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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

Business Operations

Branch

February 19, 2021 

CFTC Service Contract Inventory: FY2019 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 2019 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 

R425 Support – Professional: Engineering/Technical 

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) policy letter “Performance of

Inherently Governmental and Critical Functions” (76 Fed. Reg. 56227; September 12, 2011), 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 Information Technology Branch 

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

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

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

PSC D302, over 65% of the dollars (approximately $10.3m) were awarded under BPA CFODT15-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 R425 - Support–Professional: Engineering/Technical, 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. Of the funds obligated 

under PSC R425, over 29.8% of the dollars (approximately $3.6m) were awarded for ongoing 

development, maintenance and support of customer applications developed to ingest operational 

market information and obtain monthly and financial quarterly reports from participants as well 

as provide accommodate the access and submission of CFTC forms necessary in obtaining 

information to fulfill our mission. Another 11.6% of the dollars (approximately $1.4m) were 

awarded to provide support in improving data quality, integrating data sets and tools, developing 

prototype solutions, automating processes, preparing business requirements and participating in 

user acceptance testing. 

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 FY2019 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.

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

questions about the FY2019 Service Contract Inventory and analysis.

The following contact information is provided: 

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