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Why OMB is ushering us into the second golden age of acquisition

Welcome to the second golden age of federal acquisition reform.

The frustration and the technology are aligning for the Trump administration, the Congress and industry to come together to make the first set of significant, almost seismic changes since the 1990s.

“We are in that rare moment when we have the combination of factors, the customer demand for speed and agility, the congressional receptiveness for acquisition reform legislation, the strong push from OFPP on the importance of  innovation such as their creation of acquisition innovation councils, category management memos and the myth busters four memo and strong actions from a number of agencies really propelling acquisition innovation,” said Jeff Koses, the senior procurement executive at the General Services Administration, at the Coalition for Government Procurement’s spring conference in Falls Church, Virginia. “Across GSA we have a number of things that I regard as innovation plays in contracting and policy domain, in the communication domain and in the technology domain.”

To that end, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy sent six legislative proposals to Congress at the end of April to clean up a few things, but more importantly to ask for permission to test and spread innovative acquisition concepts across government.

Keep reading article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2019/05/why-omb-is-ushering-us-into-the-second-golden-age-of-acquisition-reform/

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VA doesn’t waste time in implementing Supreme Court decision

The Veterans Affairs Department acted unusually quickly to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s “rule of two” decision in the Kingdomware case.

VA-LogoSo much so that it both surprised observers and had them wondering if VA was acting too hastily.

VA issued new acquisition regulations July 25, just more than a month after the decision, which found VA’s interpretation of a law requiring the agency to set-aside all procurements if at least two veteran-owned small businesses are qualified was flawed. The nation’s highest court reversed the lower court’s decision on June 16 by an 8-0 vote, finding VA must use the “rule of two” for supply schedule contracts even if it has met its statutory contracting goals.

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2016/08/va-doesnt-waste-time-implementing-supreme-court-decision/

See the VA’s new rules here.

See the VA’s “decision tree” for following the Rule of Two here.

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GAO finds agencies need guidance on use of reverse auctions

In a study released on December 11, 2013, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the potential benefits of reverse auctions–competition and savings–have not been maximized by federal agencies.

Key findings include:

 

  • Over one-third of fiscal year 2012 reverse auctions had no interactive bidding, where vendors bid against each other to drive prices lower.
  • Almost half of the reverse auctions were used to obtain items from pre-existing contracts that in some cases resulted in agencies paying two fees–one to use the contract and one to use the reverse auction contractor’s services.
  • There is a lack of comprehensive government-wide guidance and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), which is the primary document for publishing uniform policies and procedures related to federal acquisitions, does not specifically address reverse auctions. As a result, confusion exists about their use and agencies may be limited in their ability to maximize the potential benefits of reverse auctions.

The Departments of the Army, Homeland Security, the Interior, and Veterans Affairs used reverse auctions to acquire predominantly commercial items and services–primarily for information technology products and medical equipment and supplies–although the mix of products and services varied among agencies. Most–but not all–of the auctions resulted in contracts with relatively small dollar value awards–typically $150,000 or less–and a high rate of awards to small businesses. The four agencies steadily increased their use of reverse auctions from fiscal years 2008 through 2012, with about $828 million in contract awards in 2012 alone. GAO was not able to analyze data from a fifth agency, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), because it collected only summary level information during fiscal year 2012. DLA guidance states that the reverse auction pricing tool should be used for all competitive purchases over $150,000.

Four agencies used the same commercial service provider to conduct their reverse auctions and paid a variable fee for this service, which was no more than 3 percent of the winning bid amount. DLA conducts its own auctions through a purchased license. Regardless of the method used, according to agency officials, contracting officers are still responsible for following established contracting procedures when using reverse auctions.

More details on this GAO study may be found at: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-14-108

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