OFPP issues policy requiring training for support workers

Employees assigned to support contracting officers now must meet common training standards, as procurement officials attempt to tie together the diverse parts of the acquisition process.

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy has set up a new program that establishes a training program for contracting officer technical representatives. It also standardizes the training and skills necessary for the job. The program requires COTRs to meet certain competencies for certification and maintain their certification through continuous learning.

COTRs follow up on contracts after they’re awarded, watching for problems that may arise. They also help the contracting officer and program manager keep things working smoothly.

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IG: DOD fails on competition

The Defense Department awarded numerous task orders without competition, and it failed to justify why officials went outside of the department for acquisition services, a new report found.

The DOD inspector general audited 98 task orders worth $33.2 million in commercial supplies purchased through the National Institutes of Health’s Electronic Commodities Store III governmentwide acquisition contract. Of those orders, 95 failed to afford all contractors a chance to bid. And on 31 of the orders, contracting officers did not document their reasons for the award, the report states.

“Competition was limited, and DOD did not have assurance it received the best value when procuring goods,” the IG concludes.

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Procurement chief chides IGs

The Office of Management and Budget’s Paul Denett said some agency inspectors general are emboldened now more than in the past, often to the point of essentially directing agencies’ programs.

Denett, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said he believes some IGs are overstepping the boundaries of their statutory role, adding that “they get aggravating sometimes.”

Those comments, which Denett made at a recent industry conference, highlight the growing strained relations between IGs and the agencies they oversee. Auditors and procurement experts say the relationship has become tense at some agencies.

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Survey focuses on green purchases

Congress and the White House want to know if agencies buy with the environment in mind.

The survey, which the Office of Management and Budget distributed along with a Nov. 1 memo, asks agencies specific questions about their efforts to purchase environmentally-friendly products.

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GSA's 'financial house in order,' Doan says

The General Services Administration’s schedules sales increased this year as the agency got a grasp on its finances, the agency said.

GSA’s commercial schedules program showed growth of 2.2 percent, a high for the agency. Its Global Supply sales increased 5.5 percent, mainly because of Defense Department business, the agency said in a Nov. 14 press release.

The news comes with an unqualified “clean” opinion on its fiscal 2007 Performance and Accountability Report.

“GSA’s financial house is in order,” GSA Administrator Lurita Doan said.

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Senate bill would increase IG oversight

Congress may tighten controls on agency inspectors general but offer them more authority under new legislation introduced in the Senate.

The Inspector General Reform Act (S. 2324), which Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) introduced Nov. 8, would guarantee that administrations appoint qualified people to be IGs, that IGs remain independent of agency pressure and that they make their reports accessible to the public.

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Panel finds contracting disarray

A panel of Defense Department experts has concluded that the Army overworks and undervalues its contracting officers, and it has recommended that the service immediately make some tough decisions to fix its contracting problems.

Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Army’s contracting workload has increased 600 percent and spending on contracts is up 300 percent, said Jacques Gansler, former Defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, who led the Commission on Army Acquisition and Program Management in Expeditionary Operations. During a period when workloads and spending increased, the Army’s acquisition workforce numbers stayed the same or declined in some cases, Gansler said.

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Congress endorses GSA's assisted services

Lawmakers want the Defense Department to use the General Services Administration’s assisted acquisition services so DOD experts are free to work on defense-specific procurements.

That congressional endorsement in a conference report on DOD’s fiscal 2008 spending bill was welcome news at GSA, which faces shrinking revenues from its assisted acquisition services and fresh criticism from DOD’s inspector general.

The reports highlight divergent views among oversight officials: Congress likes GSA’s assisted services, while DOD’s IG questions their value. The lawmakers’ endorsement came two weeks after DOD’s IG told employees to stop wasting money on GSA’s assisted services.

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House passes $460B defense spending bill

After less than 10 minutes of debate, the House passed a massive $460.3 billion defense spending bill for fiscal 2008 that contains a resolution to continue funding the government through Dec. 14.

The bill, in the form of a conference report, addresses many problems inside the Defense Department, including contract accountability.

The legislation would provide funding for additional civilian inspector general employees to bring more oversight to defense contract services.

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GSA lashes back at DOD IG

A top General Services Administration official said today he was very disappointed by a report from the Defense Department’s inspector general condemning the Air Force for wasting money by using GSA’s assisted-acquisition services.

The report states that DOD wasted $607,000 when it turned to GSA for help in placing 91 orders on an Air Force task-order contract known as Network-Centric Solutions. Officials should have used DOD resources to handle the work and put the money to better use supporting the warfighters, the report states.

“Frankly I take great offense at that.... I don’t appreciate it, and I think they got it dead wrong,” said Jim Williams, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service.

Williams said the Air Force had three options in such a circumstance: It could have failed its mission by not doing the work; the service could have handled the work in-house despite its already overworked acquisition staff and still faced failure; or the Air Force could have gone to GSA for help.

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Denett: IGs are 'aggravating,' and overstep boundaries

Inspectors general are overstepping their bounds in federal contracting, a chief procurement official said today.

The IGs have taken over the role of program manager, Paul Denett, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said in a speech at a Coalition for Government Procurement conference.

“They get aggravating sometimes,” Denett also said after his speech.

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SBA plans to keep pressure on agencies

The Small Business Administration does not intend to let agencies wriggle out of their small-business contracting goals.

The agency has no authority to enforce the government's small-business mandate. But as SBA Chief of Staff Joel Szabat sees it, the agency wields two "hammers" that it can use to force the issue: the small-business score card and the Office of Management and Budget’s authority.

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SBA stumbles on e-mail privacy

The Small Business Administration has issued a temporary directive to prevent officials from accessing employees’ e-mail inboxes without prior approval from the chief privacy officer. SBA published the directive after officials discovered the agency had no e-mail policy to protect whistle-blowers.

SBA officials, with help from the agency’s general counsel and inspector general, also are drafting an agencywide policy that would establish rules for conducting an administrative review of an employee’s e-mail messages and the appropriate authorization needed for such a review.


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IG: DOD wasted money by placing orders with GSA

The Defense Department wasted more than $600,000 when it turned to the General Services Administration for help in placing orders on an Air Force task-order contract, according to a new report from DOD’s inspector general.

The IG said the officials should have sought assistance from DOD’s procurement officers, not GSA, for the orders placed under the Network-Centric Solutions (NetCents) contract.

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Speedy interagency contracts face possible new restrictions

Interagency contracts appeal to contracting officers who are understaffed and under pressure to meet their agencies’ acquisition requirements quickly. But those contracts may lose some of their appeal if Bush administration officials and lawmakers impose stricter rules governing their use, federal contracting officials say.

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