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June 17, 2013 By AMK

DOD must continue to educate military personnel to work with, manage civilian contractors, report says

Civilian contractors play a vital role in the Defense Department, but  experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan with contractor-related waste and  mismanagement led the military and Congress to rethink how they will be used in  future operations.

The military is reevaluating how it works with contractors, specifically  training officers to work with and better understand how contractors do their  jobs, a May 17 Congressional Research Service report  (.pdf) says.

The report found that contractors made up at least half of the deployed  forces in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. In March 2013, there were some  108,000 DoD contractors in Afghanistan, making up 62 percent of the total force.  Of this number, there were 18,000 private security contractors, compared to  65,700 U.S. troops. The report notes that many government officials and analysts  admit that the military is so reliant on civilian contractors that it cannot  carry out long term and many short-term operations without them.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/dod-must-continue-educate-military-personnel-work-manage-civilian-contracto/2013-05-29

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, contract employee, contractor performance, DoD

December 6, 2012 By AMK

Provision slashing up to 36,000 Defense civilian and contractor jobs remains in FY13 Senate bill

The Senate defeated an amendment to the Defense authorization bill that would have halted an effort to cut the department’s civilian and contractor workforces by an estimated 5 percent through fiscal 2017.

The failure of the amendment, offered by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., means a provision that could slash up to 36,000 Defense jobs will remain in the Senate’s fiscal 2013 bill. The reduction in military personnel resulting from the end of the Iraq war and the drawdown in Afghanistan prompted Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to include the language directing the Defense secretary to also shrink the civilian workforce and contractors by a rate that is at least equal to the percentage of funding saved from planned troop reductions. Defense is reducing the active-duty and reserve force by 31,300 between fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2013.

The Senate approved the bill Tuesday evening (12/4/2012). The House-passed version does not contain the provisions calling for a workforce reduction.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/defense/2012/12/provision-slashing-defense-workforce-stays-alive/59940/?oref=govexec_today_nl.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: budget cuts, contract employee, DoD

March 21, 2012 By AMK

Personal conflicts of interest: What government contractors need to know

On December 2, 2011, the new Personal Conflicts of Interest (“PCI”) rules in the FAR took effect. These new rules apply to a contractor’s “covered employees” who perform “acquisition functions closely associated with inherently governmental functions.” FAR 3.1103. For such covered employees, government contractors must take steps to identify and prevent personal conflicts of interest. Contractors who fail to meet these new requirements risk suspension and debarment, and therefore should take steps now to ensure compliance.

The new regulations apply to those employees who perform activities such as: planning acquisitions; determining what supplies or services are to be acquired by the Government (including developing statements of work); developing or approving any contractual documents; evaluating contract proposals; awarding Government contracts; administering Government contracts; terminating contracts; or determining whether contract costs are reasonable, allocable and allowable. FAR 3.1101.

Contractors with covered employees are required have procedures in place to screen for potential PCIs, including obtaining and updating disclosure of interest statements from covered employees. FAR 3.1103(a)(1). Contractors must not assign covered employees to perform tasks for which a PCI has been identified and must obtain non-disclosure agreements from covered employees. FAR 3.1103(a)(2). Contractors must also maintain effective oversight of covered employees, take appropriate disciplinary action for failure to comply with PCI policies, and report any PCI violations to the contracting officer. FAR 3.1103(a)(4)-(6).

— by Venable LLP, published on March 8, 2012 at http://www.jdsupra.com/post/documentViewer.aspx?fid=b5fe2497-f799-4928-aefb-81c88ec2f3c7.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, conflict of interest, contract employee, outsourcing

September 24, 2010 By AMK

DOD drives deeper wedge between feds and contractors

Federal employees probably wouldn’t be surprised to see a contractor arrive at the office in an orange jumpsuit. Nor would a contractor blink if feds were to show up in Tommy Bahama shirts from the new Tropical Temptation collection.

The outfits would match the image that each holds of the other: Contractors are greedy enough to shoot their mother for a dollar, and feds treat work like a day at the beach.

As funny as those old stereotypes might sound, they reflect the often-bitter cultural divide between contractors and feds that, depending on whom you ask, is about to get wider.

Under a Defense Department rule that went into effect in September, contractor employees are required to identify themselves as such in all forms of communications, whether in person, on the phone or in e-mail messages.

At a time when contractors outnumber feds in some offices, the rule is intended to ensure that DOD managers do not inadvertently involve contractors in sensitive work that should be set aside for feds. The rule, in short, will show who’s on which side.

But some contractors fear that the rule could undermine the teamwork that’s essential in a blended workforce, in which feds and contractors must work side by side on a daily basis. “How do you maintain unity of community when segregation is forced?” a reader named Skully asked in a comment posted at FCW.com.

It’s a tough question, especially given the existing distrust between feds and contractors in many government offices.

Bob Woods, a retired federal official and now president of Topside Consulting, said the rule only exacerbates the situation. Worse yet, it’s not even necessary, because feds know who the contractors are. If not, they’re not being diligent, he said. “The rule creates an awkward situation for everybody,” he said.

Another reader commenting on the story pointed out that the pink badges contractors wear are already pretty conspicuous. The lack of identification is not the problem — it is the “cries of ‘unclean!’ when the contractors pass through federal workspace that is distracting.”

As some contractors see it, DOD might just as well post a scarlet letter on their foreheads, marking them as people whose loyalties are not to the customer or the mission but to the bottom line.

But as touchy as the issue might be, contract employees know who is writing their checks.

“Some people would be very offended by that statement,” but it’s true, said Peter Tuttle, a former Army contracting officer and now senior procurement policy analyst at Distributed Solutions. He also said federal employees need that “healthy bit of skepticism.”

The rule isn’t bad, said Kevin Carroll, retired program executive officer of DOD’s Enterprise Information Systems office and now president of the Kevin Carroll Group, a consulting company. It will let other contractors and officials know whom they’re talking to.

The identity question is especially a problem outside federal offices — where badges are not required —in e-mail, and on the phone.

The lack of identification by contractors “clouds the water on a daily basis and causes delays and delivery of substandard technology and products to the DOD,” a federal employee wrote, adding: “Anyone not seeing this as a problem with the current procurement system is a victim of ‘.mil’ envy.”

There are ways to curtail segregation.

When Carroll worked in government, he included contractors in all of his office’s work and even invited them to social events. Overall, he tried to make them teammates. Over time, contractors usually became more loyal to the office than their companies, he said.

“It is just a matter of leadership and inclusion, with a careful eye on preventing conflicts within the workplace,” Carroll said.

Likewise, the mutual stereotypes need not be a problem.

Many people are good workers, and managers need to attend first to the motivated people in the office, Woods said. Then managers should deal separately with the select few who match the contractor and federal employee stereotypes. They’ll soon find their motivated employees will want the unproductive people out of the office.

— Matthew Weigelt – Sept. 24, 2010 – Federal Computer Week

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: contract employee, DoD

August 18, 2010 By AMK

GSA’s IG warns of risky acquisition support

Contractors may be getting closer to handling sensitive duties as agencies buy services to augment their acquisition staff members through the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedules contracts, officials say in a new report.

Federal Acquisition Service officials need to emphasize their ways to protect the government from interference by private-sector employees, according to a report released Aug. 17 by the GSA inspector general’s office.

FAS approved the addition of acquisition management support services to its Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services (MOBIS) Schedule in April 2007. In fiscal 2007 and 2008, agencies reported ordering $111.6 million in contract, procurement and acquisition support services from schedules contracts, according to the report.

However, the new services can leave an agency open to a greater risk of a contractor performing restricted services, which are often referred to as inherently governmental functions, or violating conflict-of-interest regulations.

Also, agencies placed some orders that were outside the scope of the schedules program, according to the report. As a result, agencies may have circumvented competition requirements and violated the terms and conditions of the contracts, wrote Erin Priddy, audit manager of the IG’s acquisition programs audit office.

“As a result, the government may not have received the best value for these services,” Priddy wrote.

Priddy recommended that FAS officials figure out how often contractors are doing acquisition support work beyond the schedule contracts’ scope, and which agencies are using the schedules program inappropriately. For prevention, Priddy recommended that FAS add special ordering instructions to the MOBIS acquisition support requests for quotes and spread the word about the instructions, according to the report.

FAS Commissioner Steve Kempf agreed with the report’s recommendations.

— by Matthew Weigelt – Aug. 18, 2010 – Federal Computer Week

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, contract employee, FAS, GSA, IG

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