reporting | The Contracting Education Academy

May 8, 2020 By cs

GSA extends procurement data reports transition due to coronavirus, feedback

The General Services Administration (GSA) won’t require anyone to use the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) reports function within beta.SAM.gov until the end of 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

FPDS.gov tracks all federal contracts of $10,000 or more, and its reporting module uses transactional data from procurements in ad hoc, standard and static reports.

The Integrated Award Environment office at GSA began moving its reports function to beta.SAM.gov on Feb. 1 but is now calling it a soft launch.

“We want to require the FPDS reports by the end of this year,” said Vicky Niblett, deputy assistant commissioner at IAE, during an ACT-IAC virtual session. “I will say we had wanted to do it sooner, but with COVID-19 and what we heard from our users, we are now targeting a little bit closer to the end of the year.”

IAE learned it needs to give the contracting community more lead time into transitions because there is a “large” learning curve using the new ad hoc report tool, MicroStrategy (not to be confused with the business intelligence company). The migration to beta.SAM.gov’s Data Bank was slated for completion on March 16, but for now, FPDS.gov users can continue creating reports there — though they won’t transfer.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/gsa-fpds-reports-transition-extended/

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized. Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

December 13, 2019 By cs

New FAR rule expands counterfeit reporting obligations

The FAR Council has issued a Final Rule, setting forth new FAR provisions that require the reporting of certain counterfeit and suspect counterfeit parts and certain major or critical nonconformances to the Government-Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP).

This Final Rule comes more than five years after the rule was first proposed in the Federal Register in June 2014.

The FAR Council describes the Final Rule as “significantly de-scoped” from the version proposed in 2014, but it nonetheless constitutes a significant expansion of the existing counterfeit part reporting obligations, which to date have applied only to electronic parts under DOD contracts.

The new implementing clause is found at FAR 52.246-26.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2019/11/new-far-rule-expands-counterfeit-reporting-obligations/

September 4, 2019 By cs

DHS wants AI to improve the contract performance assessment reporting system

The Homeland Security Department (DHS) wants proofs or viable prototypes that demonstrate how artificial intelligence can support contracting officers as they conduct past performance evaluations and make effective use of data from the Contract Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS), according to a solicitation on the FedBizOpps website.

Run through the department’s commercial solutions opening pilot program to competitively procure innovative items, the solicitation was originally posted in early August but amended this week to include the government’s answers to submitted questions.

“An AI solution for CPARS may significantly assist contracting officers conducting past performance evaluations by identifying relevant past performance assessment records in a more accurate, consistent, faster and useful manner, reducing the administrative workload on contracting officers while increasing the quality of the outcome,” the solicitation states.

When selecting services over the simplified acquisition threshold, contracting officers are required to consider vendors’ past performance. CPARS is the central system federal officials use to collect and share contractor and vendor past performance information. But according to the solicitation, anecdotal evidence indicates that contracting officers face challenges trying to use the data for past performance evaluations, due primarily to the “volume of records and the inability to rapidly identify relevant reviews.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/08/dhs-wants-ai-improve-contract-performance-assessment-reporting-system/159418/

January 18, 2019 By AMK

Procurement director recommends regularly talking-up department’s accomplishments

Rockland County in suburban New York City has seen a big improvement in its fiscal health. Budgets in the county (2017 population: 328,868) have been quite tight.

“When I took office, the Comptroller’s Office listed Rockland as the most fiscally stressed county in the state. But in September, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released the 2017 Fiscal Stress Monitoring System report which showed Rockland County as now having ‘Moderate Stress,’ an incredible turn around,” says Rockland County Executive Ed Day.

The proposed 2019 Rockland County budget, which outlines $709,050,000 in planned spending, has been cut to the bone. County fiscal planners had to cut departmental budgets to deal with a $13 million budget gap. Costlier health insurance premiums, increased pay in labor contracts, higher interest payments on county bonds, increased spending to rebuild the county’s infrastructure and higher costs to pay for state-mandated programs helped contribute to the shortfall.

“We are seeing 2019 county operational budgets relatively flat. There are concerns regarding sales tax revenue, due to the tariffs and how they may affect pricing and consumer confidence,” Rockland County Director of Purchasing Paul Brennan tells Coop Solutions. Brennan is both a Certified Public Procurement Officer and a Fellow of the NIGP: The Institute for Public Procurement.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.americancityandcounty.com/2018/12/12/new-york-procurement-departments-staff-grows-despite-county-budget-cuts/

The General Services Administration (GSA) won’t require anyone to use the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) reports function within beta.SAM.gov until the end of 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The FAR Council has issued a Final Rule, setting forth new FAR provisions that require the reporting of certain counterfeit and suspect counterfeit parts and certain major or critical nonconformances to the Government-Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP).

Rockland County in suburban New York City has seen a big improvement in its fiscal health. Budgets in the county (2017 population: 328,868) have been quite tight.

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