Major defense contractors are on a buying spree, driving up prices for smaller technology companies that provide cutting-edge systems for the military.

The Washington Post reported there have been 31 such acquisitions in the first four months of this year, compared to 65 in all of last year.

The newspaper said some tech firms are selling for nine times their earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

President Bush has nominated deputy White House chief of staff Josh Bolten to be the new director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Bolten, 48, is a former Goldman Sachs executive. He served on the White House staff during the administration of the senior President Bush. He succeeds Mitch Daniels Jr.

The White House said Bolten will serve as acting director until he is confirmed by the Senate.

The General Accounting Office has ruled that the Army improperly bundled a logistics support contract at Fort Riley, KS.

GAO sustained a protest by EDP Enterprises Inc., a small food-service contractor. EDP argued that the Army violated the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 by improperly bundling food services with unrelated base, vehicle, and aircraft maintenance services when it conducted an A-76 sourcing competition.

The Army said, “Feeding the troops, as well as clothing and equipping them, is a key war fighting competency. To accomplish this requirement, food services are imbedded in the logistics functions of all Army organizations.” But food services had been handled under a separate contract before this competition.

“The agency’s reason for bundling them all in a solicitation seems to merely reflect the belief that it is administratively more convenient to manage one entity performing all of the requirements,” GAO found.

It urged the Army to award a food services contract separate from the other logistical tasks.

The case is file number B-284533.6, released May 19.

Senate Small Business Committee Chair Olympia Snowe (R-ME) has introduced legislation to extend funding for Women’s Business Centers.

Under Snowe’s bill, S. 1154, the centers would apply for new grants every three years, as Small Business Development Centers do.

“Eligibility and evaluation criteria will be establish that encourages existing productive Centers to continue to participate in the program,” the committee staff said in a summary of the legislation.

The Bush administration has proposed ending federal funding for the women’s centers after they have been in operation five years. (SAA, 4/18)

The Association of Women’s Business Centers said loss of federal funds would force them to cut back programs and possibly close their doors.

The centers provide training and counseling to women entrepreneurs. They must match their federal dollars with other contributions.

Snowe’s bill also contains provisions to strengthen programs operated by SBA’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership.

A Lanham, MD, woman has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government as part of the investigation that led to the indictment of Robert L. Neal Jr., former director of the Defense Department’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization.

The U.S. attorney in Alexandria, VA, said Karen A. Coachman, 36, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled in August.

Neal and his former executive assistant, Franklin Delano Jones Jr., are scheduled for trial June 30 in Alexandria federal court on charges of conspiracy, extortion, money laundering and false statements. (SAA, 11/1/02)

The Defense Department plans to consolidate military base exchanges, commonly called PX’s, into a single organization. Army, Navy and Air Force exchanges now operate separately.

Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz ordered a study to determine the most efficient and cost effective way to organize and operate the exchanges as a single entity, DOD said. The release added, “The look and feel of each store will maintain the service culture to which (customers) are accustomed.”

Wolfowitz said consolidation would make the operation more efficient. The transition will take several years.

All commissaries, the supermarkets on military bases, are already consolidated under the Defense Commissary Agency.