Jump to content

Jonfucius

Members
  • Posts

    34
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

0 Neutral

About Jonfucius

  • Birthday March 25

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Arlington, VA

Recent Profile Visitors

3,182 profile views
  1. My agency has been 100% teleworking since on/about St Patrick's Day. In that time, we've stood up a pilot for Slack, and been invited to use the Commercial Virtual Remote Environment (CVR), which is DoD's implementation of Microsoft Teams. My agency doesn't do MDAP/MAIS programs, mostly services, supplies, construction, assistance awards, and OTAs. We've been so successful at our telework implementation that our SES is talking about reducing office footprint, and letting employees move out of the NCR and remain employed with the agency. My productivity has remained about the same. In terms of system access, we have a reliable VPN connection, Citrix, VMware Horizon, MobiKeys, you name it. Our financials are all online behind CAC-enabled websites, and we are required to use only secured Wi-Fi connections, so the level of security is roughly the same remotely versus in the office. The only major degradation I've noticed since being a full-time teleworker the last two months has been with our contract writing system (PD2), which is somewhat slower, but it hasn't impacted our agency's mission. My agency has even started moving to all-electronic source selections, which involve encrypted E-mail and CAC-required websites for access to procurement-sensitive information. I'm about to have my first virtual source selection, so I will try to remember to update this form with my experiences.
  2. Based on my experience with PD2, it won't like anything that has a lot of formatting. My agency's PD2 install defaults to single-spaced 10pt Times New Roman, and throws fits when anything other than plain text (in that format) is added to an Add Text or fill-in clause. Wish I could help, as I'm usually able to bend PD2 to my will.
  3. Joel, I've thought about buying the latest editions of the Cibinic & Nash series, but the cost investment was too great - so thank you for the tip about university bookstores! My former colleague left them behind by mistake, but upon further reflection, I do recall my colleague saying he had already acquired the newest editions, and that I was free to have his copies of the previous versions.
  4. Joel, Ah, understood. I would agree that the Reference Book might not always be the best source for definitions when it comes to understanding industry terminology.
  5. Joel, Are you referring to the departure of my colleague?
  6. Another highly useful reference book is The Government Contracts Reference Book (currently in its 4th Edition) by Nash, O'Brien-DeBakey, and Schooner. Put very simply, think of it as a combination dictionary and thesaurus tailored for Government contracting. I use the Reference Book and Administration quite frequently in my day-to-day. I lucked into (older, but still useful) copies of Administration and Formation of Government Contracts (also by Nash and other contributors) when a colleague left my agency and no longer wanted those tomes.
  7. Mr. Edwards - I was under the impression that directed subcontracting was impermissible, since the Government does not have privity of contract with the sub. I'm not looking to start an argument; rather, this would be for my professional interest. I had an issue similar to the OP's a few months ago.
  8. I credit my CON 090 professors for making us memorize the titles and corresponding numbers to all 53 parts of the FAR. When I started, I just scanned through all 53 parts until I found what I wanted. After CON 090, even if I didn't know the exact subpart, I knew I could find IDIQs under 16, negotiated contracts at 15, small business programs at 19, foreign acquisitions at 25, and so on.
  9. I appreciate that they added more prominent links to SAM, eSRS, and other systems. My go-to for the regs remains the Hill AFB FARSite. The barebones design (obviously intended for 56k dial-up or early broadband connections) loads almost instantly, which is appreciated in a crunch.
  10. Not sure if this example is applicable to your situation, but... I had a requirement once upon a time for a specialized (but commercial) item, and it would be evaluated using LPTA. The estimated value was well below the SAT. The requirement package called for certain specs; in other words, the customer wanted a brand-name item. I explained to them why we can't just buy a brand-name item whenever we want one, and why pursuing that route would extend the lead time. The customer agreed to a brand name or equal solicitation using salient characteristics, and I got a number of offers in reply. The winning offer was of course the lowest-priced offer (which led to significant savings on the IGCE), and they actually offered the exact model the customer wanted in the first place. I sent their offer to the program office/user for technical evaluation, and got an explicit statement that the offer was technically acceptable. My supervisor signed off on the contract, and away we went. Once the item was delivered, the customer began harassing contacting me on a regular basis, claiming the item I procured was not what they asked for. The customer apparently wanted a "nice-to-have" accessory, but it was not defined anywhere in the salient characteristics. This accessory would have increased the cost of the procurement, but we would have still been under budget and the provided funding. I asked the customer to explain how that could be, since they saw the offer (pricing redacted due to office policy, but otherwise the exact offer the winning vendor sent me), and that (prior to award) they affirmed that the offer was technically acceptable. This went on for months, and it took my supervisor threatening to report the customer to their supervisor for them to stop asking me about it. I must have sent the customer the RFQ I issued (including the customer's salient characteristics), the redacted offer, and their technical evaluation three times during that span! I guess the moral of the story is: LPTA is great, but you better have your requirements well-defined. If there's a "nice-to-have" addition you want, don't assume the contractor will throw it in gratis. We all know what happens when you assume
  11. Mr. Edwards' post #19 reminded me of a certain scene from MASH (the film).
  12. Vern: Thank you for the clarification. I've been going through the FAR Matrix to find clauses that may apply to this IDIQ; once the first round is done, I intend to scan through the prescriptions and remove any that would not even remotely apply in this specific instance (obviously leaving any required clauses in place). My contracting office uses SPS/PD2, but the clause logic system on it is notoriously finicky and not always up-to-date, and DPAP's Clause Logic Service does not appear to have been updated in several months. Retread: thank you for posting in reply to my question, but I think Vern covered my concerns before I had a chance to reply to you. Cheers!
  13. I am helping a colleague put together a solicitation for a commercial IDIQ solicitation. Specifically, I have been tasked with putting together the clauses and provisions for the solicitation. FAR Subpart 12.3 is somewhat misleading (or, I am not reading it correctly, which is entirely possible) on the subject of using clauses and provisions other than the five 52.212 clauses/provisions. I am fully aware that clauses such as 52.216-19 and -22 can and should apply; however, I'm fuzzy on the other clauses that could apply (that is, "required when applicable") in an IDIQ situation. If this topic has been addressed somewhere other than this designated forum, please feel free to post the link and delete this topic. Thank you!
  14. jj - Thanks for the example. Joel - I'll look into omitted clauses, thank you!
×
×
  • Create New...