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DoD’s IG: 11 of 14 IT service contracts were not properly awarded

The Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General (DoD IG) recently published a nonstatistical sample of 14 Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) IT service contracts, valued at $72 million.

The report presented the IG’s findings with respect to the question of whether DCMA properly awarded and administered the contracts. DoD IG found that for 11 of the 14 IT service contracts reviewed, valued at $61 million, DCMA contracting officials did not properly award the contracts.

The IG concluded that DoD awarded $56.4 million in IT services on contracts with poorly defined or nonexistent performance work statements, risking that the services may not meet the performance needs required to successfully execute the DCMA mission.

The problems encountered included:

  • Failure to properly define requirements that included measurable performance standards for 8 contracts;
  • Failure to develop an acquisition plan for one contract;
  • Failure to submit offers for two contracts awarded through the 8(a) program for Small Business Association (SBA) acceptances; and
  • Using flexible ordering agreements to award five of the 14 contracts, which violated Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) system requirements.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/698384

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Reform panel on track to cut DoD-specific acquisition regs by half

Fourteen months after President Donald Trump ordered all agencies to stand up regulatory reform task forces, the Defense Department is making major progress in weeding out what it views as outdated and unnecessary acquisition rules.

The group of Defense officials charged with examining acquisition rules is one of three subgroups currently operating within DoD as part if its regulatory reform task force.

Its particular charge is to undertake an in-depth scrub of the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), decide what is still relevant, and what is slowing the system down for no good reason.

The review is about midway through, and so far, it is on track to reduce the size of the DFARS by about half. The group is made up of representatives from the military services, plus the Pentagon’s office of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense-main/2018/04/reform-panel-on-track-to-cut-dod-unique-acquisition-regs-by-half/

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Recognizing the need for innovation in acquisition

The President’s Management Agenda lays out ambitious plans for the federal government to modernize information technology, prepare its future workforce and improve the way it manages major acquisitions.

These are among 14 cross-agency priority goals on which the administration is focused as it seeks to jettison outdated legacy systems and embrace less cumbersome ways of doing business.

Increasingly, federal IT managers are recognizing the need for innovation in acquisition, not just technology modernization. What exactly will it take to modernize an acquisition system bound by the 1,917-page Federal Acquisition Regulation?  Federal acquisition experts say the challenges have less to do with changing those rules than with human behavior – the incentives, motivations and fears of people who touch federal acquisition – from the acquisition professionals themselves to mission owners and government executives and overseers.

“If you want a world-class acquisition system that is responsive to customer needs, you have to be able to use the right tool at the right time,” says Mathew Blum, associate administrator in the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget. The trouble isn’t a lack of options, he said at the American Council for Technology’s ACT/IAC Acquisition Excellence conference March 27. Rather he said, it is lack of bandwidth and fear of failure that conspire to keep acquisition pros from trying different acquisition strategies.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govtechworks.com/risk2innovate/#gs.Xjt4eHI

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Two popular classes scheduled for June

Need to know the role of a Contracting Officer Representative?  And how about contract formation — exactly how does the government put together its contracts?

Whether you are a member of the government’s acquisition team — or a contractor navigating the government’s acquisition process — you need to know the answers to these questions.

Students attending Georgia Tech’s classes work in teams to tackle real-life contracting problems.

Fortunately, The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech provides all the answers — in two popular classes in June.

The Contracting Officer’s Representative course (COR 222), coupled with the Contingency Contracting Environment class (COR 206), provides a comprehensive review and detailed instruction on the role, responsibilities, authority, and limitations of authority of the federal government’s Contracting Officer Representative (COR).  Students learn the fundamentals of contracting regulations, types, phases, and other elements of contract administration.  Students are also coached on the ethical and legal factors that impact COR responsibilities in the normal course of business and in the Contingency Contracting Environment.  This course is scheduled to be held June 11 – 15, 2018 on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta.

The Contract Formation in the FAR course (CON 090-3) is the third of four modules from CON 090 – Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Fundamentals.  It explores the simplified acquisition process, the sealed bidding process, contracts entered into on the basis of both competitive and noncompetitive negotiated arrangements, the required and preferred sources of supplies and services, what must be done to ensure competition, the policies for policies and procedures for pricing negotiated contracts and contract modifications, as well as the policies and procedures for filing bid protests.  This course is scheduled to be held June 18 – 22, 2018 on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta.

Both courses consist of limited lecture, and are heavily exercise-based.  Students get the opportunity to learn the Federal Acquisition Regulation by working through many real-life scenarios.  Students also are given access to many exclusive on-line resources.

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech is an approved equivalency training provider to the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) and provides continuing education training to Acquisition and Government Contracting professionals as well as to business professionals working for government contractors or pursuing opportunities in the federal contracting arena.

For more information on the Contracting Officer Representative course (CON 206/222) and to register, please visit: http://www.pe.gatech.edu/courses/cor-206-222-contracting-officer-representative-course-and-contingency-contracting-environment.

For more information on the Contract Formation in the FAR course (CON 090-3) and to register, please visit: http://www.pe.gatech.edu/courses/con-090-3-contract-formation-far.

 

 

 

 

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Army switches to special fast-track contract for drone-mounted signal jammer

The U.S. Army wants drone-mounted signal jammers now to dominate future electronic warfare and is switching to a little-understood and lightly regulated contracting method to get them.

After more than a year trying to fill a standard contract for a drone-mounted system to jam enemy communications, the Army’s electronic warfare division is switching course and will use a fast-track system that isn’t bound by traditional contracting rules.

Rather than continue its year-long, Federal Acquisition Regulation-based solicitation, the Army Electronic Warfare and Cyber division is handing its multi-function electronic warfare Air Large program over to the Consortium for Command, Control and Communications in Cyberspace, or C5. While the Army will still pick the winner of the Air Large contract, that company will be a member of the C5 consortium.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2018/03/army-switches-special-fast-track-contract-drone-mounted-signal-jammer/147102/

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