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This is the first of a two-part series on overtime. Today we will discuss the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) requirements for overtime approval. Tomorrow we will discuss the Government’s oversight activities at contractors who incur and charge overtime to the Government.
An ‘ombudsman’ is an official charged with addressing and/or investigating the interests of individuals’ or companies’ complaints of maladministration or
It sometimes seems the Defense Department is slow to award contracts. But it’s also been slow to close them out. That can put both contractors and the government at financial risk. The closeout backlog has been growing — more contracts coming into the Defense Contract Management Agency than it could get to. But staff there have piloted a special quick closeout team that produced real results. It won a David Packard Excellent in Acquisition Award. Irene Johnson, director of special programs at the DCMA, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to explain.
The Federal Government is encouraging agencies to use Best in Class (BIC) government wide acquisition contracts (GWACs) to better leverage their buying power. In a January 5, 2017 report, Improving Government Operations, Helping Agencies Be More Effective and Efficient, the General Services Administration (GSA) stated, “OMB named several government-wide contracts, including a GSA contract, as best-in-class federal contracting vehicles for procuring laptops and desktops. This initiative has already produced negotiated savings of up 27% on IT Schedule 70 contracts.”
Congress, in the last defense authorization bill, gave the Defense Department the task of better understanding something called PALT. That stands for procurement and acquisition lead time. By defining it, maybe DoD can shorten it. Defense officials have called for comments. The Professional Services Council plans on submitting them. David Berteau, president of the PSC, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to explain.
The State Department will be improving transparency in its requirements for contractor cooperation with its Office of Inspector General. While the Foreign Affairs Manual authorizes the OIG to access a contractor’s documents and interview its employees during the scope of an investigation, that provision is not currently explicitly expressed in the contracts signed by vendors. The OIG and the department are moving to correct this issue, and hopefully head off any further confusion or misunderstandings.
Past performance wasn’t a mandatory evaluation factor under an SDVOSB set-aside competition in which award was to be made to the lowest-price, technically acceptable offeror.
The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) conducts independent reviews of the procurement function of other Defense agencies and field activities that perform contracting operations. These reviews are designed to assess the effectiveness of the contracting function, analyze and assist in resolving identified problem areas (yes, we’re from the Government and we’re here to help), and identify noteworthy practices that may be beneficial to all organizations. These reviews are called “Procurement Management Reviews” or PMRs.
An ‘ombudsman’ is an official charged with addressing and/or investigating the interests of individuals’ or companies’ complaints of maladministration or
We tend to focus our blog writings on Federal Government procurement but states, counties, and municipalities and their contractors face pretty much the same contracting challenges as the Feds. In some respects, they face even more challenges since many do not have contracting professionals nor adequate resources for contract oversight. While they’re not buying major weapon systems (we hope), contracted services represent a significant portion of cities’ budgets. Purchasing decisions often rest with a single person with little, if any, internal controls or checks and balances to prevent or deter fraud, waste, or abuse. The vesting of responsibility with just a few individuals and the lack of adequate oversight is why cronyism tends to fester in many localities. Here’s an example of what we’re talking about.
An ‘ombudsman’ is an official charged with addressing and/or investigating the interests of individuals’ or companies’ complaints of maladministration or
