http://fcw.com/articles/2014/10/07/army-extends-general-dynamics-it.aspx
Army extends General Dynamics IT work on African news websites
By Adam Mazmanian
Oct 07, 2014
Sabahionline.com serves Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya in Arabic,
Somali, Swahili and English.
The U.S. Army's Africa Command awarded a $6.9 million bridge contract to
General Dynamics IT to continue its work on two news aggregation,
commentary and community websites operating in North Africa and the Horn of
Africa, despite a congressional mandate to shut the programs down.
Magharebia.com, an Arabic-language site that has English and French
translations, covers Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Sabahionline.com covers Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya in Arabic,
Somali, Swahili and English. An extension was necessary in order to prevent
an 8 to 10 month lapse in publication when the current contract expired at
the end of September, according to partially redacted contracting documents
posted on FedBizOpps.
As with a lot of limited-case justifications, the documents indicate that
without a bridge contract it will be problematic to transition between the
incumbent and a new contractor. However, the documents suggest that the
contracting officers are also painfully aware of problems specific to
publishers, noting that, "in order to retain the loyalty and interest of
target audiences, the websites must continue their regulator publication of
new content." Additionally, there is the concern that, "distribution of new
articles via Google News and other services will stop after too many days
without updates."
The work on the site, dubbed the AFRICOM website influence platform (AWIP)
covers translation and posting of comments, writing polls and surveys,
Google Adwords maintenance, and, somewhat ominously, "page modifications in
response to AFRICOM requests."
The sites themselves make no secret of U.S. official involvement --
AFRICOM's sponsorship is mentioned on the "about us" pages of both sites.
The documents indicate that because "much of this dissemination occurs in
areas where AFRICOM has no 'boots on the ground,'" suspending operations
will negatively impact "AFRICOM's web influence activity."
The two sites were part of a larger effort run by the U.S. Special
Operations Command called the Trans Regional Web Initiative. The program
came under fire in an April 2013 Government Accountability Office report
that found the sites weren't well coordinated with efforts across the
military and government.
The fiscal 2014 defense policy act eliminated authorization for all but $2
million in operations and maintenance to wind down or transfer the programs
to civilian agencies. The report of the Senate Armed Services committee
released in June stated that "the effectiveness of the websites is
questionable, and the performance metrics do not justify the expense," and
that such activities "would be more appropriately funded and managed by the
State Department and other relevant U.S. government agencies with support
from [Special Operations command], as necessary."
However, according to the contracting documents, guidance from the
undersecretary of Defense for policy indicated that work on the AWIP and
other regional sites could continue under the auspices of the geographical
combatant commands. A new solicitation is expected to go out by November of
this year.
Received on Fri Oct 10 2014 - 14:26:21 EDT