sustainability | The Contracting Education Academy

January 25, 2013 By AMK

Pentagon leaders continue push against sequestration

With the revised deadline for preventing automatic spending cuts only six weeks away, the Defense Department continues its pleas to Congress to come up with a new budget deal because national security readiness “is at a tipping point.”

On Tuesday, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said reluctant preparations for sequestration are a drag on the department. “We’re investing a great number of manhours, resources and intensive planning for sequestration, which we, of course, hope to avoid,” he said.

“When you have [forward deployed] service members who are asking about appropriations, that’s a signal to me that [it’s] weighing on their minds,” Little said. When sequestration, continuing resolutions and appropriations become discussion points in Kabul, Vicenza or on Okinawa, that is a sign the debate in Washington is having a negative effect on troop morale, he continued. He said that his own level of awareness has increased with service members’ worries about their families, benefits and ability to complete their mission.

The seven members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently sent a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and other congressional defense and appropriations leaders. “We are on the brink of creating a hollow force due to an unprecedented convergence of budget conditions and legislation,” they wrote. “Troops on the front lines will receive the support they need, but the rest of the force will be compromised.” That could include grounding aircraft, returning ships to port and stopping the driving of combat vehicles for training.

“We are now planning for the potential to furlough up to nearly 800,000 defense civilians who are essential to critical functions like maintenance, intelligence, logistics, contracting and health care,” they said.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/defense/2013/01/pentagon-leaders-continue-push-against-sequestration/60825/?oref=national_defense_nl.

May 9, 2012 By AMK

GSA dangled tax break before contractors, but asked for a piece

For seven months in 2011, the General Services Administration offered to give a tax break to contractors that made federal buildings more energy efficient. The agency, however, wanted a little something in return, the Associated Press reported on May 3rd.

From May 18 to Dec. 23, GSA told contractors they would receive a tax deduction for environmentally friendly building enhancements, but only if they qualified and wrote the agency a check for 19 percent of the value, according to AP. The offer raised concern on Capitol Hill over whether it is legal for GSA to try to raise money without congressional approval.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com//contracting/2012/05/gsa-dangled-tax-break-contractors-asked-piece/55588/.

April 12, 2012 By AMK

Suspension and debarment often misunderstood, contractors told

Though viewed by industry as a punishment, the government’s suspension and debarment procedure for errant contractors is designed to be an “instantaneous” way to protect taxpayers from irresponsible spending, a panel of procurement officials agreed on Thursday. They parted company, however, on whether the current rules afford sufficient due process to affected companies.

Speaking at the first Acquisition Excellence conference staged jointly by the General Services Administration and the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council, current and former procurement officials expressed concern that suspension and debarment has become “a hot topic” in Congress. Government Executive was one of four media partners for the conference.

It’s being used to go after “bad actors in all sorts of endeavors, from failure to pay taxes to fraud convictions,” said William Woods, director of acquisition and sourcing management at the Government Accountability Office, which in October 2011 published a study comparing frequency of suspensions and departments at 10 agencies. Most of the contractors tagged as suspended on GSA’s Excluded Parties List System are there for reasons unrelated to federal contracting such as drug trafficking or violations of export controls, he said.

Seven of the fiscal 2012 appropriations bills contained language requiring use of suspensions and debarments, added Rob Burton, a top White House procurement administrator during the George W. Bush administration and now a partner at Venable LLP. But the purpose of suspension and debarment is “not complicated,” said Dan Gordon, former administrator of procurement policy for the Obama White House who is now associate dean for government contracts law at The George Washington University Law School. “The purpose is to protect the taxpayers, not to replace or supplement the Justice Department’s administration of justice — they take care of the bad guys,” he said. Gordon warned that many misread the GAO report to imply that the more an agency suspends and debars, the better, as if “what this country needs is to hang more contractors high from a tree.”

What the process requires is “a matter of checking, of being careful,” Gordon said. “The system works pretty well,” and doesn’t require new legislation or regulation. The interagency committee on suspension and debarment can help by sharing best practices among specialized staff at agencies, he added.

Burton disagreed, calling the current regulations “flawed in a fundamental way because they allow for no due process.” He described how his private sector clients can suddenly receive a letter informing them they can’t do business with the federal government and “they get no opportunity to present their own information or defend themselves.” He added the current rules “would not pass constitutional muster.”

Joseph Neurauter, GSA’s top suspension and debarment official, stressed that the tool is not intended as punishment for contractors, though he acknowledged it can jeopardize an individual’s job. “It’s about minimizing risk for the federal government,” which is why the suspension is “instantaneous,” he said. His job is to view the problem from the point of view of agency acquisitions teams, Neurauter added. But he does regularly send letters to individuals who are suspended and invite them to meet informally and “show cause” as to why they should regain eligibility for government contracts.

Asked about new legislation that would impose suspension and debarment consideration for war zone contractors involved in human trafficking, Woods said “that’s a policy call for Congress.” Gordon said he is “always concerned when Congress sets up an automatic system of suspension and debarment because it undercuts the process by precluding discretion by officials looking at the full picture.”

At other sessions of the all-day conference that assembled several hundred federal employees and contractors at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, GSA chief Martha Johnson opened proceedings by stressing the value of sustainability as a key to reframing procurement in an age of limited budgets. A related session was titled, Sustainable Acquisition: Is It a Dream or Is It Real?

At lunch, Lesley Field, acting White House administrator for federal procurement policy, and colleagues presented achievement awards to federal contracting professionals in categories of buying smarter, effective vendor communication and strategic sourcing.

In a nod to the challenge of preparing the next generation of acquisition officers, Steve Ressler, founder of the social networking tool GovLoop, moderated a panel of young federal contract specialists from several agencies who are in the Rising Acquisition Professionals program. It was set up in 2010 by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the Federal Acquisition Institute.

Other sessions focused on how tight budgets are affecting ongoing relationships among agency contracting officers, program managers and industry. Speakers stressed the importance of engagement and dialogue early in the acquisition process, and many complained that too many agency staff members are fearful of tapping the expertise of contractors for fear of violating the Federal Acquisition Regulation and favoring one potential bidder over others, possibly provoking a bid protest.

“Government and industry too often talk past each other on early engagement,” said Mark Day, director of the Office of Strategic Programs at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service. “Government asks the wrong questions, asking about prices before we know the cost drives, and then they write requirements that drive costs up.” Contractors, in turn, too often target the title not the role, Day added, and he recommended they talk to the official actually writing the requirements. “Early engagement is a mystery to the government side, and they’re scared of it,” Day said. “But it is an opportunity to find the sweet spot between what the government needs, what the contractor can provide and what the FAR allows.”

— by Charles S. Clark, Government Executive, Mar. 30, 2012 at http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2012/03/suspension-and-debarment-often-misunderstood-contractors-told/41638/.

August 4, 2011 By AMK

Understanding key benefits of GSA’s IT Schedule 70

The General Services Administration’s IT Schedule 70 is the government’s go-to source for IT acquisitions and is broadly recognized for its benefits of cost savings, time savings, selection, and built-in value. IT Schedule 70 is organizationally positioned under GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) and Office of Integrated Technology Services (ITS).

The efficiencies associated with purchasing information technology via the pre-existing, pre-competed GSA IT Schedule 70 save both time and money for government customers. To confirm these benefits, GSA is examining the time it takes a government entity to award its own full and open contract, using products and services readily available from GSA. After a review of over 700 contracts, findings indicate that large-value IT contracts take 25 months to complete on average. This timeframe is well over the average of IT Schedule 70 contacts. Further, in 77 percent of the 700 contracts examined, contract awards were ultimately made to vendors that already hold existing IT contracts.

What is IT Schedule 70?

IT Schedule 70 is an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract. It is an IT procurement vehicle that offers a comprehensive array of state-of-the-art IT products, services, and solutions. Approximately 80 percent of IT Schedule 70 contract holders are small businesses. Recently, this contract vehicle has been used primarily for service-oriented procurement offerings. Services made up more than $11 billion of the contract vehicle’s $16.2 billion in FY2010 sales.

Today, IT Schedule 70 is the largest procurement vehicle and the most widely-used acquisition offering in the federal government. Nearly one-third of all MAS contractors are available through IT Schedule 70’s Special Item Numbers (SINs). Considered ‘Evergreen’, IT Schedule 70 contracts contain a five-year base period, plus three five-year option periods.

Federal, state, local, and tribal government customers should consider utilizing GSA’s IT Schedule 70 to optimize the planning and procurement process and leveraging GSA’s suite of e-Tools that facilitate market research and offer automated purchasing capabilities. Cost savings are also generated via pre-negotiated ceiling prices that provide significant discounts from commercial pricing and serve as a starting point for head-to-head competition or further negotiations.

Finally, GSA IT Schedule 70 offers customers both online and in-person training, providing the assistance and support they need to complete the often complex IT purchasing process.

Why IT Schedule 70?

GSA uses IT Schedule 70 to deliver a full range of IT solutions including hardware, software, maintenance, network services, cybersecurity, professional IT services, and more. Key benefits include:

Ease of Use – Simplified online ordering and use of Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs).

Built-in Value – Nationwide network of resources, including complimentary e-Tools, extensive training opportunities, and responsive regional GSA representatives.

Safe-harbor – Assistance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) compliance.

Variety – Access to 5,000 industry suppliers, providing millions of products and services.

Teaming – Contractor Team Arrangements (CTAs) allowing industry partners to collaborate and offer a total solution to meet specific customer requirements.

Strategic, Customer-Centric Solutions For the Future

Similar to other government agencies, GSA is working diligently to meet the current government mandates, including the green initiatives of Executive Order 13514. IT Schedule 70 is moving to expand electronic contracting, increase sustainability, and achieve GSA’s green IT goals, explained Patricia Waddell, Deputy Director for the Center for IT Schedule Business Programs. Pilot testing of the electronic contracting system is gaining momentum in the organization and yielding positive results. The online contracting system is expected to be fully functional in FY2012.

Another key green IT initiative, according to Waddell, is GSA’s 15 telepresence centers located across the country. The centers are not just for GSA employees, as all agencies can use the centers towards improving telework capabilities, reduce travel expenses, increase sustainability, and connect to other agencies and businesses. “Current offerings such as the telepresence centers and webinars will decrease travel expenses,” Waddell said.

GSA is expected to expand IT Schedule 70’s role in improving cybersecurity for agency customers. IT Schedule 70 is currently assisting federal, state, local, and tribal governments in the procurement of cybersecurity, information assurance, and privacy (CIAP) project products and the authentication of critical infrastructure. To be most effective, the Center for Information Assurance and Identity Management (CIAIM) is listening to GSA customers about their needs and requirements and how GSA can best provide services to meet the growing demands for cybersecurity, information assurance (IA), and privacy. GSA is building “a new foundation for how to acquire cybersecurity products and services within the IT Schedule 70 SmartBUY program,” according to Shondrea Lyublanovits, Director of GSA’s Security Services Division. Lyublanovits is responsible for IA and the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) initiative, as well as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

According to Lyublanovits, GSA is anticipating the launch of a FedRAMP BPA, which is expected to make migrating to cloud computing easier and more secure. Federal agencies should look forward to other enhancements as well. “Securing the critical infrastructure of the federal government is of paramount importance to us. GSA wants to be the lead for all agencies in the procurement of all products and services, but we know this can only be achieved with the proper amount of awareness and security risk mitigation,” Lyublanovits explained.

Stanley Kaczmarczyk, Deputy Director in the Center of Strategic Solutions and Security Services for GSA heads the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) identification card program. Under a contract on IT Schedule 70, Kaczmarczyk’s group offers a managed services program that helps 18 federal agencies issue HSPD-12 compliant ID cards for employees and contractors nationwide. In total, about 90 federal entities, including the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Small Business Administration, among others are served by this program, which now has 450,000 active card holders. “The agencies contract with us, and we provide the web-based program to them to allow them to enroll employees and contractors for these HSPD-compliant ID cards,” Kaczmarczyk explained.

In February, the OMB ordered agencies to add physical and logical access systems on these ID cards, he said. GSA is building new managed services now that will help agencies comply with this latest OMB requirement as well.

Ultimately, IT Schedule 70 offers an enormous opportunity for government agencies to fully leverage GSA’s existing products and services to create substantial savings for their agencies and for government as a whole. In the future, Steven Kempf, Commissioner for GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said in his congressional testimony in March, “our focus will be on continuing to align our contracts to customer needs and focus on leveraging capabilities across the enterprise to develop, highlight, and deliver strategic offerings like cloud computing services, cybersecurity products and services, and data center services. We will expand our comprehensive suite of sustainable IT products and services, like telepresence, while leveraging the government’s purchasing power to promote environmentally responsible products and technologies, and continue to provide leading edge solutions to enable agencies to comply with the Administration’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiatives (CNCI).”

Undoubtedly, sustainability, cybersecurity, and cloud computing will all play greater roles in the future as part of GSA’s overall procurement strategy to assist government customers in their IT modernization goals.

— This report was commissioned by the Content Solutions unit, an independent editorial arm of 1105 Government Information Group, originally published at http://gcn.com/microsites/2011/gsa-schedule/2-introduction.aspx and at http://gcn.com/microsites/2011/gsa-schedule/5-strategic-customer-centric-solutions-future.aspx.

June 29, 2011 By AMK

Small business grows green manufacturing jobs

All across America, GSA is seeing great examples of entrepreneurship and innovation, even though we’re facing some of the toughest economic times we’ve experienced since the Great Depression. Seeing this occur in the manufacturing sector is especially exciting because maintaining our competitiveness in this area will help move our economy forward!

Yesterday, I had the privilege of seeing this first-hand at a company called Okabashi, a flip-flop manufacturer in Buford, Georgia that utilizes a manufacturing process that is virtually 100 percent waste-free – closed loop recycling. In addition to diverting thousands of flip-flops from landfills and shorelines, the company produces sustainable flip-flops that are 100 percent recyclable and made of at least 25 percent recycled materials. Okabashi is also committed to reusing or recycling 100 percent of its manufacturing waste, and 100,000 shoes are reground each year. Additionally, the 2 percent of Okabashi materials that cannot be reused for shoes is diverted to other companies to make industrial mats and roofing materials.

On top of its leadership in sustainability, Okabashi is committed to keeping its manufacturing and distribution functions right here in the United States. As President Obama said in his remarks at Alcoa’s aerospace plant recently, “we have to make things right here in America.” And Okabashi is doing just that. In fact, Okabashi, a small business on Main Street, employs approximately 60 people and, depending on the season, their workforce can grow to more than 200 people. Not only are these jobs good middle class jobs, they’re also green jobs. On top of that, Okabashi is exporting its shoes to 16 different countries, which, as the President has said time and time again, is critical to America achieving sustainable economic growth.

They’ve also undertaken efforts to leverage their supply chain to minimize the company’s impact on the environment, a goal that is close to our hearts at GSA, an agency that is committed to achieving a zero environmental footprint. GSA is leveraging its buying power to do the same thing, especially with respect to meeting its obligations under the Sustainability Executive Order.

During my visit, my team and I toured the manufacturing operations and met with management and other employees. We engaged in a productive conversation about how we can help small businesses create good middle class and green manufacturing jobs. Personally, this experience hit close to home, because the founder fled Iran during the Revolution. Even though he and his family lost everything, he tapped into that entrepreneurial spirit that made him successful before to start a small business in Georgia. With hard work, he created a successful and innovative manufacturing company that has created many jobs in Georgia. I happen to be the son of an Indian immigrant small business owner, so I fully appreciate the sacrifices that Okabashi’s founder made to realize the American Dream and contribute to the economic and social fabrics of America.

At GSA we are committed to assisting our customers with their real estate, procurement, fleet and other needs so they can focus on their core mission. In order for us to do that, we need more green companies like Okabashi providing goods and services to our federal customers. Not only will this ensure that we can help our customers meet their sustainability goals, it will also enable us to accomplish our mission to make government work better for the American people through our commitment to sustainability.

So to all the other small businesses out there, we will continue to have conversations with you about what we can do to harness your energy, talent and ideas – so that we can win the future by out-educating, out-innovating, and out-building our competitors. It’s important to GSA because, as the business, real estate and fleet arms of the federal government, we need your business so that our customers will have the goods and services they need to keep our country safe, dispense justice, inspect mines, keep our environment clean, administer social security benefits, adjudicate claims, address poverty and perform other important duties that are appreciated by the American people.

— Posted by Shyam Reddy, Regional Administrator, GSA Southeast Sunbelt Region on June 29th, 2011 at http://gsablogs.gsa.gov/gsablog/category/small-business/

What is IT Schedule 70?

Why IT Schedule 70?

Search this Website