GSA appoints Jennifer Hill as new head of its Federal Acquisition Service

Jennifer Hill, a former banking executive, will lead a government contracting operation worth more than $125 billion as the new commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, the General Services Administration announced last week. Hill has been a GSA advisor since February, where she has helped to “improve government operations through procurement consolidation, streamlined processes, and more strategic use of the federal government’s purchasing power,” a press release said. GSA Administrator Ed Forst said Hill brings a record “of strategic execution, operational discipline, and results-driven leadership that will strengthen GSA’s ability to deliver best-in-class value across acquisition and real estate.” Hill was previously chief financial officer of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and managing director of Goldman Sachs, according to her LinkedIn. FAS oversees more than $125 billion in business volume with about 16,000 companies and provides “comprehensive procurement, technology, fleet, travel, and charge card solutions to more than 80 federal agencies.”

A Delaware-based defense and aerospace company has settled a case with federal agencies over government allegations that the firm neglected its cybersecurity obligations in its contracts. The contractor ILC agreed to pay $13 million to resolve the False Claims Act allegations involving its contracts with the Department of the Army, Missile Defense Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. ILC, according to the government, submitted false or fraudulent claims for payment on contracts with the agencies because it knew it hadn’t complied with the contracts’ cybersecurity requirements over a period between 2018 and 2024. For instance, ILC allegedly used a third-party company to store sensitive data in the cloud without proper safeguards, and didn’t develop and update mandated security plans for each of its covered information systems. American industrial manufacturing giant Ingersoll Rand, the parent company of ILC, said it inherited the issue when it purchased the firm. A spokesperson for Ingersoll Rand said the company took prompt action to address the identified issues after acquiring the company and was in compliance with applicable requirements by October 2024, adding that the firm resolved the allegations with the U.S. Department of Justice without an admission of liability. The $13 million settlement is one of the bigger settlements since the Justice Department began using the False Claims Act in 2022 to penalize contractors over cybersecurity shortcomings. The False Claims Act is a Civil War-era law passed to deal with fraudulent contractors. Under the law, a private citizen can raise allegations that the contractor defrauded the government and is entitled to receive a portion of any settlement. The whistleblower in the ILC case, Philip Root, the company’s former director of cybersecurity, will receive $2.35 million.

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