Rapid acquisitions for prototypes and experimental technology will be subject to the Defense Department’s unified cybersecurity standard, according to Katie Arrington, DoD’s chief information security officer for acquisition.
Arrington said DoD’s upcoming implementation of its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification will apply to other transaction agreements — a rapid contract mechanism frequently used to help develop and field prototypes.
“In an OTA, in the technical specs, they can actually call it out and say what they want,” said Arrington during an April 29 NextGov webinar on CMMC.
OTAs are meant to speed the government buying process and allow DoD to buy new capabilities faster by allowing officials to sidestep competitive bidding in certain cases. But there’s ample worry of potential overuse, which could invite congressional scrutiny.
Arrington’s comments come as DoD has begun pushing for the use of OTAs to find and execute on solutions that can help treat or prevent the spread of coronavirus. Ellen Lord, DoD’s acquisition chief, issued a memo in early April to ease the OTA process by delegating contracting authorities to heads of agencies and combatant commanders during the pandemic.
Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2020/04/30/cmmc-ota-cyber-williams.aspx
The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized. Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/
