Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Get ready for a massive government spending spree

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A government spending spree of potentially historic proportions will play out over the final seven weeks of fiscal 2018, as federal agencies look to spend $140 billion more than they thought they’d get before Congress signed the omnibus spending bill.

Without a budget agreement in place, agencies spent cautiously through the first two quarters of fiscal 2018 before the omnibus—signed six months late in March—obligated an additional $80 billion for defense and $63 billion for civilian agencies.

Federal agencies, now flush with cash, must obligate that money before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30 or lose it to the Treasury Department. Analysts believe the federal market will see a monumental effort among procurement officials to spend as much on contracts as possible.

“If agencies are going to spend the extra money in fiscal 2018, it’s going to have to be at a much higher percentage in the fourth quarter than it has been historically,” David Berteau, president of the Professional Services Council, told Nextgov.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2018/08/get-ready-massive-government-spending-spree/150360/

Déjà vu: Continuing resolution raises potential pitfalls for contractors

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continuing-resolution-the-white-houseAs Yogi Berra famously quipped, “It’s like Déjà vu all over again!”

In that spirit, Congress has again signaled that it will pass a continuing resolution to fund the Government through spring—despite vocal opposition from the Pentagon.

As a result of this short term funding mechanism, contractors face a number of potential pitfalls:  contract options are at risk, the next round of incremental funding is unlikely to arrive, and new contract awards and program approvals will be scarce.

These pitfalls, however, can be mitigated—and even exploited—by diligent contractors.

Continuing resolutions (CRs) are appropriation acts that provide budget authority for federal agencies to continue operations when Congress and the President have not passed regular appropriations acts by the beginning of the fiscal year.  Typically, CRs allocate funding for a short duration in proportionate amounts from the time period of the preceding year, with the additional limitation that the rate of expenditure cannot exceed the previous year’s rate.  This means agencies are not only limited to the total funds from the prior year, but so too by the rate of spending from the prior year.  These limitations pose some obvious problems for contractors: options are at risk and incrementally funded contracts may face funding gaps.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2016/12/deja-vu-continuing-resolution-raises-potential-pitfalls-contractors/

The ‘nudum pactum’ mistake

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One of the three basic requirements for a contract to be enforceable is consideration, which usually means a promise to pay money, but could mean that another valuable item would be provided instead (as in a trade, for example, of one valuable car for another valuable car).

Nudum PactumIn federal procurement contracts, the courts have said that to be a valid contract, the transaction “must show a mutual intent to contract including an offer, an acceptance and consideration.” If there’s no consideration, is it a contract?  The answer is simple: it’s a “nudum pactum” and there is no valid contract.

A nudum pactum is defined as a “bare agreement,” a promise or undertaking without any consideration for it. Where there is a nudum pactum, the contract is neither valid nor enforceable.

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/commentary/2015/11/nudum-pactum-mistake/

For federal IT vendors, a lot to like in House, Senate Defense bills

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From the perspective of federal technology companies, there’s a lot to like in this year’s House and Senate Defense authorization bills. Indeed, a leading industry group’s main complaint is that the acquisition reforms in the legislation only apply to DoD — not the rest of the government.

House Armed Services CommitteeWhile the leaders of both the House and Senate armed services committees say they’re taking an incremental approach to acquisition reform in their respective versions of this year’s Defense authorization bill, the Senate version, released last week, appears to try to achieve more change within a single year.

The measure tackles everything from the role of the military service chiefs in procurement decisions to the acquisition workforce and establishing new “alternative” pathways to buy goods and services and pressing the Defense Department to make more use of commercial technology.

In a briefing with reporters Wednesday, May 27, the IT Alliance for Public Sector (ITAPS), a lobbying group and association for federal IT contractors, said it had no substantive disagreements with any provisions in either of the Defense bills — an extremely rare occurrence for any advocacy group with interests in the huge, annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/394/3865197/For-federal-IT-vendors-a-lot-to-like-in-House-Senate-Defense-bills

President’s budget request yields clues for contractors to follow

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Analysis of the president’s budget request typically yields some interesting clues for anyone willing to go deep enough into the data to reveal them. The numbers reveal shifting agency priorities as well as hints to the sea changes that could affect the potential $608 billion in fiscal 2015 contract spending.

There are a number of areas that contractors should consider as they navigate the remainder of fiscal 2014 and plan for 2015:

1. Put on your game face for recompetes.

2. Keep an eye on the shelf life on IT funding.

3. Take advantage of 2014 to gain footing for 2015.

4. Expect more contractor scrutiny.

5. Follow the (Defense) money.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/deltek-budget-request-yields-clues-for-contractors-to-follow/2014/05/09/e249e1a0-d479-11e3-95d3-3bcd77cd4e11_story.html

Contractors might weather shutdown using prior-year funds

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A key change in Washington since the government shutdown in the mid-1990s is an increased reliance on contractors, industry specialists note, but the damage a spending lapse might inflict on contracting companies this year would depend on their ability to use past-year funds.

“The short-term impact is that no new awards can be made, no options can be exercised and payments for ongoing work may be delayed,” said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council, a contractors trade group. “Since many companies already have been awarded contracts paid with prior-year appropriations, that work will continue provided that there’s no need for continuous government supervision or direction,” which is not the case with most contracts.

Trey Hodgkins, senior vice president for national security and procurement policy at TechAmerica, said, “If you have a valid contract in place that has a life beyond fiscal 2013, the funds are available and obligated, and employees are expected to show up at work. The biggest challenge you may find is that your government counterpart may not be there, or the government facility may not be open.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2013/09/contractors-might-weather-shutdown-using-prior-year-funds/71056

 

Agencies, contractors chafe at cliff deal’s uncertainty on sequestration

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The freshly passed legislation designed to avoid the fiscal cliff kicked the proverbial can of sequestration down the road by two months, worsening already existing uncertainty about agency spending levels, according to contractors and budget analysts.

By postponing but not replacing the across-the-board automatic cuts that the 2011 Budget Control Act slated to go into effect on Wednesday, lawmakers who crafted the primarily tax-oriented bill that cleared the House late Tuesday night ratcheted up the pressure on agency managers and private providers of services to government.

“What the press tended not to explain is that the size of the sequestration was reduced by 22 percent or two-ninths,” said Richard Kogan, a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. “So instead of squeezing a sequestration of size X into nine months, you would be squeezing a sequestration that is two-ninths smaller into seven months.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/management/2013/01/agencies-contractors-chafe-cliff-deals-uncertainty-sequestration/60434/?oref=govexec_today_nl.

Key selling tactics as the curtain comes down on FY 2012

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Savvy contractors and vendors know that right now, before Sept. 30, during the  federal government’s fourth quarter, is a great time to land government  business.

And the federal market is huge. Federal government purchases  of goods and services will total $1.22 trillion in 2012, according to Waltham,  Mass.-based economic forecaster IHS Global Insight. The federal purchases data  was reported in a recent GovPro.com article.

Keep reading this article at: http://govpro.com/federal/content/Use-It_Bjork-20120905/ 

Fourth-quarter spending rush may be larger than last year

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For government procurement officials, right about now is when the rubber meets the road.

The fiscal year follows a predictable — but not easy — pattern for procurement officials. Early in the year, they face significant uncertainty about how much money Congress will appropriate for them and when.

And then over the course of the year, program managers may hold back on sending in requirements and contracting officials at times hold back on purchases. Politicians may argue over funding.

By the fourth quarter, there’s pent-up demand and a rush to spend. One-third of government spending typically happens in the fourth quarter.

Keep reading this article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/deltek-fourth-quarter-spending-rush-may-be-larger-than-last-year/2012/08/05/3da818c4-d81d-11e1-b8ce-16e9caa8b86a_story.html.

Think your contract win means guaranteed income? Not so fast!

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To say the government’s money is tight is to understate the obvious.

What’s also obvious is that if programs get no funding, then the money intended for contracts supporting those programs will dry up too.

That’s likely to happen to more contracts in 2012, Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, wrote Jan. 30 in his “The Week Ahead” newsletter. Winning a contract and assuming officials have funding approved for it doesn’t work anymore.

“Tougher decisions have to be made on what ‘approved’ projects actually reach the level of ‘funded,’” he wrote.

In these trying days, contractors need to ask agency officials several questions early on in the procurement process, including:

  1. Will this project be funded?
  2. Will it be funded in an amount close to the estimate the acquisition office gave in its proposal?

Allen said agency officials may not have the answers right away, but it’s to your company’s advantage to ask.

Without knowing, you could be wasting time — time is usually money — on a project that isn’t going to generate the real green paper. That means you may have lost out twice on one bid.

Allen’s lesson is clear:  “Make sure you know that the project you’re spending time on is something the government will spend money on.”

— posted by Matthew Weigelt, Washington Technology, Jan. 30, 2012 at http://washingtontechnology.com/blogs/acquisitive-mind/2012/01/program-funding-contract-money.aspx?s=wtdaily_310112.

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