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May 13, 2020 By cs

DoD to deliver $3 billion in accelerated contractor payments over coming weeks

Just over a month ago, the Pentagon told its contracting officers and contract administrators to boost the amount of money it pays vendors in the form of progress payments as one way to increase their cash flow amidst a sagging economy.  And the dollars have indeed started flowing.

As of last week, DoD had made $1.2 billion in additional progress payments because of the higher rates — which rose from 80% to 90% of the total contract value for large companies, and from 90% to 95% in the case of small firms. Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment told reporters she expected the figure to rise to $3 billion in “the next week or two.”

For context, the department’s outlays for contracts are about $25 billion in total during an average month, making the $3 billion in accelerated payments a not-insubstantial sum. Lord said the added progress payments happened across 1,400 separate contracts, mostly because of a mass-modification the Defense Contract Management Agency processed to boost payment rates.

However, one open question — in the case of large contracts — is how quickly bigger firms are passing the advance payments down through their supply chains. Those figures, Lord said, are more difficult to track.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/dod-reporters-notebook-jared-serbu/2020/05/dod-to-deliver-3b-in-accelerated-contractor-payments-over-coming-weeks/

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/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Accelerate, acquisition workforce, advance payment, coronavirus, COVID-19, DCMA, DoD, modification, pandemic, payments, progress payments, prompt payment, readiness, small business

August 26, 2019 By cs

HHS plans launch of AI, blockchain-based acquisition portal

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is test launching an acquisition portal named Accelerate that infuses blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

The blockchain-based acquisition portal will get a test run this fall and launch the beginning of the year, HHS CIO Jose Arrieta said.

Speaking at NextGov’s Emerging Tech summit on Aug. 14, Arrieta said the agency has been working on developing microservices for its Accelerate blockchain and artificial intelligence-infused acquisition portal.

The platform’s deep database of contracting data from the agency’s five acquisition systems will drive automatic pricing breaks for government the same way consumers can use competitive data at major retailers.

“If you look up the price of something on Amazon and show it to the cashier at Target or Best Buy,” he said, they will immediately give you the comparable discount offered at those other retailers. “That’s empowering. We created that ability for the contracting professional” on the portal, he said.

Keep reading this article at: https://gcn.com/articles/2019/08/16/hhs-accelerate.aspx

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Accelerate, acquisition reform, acquisition strategy, AI, behavioral information, biometrics, blockchain, competitiveness, DISA, HHS, procurement reform

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