The General Accounting Office ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers violated the Federal Acquisition Regulation by refusing to issue multiple-award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts.

The Corps issued RFPs for single-award IDIQ contracts for operation, maintenance, construction and renovation of Army Medical Command facilities. The FAR provides that multiple-award IDIQ contracts are preferred unless certain conditions are met.

Two small businesses, One Source Mechanical Services Inc. and Kane Construction, protested the RFPs.

The Corps maintained that a single award would be easier to administer and less costly than putting task orders up for bids among more than one contractor.

GAO found that the Corps failed to make its case for a single-award contract. It urged that the agency consider re-issuing the solicitations for multiple awards.

The cases are file numbers B-293692 and B-293802, available at www.gao.gov.

The Federal Reserve Board is conducting a survey on small businesses’ use of credit.

In a letter, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan urged business owners to participate. “The Federal Reserve Board is concerned with the ways in which economic and regulatory changes affect small businesses,” he wrote.

The Fed said 4,000 companies chosen at random will be asked about their use of credit and other financial services and their experience in obtaining credit during 2003. Information will be collected about firms’ assets, liabilities, income and expenses. Findings will be published in 2006.

Two House members introduced legislation aimed at strengthening computer security in federal agencies.

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) and Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL), chairman of the committee’s Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census Subcommittee, said H.R. 4570 would amend the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act. It would require that in all federal information systems planning and acquisition activities include cybersecurity requirements. The amendment would also give the Office of Management and Budget greater authority over information security.

In a statement, Putnam said, “With the many threats out there today, it is vital that we factor in security when making our IT management decisions.”

The Small Business Administration has launched a venture capital program to support businesses in rural areas.

Congress created the program in the 2002 farm bill, but the government is just beginning to take applications for Rural Business Investment Companies. Venture capital firms that plan to raise at least $10 million in private capital can qualify for up to $60 million in government-guaranteed loans. They must invest at least three-fourths of their money in businesses in rural areas or small towns.