Another day, another case of contractor fraud. This time, it’s at Fort Bragg. Three former employees at Fort Bragg have been accused of bribery and money laundering for government contracts. According to court documents for Calvin Alfonza Jordan, 64, Edward Wade Crisco, 59, and Stephen Paul Sabato, 50 were indicted at the beginning of August, with arrests following on August 13. Their crimes include increasing federal contract amounts in exchange for money (i.e. bribes) and money laundering. They also include steering work to specific contractors, without conducting inspections in exchange for bribes and gratuities. Jordan, a procurement agent at the Directorate of Public Works that oversees Army housing, allegedly gained about $1.08 million from his laundering transactions over the course of an eight-year period. If convicted, the three former employees will have to forfeit all funding and pay charges, proving that crime does not pay.
“Any allegations of bribery by a government employee are disheartening,” Norman Acker, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, said in the news release. “In this case, it is alleged these men, tasked with maintaining and contracting to maintain the very spaces in which the members of our military live and work, put their own monetary gain above that task.”
Layoffs Impacting the Cleared Industry
| Flockjay | Flockjay is a startup that helps workers facing layoffs break into tech fields. However, the company just cut half of its own staff in a move to switch to a new platform. Estimates circling LinkedIn put the number of laid off employees around 30-45. Those hit were in nontechnical fields, like recruiting and marketing professionals or admissions advisors, as well as, sales positions.
“As a mission-driven organization, we care deeply about our graduates not only landing jobs, but also earning promotions and becoming future leaders of their companies. We learned while growing how important it is to invest early in building scalable support for our alumni, the teams they are on, and all mission-aligned sales organizations to level the playing field,” said CEO Shaan Hathiramani in a statement to TechCrunch. “That meant making the difficult but necessary decision to run our classes in a more limited capacity while we focus on building that platform. We recognize that this decision has real human consequences, especially considering how talented and tightknit our team is.” |
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Hiring impacting the Cleared Industry
| Northrop Grumman | Colorado is a key state for cleared candidates, and Northrop Grumman is in the market to find some of those candidates, with plans to add 250 people by the end of 2022 in Colorado Springs.
With its recent expansion of nearly 10,000 square feet in Colorado Springs at the former Quantum manufacturing plant in the InterQuest business area, Northrop Grumman has space for more employees. Since the complex near the airport has reached capacity, the company also has plans to move some of those employees to the new location, according to Greg Manuel, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman’s Strategic Deterrent Systems Division. Northrop Grumman has plans for the InterQuest office to provide research labs and engineering, providing the ability to continue to deliver innovative solutions. “All three of our divisions in Colorado Springs are expanding, so we took two of the divisions and moved them here (the InterQuest office) and that will leave space for the other division to expand as well,” Manuel said. “We want to hire locally, but are recruiting nationally. We’re looking for engineers of all types — STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) on steroids — technologists, cyber, security, software development as well as employees in business management and finance.” Missile programs in the western region of the country have led to expansion for Northrop Grumman – both in Utah and Colorado. |
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Cleared Employer at Work: C3.AI
Opportunity to Watch
Federal employees should see a pay bump in 2022, depending on where they fall on the General Schedule. For a GS-15 who may be maxed out, they may not see an increase in their salary at all, but many will see a 2.7% increase in 2022 due to the White House’s alternative pay plan submitted to Congress on Friday. That total includes a 2.2% raise for federal employees, with a .5% locality pay adjustment. With some areas having a higher cost of living and other GS employees at the top of the ladder, the 2.7% is simply an average and not a guarantee. Once the raise is voted on in the budget, it will require an Executive Order from the President in order to put the raise into motion for the new calendar year.
Consistent raises help to begin bridging the gap between federal and public sector salaries. While compensation is a factor in recruiting and retaining talent, new employees will feel more inclined to join when they have growth options and upward mobility. Hiring freezes, sequestration, SES caps, and the like all put a bit of a damper on the drive that federal employees may have to serve their nation. Consistent increases in compensation begin to chip away at some of the problems with federal employment, building in more retention.
