FPDS-NG' | The Contracting Education Academy

October 6, 2020 By cs

IG finds ‘significant inaccuracies’ in Federal Acquisition Service’s reporting of small business contracts

This resulted from issues with the GSA-managed federal procurement data system.

There have been “significant inaccuracies” in the Federal Acquisition Service’s reporting of small business contracts, a watchdog reported earlier this week.

The General Service Administration inspector general has issued a report that looked at the data GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service entered into the Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation, which is managed by GSA. The Small Business Administration uses that system to assess if the federal government achieves its overall annual goal of awarding 23% of contracts to small businesses. Based on its review of Federal Acquisition Service procurements from fiscal 2016 and 2017 (that totaled $3.7 billion), the IG identified issues that led to overstating of small businesses procurements.

“We found that FAS’s reporting of small business procurements contained significant inaccuracies. We identified $89 million in procurements erroneously recorded as small business in [the Federal Procurement Data System–Next Generation],” said the IG. “In addition, FAS’ small business procurement reporting does not identify the extent of the work performed by large businesses. We found approximately $120 million of small business procurements in which large businesses performed a portion of the work.”

The IG reviewed the agency’s contracting data and internal policies as well as interviewed GSA officials and small business contractors, for its audit that was conducted from June 2018 to June 2019. While the report was about FAS, the IG found the issues were, in some ways, out the agency’s control.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/analytics-data/2020/09/ig-finds-significant-inaccuracies-federal-acquisition-services-reporting-small-business-contracts/168602/

March 12, 2020 By cs

Pilot IRS to return with new focus areas and significantly more funding

In the next three to six months, the IRS plans to issue new solicitations through its experimental contracting vehicle.

The IRS is considering tripling down on its experimental procurement vehicle Pilot IRS — an incremental funding program the tax agency uses to identify and develop cutting-edge technologies—with the second iteration of the program coming in the next few months, with three new focus areas and more than three times the funding up for grabs.

The first iteration of Pilot IRS sought to update the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation, or FPDS-NG, using robotic process automation tools to improve data quality and limit the amount of manual data entry. As with other alternative procurement methods like other transaction authority contracts, the Pilot IRS program uses a multi-phased funding approach that rewards vendors that meet milestones in a timely fashion.

Three weeks after issuing the solicitation in August, the IRS made five awards for the first phase, totaling $25,000. Since that time, “Two firms continue to receive funding, and have demonstrated return on investment rates of roughly 30-80% reductions in time required to make corrections to and improve the data in FPDS-NG,” according to a program update posted last Wednesday to beta.SAM.gov.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2020/03/pilot-irs-return-new-focus-areas-and-significantly-more-funding/163526/

March 2, 2020 By cs

Change is hard vs. real problems: The tale of the beta.sam.gov portal

In the three months since the General Services Administration transitioned to the beta.sam.gov portal for contract opportunities from the decades-old FedBizOpps.gov site, the raw numbers show concerns over the site have settled down.

The site has seen almost 900,000 visitors and 120,000 registered users since November. The number of calls to GSA’s help desk is at or below the levels that came in during the pre-transition time.

“We don’t get any more help desk calls or asks for intervention than we did with the legacy FBO. And the calls we do get are generally around two things: how to log in and do multi-factor authentication and the second is how to use the new search features because they look very different than the legacy site,” said Judith Zawatsky, assistant commissioner in the Office of Systems Management in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, in an interview with Federal News Network.

But if you dig deeper, particularly the folks who understand the inner workings of the new site, frustration and disappointment over the transition and functionality of beta.sam.gov continue.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2020/02/change-is-hard-vs-real-problems-the-tale-of-the-beta-sam-gov-portal/

February 3, 2020 By cs

GSA’s procurement database is heading to a new home

The General Service Administration’s procurement database will be migrating to the agency’s new contracting website by the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2020, according to a GSA news release.

The Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation (FPDS-NG), which collects and reports procurement data from federal agencies, will be transitioned over to the new beta.SAM.gov website, the new GSA site that lists federal contracts and other contract data.

The migration is part of a larger GSA effort to consolidate its legacy websites to a single site.

The FPDS site serves several purposes for contractors and researchers. On the site, users can research procurement data, validate procurement vehicles and modify transactions.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/it-networks/2020/01/24/gsas-procurement-database-is-heading-to-a-new-home/

See fact sheet on transition here: FPDS Reports Are Transitioning – Fact Sheet – 01.2020

November 21, 2017 By AMK

No surprise: Agencies taking small, slow steps to improve reporting of spending data

The first details of the impact that the three-year-old Data Accountability and Transparency (DATA) Act is having on agencies emerged two weeks ago.

The Government Accountability Office released its first mandated report on data quality and use. GAO found an expected mixed bag of success and struggles when it comes to standardizing and reporting procurement and grants data.

“In the three years since enactment, the Office of Management and Budget, Treasury and federal agencies have made significant strides to address many of the policy and technical challenges presented by the act’s requirements, including standardizing data elements across the federal government, linking data contained in agencies’ financial and award systems, and expanding the type of data reported,” GAO states in its report. “However, our audit of the initial data submitted by agencies and made available to the public on Treasury’s Beta.USAspending.gov website shows that much more needs to be done if the DATA Act’s promise of improving the accuracy and transparency of federal spending data is to be fully realized.”

Auditors say agencies continue to struggle with inconsistencies in their data on acquisition awards, reporting incomplete information and ensuring the data meets the need of the end users.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/agency-oversight/2017/11/no-surprise-agencies-taking-small-slow-steps-to-improve-reporting-of-spending-data/

This resulted from issues with the GSA-managed federal procurement data system.

In the next three to six months, the IRS plans to issue new solicitations through its experimental contracting vehicle.

In the three months since the General Services Administration transitioned to the beta.sam.gov portal for contract opportunities from the decades-old FedBizOpps.gov site, the raw numbers show concerns over the site have settled down.

The General Service Administration’s procurement database will be migrating to the agency’s new contracting website by the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2020, according to a GSA news release.

The first details of the impact that the three-year-old Data Accountability and Transparency (DATA) Act is having on agencies emerged two weeks ago.

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