HASC | The Contracting Education Academy

August 9, 2017 By AMK

Panel urges acquisition system reform

The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) established the Section 809 Panel to address fundamental problems with how the Defense Department acquires goods and services to support its warfighters.

**Starting in 2008, whenever new legislation or regulation debuted that affected government contracting, it was written on a band-aid and stuck to a golf ball. It’s 10 times bigger now.**

It recently released an interim report and supplement advocating in broad strokes for a host of improvements to the acquisition system to better streamline the process and increase industry offerings to the government.

In meeting with over 200 government and industry representatives, the interim report found that the acquisition system creates obstacles that make it unattractive for small and large businesses alike to offer their goods and services to the government. It explained that “the United States’ ability to maintain technological, military and economic superiority is being challenged,” as our adversaries are recognizing vulnerabilities in our forces and the ability to respond through modernization.

Thus, the Pentagon’s acquisition procedures must be improved to achieve “a degree of agility that DoD is not currently able to deliver,” it said.

To achieve this agility, the interim report recommended several improvements.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2017/7/25/panel-urges-acquisition-system-reform

August 2, 2017 By AMK

Annual Defense bill aims to rein in Pentagon outsourcing

Lawmakers are looking to reinstate a cap on the Defense Department’s service contract spending next year, amid concerns the Pentagon has unduly outsourced federal work.

The measure was attached to the annual defense authorization bill approved by the House Armed Services Committee, and would prevent Defense from spending more on service contracts than it did in fiscal 2010. Such a cap was in place from fiscal years 2012 through 2015 but lawmakers removed it the last two years.

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, who introduced the amendment, said the measure would save the Pentagon money.

“Restoration of that cap was necessary to deter the transfer of federal work to more costly service contractors” and to “strike a fair balance,” Hanabusa said.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/07/annual-defense-bill-aims-rein-pentagon-outsourcing/139681

August 1, 2017 By AMK

Pentagon fixing problems that let fake federal agency get $1.2 million in military hardware

Officials from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) told Congress that they have taken several steps to shore up the integrity of a program that distributes surplus military equipment to law enforcement agencies after the Government Accountability Office demonstrated that it was highly susceptible to fraud.

But the assurances were insufficient for at least two senior members of Congress, who say the Defense Department needs to suspend its transfers of “controlled” military equipment until DLA has completely solved the internal control problems GAO identified in a recently-disclosed sting operation.

At issue is one of the two surplus property programs operated by DLA’s Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO). Although the division that deals with state and local law enforcement agencies appears to have more robust safeguards to keep equipment from falling into the wrong hands, GAO showed that it was able to pose as a federal agency that does not exist to get hold of $1.2 million in military gear that’s not available to the general public.

In an audit released last week, the office said its investigators, posing as employees of the fake federal agency, sought and gained approval to participate in the program by corresponding with DLA solely via email. Later, the undercover GAO employees were able to pick up more than 100 pieces of controlled property from DLA warehouses — and in two of the three cases, did so without being asked to show any form of identification.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense/2017/07/pentagon-fixing-problems-that-let-fake-federal-agency-get-1-2-million-in-military-hardware/

July 3, 2017 By AMK

House begins work on another round of DoD acquisition overhauls

For the third year in a row, the annual Defense authorization bill the House Armed Services Committee will begin considering is chock full of provisions that are meant to reform the acquisition system – including one that would represent the biggest change in decades in the way the government buys commercial goods.

Among the more than five dozen acquisition provisions in the bill is committee chairman Mac Thornberry’s proposal to require DoD to buy its commercial-off-the-shelf products from private sector “online marketplaces” like Amazon. The chairman first floated the idea in a discussion draft a month ago, and the version the panel will consider today is mostly unchanged with two major exceptions: it would apply to the entire federal government, not just DoD, and it would require the government to do its buying through at least two online platforms rather than “one or more.”

But the revised version seems to have done little to satisfy industry’s many concerns with the proposal, including that it does not make clear how agencies would comply with numerous other acquisition laws and regulations – including protections for small business – and that it would bypass the Competition in Contracting Act.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense-news/2017/06/house-begins-work-today-on-another-round-of-dod-acquisition-overhauls/

June 9, 2017 By AMK

Congress sending mixed messages on Defense procurement

Think Bold. That’s the slogan of the so-called “Section 809 Panel,” a special commission created by Congress to review the full spate of federal (and defense-unique) acquisition laws, rules and practices.

The goal is to provide lawmakers with a set of recommendations for legislative or administrative redress that will help improve the speed and performance of the defense acquisition system and open its aperture to the full array of available capabilities.

At a recent but little noticed hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, panel chair Deirdre Lee and several of her fellow panelists made eminently clear the need for substantial change, stating outright that the current acquisition system is simply incapable of getting the job done. The pace and scope of technological developments, the changing nature of the requisite workforce, the dramatic shift in technology ownership and leadership, and the numerous regulatory and policy requirements that too often wall the government off from needed solutions were among the reasons the panelists were so unanimous in their belief that truly bold action is required. And that’s exactly what they promised their final report would deliver.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2017/05/congress-sending-mixed-messages-defense-procurement/138203/

The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) established the Section 809 Panel to address fundamental problems with how the Defense Department acquires goods and services to support its warfighters.

Lawmakers are looking to reinstate a cap on the Defense Department’s service contract spending next year, amid concerns the Pentagon has unduly outsourced federal work.

Think Bold. That’s the slogan of the so-called “Section 809 Panel,” a special commission created by Congress to review the full spate of federal (and defense-unique) acquisition laws, rules and practices.

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