Army: 25% contract cut

      The Army anticipates its contract spending to drop by about 25% in fiscal 2014, Harry Hallock, deputy assistant secretary for procurement, said at a recent conference, according to Federal Times.

      That amounts to a $22 billion decrease, from $87.3 billion in fiscal 2013 to $65 billion in 2014

      Hallock spoke at the Coalition for Government Procurement’s spring conference on April 10.

More information: http://goo.gl/GyUadc

Deltek cyberattack

      Hackers gained access to personal data for about 80,000 employees of federal contractors who are customers of Deltek's GovWin IQ contract research system.

      Deltek officials told Federal News Radio the company discovered on March 13 that a hacker had obtained GovWin IQ usernames and passwords, and potentially the credit card information of about 25,000 customers.

More information: http://goo.gl/DthsWJ

Small biz big on MACs

      Small businesses are capturing an increasing share of federal multiple-award contract (MAC) spending, according to a new report from Bloomberg Government.

      The small business share of total MAC spending, including GSA Schedules spending, rose to 32% in fiscal 2013, from 29% the year before. The share has risen every year since fiscal 2009, when it was 25%.

      The dollar value of small business MAC awards was about $30 billion in fiscal 2013, the study said. The value rose from $19 billion in fiscal 2006 to nearly $30 billion in fiscal 2010 and has been fairly flat since.

      On the GSA’s schedules, 80% of the contractors are small businesses and they win 36% of the dollars, according to GSA.

FedBid fees higher?

      The FedBid reverse auction company appears to be collecting a higher fee per dollar of goods auctioned than does a Defense Department auction platform, according to a recent New York Times analysis.

      But FedBid says its fees are lower than the DOD platform’s if you count by transaction instead.

      FedBid collected about $13.4 million in fees from $828 million in contracts, the Times said. The Defense Logistics Agency self-managed its auctions with Procurex software, awarding about $25 billion in fiscal 2013, for which Procurex’ fee was $288,000, the newspaper said. That amounts to a 1.6% fee charged by FedBid and a .001% fee by Procurex.

      Andres Mancini, marketing vice president for FedBid, told Set-Aside Alert that FedBid’s fees are capped per transaction. Assuming DLA held 15 auctions for its buys, the same volume through FedBid would never cost more than $150,000 in fees, he said.

      Also, comparing costs should include total cost of ownership and comparable volumes, he said.

More information: http://goo.gl/SZEsDa