That’s according to Energy Inspector General Gregory Friedman, who says the government-owned, contractor-operated Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois gave the appearance of a conflict of interest in issuing an exclusive license in 2007 to commercialize chemical-detection technology without adequately publicizing the opportunity. GovExec reports that Friedman’s staff investigated the circumstances surrounding the license issued by Argonne at the request of Republican Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois in response to a constituent’s allegation of a conflict of interest in the lab’s award of an exclusive license for the system called the Program for Response Options and Technology Enhancements for Chemical/Biological Terrorism, or PROTECT.

Other Stories We’re Following

Air Force Training More Pilots for Drones Than for Manned Planes (Washington Post)

Lawmakers renew push for public service scholarships (GovExec)

State deploys low tech social media to reach those without computers (NextGov)

6 tech trends government IT managers should be wary of (FCW)

Federal IT execs a bit fuzzy on cloud computing use, survey finds (GCN)

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