Acquisition policy

Office of Federal Procurement Policy Administrator Dan Gordon issued a memo asking for agencies to improve their internal controls for collecting and submitting acquisition data. The Federal Procurement Data System has had data quality issues for more than a decade.

Shay Assad, the Defense Department’s director of defense pricing, and Dick Ginman, the Pentagon’s director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, join host Roger Waldron to talk about their new roles. June 7, 2011 – (Encore presentation June 21, 2011)

The Department of Defense is trying to stop mergers among the nation’s largest weapons contractors.

Designing requirements for a big procurement at DoD involves three main elements: cost, schedule, and performance objectives. GAO’s Mike Sullivan told Federal News Radio that DoD continues to struggle in those areas.

Despite pushback on some issues by industry, Dan Gordon listens to input from all sides as the Office of Federal Procurement Policy continues to follow its own path to reform the acquisition process. The OFPP administrator said his office is close to issuing new guidance around business cases for multiple award contracts and a final rule redefining inherently governmental jobs.

By Ruben Gomez Federal News Radio The General Services Administration (GSA) will revamp federal IT purchase contracts, in keeping with the administration’s National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship released Wednesday. GSA will remove all products that…

Mark Bennington, the executive director for acquisition management at the Navy research unit joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris to discuss his department’s approach to the thorny issues involved in OCIs.

A new Web portal will bring information on all federal agency services for small firms into one place. At the 29th Annual Minority Enterprise Development Week conference, White House officials highlighted how they are holding agencies accountable for meeting governmentwide small business goals.

Agencies must develop a business case and post it on an internal government site for others to comment on. OFPP also wants senior acquisition officials to sign off on justifications before moving out with a final solicitation. The new guidance comes as GAO and others have found the proliferation of multiple award contracts is costing agencies and vendors millions of dollars.

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy and GSA are working on a directory of Federal Supply Schedule blanket purchase agreements. The database would help fix one of the ”biggest blind spots” in federal acquisition today, said Dan Gordon, OFPP administrator. OFPP’s memo to require business cases for multiple-award contracts received praise for its direct and specific requirements.