The Contracting Education Academy

Contracting Academy Logo
You are here: Home / Archives for DFARS

By

DoD proposes to amend definition of ‘commercial items’

On November 27, 2019, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a proposed rule to amend the Defense Federal Regulation Supplement (DFARS) regarding the Treatment of Certain Items as Commercial Items (DFARS Case 2019-D029).

The proposed rule has three main elements:

  1. It implements Section 877 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2017, providing for the Treatment of Commingled Items purchased by Contractors under DoD contracts as Commercial Items
  2. It implements Section 878 of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2017 by providing for the Treatment of Services Provided by Nontraditional Contractors as Commercial Items; and
  3. It further implements Section 848 of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2018, which provides that a contract for an item using FAR part 12 procedures shall serve as a prior commercial item determination. The proposed rule would apply only to DoD acquisitions.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/871372/

By

GAO clarifies reach of new LPTA restrictions

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 and the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2018 imposed new limitations on when the Department of Defense can use Lowest Price Technically Acceptable source selection methods. 

Just last month, the Department of Defense issued a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement to implement those provisions.  Now, in Inserso Corp., B-417791, B-417791.3, Nov. 4, 2019, GAO has weighed in on what counts as LPTA for purposes of those restrictions.  This decision may indicate a potentially significant limitation on the reach of the NDAA provisions, new DFARS rule, and proposed FAR rule.

In Inserso, the protester argued that the 2017 NDAA restricted not only DoD’s use of an LPTA source selection process, but also the use of (what the protestor labeled) LPTA criteria within the evaluation process.  Specifically, the protester challenged the fact that, under the RFQ, the agency would (1) “first rank quotations according to price, from lowest to highest”; (2) then “evaluate the five lowest-priced quotations as either technically acceptable or unacceptable” (while “reserving the right to evaluate additional quotations”); (3) then “evaluate only technically acceptable quotations under the past performance factor”; and (4) award the task order to the offeror “considered to be the Best Value based upon a price/past performance trade-off” (alteration omitted).  According to the protester, the 2017 NDAA required the agency to conduct a tradeoff between price and technical factors — rather than relegating the technical factor to a pass/fail gating criterion.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2019/11/what-is-lowest-priced-technically-acceptable-gao-clarifies-reach-of-new-lpta-restrictions/

By

Civilian vendor cybersecurity certification would look very different from DoD

A civilian counterpart to the Pentagon’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification would need to suit the varying missions across government, according to federal deputy CIO Margie Graves.

The Defense Department is working on a new policy that will require its vendors to obtain a certification confirming the contractor’s own systems have strong enough cybersecurity to protect the department’s secrets. A civilian agency counterpart to that would look very different than what the Pentagon is developing, according to the second-ranking civilian IT official.

While the government does have a method for certifying the cybersecurity of vendors’ products — through the authority to operate, or ATO, process and the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP — it does not have a program for assessing the security of the systems used by the vendors.

The Defense Department’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, or CMMC, looks to change that with a set of 18 “key sets of capabilities for cybersecurity,” according to the draft released in September.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2019/10/civilian-vendor-cybersecurity-certification-would-look-very-different-dod/160982/

By

DoD finalizes restrictions on use of LPTA source selection process

Effective October 1, 2019, the Department of Defense (DoD) has issued a final rule restricting the use of lowest-price technically-acceptable (LPTA) solicitations in certain circumstances.

This rule implements statutory changes from the 2017 and 2018 NDAA that will greatly impact the use of LPTA procurements by DoD contracting officers.

For those who may not have been following our previous coverage of these changes, here is a quick summary. The 2017 NDAA established a new DoD policy of avoiding LPTA evaluations, when doing so would deny DoD the benefits of cost and technical tradeoffs.  The 2017 NDAA limited the use of LPTA source selection based on six conditions, and suggested that, for a majority of procurements, DoD should use best-value procedures.  The 2018 NDAA added two more requirements to the original six, and the echoed the 2017 NDAA in calling for limits to the use of LPTA source selection in DoD procurements. Until recently, DoD had not updated its regulations to reflect Congress’ intent to limit LPTA source selections, leaving contracting officers at DoD without detailed guidance.

DoD just issued a final rule amending the DFARS to reflect the relevant sections of the 2017 and 2018 NDAA, limiting the use of LPTA source selection procedures in DoD procurements.  This final rule, once implemented, will make changes to the DFARS and the relevant regulations reflecting these changes will be found at DFARS 215.101-2-70.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/statutes-and-regulations/dod-finalizes-restrictions-on-use-of-lpta-source-selection-process/

By

We’ve admired the federal acquisition problem for too long

Agencies must inculcate cultures of experimentation and learning if the U.S. is to prevail economically and militarily.

On a recent trip to Tampa, I asked a consultant on my team supporting U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Acquisition Technology & Logistics what accounts for the Command’s acquisition success. “It’s a mindset thing,” she replied.

Later that day, as I continued my visit to SOCOM’s contracting activity, I happened upon the essentials of that mindset. They were captured in an inscription painted on the wall in a heavily traveled hallway. It said:

“We never stop …
We never stop learning …
We never stop iterating …
We never stop experimenting …”

That mindset at SOCOM drives a culture born and sustained from the intensity of the mission and the close relationships, in proximity and bond of purpose, between special operators and the acquirers who support them. The tooth and the tail meld. The mindset is shared by all members of the team. It is expected of everyone. It pushes teams to find the best solutions at the speed of relevance.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2019/07/viewpoint-weve-admired-federal-acquisition-problem-too-long/158719/

Contracting Academy Logo
75 Fifth Street, NW, Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30308
info@ContractingAcademy.gatech.edu
Phone: 404-894-6109
Fax: 404-410-6885

RSS Twitter