Outsourcing | The Contracting Education Academy

April 10, 2018 By cs

Pentagon’s delayed report on services contracts draws union ire

The massive National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2018 contained language requiring the Pentagon to provide more detail on its spending plans for $144 billion in services contracts.

But in the Trump administration’s fiscal 2019 budget released in February, the document that provides the most comprehensive information on services contracting was missing. The omission was spotted by specialists at the American Federation of Government Employees, who pointed out that last year’s submission carried more detail, while this year’s was limited to an “advisory and assistance services” document with simple line items.

“DOD has ignored the contract services budget requirement in its FY 2019 budget request,” the union said in a statement to Government Executive. “Instead, the department only submitted information on “Advisory and Assistance” contracts, which constitute a small fraction of one percent of overall DOD service contract spending. With the Trump Administration perceiving DOD as a piggy bank for non-Defense priorities, this continued lack of accountability for at least $144 billion per year in spending requires immediate congressional attention . . . to protect taxpayer dollars.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/defense/2018/03/pentagons-delayed-report-services-contracts-draws-union-ire/147098/

August 2, 2017 By cs

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

June 29, 2017 By cs

OMB ‘out of practice’ on competitive sourcing, adviser says

Preliminary moves by the White House to ease the moratorium on reviewing federal jobs for outsourcing under the guidelines in Circular A-76 have drawn some skepticism within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Linda Springer, President Trump’s senior adviser on management issues who recently announced her June 30 retirement, told reporters during a June 15 briefing on curbing agency reporting requirements that her “personal view is that OMB is out of practice in running those competitions [for whether the public or private sector should perform work]. Before undertaking it,” she said, “it would be better to do some educating.”

OMB Circular A-76, which dates to 1966 before being revised, outlines a “formal, complex, and often lengthy process for managing public-private competitions to perform functions for the federal government,” as a Congressional Research Service report phrased it.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/06/omb-out-practice-competitive-sourcing-adviser-says/138838

April 19, 2017 By cs

Little-noticed section of OMB’s reorg memo brings the real potential for change

Tucked into the Office of Management and Budget’s ambitious plan to reorganize and restructure the government is a significant and generally overlooked section on organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

But it’s this portion of the April 12, 2017 memo focusing on the mundane ideas of alternative delivery models, streamlining mission-support functions and leveraging existing solutions for common requirements that includes some of the most realistic and achievable goals. Ideas such as shared services, insourcing and outsourcing and the all-but-mandate to use existing multiple-award contracts instead of developing new ones are the types of initiatives that have the real potential to change and transform agencies and their mission areas.

“The memo was clearly written by knowledgeable insiders,” said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel for the Professional Services Council, an industry association. “The use of best-in-class contracts drawn from a prior version of the Circular on category management, the call for shared services and other examples are from people who know what they are talking about.”

Chvotkin said the memo also sends a specific message to agencies about how the Trump administration is starting to develop its management agenda.

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2017/04/little-noticed-section-ombs-reorg-memo-brings-real-potential-change/

January 10, 2017 By cs

It’s time to bury A-76 — It worked once, but its day is past

Last month, Government Executive’s Charlie Clark posited the question of whether, in a Trump Administration, public-private competitions under the policy and methodology known as A-76 would be or should be revived.

stan-soloway As the article demonstrated, opinions on the issue, which was for many years the focus of harsh, often bitter debate, have not changed much.

But mine has.

Despite having long been, and continuing to be, an outspoken advocate of expanding the use of competition to drive higher government performance and greater efficiency, I believe A-76’s time has passed and it would be wise to let this sleeping dog lie.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2017/01/its-time-bury-76it-worked-once-its-day-past/134305

The massive National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2018 contained language requiring the Pentagon to provide more detail on its spending plans for $144 billion in services contracts.

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.

Preliminary moves by the White House to ease the moratorium on reviewing federal jobs for outsourcing under the guidelines in Circular A-76 have drawn some skepticism within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Tucked into the Office of Management and Budget’s ambitious plan to reorganize and restructure the government is a significant and generally overlooked section on organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Last month, Government Executive’s Charlie Clark posited the question of whether, in a Trump Administration, public-private competitions under the policy and methodology known as A-76 would be or should be revived.

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