service contracts | The Contracting Education Academy

August 7, 2020 By cs

Frictionless acquisition means changing hearts and minds, not necessarily processes

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy’s new cross-agency priority goal isn’t about changing the acquisition rules or processes.

Instead, the goal of frictionless acquisition is about how contracting officers, program managers, industry and so many others view what it takes to buy a product or service.

Michael Wooten, the administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said frictionless acquisition is part of his plan to reduce complexity through leadership.

“We are really focused on reducing the time between when a person conjures up a need and when they get what they want,” Wooten said in an exclusive interview with Federal News Network. “We think the opportunities for friction are significant because of the scale and scope of the federal acquisition system, the complexity of our requirements can be mind boggling when you look at some of the systems under development, whether it’s the Defense or Energy departments or whomever, and then the myriad systems and processes that support this.”

As a result of this friction, Wooten said agencies, contractors and taxpayers are feeling the brunt through increased costs, increased time to market and decreased value.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition-policy/2020/07/frictionless-acquisition-means-changing-hearts-and-minds-not-necessarily-processes/

June 9, 2020 By cs

FAR’s ‘nondisplacement of qualified workers’ clause is finally getting the boot

Federal agencies will be issuing a final rule that will remove the infamous nondisplacement of qualified workers clause from the FAR.

The final rule went into effect June 5, 2020. Let’s take a look.

The new rule, issued May 6, 2020, implements Executive Order 13897, “Improving Federal Contractor Operations by Revoking Executive Order 13495” (published in the Federal Register on November 5, 2019, at 84 FR 59709), which Koprince Law LLC previously blogged about.

The prior Executive Order, through FAR 22.1207, implemented the nondisplacement of qualified workers requirement, which is currently found at FAR 52.222-17. This FAR clause applied to service contractors and their subcontractors and required that:

The Contractor and its subcontractors shall, except as otherwise provided herein, in good faith offer those service employees employed under the predecessor contract whose employment will be terminated as a result of award of this contract or the expiration of the contract under which the service employees were hired, a right of first refusal of employment under this contract in positions for which the service employees are qualified.

Though this requirement was implemented with good intentions, such as promoting the continuity of knowledge and experience while reducing unemployment during contractor transitions, it also placed substantial burdens on contractors pursuing and performing federal contracts.

Keep reading this article at: https://smallgovcon.com/statutes-and-regulations/the-fars-nondisplacement-of-qualified-workers-clause-is-finally-getting-the-boot/

April 10, 2018 By AMK

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/

October 23, 2017 By AMK

Defense acquisition workers seeing a new era in training

The Defense acquisition workforce may see a new era in training, recruiting and retainment as the Pentagon and military services change the way they view the value of their employees.

Both the Army and the Defense Department are making changes in how they evaluate and prioritize the experience and education of the acquisition workforce.

The Army recently released a directive focused on acquisition talent management.

“We want our people to have an appropriate set of experiences,” acting Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said of the directive during a speech last week at an Association of the United States Army conference in Washington. “We want our program managers and officers to have fellowships with industry, masters degrees within certain disciplines. It’s also about the tenures for people in program management. We’re looking at tours of three-to-four years, so more continuity and the right set of experiences so that they have a broader perspective than the ones we’ve had previously.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/contracting/2017/10/defense-acquisition-workers-seeing-a-new-era-in-training/

May 31, 2017 By AMK

LPTA: Still as hated as ever

Three years ago Washington Technology released a WT Insider Report on the impact of lowest price, technically acceptable contracts.

Those results were clear cut – folks hate LPTA. In fact, the report was called LPTA: A hate-hate relationship.

Washington Technology found very little redeeming qualities to LPTA.

Since that time there has been a lot of talk from the higher reaches of the procurement world that LPTA really should only be used when requirements can be very specifically and narrowly defined. In general, services contracts should not be competed as LPTA.

In the past few months, Washington Technology embarked on an update of the 2014 study to see if LPTA was waning as a force in the market place.

The news is not good. This latest report is called LPTA: The hate continues.

Keep reading this article at: https://washingtontechnology.com/blogs/editors-notebook/2017/05/lpta-special-report.aspx

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy’s new cross-agency priority goal isn’t about changing the acquisition rules or processes.

Federal agencies will be issuing a final rule that will remove the infamous nondisplacement of qualified workers clause from the FAR.

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.

The Defense acquisition workforce may see a new era in training, recruiting and retainment as the Pentagon and military services change the way they view the value of their employees.

Three years ago Washington Technology released a WT Insider Report on the impact of lowest price, technically acceptable contracts.

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