Government Contracting News | The Contracting Education Academy

August 7, 2020 By cs

Frictionless acquisition means changing hearts and minds, not necessarily processes

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy’s new cross-agency priority goal isn’t about changing the acquisition rules or processes.

Instead, the goal of frictionless acquisition is about how contracting officers, program managers, industry and so many others view what it takes to buy a product or service.

Michael Wooten, the administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said frictionless acquisition is part of his plan to reduce complexity through leadership.

“We are really focused on reducing the time between when a person conjures up a need and when they get what they want,” Wooten said in an exclusive interview with Federal News Network. “We think the opportunities for friction are significant because of the scale and scope of the federal acquisition system, the complexity of our requirements can be mind boggling when you look at some of the systems under development, whether it’s the Defense or Energy departments or whomever, and then the myriad systems and processes that support this.”

As a result of this friction, Wooten said agencies, contractors and taxpayers are feeling the brunt through increased costs, increased time to market and decreased value.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition-policy/2020/07/frictionless-acquisition-means-changing-hearts-and-minds-not-necessarily-processes/

August 6, 2020 By cs

Industry executive: Defense Production Act small launch contracts should have been competed

The Defense Department caused an uproar when it announced on June 18 it had selected six small launch companies to receive contracts funded under the Defense Production Act, the head of a space industry group said July 22.

“I know there were a lot of complaints on Capitol Hill and within agencies,” said Chuck Beames, executive chairman of York Space Systems and chairman of the SmallSat Alliance, an industry group that represents space companies including several small launch providers.

“Many companies thought it was unfair, why them and why not us?” Beames said during an online event hosted by the Mitchell Institute.

For the small launch contracts, DoD had set aside $116 million appropriated for Defense Production Act Title 3 investments in key sectors of the defense industry financially impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Keep reading this article at: https://spacenews.com/industry-executive-defense-production-act-small-launch-contracts-should-have-been-competed/

August 5, 2020 By cs

Pentagon expects 7,500 companies CMMC certified by 2021

The Defense Department anticipates that by next year 7,500 companies in its industrial base will hold certifications that they meet new cybersecurity requirements.

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification version 1.0 requirements are part of the Pentagon’s push to protect industrial base networks and controlled unclassified information from cyber attacks. The CMMC rules will require contractors to be certified by third-party auditors, which will ensure that contractors are adhering to certain standards. Organizations will be required to meet different levels of security requirements depending on the type of work they are doing, with level 1 being the least burdensome and level 5 the most stringent.

An “estimated 7,500 companies will be certified in 2021,” Katie Arrington, chief information security officer in the office of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said during a webinar hosted by cybersecurity company Celeruim “That doesn’t seem like a lot but if you think about the interconnectivity of the [defense industrial base] it’s a certification that’s good for all DoD contracts for three years.”

By 2026, all solicitations are expected to include CMMC standards that companies must meet if they want to do business with the Pentagon.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2020/7/23/pentagon-expects-7500-companies-cmmc-certified-by-2021

August 4, 2020 By cs

SBA looks to tighten up certification process for women-owned small businesses

Women-owned small businesses, take note: the Small Business Administration is changing the certification process for doing business with the federal government.

Following a 2015 mandate from Congress, SBA will end its self-certification process for women-owned small businesses on October 15. This comes after the agency’s inspector general found contract awards were going to vendors that didn’t meet the criteria for the program.

Business owners since last Wednesday have been able to submit their applications through the online platform, but SBA will only begin issuing decisions on those submitted applications on Oct. 15, the last day of the self-certification process.

Alisa Sheard, a program manager in SBA Women’s Contracting Office, said businesses already certified through the WOSB program must also go through the new certification process, requiring business owners to copy information found on their SAM.gov profile and transfer it to SBA’s online certification platform.

“Everyone will still need to submit answers to questions and upload documents because there’s no data migration. Those documents that were in the different system are not in this beta certified system, so they will have to upload all of those documents,” Sheard said in an interview.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contracting/2020/07/sba-looks-to-tighten-up-certification-process-for-women-owned-small-businesses/

August 3, 2020 By cs

New Space Force acquisition office to prioritize integration over bureaucracy

One advantage of the new Space Force organization is that it allows its leaders to focus exclusively on space, rather than divide their attention between space and air.

That means the new assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition, once they’ve been nominated and confirmed by Congress, will be able to focus more closely on integrating and synchronizing existing space capability and acquisition programs. That’s something sorely needed in the space domain, according to one of the officials working to stand up the new office.

“Often this lack of synchronization is not an acquisition problem per se, but really it’s a problem of disparate funding responsibilities and poorly prioritized capability development,” said Shawn Barnes, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition, on the Space Foundation’s July 15 Space Policy Pod[cast]. “I believe our real value proposition is not in providing another layer of acquisition oversight, but rather in multiplying the value of space systems through integration and synchronization.”

The problem is that each of the other service branches, as well as a number of agencies in the intelligence community, all have vested interests in space and in protecting those interests. But each is moving in its own direction. Barnes sees an opportunity for the new ASAF to unite everyone on the same page.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2020/07/new-space-force-acquisition-office-to-prioritize-integration-over-bureaucracy/

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy’s new cross-agency priority goal isn’t about changing the acquisition rules or processes.

The Defense Department caused an uproar when it announced on June 18 it had selected six small launch companies to receive contracts funded under the Defense Production Act, the head of a space industry group said July 22.

The Defense Department anticipates that by next year 7,500 companies in its industrial base will hold certifications that they meet new cybersecurity requirements.

Women-owned small businesses, take note: the Small Business Administration is changing the certification process for doing business with the federal government.

One advantage of the new Space Force organization is that it allows its leaders to focus exclusively on space, rather than divide their attention between space and air.

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