Have you thought about how your company will function in the event of a terrorist attack or natural disaster? In a post-9/11 and Hurricane Katrina world, this is a must. FEMA recommends that every business have an Emergency Plan as well as a Continuity of Operations plan (COOP) in order to maintain essential business functions. FEMA's readiness website,ready.gov, focuses on creating such plans for personal and business purposes.

GSA Helps Local Law Enforcement with the War on Drugs

When helping my clients to obtain a GSA Schedule contract, I notice that many decide to volunteer to participate in the Disaster Recovery Purchasing Program (“DRPP”) as part of their offer. However, very few clients understand exactly what this program is and what it means for them once they’ve been awarded a contract. To clear up some confusion surrounding the DRPP and cover the questions I typically get, here’s a little bit of background information: On February 1, 2007, an amendment was made to 40 U.S. C. 502 to authorize the Administrator of General Services to provide for the use of Federal Supply Schedules by state and local governments for the purchase of products and services to be used to facilitate recovery from major disasters, terrorism, or nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological attacks. These orders may be placed after the disaster or emergency event occurs, or in advance of a major disaster declared by the president. It is the responsibility of the state and local government entities to ensure that all products and services purchased are used specifically for recovery facilitation purposes. Since the amendment was issued, current GSA Schedule contracts have been modified as agreed upon by Schedule contractors and GSA, to allow Schedule contractors to participate in the DRPP. All vendors submitting new offers for Schedule contracts since February 1, 2007 are also required to indicate whether or not they will offer Disaster Recovery Purchasing.

A few times I have gotten questions from clients who have felt left out of doing work with the government and want to know more about the bid protest process because they feel the decision of a contracting officer or government agency regarding a contract bid or awarded contract was unfair. To do this, you first must make sure that you qualify as an “interested party”. To be considered an interested party, the FAR 33-1 states that your company must be “an actual or prospective offeror whose direct economic interest would be affected by the award of a contract or by the failure to award a contract”. Once you discern your status, you must follow a very specific procedure, and the government is obligated to respond to them as long as they are procedurally correct. Ideally, the government contracting realm is impartial and fair, but sometimes competitors feel that someone has been or is about to be awarded a contract on bogus or questionable grounds. They feel that in their case, the process for a bid was not designed to allow competitors the opportunity to bid on a fair and even playing field. The company can then open a case through the contracting officer at that agency (the recommended channel) or file their protest directly to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

These days it seems everyone has an opinion on what the Government could do better in order to avoid the disastrous procurement process that ends up costing an agency $10,000 just to acquire a simple hammer. Well now, the Federal Government is ready to listen to what you have to say. The National Academy of the Public Administration and the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council in conjunction with the General Services Administration have rolled out the “Better Buy Project” to find ways to increase efficiency and openness in the procurement process by asking the public for solutions. Better Buy gives you the chance to voice your opinion and suggest ideas that could improve the procurement and acquisition process. The program is asking for suggestions for 3 phases of the acquisition lifecycle: Market Research and Requirements Definition Pre-Solicitation Phase Solicitation Phase.

Through the recent IT management reform effort established by The White House, a totally different type of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell may be coming to an end. This is of course the practice of conducting multi-million/billion dollar projects without sufficient Project Management involvement by the involved Federal Agencies. As Trey Hodgkins said to FCW, “Right now, the way the process works, it is purely coincidental if all the elements in the process are actually talking to each other”, producing a de-facto practice of not asking, and not reporting issues in project progress. It is this practice that the White House’s reform is attempting to address. The reform looks to create a new career path for Government personnel to establish a knowledge base and experience in successful IT Project Management, which will provide a large pool of candidates to provide these services from within Federal Agencies. This will help alleviate the strain on existing Federal Project Managers, who are diverted between an increasing number of projects, and provide more resources to ensure any project over a specific size will have diligent Agency based Project Management.