This week’s topic is the “Unintended Consequences of the FAR 8.4 Rewrite.” Simply put, the rewrite removed a strategic acquisition tool, single award Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs), from customer agency procurement tool boxes when using the GSA schedule program. Here is more on the background, result and unintended consequences of the rule. In 2011 FederalRead… Read more »
This week the FAR & Beyond blog is dedicated to the Fourth of July. The blog highlights a speech given by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. We hope everyone has a wonderful July 4th weekend! On July 4th, 1863, Confederate forces at Vicksburg, Mississippi surrendered to the Union Army of the Potomac, aRead… Read more »
On June 12th Tom Sharpe, Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), posted a new blog entitled “Modernizing GSA’s Schedules Program for Today’s Marketplace.” As you may recall, earlier this year GSA published its Strategic Plan for the next four years. The plan did not set forth a strategic vision for the MAS program—a troublingRead… Read more »
For this week’s comment I wanted to share with you my latest blog post that was first published on the Federal Times’ Acquisition Blog (www.federaltimes.com) on May 16, 2014. The Multiple Award Double-Standard, Part II April’s blog focused on the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy’s (DPAP’s) double standard regarding the treatment of orders under theRead… Read more »
For this week’s comment I wanted to share with you another blog post that was first published on the Federal Times’ Acquisition Blog (www.federaltimes.com): The multiple-award double standard On March 13,2014, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy (DPAP) issued a class deviation “clarifying” (i.e. establishing) that DoD ordering activities are responsible for determining prices fair andRead… Read more »
I can’t believe our Spring Training Conference is already less than a week away, coming up next week on Thursday, April 10th! As the Vice President of Membership and Marketing here at The Coalition, my number one priority is to form a relationship with each of our members and gain a solid understanding of theirRead… Read more »
GSA’s Office of Inspector General’s recent memorandum to the FAS Commissioner continues to confirm the impracticality of contract compliance under the current MAS pricing policies. The memorandum is the third in a series of memoranda (March 25, 2014, March 8, 2013 and September 26, 2011) regarding recurring issues identified in the preaward contract audits doneRead… Read more »
For this week’s comment I wanted to share with you my inaugural blog post that was first published on the Federal Times’ Acquisition Blog (www.federaltimes.com). The post highlights Thought #2 “GSA’s Strategic Plan: Plan versus implementation,” one of the issues contained in my “Food for Thought in 2014”: GSA’s Draft Strategic Plan for FY 2014Read… Read more »
Strategic acquisition offers government and industry an opportunity to work together to identify unnecessary costs in the acquisition process and pass those savings along to federal agencies. However, a new term has entered the dialogue regarding the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI). That term is “supplier suppression.” What does “supplier suppression” mean in the contextRead… Read more »
By Guest Blogger: Ray Bjorklund, President, BirchGrove Consulting LLC As a business developer, you follow the money. You trek toward the customers that spend money and the customers that spend the most. Discretionary spending authority, appropriated by Congress, is your bellwether. As an experienced business developer, you follow that portion of the budget authority intendedRead… Read more »