State contracts are undergoing big changes as agile development takes root.
Source: Agile Acquisitions: Rethinking Public-Sector Purchasing
The Anti-Deficiency Act is not something that Government contractors need to worry about but contractors, subcontractors, and grantees have most certainly heard of it and perhaps have felt the impact of it. Government shutdowns and the potential for shutdowns have brought the Anti-Deficiency Act to light. The inability to obligate and spend money has affected the awarding of contracts and grants and modifications and extensions.
When I went out for pizza with my family the other night, the only number that mattered to me when I got the check was the bottom-line price. It didn’t matter to me what the price for each pizza or each lemonade was, as long as the total price was within my budget.
Source: Bottom-Line Price, Not Line-Item Price, Is Key for Price Reasonableness – SmallGovCon
Active duty military, National Guardsmen, first responders and volunteers are all descending on Florida and other areas to help with the Hurricane Irma efforts, but there’s one other occupation helping the government effort too.
Contractors.
Federal contractors may envision doom and gloom in the near future, but there is actually a lot for them to look forward to. Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, told Federal News Radio’s Eric White, not only is a shutdown unlikely, but it’s about to become easier to work with the Federal Acquisition Service.
Source: Larry Allen: Things are looking up for federal contractors – FederalNewsRadio.com
Joe Morris, vice president of research for e.Republic, Government Technology’s parent company, talks about what winning looks like when selling to the public sector.
What does it take to close out a contract? A lot, actually. FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations) 4.804-5 lays out the steps that must be completed before a contract can be officially closed. Although the process is within the responsibility of the contract administration office, most of the steps require some involvement or input by the contractor. Let’s look at some of the steps:
- Disposition of classified material is completed
- Final patent and royalty reports are cleared
- There are no outstanding value engineering change proposals
- Plant clearance report is received
- Property clearance is received
- All interim or disallowed costs are settled
- Price revision is completed
- Subcontracts are settled by the prime contractor (don’t underestimate this requirement)
- Prior year indirect cost rates are settled
- Termination docket is completed
- Contract audit is completed
- Contractor’s closing statement is completed
- Contractor’s final invoice has been submitted, and
- Contract funds review is completed and excess funds deobligated.
Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: The Contract Closeout Tsunami
The devastation being wrought by Hurricane Harvey is creating a tremendous need for emergency services, likely resulting in contracting opportunities with
Departments are exploring solutions that bring creativity, flexibility and agility to procurement.
Some interesting long-term trends are taking shape within U.S. federal government IT spending. The changes are sure to have an impact on agencies’ ability to comply with requirements set forth by the Data Center Consolidation Initiative (DCOI), which came out of OMB a little over 13 months ago. A new set of deadlines for DCOI are slated to kick in this fall. But are they properly funded?
Source: Federal IT Budget: Growing, But Not Focused on DCOI Compliance – IDC Community
