What is CMMC, and How Does it Impact Federal Contracting?

Source: governmentciomedia.com

The Defense Department's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is a multi-level cybersecurity certification system for contractors doing business with the federal government. CMMC codifies cybersecurity practices to ensure an engaged culture of cybersecurity throughout a contractor’s supply chain.

DOD first launched the standard Jan. 31, 2020, and its acquisition and sustainment CISO, Katie Arrington, has been spearheading the effort.

According to the General Services Administration, the system “establishes and verifies that companies within the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) are implementing cybersecurity measures to protect Federal Contract Information (FCI) and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) within their unclassified networks.”

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Manhattan Businessman Charged In Manhattan Federal Court For Fraudulently Obtaining Contract

Source: justice.gov

Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William W. Richards, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Air Force Office of Procurement Fraud Investigations, Joint Base Andrews, announced today that RAYMOND WHITE, a/k/a “John Raymond Anthony White,” a/k/a “Raymond Alexander White,” was arrested by agents from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Army Major Procurement Fraud Unit this morning at his residence in New York, New York. WHITE is charged by complaint with submitting false information regarding WHITE’s general contractor business’s finances and prior performance of contracts in order to obtain a contract to build a munitions load crew training facility at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, and submitting false information to the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) in order to induce the SBA to guarantee 80% of the performance and payment bonds issued in connection with the contract. The contract was worth in excess of $4.8 million.

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Is competition in federal contracting dead?

Source: federalnewsnetwork.com

While aspiring to use full and open competition in purchasing goods and services to support its mission of delivery services to the American taxpayer, the current federal process is today, in practice, anti-competitive.

President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14036, Promoting Competition in the American Economy, on July 9, calling for the federal government to revisit how competition is used and to promote competition across the American economy and around the world. The Secretary of Defense is charged under EO 14036 with improving competition in the defense industrial base in government procurements. As the secretary approaches his tasker under EO 14036 he needs to take a broader look at competition and afford all responsible companies in the marketplace the opportunity to compete for government requirements.

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