Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Reforms deliver wins for small businesses

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By some metrics, 2017 was a banner year for small business federal contractors. In May 2018, the Small Business Administration announced that, for the first time, the federal government exceeded $100 billion in prime contract awards to small businesses in fiscal year 2017.

Despite reaching this milestone, small business federal contracting still has room for improvement. For example, the SBA’s data also show that the percentage of total federal contracting dollars earned by small businesses declined for the second year in a row, falling to 23.8 percent from a historic high of 25.7 percent for fiscal year 2015.

Given these mixed results, is there a case for near-term optimism for the small business contracting community? Recent changes to federal caps on the use of micro-purchasing and simplified acquisition methods hold the promise of more agile acquisition, benefitting small businesses.

Indicative of the big changes forthcoming is a June 2018 White House Office of Management and Budget memo streamlining small business contractors’ access to federal contracting opportunities.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/7/27/reforms-deliver-wins-for-small-businesses

Contractors worry e-commerce portals could create ‘parallel compliance’ models

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The General Services Administration is continuing with plans to create e-commerce portals for federal procurement, hosting its second town hall meeting with industry stakeholders two weeks ago.

And while those stakeholders expressed overall support for the initiative, some were concerned that the policy GSA is designing could create a diverging compliance structure from its multiple award contracts, which could cause some tough choices for businesses.

The agency is in the middle of a three-phase plan to craft a system of portals that will allow officials to capitalize on the potential cost savings of buying from competitive e-commerce retailers like Amazon and others.

The first phase included several recommendations to Congress, among them, raising the threshold for micropurchases in the portals from the current levels of $10,000 for civilian agencies and $5,000 for the Department of Defense to $25,000 overall.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/e-commerce-portal-plan-create-parallel-compliance-models-contractors/

New NDAA purchasing rules should benefit government shoppers, small business

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The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) rules governing the acquisition of commercial items should give those making relatively small purchases more choices, and small businesses more hope for getting a piece of the federal spending pie.

Since President Donald Trump signed the 2018 NDAA into law on Dec. 12, the focus has been on rules providing a three-fold increase in the micro-purchase threshold for civilian agencies from $3,000 to $10,000.

A micro-purchase, because of its relatively low value, doesn’t require competition. With few limitations, it allows contracting officers to  buy any product from any company, so long as it doesn’t exceed the $10,000 threshold.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition-policy/2018/01/new-ndaa-purchasing-rules-should-benefit-government-shoppers-small-business/

Federal government’s procurement process could go digital

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In order to keep up with online marketplaces available at the “one touch” of a smartphone, the federal government is doing its part to bring its procurement process into the digital age.

Legislation passed earlier this year by the House of Representatives would allow the U.S. military and civilian government agencies to buy products directly from new online marketplaces instead of following the current procurement process for purchases above the “micro-purchase” threshold (i.e., a few thousand dollars).

The newly proposed process would present many opportunities for online retailers and marketplaces and is seen by supporters as a way to drive down prices for the government. However, such a transition would create many compliance and regulatory issues likely introducing new costs; and opponents, such as Steve Ellis, the vice president of advocacy group Taxpayers for Common Sense, argue that it will foster a less competitive environment and create waste.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-federal-government-procurement-47876/

DoD micro-purchase increase is now in effect

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The increase to DoD’s micro-purchase threshold mandated by the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act is now in effect.

A Class Deviation issued earlier this month provides, effective immediately, that the DoD micro-purchase threshold is $5,000 for many acquisitions.

The new micro-purchase threshold is $1,500 higher than the standard $3,500 micro-purchase threshold.  But there are a few exceptions.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/statutes-and-regulations/dod-micro-purchase-increase-is-now-in-effect/

Here’s a summary of the changes in government contracting provisions of the NDAA

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Steve Koprince is the author of the book entitled "The Small-Business Guide to Government Contracts."
Steve Koprince is the author of the book entitled “The Small-Business Guide to Government Contracts.”

The 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), signed into law on Dec. 23, 2016, contains at least 16 changes to federal procurement policy, many directly affecting the interests of small businesses.

Ever since the NDAA was finalized, attorney Steve Koprince and his team at Koprince Law LLC have been analyzing and summarizing each of the changes.  Here’s s list of their blog posts, each one hyperlinked to the article:

 

For more information, visit: http://smallgovcon.com 

 

GSA holding technology industry day Sept. 8th

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On September 8, the General Services Administration (GSA) is hosting its very first Technology Industry Day.  Participating vendors will get an opportunity to learn about how GSA is transforming technology in the federal government, see demos of products and solutions developed by technologists and, last but not least, provide feedback on how GSA can work better with industry.

The event will be held at GSA headquarters located at 1800 F St., NW, Washington, DC 20405, and the event also will be accessible remotely.

On-site registration will close on September 5, 2016, and remote registration will close on the day of the event.

Below are a few projects to be featured and registration details:

Agile BPA
  • The Agile Blanket Purchase Agreement allows innovation in procurement, lessens the burden on industry and solves problems in a user-centered approach. A great example is the work with the FedRAMP program management office at GSA, the first client to use the Agile BPA. We helped the FedRAMP office hire an agile vendor to implement human-centered design and build a public-facing dashboard about cloud authorizations.
Micropurchasing
  • Micropurchasing is a process is where the federal government makes small procurements to directly buy products and services, as long as the price does not exceed $3,500. Currently, we are using that process to buy small pieces of open source software and design through the Micro-purchase Marketplace. This process has allowed clients to add valuable features to their products through quick, inexpensive purchases.
Cloud.gov
  • Cloud.gov is a shared platform built for government that allows agencies to securely deploy systems to the cloud. It takes care of baseline security and scalability concerns and allows federal teams to focus on delivering quality products.
Agenda

GSA Tech Industry Day 09.08.2016

Registration

If you want to learn more, sign up to join GSA on September 8 for the first Technology Industry Day.

18F debuts micro-purchase platform

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The General Services Administration’s innovation lab, 18F, launched a new platform last week to more easily post and receive bids on micro-purchase tasks.

18F at GSAMicro-purchase authority allows agencies to directly buy products and services as long as they don’t exceed $3,500, and the agency used that authority in a new way in October 2015, when it essentially hosted a reverse auction to micro-purchase open source code for its CALC project.

18F declared the experience a success when it ended up buying open source code for just $1.

Now, 18F is further scaling that model, according to a Jan. 7, 2016 post to the 18F blog.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/18f-debuts-micro-purchase-platform/2016-01-11

 

 

$20 billion in federal purchasing done ‘under the radar’ in recent months

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Federal agencies collectively have spent at least $20 million in small purchases just this year.  This purchasing activity occurs “under the radar” with little or no public accountability on government credit cards (“Pcards”).  Many of these purchases are questionable, such as the recent revelation that one agency used those cards to buy $30,000 in Starbucks Coffee drinks and products in one year.

Those are among the findings of the local television affiliate of NBC News in Washington, DC in connection with records obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.

The News4 I-Team reported that “the purchases, known among federal employees as ‘micropurchases,’ are made by some of the thousands of agency employees who are issued taxpayer-funded purchase cards. The purchases, in most cases, remain confidential and are not publicly disclosed by the agencies.”    Micropurchases are transactions less than $3,000.

Recent government audits show inappropriate purchases such as a gym membership, spa service, and JC Penney clothing.

Two federal agencies — the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of the Interior — shared information about their Pcard purchases with the television news station, but several other agencies refused to do so.  Among those agencies declining to make their records public are the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Reasons for not making public their micropurchase records ranged from claims that there are no rules making such purchasing public to not having records in a centralized database.

The complete news report can be seen at: http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/Federal-Government-Made-20-Billion-in-Secret-Purchases-in-Recent-Months-280997562.html. 

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