SEWP business is up, fee down

NASA said it received so many orders in the first five months of its new governmentwide acquisition contract that it lowered the fee it charges agencies to place orders.

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Ethics: Rules vs. common sense?

The Defense Department has a 136-page book about bad behavior, titled “Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure,” which delivers its message with a sense of humor.

One entry’s title is “But, Judge, I didn’t get anything!”

According to the entry, “An offshore safety inspector found much of the government’s equipment to be in need of repairs to meet safety standards. He then referred the business to his brother-in-law’s repair shop. The rig operators smelled a rat and called the FBI. They discovered that, in return for each referral, the brother-in-law was treating the inspector to an evening with a lady of dubious morals. The case was brought to trial. In his defense, the inspector claimed that he had not received a ‘thing of value’ in return for the referral. The judge didn’t buy it — and neither did his wife.”

The encyclopedia, posted on DOD’s Standards of Conduct Office Web site, lists many instances of wrongdoing, ranging from bribery schemes to abusing a contractor’s time.

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HUBZone program vulnerable to fraud, lawmaker says

The Small Business Administration’s program to develop businesses in underutilized business districts is riddled with holes, leaving it open to fraud, Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee, said Sept. 19.

Although 14,200 businesses are in the Historically Underutilized Business Zones program, SBA does only 500 examinations annually. Meanwhile, SBA approves 2,000 companies to join the program each year, she said. More astonishing, a preliminary review by the committee found multimillion-dollar homes in areas SBA dubbed HUBZones, she said

“This is not exactly what one would expect for an initiative designed to spur development in low-income areas,” Velazquez said at a committee hearing on abuses in several SBA programs.

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