IG: Contract data late, incorrect

As the government’s procurement chief pushes contracting officers to enter acquisition information directly and immediately into a major database, a March 30 report finds that agencies did not do so with data from the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster.

The General Services Administration’s Office of Inspector General audited the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation and found inaccurate and untimely information.

“Overall, data reliability is dependent on agencies having a vested interest,” the report concludes.

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Senators unhappy with SBA

Senate committee members expressed frustration with the Small Business Administration for showing little proof of progress toward improving its programs for minority-owned small businesses. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, said no one at SBA seemed to be moving to help minority-owned small businesses, a burgeoning segment of the small-business market.

Three recent reports from SBA’s inspector general found that the agency does not track compliance with 8(a) regulations, improperly maintains an 8(a) database, poorly supervises mentor-protégé arrangements between 8(a) firms and larger businesses, and fails to ensure that 8(a) contracts go to more than a handful of participating firms.

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OSC: Doan violated Hatch Act

Lurita Doan’s problems as the General Services Administration’s administrator are mounting amid leaked allegations that she violated the Hatch Act.

The Office of Special Counsel reached a decision last week that Doan violated the law, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity on federal property during work hours. The OSC report, obtained by Federal Computer Week, details contradictions surrounding Doan’s denials of what happened during a Jan. 26 brown bag luncheon for GSA political appointees during which Doan allegedly asked attendees, “How can we help our candidates?”

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Kerry criticizes SBA over decade-old policies

The Small Business Administration seems asleep when it comes to issues related to minority-owned small businesses, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said today.

For example, in a decade, SBA has not updated its net worth threshold for its small-business program that assists businesses with government contract set-asides, said Kerry, chairman of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, at a committee hearing.

Things have changed considerably since 1997, he said, and SBA needs to review the dollar amounts.

“Frankly, it seems like it’s almost asleep,” Kerry said about the agency.

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GAO: DOD relying more on contractors

The Defense Department has increased its reliance on contractors to maintain operations in the past decade because its personnel have been pulled away on military duty, according to a new report.

Following relatively constant spending levels from fiscal 1995 to fiscal 2000, the money going to the private sector skyrocketed from fiscal 2000 to fiscal 2005. In that time period, DOD’s operations and maintenance costs increased 57 percent, from $133.4 billion to $209.5 billion, according to a Government Accountability Office report released today.

An increase in military obligations because of the war on terrorism without an increase in personnel led DOD to rely more on the private sector, the report states.

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GSA: We’re focusing on assisted services

ORLANDO, Fla. — Senior officials at the General Services Administration say they have a four-step plan to pull the agency’s assisted acquisition services business out of debt by fiscal 2008. Officials say they are determined to change the way the program works by getting to know customers better.

The Federal Acquisition Service expects its assisted acquisition services business to lose as much as $60 million this fiscal year based on expected revenue of $3.7 billion. GSA charges fees of about 4 percent on that revenue.

The service’s business has slipped since fiscal 2004.

Officials said those losses have hurt the agency.

“We cannot sustain these types of losses year after year,” said Ed O’Hare, FAS’ assistant commissioner in the Office of Strategic Business Planning and Process Improvement. “We must do something about this.”

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Kerry queries DOD on missed vet set-aside goal

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) wants to know why the Defense Department, of all agencies, is falling short when it comes to contracting with small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans.

Kerry, chairman of the Senate’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates May 15 asking for a clear statement on DOD’s commitment to meeting the governmentwide goal of setting aside 3 percent of contracting dollars for such businesses.

DOD has yet to meet that goal, which was written into law in 1999. In 2005, for example, the department set aside a little less than 0.5 percent, Kerry wrote.

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Groups push Senate for more open government

Senate leaders received a letter today from 100 groups asking them to pass the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in Our National (OPEN) Government Act and restore confidence in government.

“The public’s confidence in the executive branch has reached a dramatic low point,” the groups said in the letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

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GSA weighs options for realigning acquisition services

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The General Services Administration is considering several ideas for putting its acquisition services business back in the black, according to agency officials attending a GSA conference here.

In a May 15 memo, Jim Williams, commissioner of GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, wrote that FAS is likely to expand its offering of consulting and professional services, while restructuring its fees and streamlining its business model, with hopes of erasing its deficit.

Many agencies still turn to GSA for help with managing acquisitions, but the assisted services business is struggling.

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GSA ponders fate of assisted services

The General Services Administration is debating whether to pull the plug on its assisted acquisition services after an internal study revealed concerns about the services’ future.

Mary Davie, Federal Acquisition Services’ assistant commissioner for the Office of Assisted Acquisition Services, said the study proves that changes are necessary.

“We have recently completed the study of who’s delivering assisted services in FAS and are beginning to discuss how to proceed,” Davie said. “The entire FAS central office and regional leadership have been briefed and agree that we need to make some changes to better serve our customers.”

Officials have said publicly they expect GSA to lose $46 million this year on the agency’s assisted-services business, based on $3.7 billion in revenue. GSA keeps only a small percentage of that revenue as service fees. Industry experts and officials say actual losses this year could reach $70 million.

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House to agencies: Tell us about telework

In an effort to identify roadblocks to teleworking, several House members will send agencies a survey asking about their telework policies.

The survey seeks to determine what can be done to overcome barriers to working outside the office.

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House votes in favor of small businesses

After some wrangling earlier this week, the House has decided agencies should give 30 percent of their contracting dollars to small businesses.

This morning, the House voted 371 to 55 for an amendment that aims to return the benchmark to 30 percent, as required in the originally proposed Small Business Fairness in Contracting Act.

The proposed amount had decreased when the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently cut it to 25 percent, still 2 percent higher than the 23 percent goal current law dictates. Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) voted against the amendment but for passage of the bill.

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GSA IG: Contracting officers not using e-forms

Vendors continue to use paper rather than electronic forms to submit contract offers and make modifications, as interviews with contracting officers reveal a lack of buy-in and weak incentives to go digital, according to a March 6 inspector general report.

Growth in the General Services Administration’s eOffer and eMod programs, Web applications for contract proposal and modification processes, has been below expectations, despite slight annual increases, a GSA Inspector General Office audit found.

Electronically submitted offers comprise on average only 9 percent of all schedule offers received since the Web application came online in May 2004.

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Feds on big buys must be certified

Federal officials have called for help in training the acquisition workforce at a time of greater congressional scrutiny and contracting complexity. A Democratic Congress is demanding more contracting accountability and an end to what Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, described as the government’s slipshod contracting methods.

“How could anyone be opposed to increased standards of accountability?” Thompson asked at a recent oversight hearing.

A Homeland Security Department official testified at the hearing that DHS must build up its acquisition workforce before it can eliminate its contracting problems. “The problems…are a training and implementation issue, not a policy issue,” said Elaine Duke, DHS’ chief procurement officer.

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A-76 is a tough sell for OMB

Competitive sourcing has become an even tougher sell on Capitol Hill now that lawmakers attribute the unsanitary conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Building 18 to an exodus of federal workers after a private company took over maintenance work.

Paul Denett, administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy, must persuade lawmakers that the policy is a good one, despite their outrage about conditions at Walter Reed’s outpatient facilities.

Competitive sourcing pits federal employees against the private employees in job competitions regulated by OMB policy, known as Circular A-76. About 6,680 federal employees who do work similar to that performed in the private sector had their jobs put up for public/private competitions in fiscal 2006.

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OMB: 2006 competitive sourcing could save government $1.3B

Public/private competitions in fiscal 2006 could save the government about $1.3 billion in the next five to 10 years as competitive sourcing pushes agency employees to become more efficient, according to the latest results in the Office of Management and Budget's competitive-sourcing report.

The estimated total savings based on the 1,243 competitions completed between fiscal 2003 and 2006 could reach about $6.9 billion in five to 10 years and yield about $1.1 billion in savings annually, the report states. Officials believe savings will continue to grow as agencies conduct more competitions and apply cost control and other performance improvements to more commercial activities, the report states.

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GSA fights to regain market share

The General Services Administration expects to receive $3.7 billion in revenue this year from its assisted acquisition services portfolio, but that will still leave the agency $46 million below the revenue it needs to cover costs for providing those services, Kathleen Turco, GSA’s chief financial officer, said recently.

GSA has launched several initiatives to reclaim its acquisition services business, and customer agencies can expect to see additional marketing efforts from the procurement agency that is desperate for their business.

“Overall in government, we are seeing a trend in people putting their own contracts in place, period,” said Mary Davie, assistant commissioner for GSA’s Office of Assisted Acquisition Services.

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Feds stay competitive

Federal employees beat private contract employees in 19 of 22 public/private job competitions that four science agencies conducted from fiscal 2003 through fiscal 2005. Science agency officials said insider knowledge gives agency employees an advantage over their private-sector competitors.

The Office of Management and Budget’s Circular A-76 policy allows companies to take over certain jobs performed by federal employees if they can do the work more efficiently.

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