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GSA promises to figure out why transition from FedBizOpps struggled

We recently reported that the Nov. 12th migration of FedBizOpps to beta.SAM.gov did not go smoothly.  In the following article, Federal News Network confirms that problems existed for at least three days and that the General Services Administration is trying to figure out why.

The General Services Administration’s migration of its FedBizOpps.gov website to its beta.sam.gov portal will not be remembered for its smooth transition.

The first three or so days were fraught with slow load times, infrastructure problems and a site that wasn’t ready for prime time.

Judith Zawatsky, the assistant commissioner in the Office of Systems Management in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said her office was not only prepared for the transition problems, but ensured the site rebounded quickly over the last week.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2019/11/gsa-promises-to-figure-out-why-transition-from-fedbizopps-struggled/

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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.

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As secret Pentagon spending rises, Defense firms cash in

Classified spending has edged up faster than overall defense budget requests, and accounts for nearly 11 percent of the $716 billion proposed for 2020.

The share of Pentagon spending hidden from public view is rising, as are defense contractors’ revenues from it.

The U.S. Defense Department’s overall budget request increased nearly 5 percent from 2019 to 2020, but classified spending rose 6 percent, according to the consulting firm Avascent. It accounts for about $76 billion, or almost 11%, of the $718 billion requested for the current fiscal year.

Military officials say they can’t talk about classified aircraft, space, and missile projects, lest they cede advantage to America’s enemies. (Critics, including House Armed Services Committee Chair Adam Smith, D-Wash., say excessive hidden spending hinders oversight, leads to waste, and undermines public trust.)

But there is one group of people talking about classified spending: the executives of America’s largest defense firms. In recent months, what defense contractors call “restricted” projects have become a hot topic on quarterly earnings calls with Wall Street analysts. Firms also tout the increase in classified contracts in annual reports and regulatory filings.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/technology/2019/10/secret-pentagon-spending-rises-defense-firms-cash/160818/

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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.

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‘Unprecedented’ government spending spree picks up speed

The federal government is primed to spend as much as $300 billion in the final quarter of fiscal 2018 as agencies rush to obligate money appropriated by Congress before Sept. 30 or return it to the Treasury Department.

The spending spree is the product of the omnibus budget agreement signed six months late in March coupled with funding increases of $80 billion for defense and $63 billion for civilian agencies. The shortened time frame left procurement officials scrambling to find ways to spend the money.

Through August, defense and civilian agencies obligated some $300 billion in contracts. But to spend all the money appropriated to them by Congress, they may have to obligate well over $200 billion more in the final quarter of fiscal 2018, which ends in two weeks.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2018/09/unprecedented-government-spending-spree-picks-speed/151347/

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