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U.S. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION

Three Lafayette Centre

1155 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC 20581

Telephone: (202) 418-5000

Facsimile: (202) 418-5521

www.cftc.gov

Financial Management

Branch

February 20, 2019 

CFTC Service Contract Inventory: FY2017 Analysis Report

Pursuant to Section 743 of Division C of the FY 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act, P.L. 

111-117, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has completed the analysis and 

review of the agency Fiscal Year 2017 Service Contract Inventory to determine if the mix of 

Federal employees and contractors is effective or if rebalancing may be required.

As required, the agency focused the analysis on the following two (2) special interest functions 

that we identified to OMB by Product Service Code (PSC):

PSC PSC Description

D302 IT and Telecom-System Development 

R499 Support – Professional: Other 

The analysis, review and the write-up herein reflect interviews and input from agency Contracting 

Officers and Contracting Officer Representatives (CORs). In conducting our analysis we carefully 

reviewed and considered OMB Memorandum M-09-26, dated July 29, 2009, Office of Federal 

Procurement Policy (OFPP) proposed policy letter "Work Reserved for Performance by Federal 

Government Employees" (75 Fed. Reg. 16188; March 31, 2010), the insourcing guidelines 

required under section 736 of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 

2009 (Public Law 111-8, division D) and all applicable internal agency guidance pertaining to this 

subject matter.

The analysis and review revealed that the support activities provided under the outlined special 

interest functions are neither inherently Governmental, nor are they personal services contracts as 

defined in FAR 37.104. Current safeguards in place for monitoring contractor services provide 

reasonable assurance that work does not become inherently governmental during contract 

performance.

In addition, the analysis and review revealed that the CFTC is not utilizing contractor services to 

perform agency critical functions in such a way that could affect the ability of the agency to 

maintain control of its mission and operations. Lastly, the analysis revealed that the agency is 

increasingly relying on contract resources to support its expanded mission as a result of the Dodd–

Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Pub.L. 111-203, H.R. 4173) which was 

enacted in July 2010. The agency faces a number of challenges to effectively manage and oversee 

contract performance to ensure we remain in compliance with all guidelines and laws regarding 

the subject matter.
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Following is a summary of our review by PSC: 

For PSC D302 - IT and Telecom-System Development, CFTC’s Office of Data Technology 

(ODT) contractor employees are used to provide Information Technology (IT) systems 

development and services support based on specialized technical skills that are not performed by 

ODT staff; but instead, monitored by agency staff project managers. Of the funds obligated under 

PSC D302, over 54% of the dollars (approximately $5.4m) were awarded under BPA 

CFODT-15-BP-0214. The BPA provides CFTC the ability to adjust to surges in workload required 

to enhance existing infrastructure requirements as it relates to security, telecommunications, and 

equipment that are needed as a part of the implementation of new initiatives as well as perform 

operations and maintenance (O&M) of the network, telecommunications and customer support 

center. Due to the nature of the work performed and the large percentage of dollars associated with 

the core infrastructure operations and maintenance task, a Contracting Officer’s Representative 

(COR), an Alternate Contracting Officer’s Representative, and three (3) Task Monitors are 

assigned to monitor and oversee the contractor services. 

 

For PSC R499 - Support–Professional: Other, the Senior Procurement Executive (SPE) decided to 

analyze the type of services being procured to not only determine if the mix of Federal employees 

and contractors is effective but to ascertain if a more specific PSC Code would have been more 

appropriate instead of the generic code. The analysis of contractor support associated with the PSC 

Code R499 included expert witnesses, court transcriptions, development of content and editorial 

support associated with fraud prevention educational materials, ad hoc building maintenance 

support services and data analysis/analytic services and data standards development support. The 

majority of the contracts are structured as short-term, project related type services which are not 

conducive for hiring federal staff to perform. The other projects also provide for additional 

short-term support when additional analysis is required. None of the contracts associated with PSC 

Code R499 are performed by federal staff, but are monitored by a COR. During the analysis, it was 

confirmed that other available PSC Codes were more applicable for each specific contract. Prior to 

the analysis, the SPE issued a notice to all Contracting Officers stating PSC codes such as R499 

“Other Professional Services” should only be selected when there is no other appropriate code to 

use. Each FPDS record has been corrected to reflect the most relevant PSC Code. In addition to 

ensuring an effective Federal employee to contractor mix, the SPE is committed to guaranteeing 

that the most descriptive PSC Code is used, thereby providing the public with accurate and 

complete transparency regarding the types of services CFTC procures. 

All CFTC contracts are assigned a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) responsible for 

tracking contractor performance via project milestones, project deliverables and/or performance 

standards/metrics. The COR is also responsible for managing and overseeing the various tasks 

within a contract, which ensures that CFTC is maintaining control of its mission and operations. 

In summary, the CFTC continued to use contractor resources, in particular services provided under 

the special interest functions noted in our FY2017 Service Contract Inventory, to support agency 

staff. CFTC can provide reasonable assurance that it complies with laws and regulations governing 

contract resource use and is committed to undertaking the action necessary to reduce risks in 

delivery of contract services. 
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Please do not hesitate to reach out to any of the CFTC personnel listed below if you have any 

questions about the FY2017 Service Contract Inventory and analysis.

The following contact information is provided: 

(1) The CFTC senior agency management official accountable for the development of agency 

policies, procedures, and training associated with OFPP Policy Letter 11-01 and 

addressing the performance of inherently governmental and critical functions is Alice 

Macklin, Human Capital Analyst, amacklin@cftc.gov, 202-418-5860. 

(2) Mrs. Macklin is also the official responsible for ensuring appropriate internal management 

attention is given to the development and analysis of service contract inventories.

(3) The CFTC individual who has been designated to serve on the working group responsible

for sharing best practices and lessons learned in the use of inventories as a management 

tool is: 

• Kathryn Rison, Contracting Officer, krison@cftc.gov, 202-418-5419.