FAS | The Contracting Education Academy

July 30, 2018 By AMK

GSA contractors working without completed security clearances

The recent revelation that the Government Services Agency (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) permitted employees of a government contractor to work without a completed basic National Agency Check with Written Inquiries (NACI) clearance brings into question the entire process.

The inappropriateness of allowing contract personnel to perform duties prior to their being cleared to do so is troublesome.

The fact that FAS allowed several workers to slip through the system, including at least one instance which occurred after they had received an admonishment to take corrective action, makes one scratch their head.

The GSA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) was direct in their admonishment:

“We found that FAS has not ensured that contract employees receive favorable background investigation determinations before providing them with access to sensitive government information, systems, and facilities.”

The OIG continued that allowing contract employees to work without the completed determinations put both FAS and its customers at risk.

Keep reading this article at: https://news.clearancejobs.com/2018/07/07/gsa-contractors-working-without-completed-security-clearances/

February 20, 2018 By AMK

New GSA administrator seeks to shine light where the shadows of federal procurement live

The General Services Administration is exploring how it can add more transparency to the procurement process, particularly with its $35 billion schedules program.

Since its inception, GSA’s schedules program has been hidden behind a wall where only vendors with a contract could see the solicitations and awards. The lack of transparency about what happens on those “members-only” contracts has frustrated good government groups, the media and vendors who aren’t on the contracts, but may want to join.

So GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, who was confirmed by the Senate about two months ago, has made transparency one of her four goals and is seeking not just an agency solution to this challenge, but one that would work governmentwide.

“It was one of the first conversations I had with the Office of Management and Budget. I’ve had conversations with the Office of Governmentwide Policy. I’ve had conversations with the Office of General Counsel and the Federal Acquisition Service. They are looking at all of it and are supposed to coming back to me with options on we can try and be more transparent,” Murphy said in an exclusive interview with Federal News Radio. “I think this needs to be addressed not just in the microcosm of the GSA schedules. If we are looking at task orders, we need to be looking across government and making sure we are not disadvantaging the schedules program versus other programs, and we are not putting our vendors or our customers at a competitive disadvantage. At the end of the day, it’s their data.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition-policy/2018/02/new-gsa-administrator-seeks-to-shine-light-where-the-shadows-of-federal-procurement-live/

January 26, 2018 By AMK

Watchdog: GSA assuming ‘unnecessary’ risk in telecom transition

The General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service is engaging in risky business by providing $9 million in contract support services to agencies without securing interagency agreements that ultimately ensure payment.

Such interagency agreements are required by Federal Acquisition Regulation, but FAS provided services anyway in a rush to meet deadlines imposed by the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions transition, according to an audit by the General Services Administration inspector general. Due to expiring contracts, all agencies must start buying telecommunications and network infrastructure from the EIS contract by 2020.

GSA awarded the $50 billion EIS telecommunications contract last year, and through the Transition Ordering Assistance task order, GSA is also responsible for helping agencies transition from the Networx contract to EIS. However, FAS “has not executed interagency agreements with transitioning agencies for services being provided under the TOA task order.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/01/watchdog-gsa-assuming-unnecessary-risk-telecom-transition/145201/

September 1, 2017 By AMK

When Amazon meets government

Imagine simply flipping open your laptop, firing up your desktop computer or popping open an app on your mobile phone to order office supplies, equipment, or even contract services Amazon-style, two-day delivery included.

That day may not be too far off if a provision in the House version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act makes it into law.

The prospects for commercial online marketplaces in government got a lift in mid-July, when Alan Thomas, the Trump administration’s new chief of the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service, gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up to the proposal that his agency engage online marketplaces for all agencies to use.

The idea is ensconced in the House-passed version of the 2018 NDAA, which contains policy and suggested budget toplines for the Pentagon. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the bill does not include the online marketplace provision, and it awaits a full Senate vote in September, after the August congressional recess.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2017/08/when-amazon-meets-government/140218/

June 30, 2017 By AMK

GSA swears in new acquisition chief as predecessor emerges as whistleblower

Former Defense Department acquisition official and private-industry veteran Alan Thomas was sworn in Monday as commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, just two weeks after incumbent Tom Sharpe abruptly resigned.

Sharpe’s resignation followed acting General Services Administration chief Tim Horne’s announcement that the agency’s newly stood-up Technology Transformation Service would move into the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) as part of President Trump’s efforts to streamline information technology acquisition.

Horne during Monday’s ceremony at GSA headquarters’ “historic administrative suite” acknowledged the three previous FAS commissioners — Sharpe, Steve Kemp and Jim Williams — since the unit was created in 2005 via a merger of the Federal Supply Service and the Federal Technology Service. Horne exulted that – after six months on the job at a desk that sits alongside others in the agency’s open-office bullpen – he finally got to use the high-ceilinged wood-paneled room that was built a century ago for powerful Interior secretaries (and where the 1920s Teapot Dome oil royalties bribery scandal was said to have originated) for the swearing in.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/06/gsa-swears-acquisition-chief-predecessor-emerges-whistleblower/138974

The recent revelation that the Government Services Agency (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) permitted employees of a government contractor to work without a completed basic National Agency Check with Written Inquiries (NACI) clearance brings into question the entire process.

The General Services Administration is exploring how it can add more transparency to the procurement process, particularly with its $35 billion schedules program.

The General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service is engaging in risky business by providing $9 million in contract support services to agencies without securing interagency agreements that ultimately ensure payment.

Imagine simply flipping open your laptop, firing up your desktop computer or popping open an app on your mobile phone to order office supplies, equipment, or even contract services Amazon-style, two-day delivery included.

Former Defense Department acquisition official and private-industry veteran Alan Thomas was sworn in Monday as commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, just two weeks after incumbent Tom Sharpe abruptly resigned.

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