Agriculture Dept. | The Contracting Education Academy

October 26, 2018 By AMK

USDA saved millions so far due to ‘Centers of Excellence’

Less than one year into the White House Centers of Excellence initiative, the first pilot agency is already saving money.

“So far, we’ve realized around $26 million in cost avoidance and savings and now we’re moving on to phase 2, which is the actual implementation of the plan we developed over the past six months,” said Agriculture Department Deputy Secretary Stephen Censky, speaking last week at the Imagine Nation conference in Philadelphia.

The two-phase CoE effort focuses on five areas: customer experience, cloud adoption, infrastructure optimization, contact centers and service delivery analytics.

The first phase of the program focused on developing the modernization strategy for those key areas through a collaboration between personnel from the General Services Administration, Agriculture and consulting partners brought in through contracts.

The second phase, which Agriculture will now undertake, involves carrying out the strategy and implementing the tech tools and services the department purchases.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/10/usda-saved-millions-so-far-due-centers-excellence/152063/

August 24, 2015 By AMK

GTRI represented at White House summit on rural education

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) representative at a recent roundtable discussion held by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the White House Rural Council had a chance to share how the Atlanta-located Georgia Tech unit is working to reach out to the state’s rural students.

GTRI attended a recent roundtable discussion held by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the White House Rural Council, organized by Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Krysta Harden.

Organized by the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Krysta Harden, the roundtable discussion centered on the Obama Administration’s goals of the U.S. Department of Education’s investing in rural schools and the Rural Jobs Accelerator. Mindy DiSalvo, a senior research associate working with STEM@GTRI’s science, technology, engineering and math educational initiatives, was invited to speak on Georgia Tech’s behalf.

Existing STEM@GTRI initiatives have impacted more than 1,000 students in rural communities, DiSalvo said. Additionally, GTRI has supported a USDA proposal that, when implemented, will equip classrooms in nine rural school systems with technology and software applications that will enable them to connect with GT laboratories.

“When funded, this program will have the potential to reach thousands of students, most of whom are in schools with an average 28 percent graduation rate, and in communities that have been consistently impoverished for at least 20 years,” DiSalvo said.

Through Georgia Tech’s Direct to Discovery (D2D) program, researchers at GTRI are able to connect with kindergarten through 12^th-grade students in their classrooms. This program helps to introduce students to STEM content, college opportunities and careers.

“Our researchers can provide context to the science and technology curriculum and why students should be learning it,” DiSalvo said. “When we are able to share our researchers with classrooms, student invariably say ‘Oh. Now I see why I need to know this.’”

GTRI is no stranger to assisting with educational outreach. GTRI was instrumental in developing the Family Technology Resource Centers in DeKalb County, Georgia, a few decades ago. During his administration, President Bill Clinton gave the FTRC a permanent place in the Smithsonian Institution as an example of an effective community outreach program.

November 11, 2014 By AMK

Agriculture agencies need better contract management, GAO finds

Three Agriculture Department agencies failed to use preferred contracts in the procurement of professional services for about two-thirds of the funds assigned for such purchases from fiscal 2009 to 2013, the Government Accountability Office found.

That amounts to about $783 million of the nearly $1.8 billion USDA set aside in that time frame for professional services contracts, according to GAO’s report. USDA’s Departmental Management, Food and Nutrition Service, and Forest Service account for about 70 percent of the department’s total obligations for professional service contracts, but only about 37 percent of the funds were awarded via performance-based, firm-fixed-price contracts, the kinds that the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the Office of Management and Budget say should be used to the maximum extent possible.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/usda-departments-need-better-contract-management-gao-finds/2014-10-30

April 14, 2014 By AMK

GAO: USDA improperly awarded $141 million sole source contract

The U.S. Department of Agriculture improperly awarded a $141 million sole source contract in exchange for the contractor’s agreement to withdraw a GAO bid protest.

According to a recent GAO bid protest decision, the award violated the Competition in Contracting Act, which does not permit an agency to award a sole source contract in exchange for a contractor’s promise to terminate litigation against the agency.

The GAO’s decision in Coulson Aviation (USA), Inc., et al., B-409356.2 et al.(Mar. 31, 2014) involved the USDA’s procurement of next generation (“NextGen”) large airtanker services for wildland firefighting support. The Air Force initially issued a solicitation for the NextGen airtanker services in 2011. After corrective action taken in response to a GAO bid protest, the USDA awarded NextGen contracts to four companies. Neptune Aviation Services, Inc., which had initially been identified as an awardee before the protest, was not awarded a NextGen contract.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/gaobidprotests/gao-usda-improperly-awarded-141-million-sole-source-contract/

March 28, 2014 By AMK

Major departments seek continuous monitoring acquisition independence from DHS

Some federal agencies are choosing to buy continuous monitoring tools independently of the Homeland Security Department’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program despite forfeiting DHS procurement money for those tools when doing so.

Those agencies have sought and received a “delegation of procurement authority” from the CDM program. That means they are able to use the blanket purchase agreements for security tools set up by GSA for the CDM program. But, if they exercise the delegation by buying tools themselves rather than through program office, they do it “with their own money,” said Jim Piché, a GSA acquisition manager newly appointed to overseeing the blanket purchase agreements.

A GSA spokeswoman said the agency won’t release a list of the agencies that received a delegation.Piché spoke Wednesday during a Washington, D.C. industry-sponsored panel on the program.

An industry source says agencies with a delegation include the departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Justice and Veterans Affairs.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/major-departments-seek-continuous-monitoring-acquisition-independence-dhs/2014-03-19

Less than one year into the White House Centers of Excellence initiative, the first pilot agency is already saving money.

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) representative at a recent roundtable discussion held by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the White House Rural Council had a chance to share how the Atlanta-located Georgia Tech unit is working to reach out to the state’s rural students.

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