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DoD acquisition proposals reduce burden, heighten transparency concerns

The Defense Department is prompting Congress to take action on a handful of acquisition issues, mostly aimed at reducing regulations on the system, but some fear the proposals may harm government transparency as well.

DoD has been on a crusade to streamline and unburden the defense acquisition since 2010, when it released its first version of Better Buying Power.

Now that James Mattis has taken over as defense secretary, DoD is doubling down on bettering its business operations and making its processes leaner.

The newest legislative proposals to Congress reflect that philosophy.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense/2017/07/dod-acquisition-proposals-reduce-burden-heighten-transparency-concerns/

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DoD raises micro-purchase threshold to $5,000

The Department of Defense (DoD) has issued a class deviation that raises the micro-purchase threshold from $3,500 to $5,000.

Class Deviation 2017-O0006, issued July 13, 2017 and effective immediately, allows authorized DoD buyers to make purchases of supplies and services up to $5,000 using streamlined procedures.  Micro-purchases are primarily made through the use of Governmentwide purchase cards (GPC).

According to FAR 13,203, micro-purchases may be awarded without soliciting competitive quotations if the contracting officer or other authorized official considers the price to be reasonable.

The class deviation also raised the micro-purchase threshold to $10,000 for DoD’s basic research programs and for activities of DoD’s science and technology reinvention laboratories.

It is expected that these new purchasing thresholds will be incorporated into the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation (DFARS) in the near future.

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GSA’s 18F takes on micropurchasing experiment

The General Services Administration’s tech consultancy team is experimenting with a new way for federal agencies to buy code. 

18F at GSAThe team is building an online system that could help federal agencies make “micro-purchases” — transactions for less than $3,500 made directly with the vendor — for open source software code.

Since its inception in 2014, 18F has been uploading the code for its products on GitHub, a public, online repository, so citizens can examine the code and occasionally contribute to it.

“But we want to show that opening our source code improves our ability to contract for digital services,” 18F staffer V. David Zvenyach wrote in a blog post. “We also want to see whether this is a sustainable way to engage small businesses and non-traditional contractors in the government space.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2015/10/18fs-takes-micropurchasing-experiment/122800

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Reminder: Selected federal acquisition thresholds change today

As we first informed you on July 8, some of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) dollar thresholds change effective October 1, 2015.

The inflationary adjustments to the thresholds are summarized below, inluding references to the applicable FAR parts:

  • FARThe micro-purchase threshold of $3,000 increases to $3,500 (FAR 2.101).
  • The threshold for use of simplified acquisition procedures for acquisition of commercial items increases from $6.5 million to $7 million (FAR 13.500).
  • The cost or pricing data threshold (FAR 15.403-4) and the  Cost Accounting Standards threshold (FAR 30.201-4 and FAR clause 52.230-5) increases from $700,000 to $750,000.
  • The prime contractor subcontracting plan floor increases from $650,000 to $700,000.  The subcontracting plan threshold for construction contracts remains the same at $1.5 million (FAR 19.702).
  • The threshold for reporting first-tier subcontract information, including executive compensation, increases from $25,000 to $30,000 (FAR Subpart 4.14 and FAR clause 52.204-10).
  • The threshold for including the clause requiring contractors to provide equal employment opportunities to veterans increases from $100,000 to $150,000 (FAR 22.1303 and FAR clause 52.222-35).
  • The threshold requiring contractors to flowdown the clause regarding a contractor’s Code of Business Ethics and Conduct increases from $5 million to $5.5 million (FAR clause 52.203-15).
  • The threshold restricting subcontracts with a contractor that has been debarred, suspended, or proposed for debarment increases from $30,000 to $35,000 (FAR 9.409 and FAR clause 52.209-6).

Other FAR-prescribed dollar thresholds do not change at this time.  For instance, the simplified acquisition threshold of $150,000 (FAR 2.101) remains unchanged, and FedBizOpps preaward and postaward notices (FAR Parts 5.101 and 5.301) remain at $25,000..

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Federal acquisition thresholds to change Oct. 1st

Changes will occur in various federal acquisition dollar thresholds effective Oct. 1, 2015. 

Federal Register

An acquisition-related dollar threshold is a dollar threshold that is specified in law as a factor in defining the scope of the applicability of a policy, procedure, requirement, or restriction provided in that law to the procurement of supplies or services by an executive agency, as determined by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council.

As set forth in Federal Register – Vol. 80 No. 127 – July 2, 2015 (pages 38293 through 38296), the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) will be amended to change:

  • The micro-purchase base threshold from $3,000 (FAR 2.101) to $3,500.
  • The threshold for use of simplified acquisition procedures for acquisition of commercial items (FAR 13.500) from $6.5 million to $7 million.
  • The cost or pricing data threshold (FAR 15.403-4) and the statutorily equivalent Cost Accounting Standard threshold from $700,000 to $750,000.
  • The prime contractor subcontracting plan (FAR 19.702) floor from $650,000 to $700,000  (The construction threshold of $1,500,000 will remain unchanged.)
  • The threshold for reporting first-tier subcontract information including executive compensation from $25,000 to $30,000 (FAR subpart 4.14 and section 52.204-10).

Other FAR-prescribed thresholds will not change.  The simplified acquisition threshold (FAR 2.101) of $150,000 will remain unchanged, and FedBizOpps pre-award and post-award notices (FAR part 5) will remain at $25,000 because of trade agreements.

If an acquisition-related threshold is based on statute, the matrix at http:// www.regulations.gov (search FAR case 2008–024) identifies the statute, and the statutory threshold. If inflation adjustment is warranted, calculations are rounded in accordance with the table shown above.
If an acquisition-related threshold is
based on statute, the matrix at http://
www.regulations.gov (search FAR case
2008–024) identifies the statute, and the
statutory threshold. Inflation calculations are rounded in accordance with the table shown above.
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