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Privacy Perils Loom For DHS Contractors

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 06.07.05

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) mission demands prodigious information access and sharing, yet privacy concerns -- stoked at federal, state, and international levels -- have ignited a host of challenges to homeland security initiatives, sometimes delaying or even stopping anti-terrorism programs. In "Privacy vs. Information Sharing: The Gathering Storm Over Homeland Security and How Contractors Can Reduce Their Risks" published in the Federal Contracts Report on May 31, 2005 (http://www.crowell.com/pdf/FederalContracts_Privacy.pdf), Crowell & Moring partner David Bodenheimer discusses these privacy perils, their impact on homeland security initiatives, and some ways to reduce these privacy risks.

Insights

Client Alert | 4 min read | 10.30.26

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: GAO Sustains Protest Where Agency Tried to Fix PIA Violation with a Second PIA Violation

Recent sustain decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Fluor Federal Solutions, LLC and Reliance Test & Technology send a clear message: when an agency tries to fix a Procurement Integrity Act (PIA) violation by committing a second one, the cure can be just as fatal as the disease. The cases involved the U.S. Air Force’s $1.8 billion procurement for O&M services at Elgin Air Force Base. During discussions, the Air Force inadvertently released a pricing overview slide with all offerors’ bottom-line evaluated costs to Reliance Test & Technology, which immediately notified the agency of the error. In response, the Air Force decided to level the playing field by providing the same information to all the other offerors in the procurement, stating, “[o]fferors may consider this disclosure in their [final proposal revision].”...