Is competition in federal contracting dead?

Executive Order 14036, Promoting Competition in the American Economy, was signed by President Joe Biden. Under Executive Order 14036, the Secretary of Defense is responsible for increasing competition in the defense industrial base in federal procurements. President Barack Obama has called for a study of how competition is used in the United States, as well as a push to foster competition throughout the economy. For numerous years, the number of businesses conducting business with the federal government has decreased. According to a new Chamber of Commerce survey, small firms suffer from a lack of competition.

The federal procurement procedure follows a Ronco-like “set it and forget it” mantra, which has resulted in a decrease in the number of enterprises contracting with the government. The federal government issues a request, waits for responses from companies that have figured out how to handle the multiple barriers to doing business with the government, and then awards contracts based on the offers submitted. Even when it is aware of alternative capable companies,

the government does not usually contact them or take them into account when making an award choice.

Better electronic tools and training for federal government contracting officers are needed to search the marketplace for companies that can meet government needs. The contracting officer’s market research, the firms considered for award, the company’s prices, and other special terms and conditions should all be tracked and recorded in the tools. According to Ed Rollins, President Obama will not be successful in improving competitiveness with American companies unless he changes the way government contracts are handled. He proposes new technologies to make government contracting more transparent and accessible to the public. According to him, the move will also boost government outreach during the contracting process.

With President Obama’s emphasis on boosting contracting with diverse companies and purchasing more American-made goods, now is the moment to bring about significant reform and promote competition in federal contracts. Senator John Thune believes that the government’s definition of competition and the mechanisms by which it acquires competition need to be updated.

By: Mariatu Alale

Edited by: Nakira Whitehead

Source: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2021/07/is-competition-in-federal-contracting-dead/

Even In A Pandemic Year, DHS Sees More Staff Engagement Successes

It’s easy to imagine a year like 2020 troubling the Department of Homeland Security’s recent modest but steady progress in enhancing employee engagement. DHS has consistently improved since a low point in 2015, and its overall engagement scores on the 2020 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey improved by four points over the previous year. The progress accomplished in the last year, according to Bailey, is a result of DHS executives’ and supervisors’ efforts to maintain in touch with employees, provide them with as many tools and protective equipment as possible, and optimize telework and other workplace flexibility throughout the pandemic. 

When current DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was the department’s deputy, leadership began to take a more hands-on approach. Bailey and the other top DHS officials sent out notes to the department’s 250,000 employees. The letters were more personal than the emails she and others had sent to DHS employees in the past. During the past year, the department increased its measures to give more resources to DHS personnel and their families and its efforts to keep engaged with staff. The emergency and backup child care systems established by the DHS before the pandemic and mindfulness training and other personnel tools established as part of the department’s employee and family preparation project were “Lifesavers” during the health crisis. 

The department is developing new materials for DHS family members and will hold “Onboarding workshops” for new employees’ spouses and children. The idea, according to Bailey, is to help new DHS employees’ families better understand what the job entails and how it can affect their life at home. DHS is focusing on tying together its leadership development, diversity and inclusion, and employee engagement programs in the coming year, according to Bailey. In 2020, the Department of Homeland Security, like many other agencies, saw growth in employee telework, though not as dramatic as other departments. Before the pandemic, only 2% of the DHS staff teleworked on a daily basis. According to DHS’ 2020 FEVS, at least 47% of the department’s staff is unable to telework since their professions require them to be physically present. 

The government is also looking into whether positions may be entirely virtual — and whether they can recruit from outside the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, perhaps from a lower-cost-of-living location. Those employees’ salaries may be lower, but DHS still needs to prepare for them to travel to their home offices on occasion, according to Bailey. If the department wants to have a chance at recruiting and retaining the best and brightest — and engaging them for the long haul — keeping these workplace flexibilities around is critical.  

By: Emely Rivas 

Source: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2021/07/dhs-sees-more-employee-engagement-successes-even-in-a-pandemic-year/ 

Contractors now have 50 billion reasons to pursue the SBA Mentor-Protege program, thanks to CIO-SP4.

The National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) has posted the long-awaited solicitation for the Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 4 (CIO-SP4) Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). The new vehicle appears to be a not-so-subtle endorsement of the SBA’s Mentor-Protege Program’s joint venture teaming arrangement, which is one of the program’s focus points. Contractors of all sizes in practically every industry will be affected by the RFP. The goal of the SBA’s Mentor-Protege Program is to boost involvement among small business contractors, according to the RFP. Large firms have their own awards, but if they have a protégé, they can participate on a small business CTA team. 

Small Business CTAs: To be considered a small business, the CTA’s other members must all be small businesses, some other socioeconomic category of a small business, or a non-small business with an SBA-approved mentor-protégé agreement with the eligible socioeconomic business whose status the CTA is relying on to compete for award. A FAR 9.601(1) CTA that is not a joint venture must show that at least half of the human costs incurred for contract performance will be spent on employees of the prime contractor/team lead. 

The SBA Mentor Protege Program (MPP) is a business development agreement under which one business provides another business with developmental assistance, with the approval of the SBA. The benefits for the mentor are the ability to bid on contracts that have different set asides, greater work share (up to 60% in the joint venture), and exclusion from affiliation. 

The protege gains from being able to pursue and win larger initiatives that it would not otherwise be able to pursue and win on its own by leveraging the mentor’s past performance and capacity. It can also accelerate a smaller company’s success in the federal market by allowing them to collaborate closely with a larger, more experienced federal firm. 

Small businesses can now inherit the capabilities and resources of the larger partner, making them significantly more competitive. The program is also growing more popular as more companies recognize the significant advantage that it can offer both the mentor and the protege. Last month, Ogilvy had its MPP relationship with the woman-owned small business EFK Group highlighted in MSN 

By: Mariatu Alale  

Source: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2021/07/cio-sp4-just-gave-contractors-50-billion-reasons-to-consider-the-sba-mentor-protege-program/ 

Bots are assisting the Department of Defense in determining the best pricing for weapons systems.

A key purpose of the procurement system is to ensure that the government pays fair and acceptable rates for products and services. However, because obtaining those guarantees may be time-consuming and expensive for both agencies and suppliers, the military services are looking to automation for assistance.

The Army, for example, is trying to complement its ranks of price experts with algorithms that have the potential to automate some of the most time-consuming parts of determining fairness.The Army is attempting to allow bots to crawl through its data systems in order to arrive at trustworthy price determinations. The objective is to cut down on the amount of time its contracting officers and contract experts spend on “low value” work that might be done by robots. According to an Army spokesperson, the more data the bots have access to, the more likely they are to arrive at reliable pricing.

The Air Force has begun a pilot initiative to reduce the time it takes to produce accurate cost estimates by 85%. It utilizes machines to sift through historical pricing for specific components, just as the Army experiment. “We could actually reach to a point where incumbents’ written recommendations for follow-on initiatives become obsolete,” a source adds.

Holt stated that in a hypothetical situation, DoD procurement authorities would be allowed to provide exemptions from the Truth in Negotiations Act’s requirements. When contracting officers get into a sole-source contract, the law compels them to obtain verified cost and pricing data considerably more often. However, any “disruption” would necessitate procedural as well as technical modifications.

In the Truth in Negotiations Act, lawmakers provided the Department of Defense the authority to test sole-source procurements in which procurement authorities might “tailor” standard criteria. Program officials, with high-level Pentagon permission, are able to engage into arrangements with suppliers based mostly on their own data regarding past prices under those trimmed-back legal criteria. Chuck Hagel, the Defense Secretary, “The door is open, or at least cracked, for us to show that we can calculate risk correctly.”

By: Mariatu Alale

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2021/07/bots-starting-to-help-dod-figure-out-right-price-for-weapons-systems/

Why vendors may not be paying as much attention to the GSA’s Schedule program as they should.

Last year, business on the Multiple Award Schedule contract was at an all-time high. Allen Federal Business Partners is led by Larry Allen. He explains why schedule contracts might not be receiving the consideration they deserve in an interview. Allen explains that GSA Schedules do a lot of work, but they don’t always get the recognition they deserve from contractors or the media. Other programs, such as GSA Polaris and GSA’s Astro, as well as the NIH CIO-SP4 contract, are all new contracts with specific start dates, and you must submit your bid by a certain deadline to be considered. But it’s still there in the schedules, and you can make a bid at any time. And while that might not make headlines, it does make for good business, according to him, and statistics show that scheduled contracts are more common than ever with federal buyers.

According to Jared Smith, “interest in being on track” could have waned a year ago. “My phone has been ringing a lot more” about people who are trying to get back on track, Smith says. “I believe we’re starting to see some improvement. For a moment, there may have been a lull. However, now is the time for industry to resurface” Smith explains. To get on any IDIQ deal, such as the GSA Schedule, you only need one set of skills: the ability to write a good proposal. Selling in those contracts requires a different set of skills, since they’re all like fishing licenses, and you have to go out and catch the fish. The third part is that you must ensure that you remain compliant, Smith clarifies.

The federal company in Huntsville, Alabama, is growing. In Huntsville, the FBI is taking the lead and extending its operations. For the next few years, Huntsville will have over 20,000 government workers. According to Smith, federal business is conducted in San Diego, San Antonio, and Denver. If you work for the government, you may want to consider any of these locations outside of the Beltway. Jared explains that business is expanding so things are getting more and more clear now. There are places where there are huge concentrations of federal employees like San Diego. But they tend to be company towns for one particular department. Martins-burg, West Virginia, has a large diversity of different federal agencies.

Author: Mariatu Alale

Article source: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contracting/2021/04/why-gsas-schedule-program-might-not-be-getting-as-much-attention-from-vendors-as-it-deserves/