duplication of effort | The Contracting Education Academy

May 15, 2018 By AMK

New OFPP strategy targets 13 percent reduction of duplicative contracts by 2020

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) has been trying to solve contract duplication for almost a decade.

OFPP required agencies to justify new multiple award contracts by submitting business cases. That had limited success.

OFPP tried to create catalogs of existing contracts so agencies could see what was out there first before going down the path of a new contract. That had even less success.

Now OFPP is trying to use category management and its subcategory best-in-class contracts to shrink the number of technology, professional services, transportation and logistics and seven other categories where the number of MACs has grown and grown for decades.

Each category manager developed new strategies for 2018 with goals across four broad areas. Without a doubt, reducing contract duplication and ensuring small businesses aren’t left behind are going to be the hardest to achieve.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2018/04/new-ofpp-strategy-targets-13-percent-reduction-of-duplicative-contracts-by-2020

April 11, 2016 By AMK

Policy failures led to waste, redundant IT purchases at State Dept.

Poor coordination between components and the lack of a comprehensive policy has led to a number of redundant and bad IT investments at the State Department, according to a newly released audit.

An audit conducted by Kearney & Company, P.C. on behalf of the inspector general uncovered 30 distinct issues with the department’s IT acquisition methods. While officials with the Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM) had solutions ready to go for 11 of these issues, 19 remain outstanding and could lead to further waste and duplication.

The State Department spent approximately $1.4 billion on IT acquisitions in fiscal 2014, spread across 83 separate projects. While that number is dwarfed by the $76 billion agencies spent on IT as a whole that year, duplicative purchases and a failure to track and report spending led to significant waste.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/it/management/2016/03/28/state-dept-it-waste/82347810/

Read State Department’s OIG report at: https://oig.state.gov/system/files/aud-fm-16-31.pdf

January 24, 2014 By AMK

NASA doesn’t analyze its strategic sourcing program, IG says

Although NASA developed a strategic sourcing procurement plan, it failed to analyze and track spending through the program, meaning the space agency can’t determine its efficiency, a Jan. 15 NASA inspector general report says.

NASA annually spends about 80 percent of its $17 billion budget on acquiring products and services, the report says.

One of the first steps in NASA’s strategic sourcing program requires a spend analysis to identify potential candidates for strategic sourcing, the IG says.

But NASA only performed targeted spend analyses for a small number of commodities, the report says. It didn’t conduct analyses for the majority of commodities acquired by the agency.

“Without regularly performing a comprehensive spend analysis, NASA is unable to review agency spending patterns for commodities and identify potential candidates for strategic sourcing efforts,” the report says.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/nasa-doesnt-analyze-its-strategic-sourcing-program-ig-says/2014-01-16

January 15, 2014 By AMK

GSA’s Networx contracts not as effective as they might have been

Although GSA officials say the agency’s Networx contracting vehicles have put significant dents in the federal government’s telecommunications bills, a GAO study says the road to those savings wasn’t nearly as smooth as it could have been.

The Government Accountability Office said complex acquisition processes and weaknesses in project planning contributed to delays transitioning to Networx from the GSA’s old FTS2001 contracts, resulting in cost increases and missed savings for federal users.

According to the GAO study, under Networx, federal agencies tended to transition easier items first to demonstrate progress, before they turned to work on items such as data networks and international services that needed longer lead times. As a result of the delays, it said, GSA’s estimated cost to complete the transition increased by $66.4 million, 44 percent over the baseline estimate.

Keep reading this article at: http://fcw.com/articles/2014/01/07/gao-networx-study.aspx

January 14, 2014 By AMK

NDAA enshrines DoD cost-cutting as law

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has already set about implementing a plan to cut $1 billion from the Defense Department’s budget by consolidating and reorganizing top Pentagon offices.

But lawmakers want to hold his feet to the fire. The final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed by Congress Dec. 19 enshrines DoD’s ambitious cost-cutting and streamlining plan into law.

President Barack Obama signed the annual legislation setting Pentagon policy and priorities on Dec. 26.

By June, Hagel must develop a plan for streamlining DoD management headquarters “by changing or reducing the size of staffs, eliminating tiers of management, cutting functions that provide little or no added value, and consolidating overlapping and duplicative programs and offices,” according to the bill language.

The plan must include the estimated cumulative savings to be achieved over 10 years beginning in fiscal 2015 through 2024.

The law directs DoD to look across the Pentagon for potential savings, including the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff and the headquarters of the combatant commands, among other areas.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/394/3534727/Lawmakers-enshrine-Pentagon-HQ-cost-cutting-into-law

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) has been trying to solve contract duplication for almost a decade.

Poor coordination between components and the lack of a comprehensive policy has led to a number of redundant and bad IT investments at the State Department, according to a newly released audit.

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