Other Transaction Authorities | The Contracting Education Academy

January 30, 2019 By cs

The new ‘other transactions authority’ guide — Helpful, but not enough

The Department of Defense recently published a new guide to Other Transactions Authority (OTA) contracts.

The guide attempts to answer a number of questions associated with the policies and practices surrounding OTAs. It partially succeeds, but it also falls short of providing the details both contracting officers in government and industry representatives need to use OTAs with confidence and alacrity.

Two helpful things the guidance makes clear are that OTAs are in fact contracts and that they are still likely to be very complicated contracts.

There is a perception in some quarters that OTAs are a magic wand that can eliminate the difficulties of doing business with the government. The guide implicitly refutes that premise as it correctly catalogues the many details anyone contemplating an OTA vehicle has to consider.

OTAs have real virtues, but they basically just substitute the world of commercial contracting for the world of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) contracting. Anyone who has ever attempted to read a commercial contract for say a real estate sale or for cellphone service has some idea of how complex a commercial contract can be.

OTAs can simplify doing business with the government substantially, but a good contract is a good contract and a bad contract is a bad contract, independent of whether it is FAR based or an OTA.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/frankkendall/2019/01/03/the-new-other-transactions-authority-guide-helpful-but-not-enough

January 16, 2019 By cs

Air Force turns to GSA pilot for DevOps platform

The Air Force is looking for an innovative DevOps platform to seamlessly integrate into its current environment and is tapping a General Services Administration pilot program to avoid having to go through the arduous processes set forth in the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

The Air Force — through a joint program between AFWERX, the Air Force Research Lab and Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center — is using GSA FEDSIM’s Commercial Solutions Opening, or CSO, pilot program to solicit bids from startups and private sector innovators who haven’t worked with the government in the past.

Rather than abiding by the FAR, which can often take months or years to get through the step-by-step solicitation process, the CSO process allows the contracting agency to issue a request for innovative solutions and fund multiple lines of research and development at the same time. This “opportunistic model,” as described by the Pentagon’s Defense Acquisition University, is used for non-FAR-based contracts, like those issued using other transaction authorities.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/01/air-force-turns-gsa-pilot-devops-platform/154024/

January 11, 2019 By cs

Air Force turns to nontraditional contracting for space technology projects

The Air Force just over a year ago formed a Space Enterprise Consortium to expedite the development and prototyping of satellites, ground systems, space sensors and other technologies that U.S. adversaries are advancing at a rapid pace.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson hailed the SpPEC as a successful business model that cuts red tape considerably compared to traditional defense contracting. The consortium so far has started 34 projects worth about $110 million and has been authorized to fund nearly $400 million in additional projects over the next four years.

“The initial ceiling for SpEC was $100 million but was increased to $500 million in order to address the emphasis and demand for other transactions agreements to support prototyping efforts,” Air Force Capt. Benjamin Leaf, the SpEC program manager, told SpaceNews in a recent interview.

Keep reading this article at: https://spacenews.com/air-force-turns-to-nontraditional-contracting-for-space-technology-projects/

January 9, 2019 By cs

Six things on the Pentagon’s 2019 acquisition reform checklist

Under the purview of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, reform has become a buzzword inside the Department of Defense, with every office trying to find ways to be more efficient, whether through cost savings or changes to bureaucracy.

**Flag of the Undersecretary of Defense**

The department’s Acquisition and Sustainment office, headed by Ellen Lord, manages billions of dollars in materiel; and by Lord’s own belief, it is ripe for changes that could net the department big savings.

On Dec. 17, Lord sat down with reporters and outlined a series of goals for 2019 that she hopes will help transform how the Pentagon buys equipment. Here, then, are six key items to watch for in the coming year:

Rework the department’s key acquisition rules.
Write a department-wide intellectual property policy.
Do better at developing software.
Increase use of OTAs.
Make greater use of prototyping.
Make the Selected Acquisition Reports public again.

Read the details here: https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/12/27/six-things-on-the-pentagons-2019-acquisition-reform-checklist/

January 7, 2019 By cs

How OTA collaborations are streamlining government acquisitions

Other Transaction Authorities (OTAs) have garnered significant attention recently because they help our government acquire innovative technologies much faster than typical Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)-based acquisitions, which can take years to complete.

Some have called OTAs the “cool new thing” in acquisition — words you wouldn’t normally hear when talking about federal contracting.

So, what are OTAs? And more importantly, why should agencies make these agreements part of their procurement process?

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2018/12/how-ota-collaborations-are-streamlining-government-acquisitions/

The Department of Defense recently published a new guide to Other Transactions Authority (OTA) contracts.

The Air Force is looking for an innovative DevOps platform to seamlessly integrate into its current environment and is tapping a General Services Administration pilot program to avoid having to go through the arduous processes set forth in the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

The Air Force just over a year ago formed a Space Enterprise Consortium to expedite the development and prototyping of satellites, ground systems, space sensors and other technologies that U.S. adversaries are advancing at a rapid pace.

Under the purview of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, reform has become a buzzword inside the Department of Defense, with every office trying to find ways to be more efficient, whether through cost savings or changes to bureaucracy.

Other Transaction Authorities (OTAs) have garnered significant attention recently because they help our government acquire innovative technologies much faster than typical Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)-based acquisitions, which can take years to complete.

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