National Contract Management Association

  • The Trump administration’s 2-in, 1-out regulations initiative stymied the advancement of new acquisition rules.

    January 29, 2018
  • Congress has been criticized for kicking the can down the road when it comes to federal spending, but as the government shutdown clocks ticks closer to midnight — and agencies dust off their contingency plans — some are wondering if that kicked can might be the best option right now.

    April 21, 2017
  • Michael Fischetti, executive director of NCMA, makes the case that agencies and industry are equally suffering because of changes to the federal market.

    August 23, 2016
  • A new portal launches this week on the General Services Administration's Acquisition Gateway to help advise contracting people.

    July 25, 2016
  • A new Office of Federal Procurement Policy memo and proposed rule by the FAR Council are part of the administration’s ongoing efforts to change the way agencies buy products and services.

    July 11, 2016
  • The two-year budget and debt deal President Barack Obama signed may bring some certainty to the government business and contracting space, especially if Congress passes an omnibus spending bill for the rest of this fiscal year. But shutdowns, continuing resolutions and other budget problems have left a lot of clutter on the contracting landscape. Michael Fischetti, a fellow and executive director of the National Contract Management Association, wrote about clearing out that clutter.

    November 04, 2015
  • Jim McCarthy, member of board of advisors, National Contract Management Association, outlines how vendors can win work within a code of morals.

    October 28, 2015
  • On March 4, the General Services Administration issued a proposed rule that would require contractors to report transactional data from orders placed against GSA’s Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contract vehicles as well as GSA’s governmentwide acquisition…

    October 06, 2015
  • Better Buying Power at the Pentagon is only one example of attempts to innovate in the acquisition space. The new acquisition corps that's set up like the U.S. Digital Services office is another one, but it's focused on policy and process. Michael Fischetti is executive director of the National Contract Management Association. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that government spends too much time thinking about process -- and not enough about people.

    June 29, 2015
  • In Federal News Radio's special report, Missing Pieces of Procurement Reform, the Defense Acquisition University, the Federal Acquisition Institute and other experts say a new kind of acquisition worker is needed. One that brings business acumen, understands technology and knows the FAR forward and back. The ever-evolving training regime for federal acquisition workers is no longer just about the hard skills of acquisition.

    October 15, 2014
  • Service's latest strategy document sees a future in which it will need to be more flexible and adaptable, including in its acquisition and personnel policies and organizational structures.

    July 31, 2014
  • Improving acquisition compliance and ethics may involve less rulemaking and more culture shaping according to panelists at the National Contract Management Association's World Congress conference. At the conference, agency leaders discussed the need to streamline and pursue innovative approaches to federal acquisition policies.

    July 30, 2014
  • Kay Ely, GSA's director of IT schedule programs in the Federal Acquisition Service, said removing 1,000 vendors who weren't meeting the minimum annual sales requirement of $25,000 a year is saving the agency about $3.2 million a year in administrative costs. At the same time, GSA is adding 30-to-40 new vendors each month to Schedule 70 as part of its effort to make sure agency customers have access to new, innovative companies.

    July 30, 2014
  • Contractors are at the center of two out three major breaches of government trust over the past few years -- Aaron Alexis, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. And the Office of Management and Budget is looking at ways it can improve the federal background investigation process over the next few months. Mike Fischetti, executive director of the National Contract Management Association, talks to In Depth with Francis Rose s part of our special report, Trust Redefined: Reconnecting Government and Its Employees He tells Francis how the relationship between contractors and government is changing.

    May 22, 2014