FAR supplements | The Contracting Education Academy

February 25, 2020 By cs

How much do you want to become a ‘FAR master’?

Whether you are a government contracting official or a government contractor, your success hinges on your mastery of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) — the rules that must be followed in acquiring goods and services.

*Don’t miss the opportunity to learn all about the FAR — side-by-side with your peers.*

The FAR’s rules are voluminous — 2,000 pages in all, plus hundreds of supplemental rules tailored to individual agencies throughout the federal government. How can you be expected to find these rules, grasp their meaning and, most importantly, apply them properly?

Fortunately for you, Georgia Tech has the courses that will teach you all you need to know. And, best of all, our instruction is based on practical application, so you will return to your job equipped with the skills and knowledge to confidently navigate all aspects of contract planning, contract formation, and contract administration.

Our FAR coursework is based on training originally developed by the Defense Acquisition University (DAU). It’s been enhanced by Georgia Tech to provide the know-how actually needed by acquisition professionals like you. And, best of all, our comprehensive coursework is broken-up into modules so that you can learn conveniently, based on your priorities and at your own pace.

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech (The Academy) offers its comprehensive FAR course in four, one-week classes. Each “module” focuses on a different aspect of the FAR and, best of all, the modules may be taken in any order. This means you have multiple opportunities throughout the year to complete the entire course without the challenge of being away from your job or home for an entire month.

The Academy’s foundational course focuses on four distinctly different aspects of the FAR:

Contracting Overview of the FAR (CON 090-1) introduces the FAR and how to navigate all of the acquisition regulations. This four-day course answers the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the FAR. This module is considered the most challenging lesson in the course, as it provide hands-on training on the FAR’s structure, meaning, and proper application.
Contract Planning in the FAR (CON 090-2) presents information on the policies and procedures for the acquisition of supplies and services from required or preferred sources. Key topics in this lesson include the use of required sources, use of existing contracts, and required participation by small businesses.
Contract Formation in the FAR (CON 090-3) goes deep into different methods of contracting by: 1) comparing and contrasting the solicitation and evaluation of offers in sealed bidding and competitive negotiation, 2) exploring the procedural requirements of making a contract award, and 3) explaining simplified acquisition procedures as well as the policies and procedures for handling bid and size status protests.
Contract Administration in the FAR (CON 090-4) covers the basic principles of contract management, including making contract modifications, administration of selected terms and conditions, handling delays, quality assurance procedures, making payments, addressing disputes and appeals, and contract terminations and closeouts.

**Students are exposed to realistic case studies and get a chance to work in groups to tackle real-life problem-solving exercises.**

Click on any of the course titles listed above to see course schedules and pricing. And see our exclusive Student Resources page for a detailed outline of the content covered in each of our four FAR course modules.

Benefits of attendance include expert instruction, a printed Student Guide to be used back on the job, valuable handouts, and exclusive electronic resources. In addition, a complimentary breakfast is served each morning, along with snacks throughout each day. Plus, you’ll earn Continuous Education Units from Georgia Tech as well as credit toward Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) and Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting Program (FAC-C) training requirements.

All courses are conducted in Georgia Tech’s world-class Global Learning Center, conveniently located in Midtown Atlanta. Interested in us bringing our coursework to you? Simply contact us at info@ContractingAcademy.gatech.edu — we will be happy to speak with you about scheduling and quantity discounts.

**Georgia Tech is an official equivalency training provider for the Defense Acquisition University and the Federal Acquisition Institute.**

November 12, 2019 By cs

FBO no mo’

Today, beta.SAM.gov became the official source for federal business opportunities, replacing FBO.gov.

**This is the message visitors now see at FBO.gov.**

FBO, which stood for Federal Business Opportunities (or the shortened term FedBizOpps), contained a list of virtually every federal contract valued at more than $25,000. These contracts can now be found in the “Contract Opportunities” section of beta.SAM.gov.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is in charge of beta.SAM.gov. GSA’s vision for the merged databases is “a ‘family tree’ that organizes federal government users and establishes relationships between each department/independent agency’s sub-tiers and its offices.”

Visitors who attempt to go to FBO.gov are automatically rerouted to fbohome.sam.gov which provides notice that FBO has moved.

In visiting the new site today, we encountered long delays in connecting to beta.SAM.gov as well as to its Contract Opportunities page at beta.sam.gov/help/contract-opportunities. Users encountered similar delays when GSA last month moved the FARSite operated since 1996 by Hill Air Force Base to GSA-managed Acquisition.gov. Because of high traffic, GSA had to delay the transition from Oct. 1 to Oct. 21.

Links on beta.SAM.gov appear to be working, but users will experience delays in moving from one page to another and in downloading documents. Notably, we had to make multiple attempts to open the “FBO Transition Guide for Federal Administrators.” The Guide provides instructions to federal officials on how to post contract opportunities and related information to beta.SAM.gov. We encountered similar delays when trying to open various “Quick Start” guides.

The shift of FBO.gov to beta.SAM.gov is part of a larger merger of many legacy systems into one database. Previously, “Wage Determinations Online” and the “Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance” were shifted into beta.SAM.gov.

October 14, 2019 By cs

DAU reports on shutdown of Hill AFB’s FARSite

The Defense Acquisition University (DAU) has issued a status report on the migration of FAR search features from Hill Air Force Base’s FARSite to GSA’s Acquisition.gov site.

According to DAU, here is the latest summary of recent and planned activities to shut down the FARSite on Oct. 28, 2019:

Oct. 1 – The General Services Administration (GSA) deployed the new Acquisition.gov site. The new site adds all agency FAR supplements. The added content and user load caused the site to become unresponsive, so the plan to redirect FARSite traffic to the GSA site was put on hold.
Oct. 2-3 – GSA’s IT organization added computing resources to the Acquisition.gov site to better handle the increased traffic. The site proved to be responsive but still would not support the FARSite’s user base.
Oct. 10-11 – GSA made plans to put the Acquisition.gov site under the management of Akamai Technologies, an Internet content publishing service, to better handle the increased traffic. (The Defense Information Systems Agency contracts with Akamai to host public DoD web sites. FARSite currently uses Akamai, and 83% of FARSite’s current traffic is handled by Akamai.)
Oct. 17 – A go/no go decision will likely be made at the weekly FARSite transition meeting. (Representatives from GSA, DAU, and the Air Force’s offices of Acquisition, Materiel Command, and Life Cycle Management/Business Systems Sustainment attend these meetings.)
Oct. 18 – With a go decision, Akamai will receive a request to redirect FARSite traffic to Acquisition.gov. Redirect rules will send users to the specific FAR part on the Acquisition.gov site which they were trying to access on FARSite.
Oct. 21 – The redirect will prevent access to FARSite so that it may be turned off and decommissioned.
Oct. 28 – Hill AFB is expected to turn off FARSite in support of an upcoming Command Cyber Readiness Inspection.

The Defense Pricing and Contracting office has advised against inserting DoD Class Deviation links within the relevant FAR sections at the Acquisition.gov site. An alternate plan to link to Class Deviations from the GSA site is being considered.

March 2, 2019 By AMK

There’s hope that FARSite’s useful features will be incorporated into Acquisition.gov

We expressed concerns last week that the features and functionality of Hill Air Force Base’s search engine for the Federal Acquisition Regulation and agency FAR supplements — the FARSite — might not be transferred to Acquisition.gov.

Now, there is at least one indication that the FARSite’s capabilities will be incorporated into Acquisition.gov.

**These two FAR search engines are scheduled for merger on October 1, 2019.**

As announced last week, the popular and functional FARSite search engine is going to be “transitioned” on Oct. 1, 2019 into the FAR search site maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA) at Acquisition.gov.

However, in the initial announcement of this change, there was no word about whether the FARSite’s capability to simultaneously search both the FAR and individual agency FAR supplements would be part of the transition. This feature is especially useful when researching the application of a specific FAR provision or clause in a particular agency’s solicitation or contract. Also unclear was whether Class Deviations to the FAR, currently shown in context with FAR provisions and clauses on the FARSite, would be integrated into Acquisition.gov.

Now, it appears that both of these helpful features will be part of the “new” Acquisition.gov when it debuts on Oct. 1st.

Last last week, the FARSite posted this message on its home page:

“We will continue making updates to FARSite until the new capability is ready for full deployment at which time you’ll be able to access the new system by going to Acquisition.gov. More exact dates and information will be provided once the prototype is nearing completion. During prototype testing the AF will have full transparency into ensuring the new site provides the existing capabilities as the current FARSite.”

The last sentence of the statement implies that the popular features and functions of the FARSite will be integrated into Acquisition.gov. At present, Acquisition.gov offers neither the ability to search the FAR and FAR supplements simultaneously nor the ability to identify Class Deviations as a part of FAR searches.

Incidentally, while Acquisition.gov was initially silent about the merger with the FARSite, GSA posted this announcement on Friday:

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), Air Force (USAF), and Defense Acquisition University (DAU) are partnering to reduce duplication and make it easier to electronically access acquisition regulations. The USAF website for supplemental regulations, FARSite.hill.af.mil, will be transitioned to GSA’s acquisition.gov by September 30, 2019. Acquisition professionals and vendors will then have a single website to access and search the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and supplemental regulations. For additional questions, please contact the website administrator.

While GSA’s announcement offers no specific assurances that FARSite’s unique functionality will be a part of the transition, we’re counting on the FARSite’s assurances that “… the new site [will provide] the existing capabilities as the current FARSite.” After all, the latest usage statistics available show that while all military branches make up the majority of the users of the FARSite, visitors from GSA itself and Lockheed Martin are among the top 25 user groups. There’s no questioning the FARSite’s popularity; since its inception in mid-1996, it has been accessed 2.3 billion times.

Bottom line: There are a lot of people depending on the Air Force and the GSA to get this merger right.

See our initial story on this subject here.

February 26, 2019 By AMK

Hill AFB’s FARSite to go away on Oct. 1st

It’s been accessed on-line more than 2.3 billion times since its launch in mid-1996. But on Sept. 30th of this year, it will be retired.

The “it” is the popular and functional FARSite search engine, maintained by Hill Air Force Base near Ogden, Utah, and it is going to be “transitioned” into the FAR search site at Acquisition.gov effective Oct. 1, 2019.

This news was recently released on the FARSite in a tersely-written two sentence announcement: “FARSite.hill.af.mil is being actively transitioned to Acquistion.gov. FARSite will be available in the current location through 30 Sep 2019.”

Unofficial But Useful

While the FARSite is widely used by acquisition officials in both government and industry sectors, it never was regarded as the “official” site for the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and agency FAR supplements. Instead, it was regarded as the authoritative source for the Air Force FAR Supplement (AFFARS) only. The FAR search engine at Acquisition.gov, maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA), holds the title of the “official” FAR website.

Despite its unofficial status, FARSite has been popular because of its functionality. For instance, FARSite provides the ability to search both the FAR and any agency’s FAR supplement simultaneously. This contemporaneous searching functionality enables users to see search results from two or more sources displayed side-by-side, a feature especially useful when researching the application of a specific FAR provision or clause in a particular agency’s solicitation or contract.

The Unknowns

It is not known at this time whether the simultaneous search capability will be integrated into Acquisition.gov. There is no information about the transition on the Acquisition.gov website. Currently, Acquisition.gov only allows for searching of the FAR and the GSAM — the General Services Acquisition Regulation. The site provides a list of each of the other FAR supplements, hyperlinked to individual agency websites. Some of these links lead to general agency websites where further searching is necessary, and where the links lead directly to an agency’s FAR supplement, the information is presented in non-uniform formats (e.g., HTML and PDF).

For many years, the FARSite published monthly usage reports. In the last month these data were published — July 2017 — over 12 million hits were recorded, comprised of over 3 million individual page views by 53,000 unique visitors. Military branches made up the bulk of the users in that month but, notably, visitors from GSA and Lockheed Martin appear on the Top 25 users list.

The status of another useful feature of the FARSite is unknown in the transition to Acquisition.gov, namely the integration of Class Deviations to the FAR. Currently, the text on the FARSite includes a display of DoD Class Deviations where they are applicable to a particular provision or clause. No such cross-reference appears at Acquisition.gov.

The fate of the FARSite has been in question for more than a year. On Jan. 3, 2018, the webmaster for FARSite retired. At that time, the following message was posted: “For now FARSite will continue as you see it. However due to new AF policies, FARSite’s location will eventually change which introduces unknows that could impact the site in the future. If you have any issues, concerns or opinions as to the sites direction contact USAF SAF/AQC.” Faced with many questions following that announcement, a new message was posted on Mar. 1, 2018: “The FARSite team remains committed to updating the site and providing accurate, current, and complete postings of the FAR and its many supplements. If you have any questions feel free to contact the FARSite Webmaster at Hill.Farsite@us.af.mil.”

Despite that statement last year, it appears that the plug will be pulled on the FARSite this year at midnight, Sept. 30th.

See an important update to this article here.