

formerfed
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Proposed Increases to Micro-Purchase, Simplified Acquisition, and Other Thresholds
formerfed commented on Koprince Law LLC's blog entry in SmallGovCon.com
@jamaal valentine, I think this answers most of your questions. The Councils typically receive a large number of comments and it’s easy to submit. Within the government it’s always a challenge for them to separate comments which reflect a specific agency position and individual agency employee comments. I would be surprised if they received much in the way of negative ones on this change. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/11/29/2024-27851/federal-acquisition-regulation-inflation-adjustment-of-acquisition-related-thresholds -
Funny but there are a few spots where it all looked too familiar Edit: you’ll probably have to click on the watch on YouTube button on the bottom left
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That’s awful news. I guess the cancer really took Bob by surprise. One of the founders of the company I worked for, Bob Welch, was the Procurement Executive at both Commerce and Treasury. He told me about Bob when we all worked in the government. He said Bob was the one of the very few audit types truly interested in improving the government. The rest were the “got you” types. He added Bob never did that and focused on what everything needs to do to make things better without pointing blame on anyone. Bob Welch’s comments were after Bob reviewed major acquisition programs at both agencies he was responsible for and he had nothing but total respect for him. Creating Wifcon was a perfect example of his wanting to make government better.
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A long time is spent on requirements development. So much, program offices are often reluctant to allow more time issuing draft RFPs or RFQs. Once they finish their part, they want to solicitation issues asap. We all know what happens next - lots of industry questions and associated government answers, multiple amendments with proposal submission due date extensions, and occassionally just scraping the solicitation and starting over. Your tool suggestion has merit. I believe it might work even better with getting industry and even other agencies buying similar items involved early. A preliminary or initial draft could be issued along with high level statements of what the acquisition is intended to accomplish. Responses would allow refinements of the documents and alert the government on conflicting or confusing language, requirements that restrict competition or even impossibility of performance, and suggestions for overall improvements. If this is done early on as part of planning, it shouldn’t produce any delay and might even save overall time.
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Requiring Program/Project Management training as part of COR certification is very beneficial for many large scale contracts. It’s also helpful for some acquisitions for 1102s. I heard a funny response from a senior official about requiring a dedicated COR. He said he will do that when he gets a dedicated contracting officer for his program.
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I was at the Patent and Trademarks Office years ago. We received waivers for much of the FAR. One of our proposed changes was use of FAR 36.6 type procedures to acquire professional services. Senior management backed off due to heavy opposition from small business advocates and organizations wanting to reduce waste and spending throughout the government. We never got a chance to talk to those people because once it turned political with Congress involved, it died. I’m not optimistic things would be any different now.
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You won’t find much specific guidance to help you. Here’s a DoD guide which provides an overall view of the process which may provide better insight. Read the section on solicitation and evaluation. https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/docs/guidebook/TAB A1 - DoD OT Guide JUL 2023_final.pdf Without knowing details of your particular acquisition, I say use common sense. Remember, the OT process is about giving the government access to the best industry sources. If your changed requirement can potentially be best satisfied by parties not currently under consideration, I would open it back up.
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Yes, a very large share
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Vendor's failure to submit final invoice
formerfed replied to Doug0464's topic in Contract Administration
I’ve read in several sources the new telephone “etiquette” is texting someone first to ask if it’s okay to call them and what’s a good time? I suppose this has carried over to businesses and unexpected phone calls come as a surprise. -
Vendor's failure to submit final invoice
formerfed replied to Doug0464's topic in Contract Administration
If this is being contemplated, I would also check with the Finance/Comptroller office. There are very few circumstances where payment is authorized without a proper invoice. I would be surprised if they made payment without one. -
We have the FAR. We have supplementing agency regulations. Then we have more detailed policies and procedures at a sub level which often adds delay from bureaucratic review and oversight processes. Much of these exist as knee jerk remedies or band-aid fixes to past contracting blunders. Senior management then implements new reviews, approvals, and controls to avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future. Eliminate needless policies and procedures at the agency/local. Empower contracting officers to make decisions without non value-added reviews and approvals. Hold contracting officers accountable. Reward those with demonstrated exceptional performance. Remove warrants from those with performance issues.
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Issue policy requiring discussions be conducted as the general rule, especially when selections are based up technical/price tradeoffs. Too much is being left on the table with both price and non-price issues by not discussing. Exceptions should be documented and approved at levels about the contracting officer.
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For whatever reasons, the 1102 workforce wants to copy ideas instead of tailoring plans and acquisition documents specific to individual needs. So how about a database of best practices, lessons learned, and new ideas? A central point to review, rate, and provide instructive comments like OFPP could ensure consistency and acceptability using pre-established criteria. Even those people that don’t blindly copy will benefit from seeing practices from others.
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@Vern Edwards Your old bosses suggestion is a great thing for all of us to keep in mind. That’s also the kind of boss everyone should have
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One of the functions of the company I worked for was reviewing the contracting function of agencies. Several engagements were at the request of senior management (two Deputy Secretaries, several Assistant Secretaries, and lots of CFOs). We conducted interviews and surveys of management including program offices. Like it or not, this theme in the above quote or some variation of it was almost always mentioned. In fairness, our interviews often showed a lack of understanding of contract rules by technical/program personnel. They don’t realize how tedious and cumbersome the process and viewed it as a rule based maze which they fail to comprehend. But in those cases where this theme wasn’t mentioned, we dug into reasons and found the surveyed personnel either received training from the contracting staff or had favorable working relationships in the past with contracting personnel that resulted in collaborative experiences. The unfortunate side though was the very common expression that contracting officers are a hurdle that needs to be overcome to get their mission needs met. Those contracting personnel were viewed as compliance focused and totally risk adverse in their actions with little or no regard to the program mission. I can imagine the reaction from those people faced with situations described in this example of possible ratifications when most would say they aren’t.
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I agree with Joel. It’s more like an administrative delay rather than a commitment because the contracting officer wasn’t available. The COR approved Phase 1 and sent a memo accepting the initial phase. CO direction, while needed, wasn’t available to ensure timely performance. It didn’t modify the contract, require additional funding, or change anything else.
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My answers: 1. The CO can authorize it. The contractor proceeded at risk and the COR overstepped their authority. But the CO isn’t faultless. The CO knew they would be out of touch doing this period and should have either made arrangements for another CO to approve, delegate one time authority to the COR, or found a way to stay in touch. It’s a case where the contractor proceeded without waiting for CO approval. 2. I would authorize it. But I would have all the parties present in a meeting to go over the mistakes made and especially let the contractor know how this made them financially vulnerable. It’s especially important for the COR and contractor to fully understand so there’s no repeat. [Edit: I would document the file explaining my rational and actions taken:]
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Treasury used a variation of this clause. It notified offerors/prospective contractors that Departmental approval was needed. That approval was annotated on the face page of award (SF 26, SF 33, or other documents) with a stamp signed by the Senior Procurement Executive and before contracting officer signature. This was before 9/11 and creation of Homeland Security. Treasury had law enforcement responsibilities (Customs, Secret Service, and ATF) and well as fiscal (Customs again, IRS, FLETC, Comptroller of Currency, Engraving and Printing, and Mint). The mission was diverse and some contract awards by the bureaus were controversial and surprised senior Treasury staff when they became aware. The approval process allowed senior management to become aware of these awards in advance.
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How to fix unauthorized approvals?
formerfed replied to Philistines's topic in Contract Administration
Thank you Vern for this logical and straightforward explanation. Makes perfect sense. -
Copied from a LinkedIn post
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Carl, you just beat me to it. I started to post something similar. The SOW and overall objectives of this effort are clearer once someone takes the time to read and understand. A shortcut on what’s involved is looking at the CLIN descriptions. I think the problem we all had here arises from a lack of clarity on the overall objectives and what you concluded by saying “the government was challenged and created a procurement the best they could.” This seems like the contracting people not really understanding technically what’s needed and vice versa. There are probably several ways to structure this contract and likely none are perfect. The issue really is about how to contractually acquire commercial vessels and support services and make it fit within contracting boundaries. If the solicitation provided a better explanation upfront, it would be easier to grasp. Also explaining the rational for both fixed price and cost reimbursable orders is beneficial along with grouping associated applicability of clauses - these clauses are applicable to FFP orders and these clauses are applicable to cost reimbursement orders. In the most simplistic terms, the government is acquiring marine vessels through a contractor and requires a variety of support services including maintenance, repairs, and alterations. What’s needed is a clear strategy that best communicates and accomplishes that for both government and industry. This example falls a little short in understanding at least.
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As an old timer, I can attest this is a perfectly legal action. 40 years ago we did a contract for an IT facility manager. The contractor acquired a large mainframe computer system for the government which became government property. The contractor acquired space, installed the computer system, and ran it using their own staff and subcontractors. We placed orders under the contract using a mix of fixed price, LH, and cost reimbursement types.
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Section 508 Compliance Supplementary Language
formerfed replied to Guardian's topic in About The Regulations
Ask the company what other agencies bought their software. Check with them too.