In what may be the next big defense contracting scandal, an Associated Press story released this morning relates some troubling findings from a recent investigation. AP reporters uncovered serious flaws with the U.S. Army's $2.7 billion contract with Combat Support Associates (CSA), a contractor tasked with supporting U.S. troops at bases throughout Kuwait. After months of bad press and congressional hearings into the defense contracting industry, you would think this investigation might provide just that little extra momentum for Congress or the federal government to clean up this mess, but don't count on it.

With the end of the fiscal year upon it, Congress, as expected, passed a continuing resolution (CR) last Wednesday to provide short-term funds to government agencies and prevent a government shutdown. As reported by Congressional Quarterly (subscription required), the CR will keep most discretionary programs operating at fiscal 2009 levels through Oct. 31. Congress intends to use the extra time to pass its remaining FY 2010 appropriations bills.

On Friday, President Obama named Daniel Gordon, currently the deputy general counsel of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), as his nominee to run the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP). Gordon has been at GAO for 17 years and has also worked as the managing associate general counsel for the GAO's Procurement Law Division and the associate general counsel and senior attorney for the Procurement Law Division. At first glance, Gordon seems like a real solid pick for this position who will certainly have a lot on his plate if he is confirmed by the Senate.

Last week, the Government Accountability Office released its third bimonthly report on the Recovery Act. The report, which examines the Act's implementation across the country, received a fair amount of press. Many of the articles focused on the speed of the Recovery Act spending, as the report noted that the spending is proceeding according to schedule, or how the report examines the effectiveness of the President's summer jobs program. Only a few articles, however, mentioned one of the most important quotes, at least in terms of Recovery Act transparency: "This unprecedented level of detailed information to be reported by a large number of recipients into a new centralized reporting system raises possible risk for the quality and reliability of these data." In other words, the GAO is very concerned about the quality of the October recipient reporting data.