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October 10, 2012 By AMK

DoD carries weight of governmentwide small business goal

For the federal government to finally hit its 23 percent small business goal, the Defense Department will have to step up its efforts to contract with small firms. But the nature of DoD’s large contracts often leave out small companies.

In four of the last five years, if DoD had made its small business contracting goal, the federal government would have hit its overall goal. In fiscal 2011, the government fell $5.4 billion short. The Defense Department, with a goal of 22.28 percent for small business contracting that year, missed its mark by $7.2 billion. Each agency negotiates with the Small Business Administration its own small business prime-contracting goal.

Defense contracts make up two-thirds of the entire government’s contracting expenditures. DoD is best known for buying planes, tanks and ships — often products and services out of the scope of small companies. Last year, for example, DoD spent tens of billions of dollars across 11 product codes that included everything from guided space missiles to space vehicles. Of that, less than 1 percent went to small businesses.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/522/3058191/DoD-carries-weight-of-governmentwide-small-business-goal.

(This story is part one of Federal News Radio’s special report, The Small Business Dilemma.)

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition strategy, acquisition training, acquisition workforce, ARRA, CAM, continuing resolution, DoD, GAO, industrial base, manufacturing, Navy, OMB, SAT, SBA, SDVOSB, set-aside, small business goals, subcontracting goals

October 5, 2012 By AMK

Government doesn’t use bulk-purchasing initiative enough, auditors say

The government’s seven-year-old strategic sourcing initiative designed to save money through bulk purchasing of office supplies and services is achieving nowhere near its potential, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday.

Agencies “leveraged only a fraction of their buying power through strategic sourcing and achieved only limited savings,” auditors concluded after a yearlong review of procurement efforts under the General Services Administration’s Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative and independent efforts at the Defense, Energy, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs departments.

Those agencies’ contract spending made up about 80 percent of the government’s overall $537 billion procurement budget in fiscal 2011, and GAO analysts added reviews of strategic sourcing by the Air Force, Army, Navy and Defense Logistics Agency for greater detail.

Strategic sourcing, a popular tool the private and public sectors use to buy office supplies and services, telecommunications and print management aids and other items, was institutionalized by the Office of Management and Budget in 2005 and is overseen by GSA and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2012/10/government-doesnt-use-bulk-purchasing-initiative-enough-auditors-say/58590/?oref=dropdown.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition strategy, Air Force, Army, bulk purchasing, DHS, DLA, DoD, Energy Dept., GSA, Navy, OFPP, OMB, strategic sourcing

July 25, 2012 By AMK

Navy sharpens acquisition pencil to find savings

The Department of the Navy’s fiscal year 2013 budget request was $1.4 billion less than in 2012. The service, like other Defense Department organizations, expects next year to be the beginning of a steady budget decline.

To help counteract that expected budget decrease, the Navy is sharpening its acquisition pencil to find both efficiencies in how and what it buys.

This is especially true in services, where the DoN spends about $11 billion annually.

Elliot Branch, the Navy’s deputy assistant secretary for Acquisition and Procurement in the Office of Research, Development and Acquisition, said the service is focusing on four key procurement areas:

  • Demand management
  • Acquisition strategy
  • Contract formation
  • Contract administration

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=494&sid=2949264.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition strategy, acquisition workforce, budget cuts, contract administration, contract formation, contractor performance, demand management, DHS, DoD, Navy, SEWP, strategic sourcing

March 2, 2012 By AMK

Lockheed cries foul over Northrop’s win of shipboard network contract

Lockheed Martin filed a bid protest this week over Northrop Grumman winning the Navy’s Consolidated Afloat Networks Enterprise Services contract worth up to $637.8 million.

Known as CANES, the contract is being used to outfit up to 54 ships with new computer networks. Eventually, the Navy wants new networks on 286 ships and 60-plus submarines. Other competitions will be held for work on those vessels.

But Northrop Grumman won the first contract out of the gate and will be working on guided-missile destroyers and multi-purpose amphibious assault ships, the Defense Department said. The companies were locked in a one-on-one battle for the first contract.

Lockheed Martin spokesman Keith Little said in a statement that the company protests awards “only when we believe flaws in the evaluation process preclude consideration of the best solution for the customer, as is the case with our proposal for the Navy’s Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services program.”

Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Sudi Bruni said that the company’s proposal is the best value for the Navy. “We stand ready to help the Navy get this critical system quickly to the warfighters. We are disappointed a protest was filed.”

Lockheed filed the protest on Feb. 13 and the Government Accountability Office docket says a decision is due May 23.

About the Author: Nick Wakeman is the editor-in-chief of Washington Technology.  This article was published on Feb. 16, 2012 at http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2012/02/16/lockheed-canes-protest.aspx?s=wtdaily_170212.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: bid protest, DoD, GAO, Navy

October 13, 2011 By AMK

Agencies can improve suspension and debarment process, says GAO

Too many federal agencies are insufficiently protecting against contractor fraud or incompetence by using the suspension and debarment process, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday. Agencies with records of scant use of the practice should beef up dedicated staff and commit to greater use of the interagency committee designed for this purpose, the auditors said.

“Agencies that fail to devote sufficient attention to suspension and debarment issues likely will continue to have limited levels of activity and risk fostering a perception that they are not serious about holding the entities they deal with accountable,” William Woods, GAO’s director of acquisition and sourcing management, told a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform. But “we need to keep the process informal to avoid red tape, because agencies need to move quickly to protect the government’s interest,” he added.

GAO examined the number of suspensions and debarments imposed under the Federal Acquisition Regulation of 10 major contracting agencies over five fiscal years. Most active were the Defense Logistics Agency, the Navy, the General Services Administration and Homeland Security Department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Agencies with little or no use of the procedure were the Commerce, Health and Human Services, Justice, State and Treasury departments, as well as DHS’ Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“The mountains of federal forms are frustrating” for many good contractors, said panel chairman Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., “but certain contractors try to defraud, or are chronically poor performers. We need to find out why some agencies uncover the abuse and others don’t” so the government can enforce a process that “strengthens the integrity of overall contract system.”

The Defense Department has far and away the highest raw number of suspensions and debarments (1,616 over five years), but when viewed as a percentage of contracting dollars, as ranking member Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. noted, the Environmental Protection Agency has a far higher rate.

HHS, Connolly and Republican members pointed out, did not post a single contractor suspension or debarment in the past five years, despite a 2010 budget that included $368 billion in grants and $19 billion in contracts.

GAO’s Woods said he was surprised by the numbers at HHS. His report does not recommend any new legislation on suspensions (which are temporary) and debarments (which are long term), but calls for the agencies deemed inactive to mimic the organizational approaches of the active ones. That means assigning full-time dedicated staff and resources, developing detailed implementation guidance, and promoting a case referral process.

In addition, GAO recommends that the administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy issue governmentwide guidance to ensure that agencies are aware of the elements of an active suspension and debarment program and the importance of cooperating with the Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee. Witnesses at the hearing suggested that many agencies lack full commitment to that panel, which was created in 1986.

Under the Federal Acquisition Regulation and a parallel set of rules for nonprocurement contracting, agencies are responsible for examining contractors and uncovering fraud or nonperformance and then posting the companies on the website of the Excluded Parties List System maintained by the General Services Administration. Contractors’ rights are supposed to be protected through established procedures for challenging the listing through a timely meeting with top agency officials and a “mini trial” in which they can present evidence defending their record.

Nearly 84 percent of suspensions and debarments are required by statute — such as past violators of the 1970 Clean Air or 1972 Clean Water acts — according to GAO, which focused its study on the 16 percent that are discretionary.

The agencies deemed inactive generally accepted GAO’s conclusions. Nick Nyack, chief procurement official at Homeland Security Department, said, “We get this. We’re going to get it right and will be a best practices agency in short order.” Under questioning, he said it could be done within three months.

Three months was also the estimate for making changes the members elicited from Nancy Gunderson, suspension and debarment official at HHS. She said the department had terminated numerous grants and contracts for reasons such as questionable scientific integrity. But HHS efforts thus far on the issue have focused on promoting an electronic desk reference, staff training and looking at other agencies’ procedures, she said.

Agencies considered models were represented by Richard Pelletier, a suspension and department official at EPA, who said his agency since 1981 has maintained a “robust” approach that involves two offices with full-time staff.

Steven Shaw, deputy general counsel of the Air Force, stressed the importance protecting contractors’ rights by having officials who aren’t in the procurement chain “examine evidence, not just the fact of an indictment.” He favors a carrot-and-stick approach that includes regular meetings with important contractors and not mandatory debarments. The overall dollar figures, rather than the number of suspensions or debarments, he added, might be a better metric on agency activity than raw numbers.

—  by Charles S. Clark – Government Executive – October 6, 2011 – http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=49011&dcn=e_tma

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Air Force, Commerce Dept., contractor performance, debarment, DLA, EPA, FAR, FEMA, fraud, GAO, GSA, HHS, Homeland Security, Justice Dept., Navy, OFPP, State Dept., suspension, Treasury Dept.

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