other transaction authority | The Contracting Education Academy

December 2, 2019 By cs

Pentagon nearly doubles use of Other Transaction Authority purchases

The Defense Department is embracing the alternative procurement method but could use more oversight of the deals, a Government Accountability Office audit found.

The Pentagon upped its use of purchases through other transaction authority, or OTAs, significantly over the past fiscal year, nearly doubling both the number of total OTA contracts and total investment.

In fiscal 2017, the Defense Department issued 384 new awards, modifications or orders for OTA contracts totaling $2.1 billion in obligations. In 2018, the Defense Department contracted 618 OTA awards totaling $3.7 billion, according to a Government Accountability Office audit released this week.

Based on data from the Federal Procurement Data System, the audit indicates the Pentagon has more than tripled its use of OTA contracts since it received enhanced authorities from the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. In that year, Defense agencies issued only 248 OTA awards for approximately $1.4 billion.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/11/pentagon-nearly-doubles-use-other-transaction-authority-purchases/161504/

November 19, 2019 By cs

Frictionless federal acquisition? — It’s possible and a new online tool can help

One of the best questions that came up at the recent 2019 Imagine Nation ELC conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was during a panel on acquisition. It went something like this: If the Federal Acquisition Regulations are a Frankenstein monster of cobbled together rules and requirements, why not just start over?

A question many federal acquisition and program managers probably have asked themselves at least a dozen times a year.

While the 2,000 page FAR probably has some body parts that agencies could do without, there is no reason to kill the monster.

Meagan Metzger, founder and CEO of Dcode, which promotes the use of commercial technology in the public sector, said there are important concepts that the FAR promotes that every contracting officer or program manager needs to know.

Chris Hamm, the director of FEDSIM at the General Services Administration, offered a common refrain—the FAR lets you do almost anything, especially under Parts 8.4 and 12.

Then why are agencies and vendors alike so excited about Other Transaction Authorities (OTAs) or Commercial Solution Openings (CSOs) as a way to avoid—get around—using the FAR?

New data from the Professional Services Council’s 2019 Vision Forecast found the Defense Department’s use of OTA’s mushroomed by 40% in 2018 over 2017 and some estimates say the Pentagon could spend as much as $7 billion through this approach in 2019.

GSA and the Department of Homeland Security also have begun using similar authorities.

GSA, for instance, has done eight awards under its CSO authority. Tom Howder, the acting deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, said at the PSC event that 75% of the awards went to companies without a GSA schedule, meaning non-traditional contractors.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2019/11/frictionless-federal-acquisition-its-possible-and-a-new-online-tool-can-help/

October 16, 2019 By cs

COFC finds no jurisdiction over SpaceX’s OTA protest

The Court of Federal Claims dismissed SpaceX’s OTA bid protest finding that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over this OTA protest.

In a recently released decision, the COFC held that the court did not have Tucker Act jurisdiction to resolve a bid protest challenging the award of Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs).

In this case of first impression, SpaceX challenged the Air Force’s award of three OTAs for launch services. SpaceX acknowledged that the Air Force’s prototype OTAs were not “procurement contracts” under the Tucker Act. However, SpaceX noted that, following the government’s investment in the development of launch system prototypes under the OTA, the Air Force plans to procure launch services via a competitive procurement during Phase two of the program. As a result, SpaceX argued that the OTA was awarded “in connection with” the Phase two procurement, and therefore subject to Tucker Act jurisdiction.

The court rejected this argument, finding that the OTA award was not “in connection with a procurement or proposed procurement,” as contemplated by the Tucker Act. The court noted that the OTA and procurement competitions involved separate and distinct solicitations with different acquisition strategies, different start dates, and different goals. The court also noted that the Phase two Procurement will not be limited to the companies awarded the prototype OTAs.

Keep reading this article at: www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=848220

August 19, 2019 By AMK

Money spent through OTAs surges to more than $4 billion

Other Transaction Agreements are an increasingly popular contracting tool, and they’re affecting overall government contracting numbers.

OTA purchases across the government surged from $2.3 billion in fiscal 2017 to over $4 billion in fiscal 2018.

The numbers come from the BGOV200, an annual ranking of the top 200 federal contractors created by Bloomberg Government.

“While multiple-award contracting is expected to dominate spending for years to come, agencies are also leveraging new acquisition methods to buy goods and services more quickly and easily in ways they haven’t before,” the report states.

The OTA authority, which was expanded by the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, allows agencies to sidestep the Federal Acquisition Regulation and work with innovative, small companies that don’t normally do business with the government.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/otas-contracting-fiscal-2018-bgov/

August 13, 2019 By AMK

OTAs primed for growth

Increasingly the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security are looking to “other transaction authority” agreements to acquire emerging technologies.

Procurements made under OTA are exempt from many Federal Acquisition Regulation rules and are typically limited to research, prototypes and in certain cases follow-on production.

The authority dates back to the 1958 Space Act, passed in the wake of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik launch, but in recent years it has heated up as the military and DHS have tried to leverage the innovation of tech startups that haven’t typically looked to the federal market for growth.

According to contracting intelligence firm Deltek, OTA spending hit $4.3 billion in fiscal year 2018, up from $2.1 billion in 2017. Because of increased interest in OTA procurement, Deltek recently began breaking out OTA opportunities and spending as a separate category in its GovWin database.

Part of the reason for renewed interest in OTAs is the need to innovate on the defense side faster than our adversaries.

Keep reading this article at: https://defensesystems.com/articles/2019/08/05/otas-set-for-growth.aspx

The Defense Department is embracing the alternative procurement method but could use more oversight of the deals, a Government Accountability Office audit found.

The Court of Federal Claims dismissed SpaceX’s OTA bid protest finding that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over this OTA protest.

Other Transaction Agreements are an increasingly popular contracting tool, and they’re affecting overall government contracting numbers.

Increasingly the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security are looking to “other transaction authority” agreements to acquire emerging technologies.

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