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July 28, 2017 By AMK

Commentary: Contract management’s new certainty of uncertainty

As anyone involved in contracting with the federal government is already well aware, this is the age of complete uncertainty.

What are the government’s requirements? What are its priorities? What is its budget? When will it receive its funding? When will solicitations be issued? When will contract awards be made? Once contract awards are completed, will they last? Will the program survive? What will be the effect on existing contracts of changes in budget priorities, funding reallocations, funding stoppages, funding shortages, government shutdowns, stop-gap funding, the administration’s changing or still unknown goals and intent, etc.?

The only sure “knowns” in contracting today are the multitudinous “unknowns.” The once weakly supported notion of wider use of multi-year funding — to provide increased program stability, efficiencies and contract savings — is a distant memory. Such uncertainty was the subject of a recent message to Congress by the Secretary of Defense.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/articles/contract-managements-new-certainty-of-uncertainty-commentary

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition reform, acquisition workforce, agile, contract administration, contract funding, contract management, discount, government shutdown, NCMA, procurement reform, uncertainty

September 25, 2015 By AMK

New contingency contracting officers readying for possible deployment

A new group of contingency contracting officers is preparing to be among the first to deploy and provide expeditionary contracting support during the initial stages of future disaster and contingency operations.

The Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office, part of Defense Logistics Agency Logistics Operations, created the cadre of 24 contracting officers after seeking volunteers from the agency’s contracting community early this year.

“This is a group of qualified, talented contracting officers who are dedicated to deploy anywhere in the world, whenever they’re needed,” said Charmaine Camper, director of JCASO’s Expeditionary Contracting Office.

Members of the Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office, part of Defense Logistics Agency Logistics Operations, pose for a photo before kicking off weeklong training for 24 new contingency contracting officers.
Members of the Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office, part of Defense Logistics Agency Logistics Operations, pose for a photo before kicking off weeklong training for 24 new contingency contracting officers.

Members received initial training in July and August on three core pillars: readiness, academics, and operational and battlefield preparation. The training plan incorporated lessons learned by expeditionary contracting officers Michaella Olson and Craig Hill while they were supporting Operation United Assistance in Africa, as well as JCASO members who deployed in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Readiness instruction covered administrative details such as passports, family care plans, life insurance, vaccines and financial plans.

“Even those who had deployment experience commented that this part of the training was something they’d never received before. These aren’t things that you can learn from a book; they’re the result of several people sharing their experiences, and every experience is going to be different,” Camper said.

What to pack was another key readiness topic. Olson described her first deployment as a contracting officer. She was a civilian working for the Navy, heading to Tonga for Pacific Partnership 2013 with five overstuffed suitcases.

“After I had to lug all five of those suitcases up three or four flights of stairs and through the airport during 36 hours’ worth of travel, I never did that again,” Olson said. She recommended carrying one bag and a backpack.

Under academics, students became familiar with the Defense Contingency Contracting Handbook, which covers subjects like contingency funding, contract oversight and foreign acquisition. Other topics included emergency acquisitions, local procurement and common-user logistics.

Though it’s fairly easy to predict what customers will need during the early phases of an operation, contracting officials often have to help fine tune those requirements, Hill said. While he was in Africa, for example, engineers issued an urgent request for nails to build Ebola treatment units because they weren’t strong enough to penetrate the hard wood they were working with.

“They knew they needed different nails, but they didn’t know how many or what size, so I had to work through those details with them,” he said. “Sometimes, when you get a customer’s requirement, you realize they haven’t thought it all the way through and you have to ask questions to get it right.”

Instruction on operational and battlefield preparation highlighted the importance of knowing who the key players are and their respective roles. Understanding J-codes and their primary functions is crucial, Camper said, as well as being aware of the various units and government agencies that are contributing to the operation.

“It’s not just a matter of being good at contracting. A large part of our work involves coordinating and synchronizing with others, so you have to know who’s who, what they bring to the table and how you tie into mission,” she said.

Being aware of cultural differences is also important, Olson added, especially when dealing with local contractors whose help is vital and can dramatically impact the mission. She and Hill advised contracting officers to reach out to U.S. State Department officials as early as possible to collect basic information such as general business rules, and do’s and don’ts, which vary from country to country.

“Embassy officials can usually do electronic fund transfers in order to pay a bill. We can actually leverage that support to do a local contract and pay locally,” Hill said. “That’s a powerful tool.”

Those who deploy in support of contingency operations or disasters must change their mindset to be successful, Camper added. In their regular jobs, DLA’s contracting officers work in garrison environments with desks, phones and other necessary tools.

“When you deploy, you’re probably going to be sleeping and working in a tent. Or you could be working in a room without a desk, with just your laptop and whatever phone we give you,” Camper told the group.

Denise Vogelei, a contracting officer for DLA Troop Support who is also a member of the new contingency contracting officer cadre, said parts of the training were surprising.

“I don’t think I understood the full depth of what I was getting myself into when I volunteered. The training not only prepared me to deploy to an austere environment, but to react quickly to mission requirements and be confident enough in my contracting skills to ensure the warfighters have what they need to succeed,” she said.

The training also broadened Vogelei’s view of what it takes to support disasters and contingencies. During Operation United Assistance, she and her team in Philadelphia conducted market research and expedited contracts for gloves.

“It was very rewarding for me to go to DLA Headquarters and meet the people we were supporting downrange. Now I can see the full circle and know that what we do here at Troop Support makes a big difference on the ground,” she said.

Contingency contracting officers have played a major role in the early stages of disaster support and contingency operations for decades. DLA has established this new capability to fill a gap in expeditionary and contingency contracting support, Camper said.

“During military operations, there’s a gap in between the phases of operation where you need people right away to start standing things up. That’s where DLA contingency contracting officers add value. We can get things started using working capital funds and then turn it over to the services,” she added.

The training will be followed by additional instruction and a field training exercise later this year.

Source: http://www.dla.mil/DLA_Media_Center/Pages/Newcontingencycontractingofficersreadyingforpossibledeployment.aspx

Click here for information on Georgia Tech’s course entitled Contracting Officer Representative and the Contingency Contracting Environment.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition training, acquisition workforce, contingency contracting, contingency plan, contract funding, contracting officer's representatives, contracting officers, COR, DLA, DoD, foreign acquisition, oversight

April 15, 2014 By AMK

GAO issues annual anti-deficiency report

Each year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) produces a report that identifies instances where federal agencies obligated or spent funds in advance or in excess of appropriate approval of funding.  This reporting is conducted in accordance with the Antideficiency Act which prohibits such expenditures.

GAO’s summary of agency Antideficiency Act Reports for fiscal year 2013 includes unaudited information extracted from agency Antideficiency Act reports filed with GAO, as required by section 1401 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-447, 118 Stat. 2809, 3192 (Dec. 8, 2004).  Each report entry includes a brief description of the violation, remedial actions taken, and links to individual agency reporting letters. For more information on individual violations and actions taken, contact the agencies filing the reports.

The latest report can be found here.

Per 31 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1517(a), the Antideficiency Act prohibits federal agencies from obligating or expending federal funds in advance or in excess of an appropriation, apportionment, or certain administrative subdivisions of those funds.  The act also prohibits agencies from accepting voluntary services (31 U.S.C. §§ 1342).

Specifically, the Antideficiency Act requires agencies violating its proscriptions to:

  • Report to the President and Congress all relevant facts and a statement of actions taken, and
  • Transmit a copy of each report to the Comptroller General on the same date the report is transmitted to the President and Congress.

GAO compiles and presents unaudited information from reports filed each fiscal year, including copies of the agency’s cover letters transmitting reports of violations.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Anti-Deficiency Act, audit, contract funding, expenditures, funding level, GAO

February 25, 2014 By AMK

Watchdog taps contractors for lessons on rebuilding Afghanistan

U.S. contractors on the front lines of the mission know better than “the happy talk coming out” of Afghanistan, said John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.

On Tuesday (Feb. 18, 2014), Sopko tasked a major contractors group with supplying lessons learned and best practices to help the U.S. effort to rebuild and stabilize the country against terrorism. A similar request to the Pentagon, State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development produced a “shocking result,” he said. “I asked for their top 10 successful programs and their 10 least successful, and none offered anything but general improvements—with no specifics or direct causal links,” he said. “In an era of declining funding, we have to know what works and what doesn’t.”

Speaking at a lunch put on the Professional Services Council, an Arlington-Va.-based association of major contractors, Sopko praised the role of contractors in U.S. government work from supplying Revolutionary War troops to helping invent the atomic bomb.

In Afghanistan, they are expected to play a continuing role after most U.S. troops officially depart at the end of 2014, and “many have made the ultimate sacrifice,” Sopko said, citing three contractors who died earlier this month from a suicide bombing in Kabul. After the September 2013 truck bomb attack on the U.S. consulate in Herat, Sopko’s representative there told him that contractors were the first to engage in a one-hour gun fight that prevented further enemy penetration of the complex — a fact not reported at the time, he said.

The U.S. total investment in Afghanistan of more than $100 billion since 2002 is the “most costly effort to rebuild a nation in U.S. history — more than what we give to Israel, Egypt and Pakistan combined,” Sopko said. The U.S. will leave when the funds fall to $250 million, but with $20 billion still in the pipeline, U.S. agencies will be there for some time, he said. Only 20 percent of the country, however, is currently accessible to SIGAR’s 50 auditors there on the ground due to continuing combat, he said, a drop from 50 percent in 2009.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2014/02/watchdog-taps-contractors-lessons-rebuilding-afghanistan/78989/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: contract funding, DoD, IG, lessons learned, State Dept., terrorism, USAID

January 11, 2013 By AMK

All DoD components told to prepare to freeze hiring, terminate temporary hires, reduce base operations, and curtail expenses

Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has released a memo directing the services and defense agencies to begin planning for possible upcoming budget challenges.

The memo allows defense components to freeze civilian hiring, terminate temporary hires and reduce base operating funds. It also allows components to curtail travel, training and conferences and to curtail administrative expenses.

The memo — dated Jan. 10, 2013 — points to the threat of sequestration and the continued use of a continuing resolution as a way to fund the department. Sequestration was to have become effective Jan. 2, but Congress delayed its activation until March 1 to give lawmakers more time to come up with an alternative. It would impose major across-the-board spending cuts.

Since Congress did not approve an appropriations act for fiscal 2013, the Defense Department has been operating under a continuing resolution and will continue to do so at least through March 27. Because most operating funding was planned to increase from fiscal 2012 to fiscal 2013, but instead is being held at fiscal 2012 levels under the continuing resolution, funds will run short at current rates of expenditure if the continuing resolution continues through the end of the fiscal year in its current form, Carter wrote in the memo.

Given this budgetary uncertainty, the department must take steps now, the deputy secretary said.

“I therefore authorize all Defense components to begin implementing measures that will help mitigate execution risks,” the memo reads. “For now, and to the extent possible, any actions taken must be reversible at a later date in the event that Congress acts to remove the risks. … The actions should be structured to minimize harmful effects on our people and on operations and unit readiness.”

The memo allows components to review contracts and studies for possible cost savings, to cancel third- and fourth-quarter ship maintenance, and to examine ground and aviation depot-level maintenance. This last must be finished by Feb. 15.

It also calls on all research and development and production and contract modifications that obligate more than $500 million to be cleared with the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics before being awarded.

For science and technology accounts, the components must provide the undersecretary and the assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering with an assessment of the budgetary impacts that the budgetary uncertainty will cause to research priorities.

Full text of the Ashton Carter memorandum can be downloaded here: Budgetary Uncertainty Memorandum – Ashton Carter 01.10.2013

 

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Alaskan Native, appropriations, budget, budget cuts, continuing resolution, contract funding, fiscal cliff, R&D, research, sequestration, training resources

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