Things You Can Do Now

Increase Use of Existing Commercial Buying Authorities

Problem: Despite the original intent and numerous revisions to statutes and regulations, selecting sources for commercial products and services continues to take too long and involve unnecessarily complex procedures.

What you can do now:

Provide guidance on, and increase use of:

FAR Part 12 commercial

FAR Part 13 SAT (up to $250K)

FAR Subpart 13.5 (commercial up to $7M) 

Increase awareness of the speed and benefits of FAR 13.5 (can be used for services)

Use Simplified Acquisition Procedures (SAPs)

Establish more aggressive PALT standards for commercial buying

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BOLD.

SIMPLE.

EFFECTIVE.

Increase Use of Fair Opportunity Procedures

Problem: When competing orders under IDIQ contracts, contracting personnel frequently choose complex FAR 15.3 source selection procedures instead of the streamlined fair opportunity procedures in FAR 16.505(b) that are intended for these types of procurements. 

This results in additional, unnecessary steps in the processes that:

Create additional workload for both government and industry

Extend the timeline to award

What you can do now:

Require contracting officers to use FAR 16.5 streamlined procedures when placing orders under multiple-award contracts (and seek approval otherwise)

Train the workforce leveraging existing resources for best practices and techniques such as: Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) Guiding Principles for Fair Opportunity 

Use smaller, more frequent task orders (note: no GAO level protests under $25M)

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BOLD.

SIMPLE.

EFFECTIVE.

Enhance Debriefings

Problem: Many DoD contracting activities do not consider debriefings a means to avoid protests and provide only the minimum required information. This results in debriefings that can be:

Adversarial

Incomplete

Insufficient for informing unsuccessful offerors of the government’s rationale for the award

What you can do now: Provide as part of a debriefing, in all procurements where a debriefing is required, a redacted source selection decision document and the technical evaluation of the vendor receiving the debriefing.

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BOLD.

SIMPLE.

EFFECTIVE.

Improve Government-Industry Interactions

Problem: Despite attempts by governmentwide and DoD acquisition leaders since Congress passed the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (FASA), DoD acquisition personnel and individuals in the marketplace have expressed concern about communicating with each other openly and frequently throughout the acquisition process, for fear of legal violations.

What you can do now:

Ensure awareness of Myth-Busting series (#4 released April 2019) and implement the recommended practices

Establish a market intelligence capability to enhance the government’s industry knowledge to become a smart buyer

Conduct more robust market research (e.g., more one-on-ones, less reliance on RFIs)

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BOLD.

SIMPLE.

EFFECTIVE.

Reduce Unnecessary Security Clearance Requirements

Problem: DoD sometimes incorrectly applies security clearance and investigation requirements to unclassified contracts which:

Reduces the talent pool from which contractor companies can recruit

Exacerbates the substantial investigation backlog  

What you can do now: 

Ensure all security clearance requirements follow the need-to-know principle of the National Industrial Security Program 

Use role-based planning to prevent unnecessary application of security clearance and investigation requirements to contracts (DD 254)

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BOLD.

SIMPLE.

EFFECTIVE.

Optimize Acquisition of Consumption-based Solutions

Problem: The FAR unrealistically categorizes all purchases as either supplies or services, a decades old distinction that is too rigid to effectively procure modern technology solutions with evolving delivery models. 

What you can do now:

Use a FAR deviation to permit a new contract type called fixed-price resource units that:

Establishes a fixed price per unit of measure and captures commercial price reductions

Sets a ceiling for the overall contract value against which consumption of individual resource line items will be charged

Can be incrementally funded

Is paid in arrears based on actual consumption

Actively manage consumption using available vendor tools (e.g., set limits by user or group, contractor notify the government when consumption reaches 75 percent and 90 percent of the contract funded amount)

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BOLD.

SIMPLE.

EFFECTIVE.

Create direct contracts with independent consultants

Problem: Highly qualified independent consultants do not always want to become full-time employees or navigate the complexities of becoming a government contractor or subcontractor. These professionals often choose to work as independent contractors in the gig economy, finding work through online talent marketplaces.

What you can do now:

Use FAR 13.5 for simplified commercial buying to create a very simple contract

Leverage an existing talent marketplace (e.g., Upwork, GovFlex)

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BOLD.

SIMPLE.

EFFECTIVE.

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