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About this blog

This blog is managed by Bob Antonio, the Owner of Wifcon.com. It includes link to news items on contracting and the blogger's comments

Entries in this blog

Wifcon.com: My Legacy; My Albatross

Shortly after we celebrate our country's independence on July 4, 2013, Wifcon.com will end its 15th year on the internet. With much help from the Wifcon.com community, I've raised a growing teenager. When I started, I was 49 and my hair was so thick that I often shouted ouch or some obscenity when I combed it. Wifcon.com has existed in 3 decades and parts of 2 centuries. During that period, I've updated this site for every work day--except for the week or so when I called it quits. I remember th

robert_antonio

robert_antonio

We Did It, Let's Quit!

Last week, I posted an article on the Wifcon Forum in which Dr. Mark J. Lewis, the Director of Defense Research and Engineering for Modernization provided some thoughts about defense projects.  The article was entitled Risk Aversion Impedes Hypersonics Development.  Within the article was a 44- minute video that includes, in part, his discussion of the race for hypersonic weapons systems.  I listened to the video and found it interesting.  The article itself started with this quote: I liv

bob7947

bob7947

A Contracting Officer In The Midst Of A Maelstrom

In early 1977, Gordon Wade Rule (Rule) sat in a chair in a corner of a conference room at the Naval Material Command reading a document that I had prepared about his negotiations on the CGN-41, a nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser.  Days earlier, I was among a group that was briefed by a staff member of Admiral Hyman Rickover (Rickover), the Director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.  Although, the briefing was supposed to be about the CGN-41 negotiation, we were treated to a 3-hour l

bob7947

bob7947

The Contract for "Pook Turtles"

No, they are not candy; no they are not turtles. However, they did have an iron shell. Pook Turtles were designed by Samuel M. Pook and were the "City Class" of armored gunboats that sailed the Mississippi and its tributaries beginning in early 1862. They were called Pook Turtles because people thought they looked like turtles. The seven ships were the USS Cairo, Carondelet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburg, and St. Louis. The recovered remnants of the USS Cairo now rest at the N

bob7947

bob7947

Wifcon.com Begins Its 14th Year

Some time ago, I received an e-mail from a Wifcon.com user. The user said that Wifcon.com was my legacy to the contracting field. I never intended for Wifcon.com to be my legacy to anything. In July 1998, I wanted to be part of the internet and the first thing that came to mind was "federal contracting." So, I started with daily contracting news and soon began building a portal for federal contracting information. My goal was to build something that people would use, and as I built the si

robert_antonio

robert_antonio

Why GAGAS Should Make You Gag

For those of you who are not familiar with the auditing world, GAGAS is the acronym for Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards and it is written and maintained by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Compliance with GAGAS is mandatory for an auditor during the conduct of an audit and a memo noting compliance with GAGAS should be in the auditor's assignment folder for each audit. Although I was a member of the auditing community during my career with the GAO, I also viewed myse

bob7947

bob7947

A Visit From the FAR Council -- 2016 Update

At the end of calendar year 2014, I analyzed the number of Federal Acquisition Circulars (FACs) issued by the FAR Council, by month, from 2014 through 2000.  I had mentally noticed that the Council had a penchant for issuing FACs in December so I wanted to see if the actual numbers matched what I thought was happening.  The numbers did!  My mind was still working.  So this year, I updated my 2014 analysis. Well, in 2016 and 2015, the Council was quite merry in December.  They issued 2 FACs durin

bob7947

bob7947

When The Last Dinosaur Turns Out the Lights!

In the middle of July 2023, Wifcon.com will begin its 25th year online, if I'm still alive and functioning.  I'm Bob Antonio, I'm Wifcon.com, I'm 73 years old now, and I started Wifcon.com in 1998, before many of you were born.  I'm well but I am mortal.    Over the years, I've met a handful of you in person including Vern Edwards, Ralph Nash and Joel Hoffman.  Others I've met by accident include a Procurement Executive at the Department of Commerce when I was a member of the workaday world

bob7947

bob7947 in Dinosaur

Sometime In Your Career . . .

Sometime in your career, you will be faced with a decision that will affect the way you perceive yourself. It may be an immediate career changer or it may be one of those little decisions that help to define your career. You will know it when you encounter it and you will think about it before you take action at least the first time. There will be rules designed to lead you in your decision, but in the end, it will be your decision. Your choice may be as easy as right or wrong or it may be in va

robert_antonio

robert_antonio

The Contract File

As many of you know, I was an auditor for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for over 33 years. About 32 years of that was spent reviewing the contracting practices of federal agencies. To enhance my ability to review federal agency contracting practices, I picked up an M. S. in Procurement Management in the 1980s. I wasn't your typical auditor. I had an extensive knowledge base in my field of work―federal contracting―and much of my time was spent with my face in agencies' contract files

robert_antonio

robert_antonio

Yes Virginia, You Are Honored with a Plaque

Each year about this time, I read an editorial by Francis Pharcellus Church that was published in The Sun on September 21, 1897. The editorial is in response to a letter written by eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon.  Now, this entry is not about the contents of the editorial but I will add my favorite part of the editorial: Mr. Church's prose is beautiful.  He died in 1906 and Virgina died in 1971.  Check out the brief description of the two in Wikipedia.  In her letter to The Sun, Virgini

bob7947

bob7947

Ambrose; Chief Advisor, Wifcon.com LLC

In 1992, I moved into a new house in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D. C. When the 6-month check-up came to fix any settling issues with the house, a tough-looking guy came to do the work. I told him about my plans to buy a dog the next year. He looked down and said, "I'll never get another dog." He then tearfully told me about the recent death and life of his dog. There he was. This big bruiser with tears running down his cheeks. Now I know what he meant. I'll never get another dog. Ambr

robert_antonio

robert_antonio

Offerors Need To Understand The Pricing Scheme And Any Caveats

On April 26, 2007, the Army awarded an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity, fixed price, job-order contract to Lakeshore Engineering Services, Inc., for repair, maintenance, and construction services at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Lakeshore performed 79 construction delivery orders in the base year and 74 construction delivery orders in the first option year. On March 10, 2009, Lakeshore filed a claim with the contracting officer seeking $1,996,152.40 for losses it incurred while performing d

bob7947

bob7947

Offer and Acceptance, Contracting Authority, Etc.

In Thomas F. Neenan, as Trustee of the Thomas F. Neenan, Sr., Revocable Trust, v. U. S., No. 11-733C, August 22, 2013, you are taken through some of the basics of federal contracting. How many basic points can you identify in this 10-page opinion? I've listed those that I identified below: 1. Offer and acceptance, unconditional offer, preliminary negotiations. 2. Change in ownership, death of party, trust agreement. 3. Pattern or practice. 4. Contract specialist's authority, integral

bob7947

bob7947

The Government's Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing

The long-standing principle that the federal government had the same implied duty of good faith and fair dealing as any commercial buyer was put in jeopardy by a 2010 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Precision Pine & Timber, Inc. v. U.S., 596 F.3d 817 (Fed. Cir. 2010). There a panel of the court adopted a narrow rule seemingly limiting application of the principle to situations where a government action was “specifically targeted” at the contractor or had the ef

Ralph Nash

Ralph Nash

DIVAD Versus 60 Minutes

Yesterday, Don Mansfield posted an article entitled Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession. After reading the digest of the article and bristling at some of the jargon used, I can report on what was written in simple language. It is: under some circumstances Army officers can accept a lie as truth. Why single out Army officers? I won't. The truth is that humans can accept a lie as truth. I've written about that before. The article made me remember an episode of 60 Minutes

bob7947

bob7947

Congress Passes Too Much Acquisition Legislation

In 1972, the Commission on Government Procurement wrote that Congress should limit its acquisition legislation to fundamental acquisition matters and let the Executive Branch implement Congress's policies through specific acquisition regulation.  If Congress had listened, it would be passing less acquisition legislation, doing a better jub of fulfilling its oversight responsibility of acquisition activities, and the FAR Councils would be performing their regulatory duty to implement Congress's a

bob7947

bob7947

The Guy Lacks Initiative

I've been reading some discussions from the Contracting Workforce Forum.  As some of you know, I abhor the use of management phrases like "cool kids organizations."  What the hell is a "cool kids organization?"  Is it an excuse for something?  I spent my working career listenting to the latest meaningless phrases like that.  I was around when the words Human Capital became popular.  The words Human Resource preceded it.  If you look at the definition for capital and resource, you will see they a

bob7947

bob7947

AIMH DSJ

From time to time, I am asked what the AIMH DSJ means on the About Page and Home Page of Wifcon.com. I've never told anyone. Her name was Deborah and we worked together in the late 1980s. In bureaucratese, I was her direct supervisor. Deborah was "larger than life." She was about 5' 11" tall and she always wore high heels. You could hear her voice and laugh from a great distance. She loved her job, she loved her daughter, and she loved her family. Unfortunately, Deborah was give

robert_antonio

robert_antonio

"A Propinquent Level Of Bureaucratic Service And Consideration"

Imagine quoting on a procurement in which you submitted the lowest-priced, technically acceptable quote. Instead of winning the award, you were told that your quote was unacceptable and ineligible for award because you did not possess the requisite facility clearance prior to award. Although you submitted your facility clearance information to the contracting officer on December 6, 2012, nearly two months later on February 1, 2013, little had been done on it. You protest to the U. S. Court of

bob7947

bob7947

GAO's Most Prevalent Reasons for Sustaining Protests--2016 Update

The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 requires the Government Accountability Office (GA0) to report to the U. S. Congress annually when government agencies fail to fully implement its bid protest recommendations. GAO has posted these reports on its website since fiscal year (FY) 1995. Initially, these reports provided little information but by FY 2004, GAO published its "Bid Protest Statistics" covering FY 2004 through 2001. I have added every one of these reports to the fiscal year numbers

bob7947

bob7947

Lockheed Propulsion Company, Thiokol Corporation, B-173677, June 24, 1974 - Part 5: Apples and Oranges and O-Rings

What did I do in Huntsville, Wifcon? For the 3 months in 1974 that I was there, I worked, drove around the Huntsville area in my 1971 240Z and began collecting and reading books.  I'm looking at one of the those books now.  It's still in my library:  Will Rogers, The Man and His Times by Richard M. Ketchum.   One of my colleagues from Atlanta took me to see "Contractors Row," in Huntsville which is a group of federal contractors and subcontractors lined up together on the same street.  Then

bob7947

bob7947 in Part 5

Lockheed Propulsion Company, Thiokol Corporation, B-173677, June 24, 1974 - Part 3: Selling the Program

On September 12, 1962, President Kennedy told us  On July 16, 1969, after a tumultuous decade, we, NASA, its contractors, and astronauts met President Kennedy's challenge, landed on the Moon and returned safely to Earth.  But, what were we ready to do after that?  While I was waiting for Captain Kirk to send us into warp drive much of the nation wanted a break.  There was a national letdown.  NASA's budget was put under pressure and they were asked to work more closely with the Department

bob7947

bob7947 in Space shuttle SRM

First The Wind . . . .

"We're going to develop a trained, professional workforce." A professional workforce has been a goal of decades worth of commissions, panels, etc. For example, last week before the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Secretary of Defense Gates said: "Since the end of World War II, there have been nearly 130 studies on these problems." Secretary Gates went a bit further and noted a list of systemic problems that went beyond the contracting workforce such as: Entrenched attitudes thro

robert_antonio

robert_antonio in FWS

The Congressional Budget Office Compares Apples And Oranges

The Army plans to develop and procure a new Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) that will do two things: 1) operate as a combat vehicle and 2) transport soldiers onto the battlefield. The GCV would replace the current Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) believes that implementing the GCV program would cost $29 billion–in 2013 dollars–between 2014 to 2030. The CBO did a report that compares the Army’s plan for the GCV with four other alternatives. Although none of

bob7947

bob7947

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