recompete | The Contracting Education Academy

August 7, 2017 By AMK

Contract protests up, contract awards down — what to do?

Recent data indicates that protests have increased overall by approximately 17 percent since 2012, exceeded only by the decrease in government contract spending over that same time.

The resulting increase in pre-award costs derived from protests for all parties concerned requires a step back to analyze what is driving this not-so-encouraging trend, and what, if anything, should be done about it.

Most involved in government contracting today understand the recent trends of a declining overall market. Topping out at almost $600 billion a few years ago, the current federal budget has been squeezed by such things as the Budget Control Act of 2011, automatic budget sequestration, mandatory cuts, spending caps, and overall drawdown of U.S. military operations worldwide. Contractors are now competing for ever fewer dollars, as the government’s “mandatory” spending — in areas such as healthcare and retirement — continues to shrink the “discretionary” dollars available for everything else. This has resulted in many contractors leaving the federal market, either through mergers or simply going out of business, or diversifying into other business lines.

Keep reading this commentary at: http://www.federaltimes.com/opinions/2017/07/25/contract-protests-up-contract-awards-down-what-to-do-commentary/

December 26, 2012 By AMK

DHS to recompete online immigration contract

The Homeland Security Department will award contracts to multiple companies to fix a long-suffering program aimed at computerizing immigration paperwork, after a lackluster job by the current vendor, according to federal officials and internal memos.

The original five-year, $536,000 plan for “Transformation” has grown into a potentially two-decade effort that, officials told Nextgov, could cost more than $3 billion if not stopped. So far, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a DHS agency, has created one online form with the $792.6 million it has spent since contracting with system developer IBM in 2008. It is unclear how much of that sum went directly to IBM.

Keep reading this article at http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2012/12/dhs-recompete-online-immigration-program-crisis/60144/?oref=homeland_security_nl.

December 2, 2010 By AMK

More scrutiny for one company solicitation responses at DoD

Single offeror responses to Defense Department solicitations will come under more scrutiny following the Nov. 24 release of a memo from Shay Assad, director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy.

Effective immediately, Assad wrote (.pdf), if a contracting officer receives only one offeror response to a solicitation open for less than 30 days, then the officer must re-advertise the solicitation for an additional 30 days (unless a the head of the contracting shop grants a waiver).

If still just the one offeror responds–or if the original response period was for 30 days to begin with–then contracting officers are no longer allowed to make a fair and reasonable pricing finding based on a reasonable expectation that single offeror’ s price was made in the genuine belief of competition. Assad’s memo also prevents contracting officers from making a fair and reasonable pricing finding based on a comparison of the single offeror’s price to federal prices recently paid for similar items.

In technical terms, that means that Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 15.403-1(c)(1)(ii) or (iii) are inoperative for the Defense Department.

Instead, contracting officers must open negotiations with the single offeror on the basis of cost or pricing data, (whether certified or not), regardless of contract type. Contractors generally dislike allowing contracting officers to comb through their cost or pricing data, since the outcome generally means that contracting officers decide for themselves what the company’s profit rate should be.

Assad’s memo is a follow up to an earlier memo from Ashton Carter, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics, that first introduced the requirement for price negotiations in the case of a single offeror. Carter introduced the memo in the context of a Defense Department efficiency drive whose goal it is to find $100 billion of cost savings in overhead over the next five years.

For more:
– download the Nov. 24, 2010 memo on “Improving Competition in Defense Procurements”

— by David Perera – December 1, 2010 — Fierce Government IT

Read more: More scrutiny for one company solicitation responses at DoD – FierceGovernmentIT http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/more-scrutiny-one-company-solicitation-responses-dod/2010-12-01#ixzz1GaTelTdR
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Read more: More scrutiny for one company solicitation responses at DoD – FierceGovernmentIT: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/more-scrutiny-one-company-solicitation-responses-dod/2010-12-01#ixzz1GaSnEIvU
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September 17, 2010 By AMK

GSA may recompete HSPD-12 contract

General Services Administration officials are considering holding another competition for a contract related to Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 , a Bush-era mandate to improve security and reduce identity fraud, according to a new report.

The contract for HSPD-12 services should be recompeted because it didn’t fully comply with acquisition policy, GSA’s inspector general wrote in a report issued Sept. 13.

HSPD-12 establishes a mandatory, governmentwide standard for secure and reliable forms of identification for federal employees and contractors. GSA is the lead agency on the program.

Under the current structure of the HSPD-12 contract, GSA’s managed service office violated the agency’s policy by exceeding the contract’s ceiling, the report stated.

With a recompete, officials are considering options that include having customers buying and being billed directly. It would relieve the office in charge of HSPD-12 of managing funds, the report said.

Due to the problems, Steve Kempf, GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service commissioner, agreed with the IG’s recommendation.

In addition, HSPD-12’s business model and related interagency agreement violate a rule that allows an agency to spend a current year’s appropriations based on when it signs a contract. GSA officials told the IG they were working out an agreement to solve the problems.

The managed service office also violated governmentwide procurement policies because some office employees without contracting authority placed multiple customer agency orders, the IG said.

In their review, auditors could not find pricing information on 45 percent of more than 500 orders because the orders did not have a ceiling limit. GSA officials said they had revised the orders and have changed ordering policies, the report stated.

— by Matthew Weigelt – Sept. 17, 2010 – Federal Computer Week

Recent data indicates that protests have increased overall by approximately 17 percent since 2012, exceeded only by the decrease in government contract spending over that same time.

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