Contracting intelligence for small and minority-owned businesses, from the TIKC advisory team.
DOJ published its final rule on August 18 formalizing the National Fraud Enforcement Division — effective August 24. The McDonald Memo identifies government procurement fraud…
Read the storyThe National Fraud Enforcement Division is real, funded, staffed, and operational in every federal district as of August 24, 2026. Procurement fraud is its stated criminal priority. Review your compliance program, audit your certifications, train your people, and if you find a problem — self-disclose before the Fraud Division finds it first. Brick by brick — compliance built on accurate records does not collapse under criminal investigation.
Source: The Bottom Line
Selected awarding agencies · latest completed fiscal year. Net obligations, not budgets or open opportunities.
| Agency | Obligations | Reporting period | Source · freshness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense · prime contracts | 449.75 billion USD | FY 2026 · Oct 1, 2025–Sep 30, 2026 | USAspending.gov (opens in a new tab) Dataset updated Checked |
| Department of Veterans Affairs · prime contracts | 85.75 billion USD | FY 2026 · Oct 1, 2025–Sep 30, 2026 | USAspending.gov (opens in a new tab) Dataset updated Checked |
| Department of Homeland Security · prime contracts | 73.28 billion USD | FY 2026 · Oct 1, 2025–Sep 30, 2026 | USAspending.gov (opens in a new tab) Dataset updated Checked |
Net prime-contract transaction obligations, award types A–D, by awarding agency. Includes deobligations; not agency budgets, revenue, or available bids. Historical fiscal-year totals may be revised. DoD procurement records have a 90-day publication delay. Source links open agency profiles or official agency summaries; contract totals use award-type filters A–D from the official API documentation (opens in a new tab). Full USD amounts are available on hover and to screen readers.
Selected FAR and SBA contracting-rule notices—not bid deadlines. Confirm the closing time and submission method in the original notice. Date-only entries are removed at the start of their closing date (UTC).
Small Business Size Standards (opens in a new tab)
Federal Register · 2026-19546 · published
Checked · Official PDF (opens in a new tab)
Federal Register · 2026-19444 · published
Checked · Official PDF (opens in a new tab)
Federal Register · 2026-19443 · published
Checked · Official PDF (opens in a new tab)
When you win a small-business set-aside, the government expects your small business to actually do the work, not hand most of it to a big…
Advisory services · not reporting
TIKC Advisory
Talk through registrations, FAR clauses and reporting obligations with a TIKC advisor.
Book a free strategy callA company that makes steel for Navy ships let a tester change results so weak steel looked like it passed. It is paying about $10.9…
A quiet word with a competitor about who wins which job feels like cooperation. It is a federal antitrust crime. Bid rigging and collusion carry…
A federal IT contractor and its owner agreed to pay $4.8 million after allegedly paying fees to 8(a) firms to win set-aside work, then doing…
When an audit or investigation looms, the instinct to clean up a file is a catastrophic one. Deleting an email or backdating a document can…
A government contracting official was charged after allegedly approving invoices that funneled money back to a side business he profited from, aided by a contractor…
A whistleblower suit can sit under court seal for years while the government investigates you in secret. Understanding the seal, the first-to-file rule, and the…
Foundational reading
Reference reads that stay useful after the news cycle moves on. Kept separate from current coverage.
Initial TIKC editorial selection
Inside The Bid · Video
Natasha Velez · with Melanie Patterson
A conversation on two parts of a federal proposal: how to price it and how to draft it.
Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)The player loads from YouTube only when you press play.
The archive
Page 1 of 24 · Newest first
When you win a small-business set-aside, the government expects your small business to actually do the work, not hand most of it to a big…
If you hold a federal service contract, with janitors, guards, call-center staff, or maintenance crews, the Service Contract Act sets what you must pay them…
On federal construction, you do not get to decide what to pay your workers. The Davis-Bacon Act sets a prevailing wage, and every week you…
One day, with no warning, a government auditor shows up and asks your people what they are working on and what contract they are charging…
In 2026, the fastest road to a giant False Claims Act bill is not a fake product or a phantom vendor. It is the timesheet…
The government buys a lot of spare parts, and overcharging for them is one of the oldest and most watched forms of contract abuse. Marking…
You can win a job and still get your pricing wrong in a way that raises red flags. Front-loading early line items, or shifting price…
On many contracts, before you can ship in volume, one sample has to pass first article testing. Certifying that the first article passed, or sending…
Once you tell the government how you account for costs, you have to actually do it that way, every time, on every contract. Quietly shifting…
On a cost-type contract, you do not just keep working and billing when the budget is running low. You have a duty to warn the…
When the government changes the job, you have a right to ask for more money through a request for equitable adjustment. That is fair and…
Across 2026, one pattern keeps showing up in government contracting settlements: the government is naming the people, not just the companies. CEOs and presidents are…
Weekly newsletter
The Briefing is the TIKC weekly federal contracting newsletter covering policy changes, opportunities and practical next steps for small businesses.
