Simplified Acquisition | The Contracting Education Academy

May 3, 2017 By cs

8 trends to keep ahead of in federal contracting

The Trump administration has most of Washington on the edge of their seats waiting to see what comes next, and federal contracting is no different.

“Everyone knows the federal market is driven by budgets, and budgets are driven by the presidential budget request,” Kevin Brancato, director of government contracts research at Bloomberg Government, said in an April 27, 2017 webinar. “What I would advise federal contractors to look at is agency priorities and see where they align with the president’s priorities … and you’ll likely see those agencies is where the money will be spent.”

But he said that all the budget really changes is which agencies spend the money, not so much how they spend it. That’s why he said he expects to see these eight trends continue into 2018: Category Management, Shared Services, Compliance Standards, First Time Vendors, “Other” Transactions, Cybersecurity, Simplified Procedures, and Trump’s Tweets.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition/2017/04/8-trends-to-keep-ahead-of-in-federal-contracting/

December 8, 2016 By cs

Defense bill includes numerous provisions to prod DoD toward commercial buying

Last week’s House-Senate agreement on the 2017 Defense Authorization Bill contained about 100 provisions dealing with acquisition — not all of which we’ll even attempt to summarize in this space.

commercial-buying-2017-ndaa But several were built around a common reform theme Congress began in last year’s bill, attempting to reform the acquisition system to suit a world in which leaders of the Defense committees believe that most innovation is happening in the commercial sector.

Besides restructuring and bifurcating the large front office that’s currently responsible for both acquisition and R&D, the bill adds several new authorities that build on last year’s trend of letting DoD sidestep the traditional acquisition system.

“The national security problem starts from the fact that we no longer drive research and development,” Bill Greenwalt, a senior Senate Armed Services Committee staffer, said at an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security last week. “We reformed the system 20 years ago to try to access commercial items, but it’s not as agile as we would like it to be. It’s risk-averse, it’s compliance-oriented, and it’s optimized to win the Cold War against an adversary that thought in five-year plans.”

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/dod-reporters-notebook-jared-serbu/2016/12/defense-bill-includes-numerous-provisions-prod-dod-toward-commercial-buying/

November 8, 2016 By cs

GAO: No “public posting” of solicitation in closed government office

An agency failed to meet its obligations to properly publicize a simplified acquisition valued between $15,000 and $25,000 where the agency placed the solicitation in a three-ring binder at the reception desk in a government office–and that office was closed during most of the relevant time.

bia In a recent decision, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) affirmed that principle that even when the dollar value of a simplified acquisition doesn’t meet the requirement for electronic posting on FedBizOpps, the agency still must take reasonable steps to maximize competition.

GAO’s decision in Bluehorse Corp., B-413533 (Oct. 28, 2016) involved a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) solicitation for diesel fuel for a school district served by the BIA in New Mexico.

After identifying an emergency need for the diesel fuel, the BIA prepared an RFQ on Saturday, July 30. The RFQ was prepared under the procedures for the streamlined acquisition of commercial items under FAR 12.6, and called for a performance period of delivery from August 2, 2016 through April 30, 2017.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/gaobidprotests/gao-no-public-posting-of-solicitation-in-closed-government-office/

October 24, 2016 By cs

Sticks and stones: How words and terms of art can hurt the contracting profession

Contracting professional need precision in words and terms, as contract interpretation turns on minute differences in terminology and definitions.

mastery-of-words-oct-2016 Misuse of terms of art in the contracting profession leads to confusion, misunderstanding, and pernicious misconceptions. Clarity in contracting language improves professionalism and avoids inefficient or wasteful procedures.

Words, terms of art, and definitions do not get the respect they deserve. People calling themselves contracting professionals blithely misuse them. Seasoned practitioners — who should know better — stay silent and allow bad habits to persist.

This article turns the spotlight on several frequently misused and abused terms of art, but it is not an exhaustive list.

Read on to explore several flagrantly abused terms of art regarding justifications and scope of the contract: http://www.wifcon.com/analy/Sticks_and_Stones.pdf

April 19, 2016 By cs

On RFQs, government can’t have its cake and eat it too

The government wants have its cake and eat it too — by conducting competitions under the General Services Administration (GSA) multiple award schedule contracts using requests for quotations (RFQs), but not abiding by the rules in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).

The government seems to think that because RFQs are different from other types of solicitations, the FAR rules don’t apply. Both the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) believe the FAR rules apply.

In Hanel Storage Systems, L.P., the GAO considered a procurement by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for vertical storage units at a VA medical center. VA issued an RFQ pursuant to GSA’s multiple award schedule — the Federal Supply Service or FSS program — and the RFQ specified that the extractor system of the storage units [was required] to be “suspended on four corners to allow for uneven loading of pans and access from end of units for service.” VA awarded the order to Kardex, but admitted that its extractor system was suspended centrally and wasnot suspended on four corners, as required by the RFQ.

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/commentary/2016/04/rfqs-government-cant-cake-eat/

The Trump administration has most of Washington on the edge of their seats waiting to see what comes next, and federal contracting is no different.

Last week’s House-Senate agreement on the 2017 Defense Authorization Bill contained about 100 provisions dealing with acquisition — not all of which we’ll even attempt to summarize in this space.

An agency failed to meet its obligations to properly publicize a simplified acquisition valued between $15,000 and $25,000 where the agency placed the solicitation in a three-ring binder at the reception desk in a government office–and that office was closed during most of the relevant time.

Contracting professional need precision in words and terms, as contract interpretation turns on minute differences in terminology and definitions.

The government wants have its cake and eat it too — by conducting competitions under the General Services Administration (GSA) multiple award schedule contracts using requests for quotations (RFQs), but not abiding by the rules in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).

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