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December 16, 2020 By cs

GAO: Agencies should assess contracting workforce needs and purchase card fraud risk

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently examined how federal agencies use contracts and purchase cards to acquire goods and services to get urgently needed items after a disaster.

Specifically, GAO assessed selected agencies’ planning for contracting workforce needs and purchase card fraud risks related to disaster response.

Overall, here’s what they found:

  • Not all agencies planned for or assessed their contracting workforce needs for disaster response.
  • Only 1 of the 6 agencies assessed how purchase card fraud risks change during disaster response.
Contracting Workforce

The efforts of selected agencies to plan for disaster contracting activities and assess contracting workforce needs varied.  The U.S. Forest Service initiated efforts to address its disaster response contracting workforce needs while three agencies — the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the U.S. Coast Guard, and Department of the Interior (DOI) — partially addressed these needs.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated it did not have concerns fulfilling its disaster contracting responsibilities.

Within three agencies examined, GAO found the following:

  • USACE assigned clear roles and responsibilities for disaster response contracting activities, but has not formally assessed its contracting workforce to determine if it can fulfill these roles.
  • The Coast Guard has a process to assess its workforce needs, but it does not account for contracting for disaster response activities.
  • DOI is developing a strategic acquisition plan and additional guidance for its bureaus on how to structure their contracting functions, but currently does not account for disaster contracting responsibilities.

Contracting officials at all three of these agencies identified challenges executing their regular responsibilities along with their disaster-related responsibilities during the 2017 and 2018 hurricane and wildfire seasons.  For example, Coast Guard contracting officials stated they have fallen increasingly behind since 2017 and that future disaster response missions would not be sustainable with their current workforce.

GAO’s strategic workforce planning principles call for agencies to determine the critical skills and competencies needed to achieve future programmatic results. Without accounting for disaster response contracting activities in workforce planning, these agencies are missing opportunities to ensure their contracting workforces are equipped to respond to future disasters.

Purchase Cards

Among the five agencies GAO reviewed, plus the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), more than $20 million was collectively spent for 2017 and 2018 disaster response activities using purchase cards.  GAO found that two of these six agencies — Forest Service and EPA — have not completed fraud risk profiles for their purchase card programs that align with leading practices in GAO’s Fraud Risk Framework.  Additionally, five of the six agencies have not assessed or documented how their fraud risk for purchase card use might differ in a disaster response environment.  DOI completed such an assessment during the course of our review.

An OMB memorandum requires agencies to complete risk profiles for their purchase card programs that include fraud risk.  GAO’s Fraud Risk Framework states managers should assess fraud risk regularly and document those assessments in risk profiles.  The framework also states that risk profiles may differ in the context of disaster response when managers may have a higher fraud risk tolerance since individuals in these environments have an urgent need for products and services.  Without assessing fraud risk for purchase card programs or how risk may change in a disaster response environment, agencies may not design or implement effective internal controls, such as search criteria to identify fraudulent transactions.

Recommendations

As a result of its review, GAO made a total of 12 recommendations which address the need for three agencies to assess disaster response contracting needs as a part of overall workforce planning, and for five agencies to assess fraud risk for purchase card use in support of disaster response.  GAO’s complete report can be found here: https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-21-42#summary.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Army Corps of Engineers, Coast Guard, disaster recovery, disaster relief, EPA, FEMA, Forest Service, fraud, Fraud Risk Framework, GAO, Interior Dept., risk management, USACE

October 22, 2020 By cs

Pentagon transitioning its COVID-19 acquisition task force to permanent office

The Joint Acquisition Task Force the Pentagon set up to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t going away, even when the pandemic finally does.

Defense officials have decided to turn it into a permanent assisted acquisition organization to help other federal agencies deal with complex procurement problems.

The department set up the task force earlier this year to serve as the single coordinator for the acquisition support it offered to other agencies during the COVID response.  Since then, it’s executed more than $3 billion in contracts for other agencies — mostly the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

But Ellen Lord, DoD’s undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, said department leaders determined the interagency cooperation function needs to be an enduring capability. Starting in 2021, the Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF) will become the Defense Assisted Acquisition Cell (DA2C), and will be part of the existing Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell (JRAC).

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2020/09/pentagon-transitioning-its-covid-19-acquisition-task-force-to-permanent-office/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: coronavirus, COVID-19, DA2C, Defense Assisted Acquisition Cell, DoD, FEMA, HHS, Joint Acquisition Task Force, pandemic

June 19, 2020 By cs

Feds spend billions on COVID-19 contracts, often without fully competitive bidding

When nurses and doctors across the country were struggling to treat coronavirus patients without enough protective gear, and the federal government was scrambling to find those supplies, Quedon Baul saw an opportunity.

His three-person company in McKinney, Texas, distributes medical supplies but didn’t have much experience with face shields.  Still, he landed two government contracts worth up to $20 million to deliver the personal protective equipment.  He couldn’t meet the first deadline, so he found subcontractors to do the job.

“You get an opportunity, you take it,” Baul says. “It wasn’t my first rodeo, but it’s certainly my first big rodeo.”

The U.S. government has granted contracts worth as much as $25 billion as it races to address the COVID-19 public health crisis.  NPR reviewed a database of thousands of contracting actions and found more than 250 companies that got contracts worth more than $1 million without going through a fully competitive bidding process.

Some of the companies, such as Baul’s, had little or no experience with personal protective equipment.  Others had never worked in the medical field at all.  Contractors also included a company that imported vodka and a school security consultant.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.npr.org/2020/06/09/869052415/feds-spend-billions-on-covid-19-contracts-often-without-fully-competitive-biddin

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized.  Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: compelling reason determination, competitive bid, contractor performance, coronavirus, COVID-19, delivery, DHS, experience, FEMA, Homeland Security, noncompetitive, pandemic, performance, PPE, urgent

April 29, 2020 By cs

Emergency acquisitions group at center of GSA’s coronavirus response

For the General Services Administration, the surge in contracting to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and now the fourth stimulus bill is business as usual.

Even with the activation of its emergency acquisitions group and new authorities, the Federal Acquisition Service is striking the balance between helping the Department of Health and Human Services, FEMA and other agencies, and pushing forward with key modernization initiatives.

Julie Dunne, the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, said that contracting officers and other acquisition employees are meeting all the demands coming from multiple directions.

“I’ve heard from customers and other folks that GSA has not missed a beat in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. A lot of that is due to our telework capability and, in large part, the GSA IT shop has just been phenomenal,” Dunne said in an exclusive interview with Federal News Network. “Things we are seeing a lot of demand for, you won’t be surprised to hear, medical equipment, hand sanitizer and masks. We also are doing a lot in the IT world in terms of trying to support other agencies with telework capacity.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition/2020/04/emergency-acquisitions-group-at-center-of-gsas-coronavirus-response/

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized.  Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, coronavirus, COVID-19, emergency response, FAR, FAS, Federal Supply Schedule, FEMA, FSS, GSA, HHS, industrial base, innovation, nontraditional, pandemic, PPE, readiness, research and development

December 9, 2019 By cs

After 2 years in limbo, FEMA cancels $250 million IT support contract

The single-award contract was created to help the emergency management agency manage its IT.  Now, that work will be spread across existing staff and contracts.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is opting to cancel a $250 million IT support services contract that has been sitting in acquisition limbo for more than two years.

The agency posted a notice On Nov. 25th to the Contracting Opportunities website announcing the cancelation of the Information Technology Management Support Services Pillar contract. The single-award contract would have had a ceiling of $249 million, with a one-year base period and three one-year options.

FEMA initially released the request for proposals in July 2017, with bids due in late August of the same year. However, several leadership changes within the Office of the Chief Information Officer continually delayed award of the contract. Now, more than two years later, a reassessment of the agency’s needs has prompted FEMA OCIO to pull back the solicitation and opt instead to use existing DHS staff and contracts to meet those mission needs.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2019/11/after-two-years-limbo-fema-cancels-250m-it-support-contract/161531/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: DHS, federal contracting, FEMA, Homeland Security, IT support, leadership

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