April 2007

From the editors of CCH's government contracts products, here are summaries of the important recent developments in this practice area for the past month.  Complete coverage of these issues, and many more, appear in the Government Contracts Reporter and related products.

If you have comments or suggestions concerning the information provided or the format used, please feel free to contact me directly at aaron.broaddus@wolterskluwer.com.

Legislative and Regulatory Activity

House Passes Contracting Reform Bill
The new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives passed its first major acquisition reform bill, the Accountability in Contracting Act (HR 1362), on March 15, by a 347-73 margin. The measure now goes to the Senate for consideration. HR 1362 would limit the duration of no-bid contracts awarded in emergencies to one year, unless the head of an executive agency determined that the federal government would be "seriously injured." This restriction would only apply to contracts in excess of $1 million. The bill also requires executive agencies to develop plans for minimizing the use of noncompetitive contracts and maximizing fixed-price contracts. In addition, HR 1362 would tighten restrictions on the relationship between federal procurement officials and contractors. It would establish a one-year "cooling off" period before officials can award contracts to a former employer and prohibits officials from negotiating employment for relatives. The bill also clarifies that lawyers and lobbyists are included in the ban on former procurement officials receiving compensation from contractors. "This was a major bill," said sponsor Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee that has jurisdiction over acquisition issues. Waxman said he is unsure if his committee will work on any additional acquisition reform legislation this spring. HR 1362 now goes to the Senate. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Me., has already introduced a major government acquisition reform bill, the Accountability in Government Contracting Act (S. 680). The measure includes provisions to establish a senior administrative official for improving and expanding the acquisition workforce and limit the length of noncompetitive contracts. It is under consideration by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. By Dave Hansen, CCH News Staff.

GSA Appoints Chief Acquisition Officer
The General Services Administration on March 5 named Molly Wilkinson as its new Chief Acquisition Officer. Wilkinson was the Associate Deputy Secretary for Management at the United States Department of Labor, where she provided counsel to Secretary Elaine Chao on internal agency operations regarding management, budget, and personnel issues. She also has served at the Department of Defense, where she was Special Projects Coordinator for the Iraqi National Conference and Special Advisor to the Iraqi Supreme Commission in 2004. In that role she managed American security and logistics for the 1,500 delegates who chose the Interim Iraqi National Council. Ms. Wilkinson received her law degree from New York's Albany Law School in 1996 and belongs to the New York State Bar. The Chief Acquisition Officer develops and reviews acquisition policies, procedures, and training through the Federal Acquisition Institute, Civilian Acquisition Advisory Committee, Federal Acquisition Regulation, and GSA's acquisition manual and training programs. By Dave Hansen, CCH News Staff.

Navy Issues Instruction on Use of Binding Arbitration
The Department of the Navy has adopted a policy that authorizes contracting officers to use binding arbitration procedures for disputes arising under procurement contracts awarded with appropriated and non-appropriated funds. The policy, contained in Secretary of the Navy Instruction 5800.15, "Use of Binding Arbitration for Contract Controversies," is available on the internet at http://doni.daps.dla.mil/SECNAV.aspx and http://adr.navy.mil. The instruction provides interpretive guidance regarding applicable statutes and regulates Navy internal affairs by granting authority to contracting officers to use binding arbitration for issues in controversy. The notice for Instruction 5800.15, dated March 20, 2007, appears at 72 FR 13094.

EPA Proposes Prescription for "Green" Meetings Facilities
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing revisions to the EPA Acquisition Regulation requiring its contracting officers to purchase environmentally preferable meeting and conference services to the greatest extent practicable. Environmentally preferable products and services are those "that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose" (see FAR 2.101). The proposed revision would add a prescription and solicitation provision at EPAAR 1552.223-71 to use when soliciting quotes or offers for meeting and conference space and services. The solicitation provision would require venues to provide the EPA with information about environmentally preferable features and practices in use at their facilities, as set forth in proposed EPAAR Subpart 1523.7. For meeting and conference services purchases exceeding the micropurchase threshold, environmental preferability must be one of the factors to be considered in determining best value. The intent of the rule is to ensure environmental concerns are considered in each purchase of commercial meeting and conference services, which furthers EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment. For the text of the notice, see ¶70,053.19.

BIS Final Rule Revises Policy on Crime Control Items
The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued a final rule amending the Export Administration Regulations with regard to crime control items. The rule revises EAR 740.2(a)(4) to lift geographic restrictions on a license exception for items consigned to and for the official use of a U.S. government agency with regard to the export of crime control items described in EAR 742.7. Although the revision applies to all government agencies, BIS has issued the revision specifically to address the needs of U.S. armed forces in locations that previously would not have qualified for the license exception. This revision does not make the license exception available to contractors employed by the U.S. government. Also, in EAR 740.2(a)(4), the rule replaces the word "commodities" with the word "items" to clarify that the restrictions in EAR 740.2(a)(4) apply to software and technology, as well as commodities.

Additionally, the final rule creates a new paragraph EAR 740.2(a)(10), which expressly prohibits the use of license exceptions for all commodities subject to the license requirements of EAR 742.11, "Specially designed implements of torture." The rule further revises EAR 742.11(a) and the corresponding Export Control Classification Number 0A983 of the Commerce Control List (Supplement No. 1 to EAR Part 774) to clarify that EAR 742.11(a) applies to all commodities controlled by ECCN 0A983. Finally, the rule removes thumbcuffs from ECCN 0A982 and adds them to the more restrictive ECCN 0A983 in order to reflect more accurately BIS's general policy of denying applications to export or reexport thumbcuffs. This revision will make thumbcuffs ineligible for any license exception under any circumstances. For the text of the final rule, effective March 6, 2007, see ¶72,750.113.

Court and Administrative Board Decisions

Use of Common Subcontractors Did Not Establish Price Collusion
There was no basis for reviewing a contracting officer's affirmative responsibility determinations because the protester's allegations of price collusion were speculative. Following multiple awards in a procurement for security services, the protester challenged two separate responsibility determinations relating to the use of common subcontractors. In the first scenario, an offeror and an awardee identified the same primary subcontractor and submitted almost identical technical proposals. The CO requested an explanation and the awardee responded it had no relationship with the other offeror and had not been privy to the other offeror's pricing. After receiving a similar response from the other offeror, the CO concluded the subcontractor's participation in both proposals was not improper. In the other scenario, an awardee proposed a primary subcontractor that had the same corporate parent as another awardee. After the protest was filed, both awardees advised they did not discuss pricing with each other. The protester argued the responsibility determinations were flawed because there was no investigation into price collusion.

The Comptroller General denied the protest, finding the mere facts of common ownership and common subcontractors were insufficient to establish a lack of independent pricing. Protests challenging affirmative determinations of responsibility are considered only "where it is alleged that definitive responsibility criteria in the solicitation were not met or evidence is identified that raises serious concerns that, in reaching a particular responsibility determination, the [CO] unreasonably failed to consider available relevant information or otherwise violated statute or regulation." Here, the CO inquired into the offerors' reliance on the common subcontractor in the first scenario, and in both scenarios reasonably considered the information the protester alleged she failed to review. Moreover, the use of a common subcontractor and the common corporate ownership did not constitute information "that would be expected to have a strong bearing on whether the awardees should be found responsible." The requirement that competitors prepare their offers independently and without consultation does not preclude proposing the use of common subcontractors. Alutiiq Global Solutions, 22 CGEN ¶112,334.

Court Reconsiders Pension Adjustment Under CAS 413
On reconsideration, the government was denied an equitable adjustment following a segment closing because, according to the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, the inclusion of pension costs attributable to flexibly-priced subcontracts in revised Cost Accounting Standard 413 was not a change from the original CAS 413 and therefore the costs should be considered in a segment-closing adjustment. The contractor moved for reconsideration of the court's holding original CAS 413 did not provide for the recovery of any portion of the segment's pension deficit or surplus attributable to subcontracts (50 CCF ¶78,561). The court reasoned the inclusion of subcontracts was a change because subcontracts were expressly mentioned in revised CAS 413 but had not been mentioned in the original CAS 413 segment-closing provision. Upon reconsideration, however, the court determined that CAS rules that apply to prime contractors apply equally to subcontractors.

The language of the statutes authorizing the CAS Board and the CAS regulations made it clear that costs attributable to subcontracts and prime contracts should be treated the same. Accordingly, the contracting parties would have understood that pension costs attributable to flexibly-priced subcontracts that were administered by a segment could be included, and would have been recoverable, as part of the original CAS 413 segment-closing adjustment. Also, the regulatory history of revised CAS 413 did not suggest the inclusion and recovery of pension costs attributable to subcontracts in the closing adjustment was new. Moreover, the government took the same position, as evidenced by guidance for a segment closing under CAS 413 issued by the Defense Contract Management Agency and the Defense Contract Audit Agency. The DCMA/DCAA joint guidance expressly included pension costs attributable to both cost-type contracts and subcontracts, without limitation. The guidance document also provided numerous sample calculations that included costs attributable to subcontracts, without differentiating between those entered into under original or revised CAS 413. Thus, both the government and its contractors expected pension costs attributable to cost type subcontracts entered into under original CAS 413 would be included in the recovery authorized under revised CAS 413 without any need for an equitable adjustment. As such, the government was not entitled to an equitable adjustment under FAR 52.230-2(a)(4)(i), as revised CAS 413.50(c)(12) included costs attributable to flexibly-priced subcontracts entered into under original CAS 413. CBS Corp. v. U.S., FedCl, 51 CCF ¶78,711.

Contractor Entitled to Adjustment for Defective Specifications
The Court of Federal Claims ruled a construction contractor was entitled to an equitable adjustment based on a latent defect in specifications because it detrimentally relied on gravel fill specifications allowing a maximum fill stone size that was incompatible with the required compaction testing method. The specifications stated the contractor could use fill stones with a maximum size of six inches but also required the contractor to test the fill compaction using a method that could not be utilized if the fill contained stones larger than three inches. When the contractor became aware of this ambiguity, it sought clarification in requests for information, which culminated in the government accepting the contractor's proposal to use a maximum stone size of three inches in the areas where it had previously planned to use six-inch stone. After it definitively established the existence of a latent ambiguity, the contractor sought an equitable adjustment for the increased costs it incurred in substituting the three-inch fill. Although the government did not dispute the existence of a latent ambiguity, it argued the ambiguity did not render the specifications defective because the specifications did not require the use of fill stone at the maximum specified size of six inches. Therefore, according to the government, the contractor should have known to avert the ambiguity by using a gravel size small enough to allow use of the required testing method. The government contended the fact there was a commercially practicable way for the contractor to circumvent the ambiguity was evidence the specifications were not defective.

However, the doctrine of commercial impracticality or impossibility is applicable only to performance specifications, and the specifications at issue were design specifications. Design specifications detail the methods and materials of performance, while performance specifications are concerned only with the end product, leaving the contractor free to choose the method of achieving the desired result. Under the Spearin doctrine (42 CCF ¶77,225), design specifications contain an implied warranty of accuracy whereby the government is liable for any increased costs resulting from a contractor's reliance on defective information. When the full range of performance options set forth in design specifications do not produce satisfactory results, the specifications are defective. Here, the contractor was entitled to use the maximum stone size allowed by the specifications. Therefore, the fact the maximum size stone was incompatible with the required compaction testing method rendered the specifications defective. The record showed there was a substantial difference in the cost of crushing stone to three inches as opposed to six inches. As the contractor relied on the stated maximum stone size of six inches in preparing its bid, it was entitled to an adjustment for its increased costs. AAB Joint Venture v. U.S., FedCl, 51 CCF ¶78,704.

Protester Won Contract, But Was Not Prevailing Party Under EAJA
According to the Court of Federal Claims, a protester's receipt of a set-aside award following the initial awardee's voluntary relinquishment of its disadvantaged business status did not confer prevailing party status on the protester for purposes of the Equal Access to Justice Act, because the protester's success was not achieved as a result of a judicial order. When the protester first challenged the original awardee's status as a historically underutilized business zone small business, the Small Business Administration found the awardee qualified as a HUBZone small business concern. However, after the protester filed a complaint in the Court of Federal Claims alleging the SBA's determination was arbitrary and capricious and in violation of law, the government moved to remand the case to the SBA for a more thorough review. The protester did not oppose the motion, which was granted by order of the court. Before the SBA completed its review, the awardee voluntarily requested decertification from the HUBZone program and removal of its name from the list of qualified HUBZone SBCs. The award was then granted to the protester, and the protester's claim was dismissed as moot (50 CCF ¶78,575). In its request for EAJA fees, the protester claimed it achieved prevailing party status because it "succeed[ed] on [a] significant issue in litigation which achieve[d] some of the benefit [it] sought in bringing suit." The government argued the protester was not a prevailing party because it achieved its intended result without obtaining any judicial relief.

In order to be a prevailing party under the EAJA, a protester must obtain some of what it sought to achieve by the lawsuit, the proceedings must involve an alteration in the legal relationship of the parties, and there must be a "judicial imprimatur on the change." In receiving the contract award, the protester achieved the result desired by its lawsuit and effected a change in its legal relationship with the government. However, the protester did not accomplish these objectives with the judicial imprimatur necessary to be a prevailing party. Generally, remand orders do not constitute judicial relief on the merits. If the court retains jurisdiction --as in the instant case --the government's action taken on remand will constitute judicial relief sufficient for prevailing party status only if the court subsequently enters a judgment effectuating the action. Here, the protester obtained the contract award solely as a result of the initial awardee's voluntary decertification from the HUBZone program, which was effectuated by the SBA and could not be attributed to any order of the court. Rebecca Ryan d/b/a Flyaway Farm and Kennels v. U.S., FedCl, 51 CCF ¶78,708.

Major Contract Awards

Shell Oil - $1 Billion. Shell Oil Products - Deer Park, Houston, TX, is being awarded a maximum $967,043,238 fixed price with economic price adjustment contract for aviation turbine fuel. Other location of performance listed is Deer Park, TX. Using services are Defense Energy Support Center. Date of performance completion is April 30, 2008. Contracting activity is the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), Fort Belvoir, VA. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1901, March 28, 2007.

Lockheed Martin - $979 Million. The U.S. Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency awarded Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, MD, a $979,175,217 contract for continued development and evolution of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Weapon System. The Aegis BSP, which will be installed on all Aegis BMD ships beginning in 2010, is an open architecture design, allowing for quick and affordable upgrades as signal processor technology evolves. In addition, Lockheed Martin will develop an adjunct computing suite that will house several computing devices and software components that continue Aegis BMD's migration to open architecture. This move for Aegis BMD is in parallel alignment with the U.S. Navy's Aegis Open Architecture initiative to transform the (non-BMD) Aegis Weapon System to a fully open architecture system. BMD capability will be included in modernized, open architecture combat systems in Aegis cruisers and destroyers starting in 2012. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1898, March 7, 2007.

ExxonMobil - $927 Million. ExxonMobil Fuels Marketing Co., Fairfax, VA, is being awarded a maximum $926,760,985 fixed price with economic price adjustment for jet fuel for Defense Energy Support Center. Other locations of performance include Baytown, TX and Baton Rouge, LA. Proposals were solicited using Federal Business Opportunities website. This is an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract. Date of performance completion is April 30, 2008. Contracting activity is the Defense Energy Support Center, Fort Belvoir, VA. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1901, March 28, 2007.

Northrop Grumman - $875 Million. Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, CA, has been awarded a $874.6 million fixed-price contract from the United States Postal Service (USPS) to provide 100 Flats Sequencing Systems (FSS) designed to further automate the flats mail stream, which includes large envelopes, catalogs and magazines. Northrop Grumman's first generation of flats sorting technologies is in operation at Postal Service processing centers nationwide. FSS represents the next generation of flats automation by sorting mail to the delivery sequence of each carrier, thereby reducing manual sorting. Installation of the first FSS production units at USPS facilities nationwide is expected to begin in 2008 with the remaining FSS installations scheduled for completion by 2010. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1898, March 7, 2007.

Valero Marketing - $500 Million. Valero Marketing and Supply Co., San Antonio, TX, is being awarded a maximum $499,382,415 fixed price with economic price adjustment, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for fuel. Other location of performance listed is Ohio. Using services are Defense Energy Support Center. Date of performance completion is April 30, 2008. Contracting activity is the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), Fort Belvoir, VA. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1901, March 28, 2007.

Lockheed Martin - $400 Million. Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, MD, is being awarded a $400,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract. This contract is for provisioning spaces of sole source consumable and replenishment spares in support of the F-16 program. There is no known item or quantity identified at the time of award. As new changes and programs evolve the items and quantity will be identified. Awards will be placed against the basic contract by modification per the issuance of Provisioning Item Orders. This effort supports foreign military sales to Chile, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Poland, Taiwan, Turkey and Pakistan. This work will be complete Mar. 2012. Headquarters Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, UT, is the contracting activity. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1899, March 14, 2007.

Lockheed Martin - $376 Million. Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, MD, has received a $376 million contract from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) for hardware and services associated with the combat-proven Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile program. The contract includes production of 112 hit-to-kill PAC-3 Missiles, launcher modification kits, spares and other equipment, as well as program management and engineering services. The PAC-3 Missile is currently the world's only fielded pure kinetic energy air defense missile. Production of all equipment will take place at Lockheed Martin manufacturing facilities in Dallas and Lufkin, TX, and the PAC-3 All-Up Round facility in Camden, AR. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1901, March 28, 2007.

Various Companies - $350 Million. CNI Aviation LLC., Oklahoma City, OK, Odyssey Systems Consulting Group, Wakefield, MA, HEBCO Inc., Oklahoma City, OK, Virtual Technology Services, Oklahoma City, OK, Leader Communications Inc., Oklahoma City, OK, will share in a $350,000,000 firm-fixed-price, time and material, cost reimbursable and fixed-price-award fee contract. This action provides for non-personal advisory and assistance services support to Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center and various Tinker Air Force Base organizations. The companies will compete against each other for a portion of the contract. The contract(s) will span a 5-year period, and will be multi-functional, covering the breadth of acquisition and sustainment support requirements including program management, administrative management, data management, facilitation, training, financial management, logistics, contracting, government property, engineering, manufacturing and subject matter expert support. Individual Task Orders will range from supporting any phase of procurement and sustainment of systems, subsystems, components, and equipment to supporting base-wide staff activity. This work will be complete February 2013. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, OK, is the contracting activity. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1900, March 21, 2007.

Lockheed Martin - $311 Million. The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, MD, a follow-on production contract for Arrowhead®, the new electro-optical system for AH-64 Apache combat helicopter pilots. The contract is valued at $311 million. The contract authorizes production of 158 Arrowhead kits for some of the remaining U.S. Army and foreign military sales inventory, as well as wartime replacement Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) systems for new aircraft. The contract also includes spares for both. The Arrowhead kit modernizes the U.S. Army's TADS/PNVS - known as the "eyes of the Apache" - for the 21st century by upgrading the infrared sensors and associated electronics. The final deliveries for Lot 4 production will occur in December 2009. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1898, March 7, 2007.

Northrop Grumman - $287 Million. The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation, Bethesda, MD, a $287 million contract for the next production lot (Lot 5) of RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial systems. The Global Hawk system can survey vast regions to bring real-time imagery intelligence to the warfighter in any weather, day or night. The contract includes five air vehicles, one mission control element, one launch and recovery element, four enhanced integrated sensor suites (EISS) and sustaining support. Work on this contract will continue through February 2009. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1900, March 21, 2007.

Computer Sciences Corp. - $275 Million. Computer Sciences Corporation, El Segundo, CA, signed a business process outsourcing contract with UK visas, a joint UK Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office directorate which operates as the overseas arm of the United Kingdom's integrated border management. CSC estimates the value of the agreement, which has a five-year base period and two one-year options, to be approximately $275 million if all options are exercised. Under the terms of the agreement, CSC will establish Visa Application Centers in three regions covering 15 countries. In addition, CSC will provide information services, through Internet, e-mail and call centers, to an additional 87 countries in the Europe, Americas and North African regions. CSC will be responsible for transforming and managing the process of administering Visa applications. This will include provision of information to Visa applicants through a variety of channels, including multilingual call centers and web sites; establishment of Visa Application Centers; and capture of biometric details of all Visa applicants, including photograph and fingerprints. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1898, March 7, 2007.

Northrop Grumman - $267 Million. Northrop Grumman Corporation, Bethesda, MD, has been awarded a task order with a $267 million ceiling by the U.S. Army to develop Defense Knowledge Online (DKO), the largest portal task order ever awarded in the federal government. DKO will provide relevant information and applications to the warfighter and other government users through a secure service-oriented framework to help them perform their missions more effectively. Under the terms of the task order, Northrop Grumman's Information Technology (IT) sector will provide full systems integration, application development, and operations and maintenance and technology evolution, growing the DKO enterprise solution from 1.8 million users to possibly eight million users or more, potentially across all federal government agencies. The length of the DKO task order is one year with four six-month options. Northrop Grumman's teammates on the contract include Cherry Road Technologies, Parsippany, NJ; Appian, Vienna, VA; AT&T, San Antonio, TX; CISCO Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA; Dell, Round Rock, TX; EMC2, Hopkinton, MA; SUN Microsystems, Santa Clara, CA; CSC, El Segundo, CA; SAIC, San Diego; EDS, Plano, TX; ePlus, Inc. and McDonald Bradley, Inc., Herndon, VA; SOLERS, Inc., Arlington, VA; Ennovex Solutions, Inc., Chantilly, VA; and SRA International, Fairfax, VA. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1900, March 21, 2007.

ConocoPhillips - $267 Million. ConocoPhillips, Bartlesville, OK, is being awarded a maximum $267,444,503 fixed price with economic price adjustment, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for Turbine Fuel, Aviation. Using services are Defense Energy Support Center. Other locations of performance are Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado. Date of performance completion is April 30, 2008. Contracting activity is the Defense Energy Support Center, Fort Belvoir, VA. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1901, March 28, 2007.

Shell Oil - $258 Million. Shell Oil Products - Mobile, Houston, TX, is being awarded a maximum $257,843,636 fixed price with economic price adjustment contract for aviation turbine fuel. Using services are Defense Energy Support Center. Date of performance completion is April 30, 2008. Contracting activity is the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), Fort Belvoir, VA. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1901, March 28, 2007.

Lockheed Martin - $248 Million. Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, MD, is being awarded a $248,373,793 cost-plus-award fee & cost-plus-fixed fee contract modification. This contract action will definitize the Performance-Based Agile Logistics Support (PALS) contract line items 0207, 0216, and 0217. This effort will provide contract sustainment support to the F-22 weapon system. This work will be complete December 2009. Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH, is the contracting activity. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1899, March 14, 2007.

Bearing Point - $219 Million. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has awarded BearingPoint Inc., McLean, VA, a $218.6 million contract to bolster the public and private services of Afghanistan's government and citizenry. In addition to ongoing activities in the education, infrastructure, health, agriculture and other sectors, USAID has developed the Afghans Building Capacity Program (ABC) -- a signature capacity building initiative. ABC is among the largest individual contracts to date awarded by the United States to help rebuild the country since the fall of Taliban in 2001. The contract is to run through January 2012 and seeks to strengthen the performance of ministries, businesses, non-governmental organizations, universities and local governments; establish permanent, sustainable capacity in the public, private and higher education sectors, and build the skills of key personnel in the Afghan public and private sectors, through scholarships. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1900, March 21, 2007.

Catapult Technology - $200 Million. Catapult Technology, Bethesda, MD, has received a five-year, $200 million contract from the General Services Agency to be the prime contractor on its Infrastructure Technology Global Operations program. Under the contract Catapult will centralize IT systems and improve system reliability. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1898, March 7, 2007.

Refinery Associates - $172 Million. Refinery Associates of Texas, Inc., New Braunfels, TX, is being awarded a maximum $171,825,670 fixed price with economic price adjustment for naval distillate for Defense Energy Support Center. Date of performance completion is April 30, 2008. Contracting activity is the Defense Energy Support Center, Fort Belvoir, VA. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1901, March 28, 2007.

Raytheon - $170 Million. Raytheon Company, Waltham, MA, received a five-year, $169.9 million Performance Based Logistics contract to manage the spare parts for the U.S. Navy's Phalanx Close-In Weapon System. More than 1,100 part numbers amounting to more than 30,000 individual Phalanx parts are warehoused in Louisville where, for a firm-fixed-price, Raytheon, in partnership with United Parcel Service Supply Chain Solutions, guarantees delivery of spares to drop points within an agreed-to time frame. Key elements to the success of the Phalanx support contract are engineering, distribution, depot operations and logistics management. The distribution and management functions allow for worldwide delivery using the best commercial carrier available, while maintaining process control through in-transit tracking. This process also allows for retail and wholesale spares modeling, spares procurement and inventory management. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1898, March 7, 2007.

Gary-Williams Energy - $154 Million. Gary-Williams Energy Corp., Denver, CO, is being awarded a maximum $153,503,716 fixed price with economic price adjustment contract for jet fuel for Defense Energy Support Center. Date of performance completion is April 30, 2008. Contracting activity is the Defense Energy Support Center, Fort Belvoir, VA. Government Contracts Report Letter No. 1901, March 28, 2007.