Feds seek the art of negotiation

Contracting officers provided a snapshot view of their skills in a new survey that gives policy-makers insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the federal acquisition workforce.

Federal contracting officers and specialists, who made up 80 percent of the survey respondents, said they need more training in three areas that affect their ability to make good deals for the government: the art of negotiation, strategic planning and contract dispute resolution.

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The competition question

For decades, the federal government moved slowly and deliberately whenever it needed to buy something. In contrast to past acquisition procedures, today’s acquisition process is swift and lean. But critics have discovered a downside to speedy acquisitions. All that speed, they say, has undermined fair competition for government dollars — a hallmark of federal contracting.

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Congress looks for price fix

Regulators left a gap in a final rule on time-and-materials contracts that lawmakers say exceeds the authority that Congress granted. Now, lawmakers want to close that gap and curtail the use of such contracts.

The Senate Armed Services Committee said contractors can defraud the government too easily through time-and-materials contracts because departments have a hard time monitoring the work and ensuring that the prices they pay are fair.

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SBA drafts policy on authorizing access to employee e-mail

Small Business Administration officials are drafting an agencywide policy to determine the authorization necessary to review an SBA employee’s e-mail messages, officials said Oct. 25.

In August, SBA’s assistant inspector general for auditing, Debra Ritt, told Liu that a manager in the Office of Disaster Assistance retrieved e-mail messages from an employee who was a confidential source for the IG and a congressional committee.

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Industry to evaluate GSA's grasp on info protection services

As it works to construct a new multiple-award schedule contract, the General Services Administration wants to understand how businesses deal with securing information.

GSA officials developed a proposed catalog of commercial services to help departments comply with regulations and laws to safeguard confidential information, according to a request for information posted today on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site.

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Bush: Provisions in small-biz bill 'constitutionally suspect'

President Bush opposes new legislation that would update contracting programs for small-business contractors because some provisions raise constitutional concerns.

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OMB adds to High Risk list

The Office of Management and Budget has added 50 information technology projects to its High Risk List since August, bringing the total to 603 projects the agency is concerned about.

The projects equal at least $15.5 billion in IT spending for fiscal 2008, OMB said today.

The boost in numbers continues a trend at OMB.

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Grassley: Sun controversy a sign of deeper contracting problems

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and the General Services Administration are sparring again over the Sun Microsystems contracting controversy, a week after the company let its schedules contract expire.

Grassley said he wants to know if the Sun case reflects deeper problems with how the government negotiates and manages contracts, leading to contracts that benefit vendors at the expense of taxpayer dollars.

GSA said he's using "false innuendo to impugn the motives of GSA management."

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Contracting officers need training in critical areas, survey finds

Many government contracting officers say they or others in their organization lack training in critical contracting areas, according to a new workforce report.

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Denett: Proposed bills include "poison pills" for competitive sourcing

Lawmakers are working on several major bills that could undermine the Bush administration's competitive-sourcing initiative, according to the government's top procurement official.

Language in those bills would make it difficult to create a fair environment in which federal employees and private companies compete for non-inherently governmental work.

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Homeland security plan draws fire

When the White House released an updated National Strategy for Homeland Security last week, a reporter asked, “Where’s the beef?”

It’s in a strategy document written in 2002.

Frances Townsend, assistant to the president for counterterrorism and homeland security, said the updated document purposely steps back from operational details to offer a longer-range view.

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Meet Mr. Procurement Policy

He’s known as the man behind the curtain at the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. Robert Burton, deputy administrator, has been a steady influence, a fixture guiding governmentwide acquisition policy through good times and bad.

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SBA looks beyond small businesses to modernize systems

The Small Business Administration recently widened its search for a systems integrator beyond small businesses in an effort to bring its loan management and accounting systems into the 21st century, an agency official said today.

SBA started an initial search in April for small businesses to handle the modernization, but the agency decided to expand its options. It’s researching the market now to find what other companies can offer.

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Last-minute spending hurts IRS, IG says

The Internal Revenue Service’s end-of-year spending increased dramatically in the past five fiscal years, according to a new report.

The overload of work coming at the last minute caused problems in acquisitions. On 15 percent of 92 purchases in August and September 2006, TIGTA found that IRS violated appropriations regulations on four acquisitions, and contracting officers may have skipped steps in the procurement process on 10 others, the report states.

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No pain, no gain on small-biz goals

Agencies can pressure prime contractors with tough consequences to make them adhere to their small-business subcontracting goals, but some lawmakers wonder why agencies aren’t under the same pressure to meet their own goals.

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Retiree bills face uncertain future

Two bills that would soften the expected blow from a wave of federal worker retirements face an uncertain future in Congress.

The bills, introduced by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), would make it easier for agencies to rehire retired federal employees to stave off anticipated staffing problems. The chairmen of committees reviewing the measures have not decided if they will consider them in committee.

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Bush threatens to veto a bill that would stengthen IGs

Democrats in the House, citing political pressures that interfere with the work of inspectors’ general, passed legislation last week that would reinforce the independent role of IGs as agency watchdogs. The legislation faces a divided Senate and White House officials who oppose the bill.

Democratic leaders said the legislation is necessary because of numerous recent instances of IGs appointed by President Bush who seem more concerned about covering up potential political embarrassments than doing their jobs.

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IGs may have to hunt for redundant programs

Inspectors general may have to report redundant programs to Congress and the president each year, according to an amendment to legislation the House passed today.

Then the IGs would have to include with those reports proposed legislation to encourage Congress to do something about the redundancies, according to the Improving Government Accountability Act. The House passed the legislation 404 to 11. The bill now goes to the Senate.

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Senate amendment aims to restrict competitive sourcing

The Defense Authorization bill passed by the Senate Oct. 1 includes provisions that would restrict competitions between private contractors and government employees for federal work, a practice the Bush administration advocates as a way to save money.

An amendment Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) added to the Fiscal 2008 National Defense Authorization Act seeks to level the playing field for civilian defense employees in public/private competition, known as competitive sourcing under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76.

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SBA to focus on women’s centers

Small Business Administration officials say they intend to improve programs for helping women who own small businesses to win more federal contracts. Agencies awarded only 3.2 percent of federal contracting dollars to woman-owned small businesses in fiscal 2005.

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