communication | The Contracting Education Academy

September 16, 2013 By AMK

Anti-contractor rhetoric as common as Fed-bashing, industry group says

With collaboration between agencies and contractors at a “low ebb,” government should centralize services acquisition-related human capital planning to confront a retirement-wave brain drain and align itself with industry trends, a key contractor group recommends.

Current budget constraints, curbs on contracts and congressional hostility toward the federal workforce have combined to create a climate in which “anti-contractor rhetoric has become at least as common a political tool as public employee bashing,” a leadership commission convened by the Professional Services Council wrote in a report released Monday.

“This lack of collaboration and communications has a palpable impact on program outcomes and quality as well as on innovation,” said the report, produced by industry executives and chaired by Robin Lineberger of Deloitte Consulting and Ellen Glover of ICF International Inc. The authors noted that government is concerned that company proposals “lack originality and innovation,” while industry feels “compelled to propose only within the lines they believe the customer is willing to consider.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2013/09/anti-contractor-rhetoric-common-fed-bashing-industry-says/70102/?oref=river

June 25, 2013 By AMK

Could IG report squelch contractor communications?

A recent GSA Inspector General report recommending stricter communications rules for the agency’s procurement personnel might have the unintended consequence of complicating the open exchanges between private contractors and GSA staff that the agency has hoped to foster.

The June 4, 2013 IG report recommended the Federal Acquisition Service implement new guidelines and practices to put more limits on contact and communications among its contracting personnel. The recommendation came because the IG had found some FAS managers had improperly stepped into negotiations between contracting employees and federal contractors. The report contained what some observers called “jarring” language about tense interactions among GSA procurement personnel and private contractors.

Some familiar with the federal procurement environment say that while the report is a case-specific instance of the GSA rightly enforcing its rules against undue strong-arming by GSA contracting managers, it could set back broader efforts to encourage communications between federal procurement personnel and contractors.

According to the IG, one FAS supervisor has been placed on administrative leave after intervening in negotiations, pressuring an FAS contracting officer to accept federal IT contracts with less-than-favorable terms. Further, some GSA subordinate employees said they feared for their jobs if they did not go along with managers, the IG found.

Keep reading this article at: http://fcw.com/Articles/2013/06/07/contractor-agency-communications-gsa-IG.aspx?Page=1

Resources:

GSA IG report

Myth-Busting memo

Myth-Busting Second Memo

May 4, 2013 By AMK

Contracting professionals need to travel … and train

No one can forget the image released a year ago of a government executive holding a champagne glass in toast while sitting in a Las Vegas hot tub — paid for with federal dollars. Congressional leaders were rightfully indignant and called for a halt to such events. However, taxpayer costs for government acquisition may now be increasing as a result of overreach policies implemented since then.

The less than $1 million expenditure for the General Services Administration Western Region conference in 2010, wasteful as it was, has evolved, justifying the imposition of far more comprehensive restrictions on the government acquisition community that are not reducing government waste or budget deficits. Though nominal savings come from prohibiting training, travel and public interaction, this is overshadowed by the hidden increased costs caused by gaps in knowledge, business communications and relationships otherwise derived through in-person interactions and learning. A workforce improperly trained or communicating poorly with industry results in badly managed contracts and misunderstandings that cost taxpayers. In a time of increased contracting activity, as agencies realign their budgets to meet deficit reduction targets, it is no surprise that contractor protest activity is up. Nondelivering contracts affect federal budgets more adversely than small short-term agency training cuts.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20130428/ADOP06/304280004/Contracting-professionals-need-travel-8212-train

April 5, 2013 By AMK

Federal IT funds circle the drain due to poor procurement policies

It may seem like a simple thing to fix — if the U.S. government wants more vendors to compete for contracts, just ask more companies to take part. However, those looking to reform the procurement process are running into snags that favor the status quo, and a new survey shows just how much money is wasted. A greater emphasis on open standards and boosting the role of CIOs are two possible solutions now being studied.

Federal agencies routinely pass up opportunities to improve information technology performance, and save money at the same time, by failing to seek vendor competition in the procurement process, according to a recent survey.

Federal IT professionals revealed that their agencies could save as much as $15.8 billion per year — about 20 percent of annual IT spending — by being more aggressive in utilizing multiple vendors in a more competitive environment for infrastructure projects.

The survey of 208 federal specialists was conducted in January by MeriTalk, an online community of public and private sector IT professionals.

Reporting on the survey in early March, MeriTalk said that 95 percent of respondents believe there are benefits to using more than one vendor in an area of their infrastructure, and 44 percent believe that adding a vendor drives down acquisition costs. However, five percent of agencies reported that their entire IT infrastructure uses just one vendor, and another 23 percent use just two or three.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/77636.html.

March 27, 2013 By AMK

Sharing contractor performance data in eight easy steps

The Obama administration is pressing the acquisition workforce to get better at telling other agencies, through a governmentwide online performance database, how well contractors do their jobs.

Joe Jordan, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, wants to improve the quantity and quality of data agencies put into the Federal Award Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS).

FAPIIS is the foundation for good data, Jordan stressed in the memo, dated March 6.

“However, ” he added, “agencies must increase their use of these tools, as underreporting performance information leaves the government vulnerable to poor acquisition outcomes in the future.”

Keep reading this article at: http://fcw.com/articles/2013/03/18/contractor-performance-data.aspx

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