Jump to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.
The Wifcon Forums and Blogs - 27 Years Online

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

The Wifcon Blog

A blog by Moderator in General

  • Entries

    65

  • Comments

    137

  • Views

    443,482

About this blog

This blog is managed by the WIFCON Moderator.

Entries in this blog

Government Contracting Improvement Act of 2012?

At this time of year, newly introduced legislation often is introduced and then quickly enters oblivion. I checked this Senator's committee and subcommitee assignments and did not find any direct link to federal contracting. Maybe that explains it. "Sen. Toomey's bill would require the GAO to include the most common reasons bid protests are sustained. This additional information could help federal agencies identify needed improvements in the contracting process, reduce the number of protests

Rebates And Discounts In Food Service Contracts

"The Subcommittee’s investigation of food service contracts has revealed systemic deficiencies in the transparency and oversight of contractors’ rebate and discount policies. Chairman McCaskill asked Office of Management and Budget Director Zients to review the Subcommittee’s findings and issue guidance to federal agencies to address these deficiencies. She also requested that OMB consider how the federal government can better leverage its buying power through the strategic sourcing of food serv

Army Processes A Debarment Referral In About 323 Days

In a letter to the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the Army, Senator McCaskill, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight and Senators Shaheen, Coburn, Burr, Webb, Cornyn, Inhofe, and Blumenthal, questioned the significant delays between when a referral is made to the Army and when the Army takes action to keep the contractor from receiving additional government contracts. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reports that between June 20

A Subcontract Is . . . .

It was the Fall of 1978 and I was walking down the steps from the contracting office at Rock Island Arsenal. At this point in my contracting journey around the country, I was told that P. L. 95-507 had been signed into law. I was reviewing contracts awarded under the Mandatory Small Business Subcontracting Test which was authorized by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP). OFPP conducted the test in response to Recommendation A-48 of the Commission on Government Procurement, which b

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Wifcon.com

Over on the Wifcon Forum, a member started a topic called How to find the best places to work. It made me remember how I became involved in contracting as an auditor for the Government Accountability Office (GAO). I've laughed about it many times over the years. When I was hired, GAO had a rotation policy for its new employees (trainees). There were 3 trainee assignments: one for 2-months and two for 3-months within the various GAO divisions and offices. After the trainee assignments, the

Just Call Me Johnson!

Years ago, I had three stories from my life posted on Wifcon.com and they picked up a small following on the internet. Since I usually add something from my life around Christmas to Wifcon.com, I thought I would add one of those three stories. So here is, as it happened: Just Call Me Johnson! In the 1970s, when I first moved to the Washington D. C. area, I lived in Greenbelt, Maryland. Although Greenbelt is actually a small town, it is also one of those "areas" located around Washington t

"I Hope . . . I've Earned What All Of You Have Done For Me"

Not long ago, a discussion board user posted a note about a theoretical government negotiator misrepresenting the truth during contract negotiations. The responses were on target. Vern Edwards was succinct and said: "Don't tell a lie!" Napolik said: "I would be . . . concerned with losing my credibility in the contractor's eyes." Now, its time for a story from over 40 years ago. It was my sophomore year in college and it was the night before the final exam in second year Spanish. I didn't learn

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

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

"Required In The Performance Of A Contract"

This morning, I was searching for bid protest decisions from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) and the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) and stumbled across two interesting decisions on indirect research and development (IR&D). I remember listening to debates about IR&D in the bowels of the then General Accounting Office (GAO), now the Government Accountability Office. I was a pup back then in the early 1970s. I'm a pup no longer. The decisions involve the phrase--required

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

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

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
FWS

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

Account

Navigation

Search

Configure browser push notifications
Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.