ADC Telecommunications Inc. will pay the United States $1 million to resolve allegations that the company submitted false claims to federal agencies when it sold telecommunications goods manufactured in countries prohibited by the Trade Agreements Act (TAA).

The General Services Administration (GSA) has recently developed a social media site, GSA Interact, with the goal of helping the GSA understand how to better provide acquisition products and services. While this interactive website offers vendors many new tools, from training opportunities to blogging questions, one of the more prominent features is the new Contractor Teaming Arrangements Tool (CTAT). CTAT provides GSA Schedule holders with a forum to facilitate teaming arrangements. This forum allows members to communicate their teaming needs to a broad audience of GSA Schedule holders, while allowing those viewing the opportunities to reach out and generate partnerships.

n a recent mobile strategy document released by the Department of Defense (DoD), they addressed the need to strengthen the efficiency of its workforce and operations and construct its business to be more relatable to today’s modern workplace and clientele. The document went on to explain this implementation would involve addressing 3 major goals for the department; “Advance and evolve the DoD Information Enterprise infrastructure to support mobile devices, institute mobile device policies and standards, and promote the development and use of DoD mobile and web-enabled applications.” This strategy “identifies the vision and goals for capitalizing on the full potential of mobile devices and supports the end-user services approach in DoD Information Technology Enterprise Strategy and Roadmap,” states Chief Information Officer, Teri Takai. In order to evolve into this developing strategy, the Department has stated that it must better familiarize itself with management methods of better utilizing available spectrum and also “develop mechanisms for rapidly transitioning technologies into programs of record.” DoD’s new enterprise infrastructure and wireless networks must have the capability to support both unclassified and classified high-bandwidth traffic, a critical up kept stream of wireless coverage to in-building and terrestrial locations, and also various networking architectures. This architecture must maintain a security between the interface of DoD networks and commercial networks by empowering a proper management of mobile devices, applications, and network connections.

Claims are now being made that millions of dollars in savings opportunities are open to the General Service Administration (GSA) by The Office of Inspector General (OIG). In their Semiannual Report to the Congress, released May 31, they stated there are multitude of ways in which money could be recovered by the GSA in focus areas such as acquisition programs, civil recoveries, and criminal investigations.

Wednesday, June 6th marked the launch of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) application process for cloud service providers. As required by the Office of Management and Budget, all cloud service offerings must meet FedRAMP requirements when working with Federal agencies.

The Department of Defense (DoD) is addressing an agency-wide concern with the current use and future of GSA Schedules. DoD officials are working with the GSA to explore new options for contracting. In light of recent budget cutbacks, the looming threat of sequestration, and task forces dedicated to eliminating redundancy in procurement across the department- contracting is at the forefront of reform.