Posts By Jaime Gracia

Ideas to Improve Federal Acquisition and the Better Buy Project

From The Acquisition Corner This week saw the launch of the Better Buy Project, a joint project of the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council in conjunction with the General Services Administration. According to the website: …The acquisition process represents one of the most important areas of collaborationRead… Read more »

With New Fiscal Year Comes New OMB Guidance

From The Acquisition Corner As Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 is now underway, The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be ramping up its guidance on improving acquisition outcomes, which includes a broad section of areas to include competition, contract types, workforce, outsourcing, and acquisition practices. I will be covering theses issues in more depthRead… Read more »

Capturing Past Performance Data is Not Enough

From The Acquisition Corner As acquisition reform continues to gain steam, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy are continuing to craft guidance and procedures to improve the acquisition process in hopes of saving money on contract costs and reduce the use of “high-risk” contract types. These improvements willRead… Read more »

Hitting a Home Run; Baseball and the Acquisition Process

From The Acquisition Corner An interesting post by Bill Gormley of Washington Management Group described parallels on two of my passions, baseball and improving the acquisition process. It is an interesting read and a fun way of discussing what can be a somewhat difficult process and subject. Some specifics points he makes and my take:Read… Read more »

When the Lack of Oversight on Government Contracts Has Dire Consequences

From The Acquisition Corner One of the most blatant examples of contractors running amok with little to no oversight has come to light recently as a result of an investigation and subsequent report by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO). This report was created based on information from current and former employees of ArmorGroup NorthRead… Read more »

Action Needed Now on Acquisition Workforce Reforms

From the Acquisition Corner A recent piece in FCW from Dee Lee, now executive vice president of federal affairs and operations at the Professional Services Council (PSC), highlights the need to temper acquisition workforce analysis with action. Her piece is a follow up to her Aug. 5 testimony before Congress to discuss the multi-sector acquisitionRead… Read more »

Speeding Up the Acquisition Process is a Challenge

From The Acquisition Corner An interesting action plan for speeding up the procurement process for Recovery procurements was recently proposed by Dr. Allan Burman, who served as administrator of federal procurement policy in the Office of Management and Budget. His plan, which was conducted as an interview with CGI Initiative for Collaborative Government, outlined anRead… Read more »

Coast Guard Moving Forward with Deepwater as SI

From the Acquisition Corner In a continued effort to do more with less, a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) discusses the efforts by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) since assuming the role of systems integrator (SI) for the overall Deepwater Program. Admiral Thad Allen has done a tremendous job since assuming hisRead… Read more »

Award Fees and Incentive Contracts, a Focus on Cost Savings

From the Acquisition Corner In light of the recent memos by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to improve government performance and save on contract costs, focus has turned to the use of award fees on incentive contracts. Earlier this week, the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and InternationalRead… Read more »

Defense Acquisition Reform Needs Common Sense

From the Acquisition Corner: An interesting piece on defense acquisition reform came out by Scott Reynolds, a professor of program management for the Defense Systems Management College at Defense Acquisition University on how we can come to see poor performance in the defense acquisition process as a matter of fact rather than something that isRead… Read more »