CCR | The Contracting Education Academy

October 23, 2012 By AMK

GSA appoints a new duo to run SAM

After a false start on the System for Award Management in August, General Services Administration officials have shifted the management of SAM to two of the agency’s top executives, a spokeswoman said Oct. 22.

Mary Davie, acting Federal Acquisition Service commissioner, and Casey Coleman, GSA’s CIO, are now responsible to getting SAM working, said Jackeline Stewart, deputy press secretary at GSA.

“GSA will ensure that the short-term fixes and the long-term vision of creating a common acquisition platform across government rest squarely with the leadership of our acquisitions and technical experts,” Stewart said.

Keep reading this article at: http://fcw.com/articles/2012/10/22/coleman-davie-sam.aspx

For the latest news involving SAM, please visit: http://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/tag/sam

August 24, 2012 By AMK

DoD temporarily alters vendor registration rule due to SAM’s launch shortcomings

In order to avoid delays in “the timely processing of awards,” the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has ordered the temporary suspension of rules requiring vendor registration in the System for Award Management (SAM).

SAM replaced Central Contractor Registration (CCR), the government’s long-standing vendor database. SAM was launched during the last weekend in July 2012 when CCR vendor data was migrated to the new system.

SAM’s late July implementation included not only CCR but Federal Agency Registration (FedReg), the Online Representation and Certification Application (ORCA), and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) as well. “Performance issues” involving the new SAM database prompted DoD’s action to suspend for “a brief period” the requirement that vendors be registered in SAM before being eligible for a contract award.

Since SAM’s launch there have been widespread reports and complaints from vendors and contracting officers alike that they cannot access vendor records or are experiencing slow performance within the on-line system. The General Services Administration (GSA) is responsible for SAM. GSA contracted with IBM to manage the design and implementation of SAM.

In the August 21, 2012 order to temporarily suspend SAM registration requirements, DoD noted that the action would provide “a brief period of time for achieving resolution of the remaining [performance] issues.”

DoD notes that “GSA has been taking aggressive action to resolve these issues promptly.” Earlier news reports indicated that GSA issued IBM a “letter of concern” on Aug. 7. In the official notice, GSA told IBM to develop a plan of action and milestones for how they will make SAM work more smoothly. GSA hired IBM under an eight-year, $74.4 million contract in 2010.

DoD’s order was issued in the form of a “class deviation” which allows the department to suspend Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Defense FAR Supplement (DFARS) requirements pertaining to vendor registration and annual representations and certifications.

In its order DoD notes that contractors are still required to be registered in SAM prior to submitting invoices.

Before the DoD order, all contractors were required to be registered in SAM, and all contracting officers were required to check SAM before making a contract award.

Until SAM is functional, DoD’s contracting officials are directed to obtain paper or electronic copies of vendors’ representations and certifications in lieu of accessing this documentation via that portion of SAM that used to be the stand-alone ORCA system.

The EPLS migration to SAM has been reversed, thus restoring that website as a site operating on its own. Because of this action, contracting officers once again have the ability to conduct pre-award checks in EPLS to ensure prospective contractors are not on the list of entities excluded from federal contracts.

DoD’s class deviation remains in effect for an indefinite period of time until rescinded.

The SAM User Guide can be downloaded at: https://www.sam.gov/SAMPortal/img/Download-PDF.png.

For the latest news involving SAM, please visit: http://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/tag/sam

© 2012 The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint this article is hereby granted with the stipulations that the article is attributed to The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech and that the following URL is given: http://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/2012/08/dod-temporarily-alters-vendor-registration-rule-due-to-sams-launch-shortcomings

August 24, 2012 – 5:33 am EST

August 14, 2012 By AMK

GSA issues IBM a letter of concern for problems with procurement system

The General Services Administration has officially ordered IBM to fix the troubled System for Award Management (SAM).

Sources confirmed GSA issued IBM a letter of concern Aug. 7. In the official notice, GSA told the company to develop a plan of action and milestones for how they will make SAM work more smoothly. Under the program, GSA wants to consolidate eight acquisition databases, including the Central Contractor Registration, the Past Performance Information Retrieval System and six others.

A letter of concern is a step before a cure letter, saying there are problems with the system but it’s not as bad as a cure letter.

GSA hired IBM under an eight- year, $74.4 million contract in 2010.

Keep reading this article at http://www.federalnewsradio.com/65/2988217/GSA-issues-letter-of-concern-for-problems-with-procurement-system.

For the latest news involving SAM, please visit: http://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/tag/sam

October 28, 2011 By AMK

SAM deployment likely to be delayed; GSA might replace DUNS

A General Services Administration (GSA) effort to consolidate federal online acquisition systems will likely receive no development money during the current fiscal year, causing GSA officials to anticipate a delay in the project.

However, GSA officials are going forward with a planned sources sought notice, to be released shortly, seeking private sector input on the viability of replacing mandatory federal vendor acquirement of a DUNS number from Dun & Bradstreet with a government-generated unique identifier. [Editor’s Note: The sources sought was published on Oct. 27, 2011, with response deadline of Nov. 21, 2011. Details on the sources sought may be viewed at https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=4cfa1aa7d67a29f5aeb3146f1cbf4758&tab=core&_cview=0.]

If the government does replace DUNS with its own unique identifier system for vendors, the transition would likely be tied to the third phase of the online acquisition system consolidation effort, said Kathleen Turco, head of GSA’s office of governmentwide policy, during an Oct. 21 interview.

The integration effort seeks to consolidate 9 currently separate systems into one, to be known as the System for Award Management, or SAM. IBM received a $74.4 million contract in 2010 to develop the SAM architecture; part of the consolidation effort includes unifying the currently disparate databases into a single, unified one.

Because GSA received $7 million in development funds during fiscal 2011, which ended on Sept. 30, it will be able to proceed with the first phase of the consolidation, which will tie together Central Contractor Registration, Online Representations and Certifications Application and the Excluded Parties List System.

Starting in May, front-end users will find that they have to log onto SAM only once to access the functionalities of all three systems, Turco said.

However, a request for $15 million in development, modernization and enhancement money for the current fiscal year has bumped up against spending constraints; the Senate Appropriations Committee markup of GSA’s fiscal 2012 spending bill denied the request in total. The House version would appropriate about $3 million in DME money for the project, Turco said. Congress has yet to pass any fiscal 2012 appropriations bill; the federal government is operating under a continuing resolution that expires on midnight of Nov. 18.

As a result of the House and Senate marks, Turco said GSA will likely postpone roll out of phase 2, under which GSA plans to consolidate FedBizOps, the Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System, and the Assistance Program Catalog. Originally, GSA had planned to unveil that phase in the spring of 2013; if GSA receives sufficient funding for fiscal 2013, it would be able to complete that phase in spring 2014, Turco said.

The third phase would consolidate FPDS , Wage Determinations Online and the Past Performance Information Retrieval System. The earliest phase 3 could now be completed–it was originally planned for spring 2014–is now spring 2015, Turco said.

It’s in conjunction with phase 3 that GSA would likely also transition from using DUNS as a unique vendor identifier to a government-generated number, if GSA decides to do so, Turco added.

Vendors wishing to do business with the government must receive a unique identifier–in some cases, more than one, depending on the number of physical locations and legal divisions a company has–and GSA has long contracted with Dun & Bradstreet for government vendors to receive Data Universal Numbering System identifier for free.

But, the government pays Dun & Bradstreet $18 million a year for the service, making it the single most expensive element of the Integrated Acquisition Environment, the name GSA gives to 9 systems set for consolidation into SAM.

“We’ve had a lot of push on us from the Hill and many vendors have said to us ‘Why is it only Dun and Bradstreet?'” Turco said.

However, replacing DUNS would be no easy task, she acknowledged, since DUNS are used in financial systems to pay vendors and have become deeply integrated into IAE feeder systems.

— by David Perera, Fierce Government IT, Oct. 24, 2011 – http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/turco-sam-deployment-likely-be-delayed-gsa-might-replace-duns/2011-10-22?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

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