Schedule | The Contracting Education Academy

August 8, 2018 By AMK

Navy’s top acquisition priority stumbles out of the gate

The U.S. Navy’s $122.3 billion Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program is off to an inauspicious start after faulty welding was discovered in several missile tubes destined for both the Columbia and Virginia-class programs, as well as the United Kingdom’s follow-on SSBN program.

**The future ballistic missile submarine Columbia, the lead boat in the next generation of nuclear missile boats.** (drawing courtesy of US Navy)

In all, 12 missile tubes manufactured by BWXT, Inc., are being scrutinized for substandard welds. Seven of the 12 had been delivered to prime contractor General Dynamics Electric Boat and were in various stages of outfitting, and five were still under construction. The Navy and Electric Boat have launched an investigation, according to a statement from Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman Bill Couch.

“All BWXT welding requiring volumetric inspection has been halted until the investigation is complete,” Couch said.

The bad welds came to light after discrepancies were discovered with the equipment BWXT used to test the welds before shipping them to GDEB, according to a source familiar with the issue.

The discovery of a significant quality control issue at the very outset of fabrication of Columbia injects uncertainty in a program that already has little room for delays. The issue is made even more troubling because it arises from a vendor with an excellent reputation, and raises questions about whether the Navy can deliver Columbia on time, something the Navy says is vital to ensuring continuous nuclear deterrent patrols as the Ohio class reaches the end of its service life.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2018/08/06/the-us-navys-top-acquisition-priority-stumbles-out-of-the-gate-after-bad-welds-discovered-in-missile-tubes/

March 2, 2017 By AMK

Evaluation of subcontractor past performance not required for FSS procurements

For Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) procurements, agencies are not required to evaluate past performance references of subcontractors, unless the solicitation provides otherwise.

As one offeror recently discovered in Atlantic Systems Group, Inc., B-413901 (Jan. 9, 2017), unlike negotiated procurements, where agencies “should” evaluate the past performance of subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the contract, offerors bidding under FSS solicitations should not assume that a subcontractor’s past performance will be considered.

Atlantic Systems involved a solicitation for technical, engineering, management, operation, logistical, and administrative support for the Department of Education’s cybersecurity risk management program. The solicitation was set aside for SDVOSB concerns that held Schedule 70 contracts.

Pursuant to the solicitation, offerors were to be evaluated for both corporate experience and past performance. In order to enable the agency to conduct the past performance/experience evaluation, each “offeror” was to provide evidence of the experience “of the organization” with similar projects or contracts.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/gaobidprotests/evaluation-of-subcontractor-past-performance-not-required-for-fss-procurements/

September 21, 2016 By AMK

GSA in a ‘sprint’ to offer new cybersecurity contracts

Agencies will be able to buy specialized cybersecurity tools and services in the areas of incident response, penetration testing, cyber hunt, and risk and vulnerability assessments beginning Oct. 1.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is sprinting to launch four new categories of specialized cybersecurity offerings for agency purchase Oct. 1 on the government’s largest IT services acquisition vehicle.

Named the IT Schedule 70 Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services special item numbers, the new categories will focus on cyber offerings in the areas of incident response, penetration testing, cyber hunt, and risk and vulnerability assessments. Under the new special item numbers, or SINs, agencies will gain greater insight into and can differentiate what cybersecurity services they’re buying from contractors.

Keep reading this article at: http://fedscoop.com/gsa-in-a-sprint-to-offer-new-cybersecurity-contracts

July 12, 2016 By AMK

GSA finalizes major update to acquisition policy

Nearly a decade after a panel of experts recommended major changes to the way the government buys services, the General Services Administration (GSA) is going through with two significant updates.

GSA released the final data transaction reporting rule June 23 creating a requirement for government contractors to submit information about transactions through the schedule contracts and those governmentwide acquisition contracts run by the agency.

The agency says transactional data refers to the information generated when the government purchases goods or services from a vendor. It includes specific details such as descriptions, part numbers, quantities and prices paid for the items purchased.

In that final rule, which has been in the works for more than a year and has been drawn the ire of many vendors, GSA says “vendors will no longer be subject to the existing requirements for Commercial Sales Practices (CSP) disclosures and Price Reductions clause (PRC) basis of award monitoring, resulting in a substantial burden reduction.”

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition-policy/2016/06/gsa-finalizes-major-update-acquisition-policy/

February 5, 2016 By AMK

GSA takes the easy way out to solve contracting challenge

The General Services Administration’s choice to create a blanket purchase agreement for Salesforce cloud integration and support services on the surface seems logical.

It’s a widely used platform — according to a simple search on USASpending.gov website there have been 227 contracts worth more than $61 million since fiscal 2011— and one that needs more structure and control across government.

“The marketplace for Salesforce implementation and integration services was fragmented and had some disparity in there,” said David Shive, GSA’s chief information officer during a press call on Jan. 20. “When we looked, we saw there were no established quality standards for Salesforce development. We saw there were inexperienced vendors that were winning with new Salesforce customers, but sometimes had some dubious results coming out from those inexperienced vendors. We saw there was inconsistent delivery of code and configuration from agency to agency. There was failed implementations that was negatively impacting adoption of the tools and the processes surrounding those tools. And we saw that some vendors were rebuilding the same apps for the same agency and were developing closed systems in an otherwise open environment.”

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2016/01/gsa-takes-easy-way-solve-contracting-challenge/

The U.S. Navy’s $122.3 billion Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program is off to an inauspicious start after faulty welding was discovered in several missile tubes destined for both the Columbia and Virginia-class programs, as well as the United Kingdom’s follow-on SSBN program.

For Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) procurements, agencies are not required to evaluate past performance references of subcontractors, unless the solicitation provides otherwise.

Agencies will be able to buy specialized cybersecurity tools and services in the areas of incident response, penetration testing, cyber hunt, and risk and vulnerability assessments beginning Oct. 1.

Nearly a decade after a panel of experts recommended major changes to the way the government buys services, the General Services Administration (GSA) is going through with two significant updates.

The General Services Administration’s choice to create a blanket purchase agreement for Salesforce cloud integration and support services on the surface seems logical.

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