Posts By Jaime Gracia

Lack of Accountability Hinders Contractor Oversight and Performance

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) is hoping that third time really is the charm in its seemingly desperate attempts at getting agencies to properly document contractor performance using the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS). Although similar memos in 2009 and 2011 (here and here) focused on this issue of poor past performanceRead… Read more »

Certification and Competition, Don’t Move the Goal Posts

Office of Federal Procurement Policy Administrator Joe Jordan recently got some much needed feedback on the debate about insourcing and outsourcing, and how those decision are being made. However, the insourcing versus outsourcing issue is not just external to the government. A recent trend seems to be developing where Contracting Officers are inserting VetBiz verificationRead… Read more »

Small Businesses as Primes: Beware the Scorpion

As the 2012 Fiscal Year comes to a close, procurement shops are in full gear awarding contracts in the shadow of sequestration. Many large firms are also trying to close business after months of business development, only to see last minute decisions to make their solicitation a small business set-aside. This creates another potential avenueRead… Read more »

Small Businesses as Primes: Beware the Scorpion

As the 2012 Fiscal Year comes to a close, procurement shops are in full gear awarding contracts in the shadow of sequestration. Many large firms are also trying to close business after months of business development, only to see last minute decisions to make their solicitation a small business set-aside. This creates another potential avenueRead… Read more »

Civil War Contracting: Claims Process Little Changed

I was hiking and touring the Manassas, VA battlefield recently, and came across something interesting. The congressional act of July 4, 1864 (13 Stat. 381-82), recognized the debt the Federal Government owed loyal citizens for property losses suffered during the Civil War. This act, like all such Government legislation until 1871, applied only to citizensRead… Read more »

“Buying In” Now Effectively Policy Across Government

In a recent breakfast hosted by the Coalition for Government Procurement, Office of Federal Procurement Policy Administrator Joe Jordan effectively punted on the notion of best value versus the realities of federal procurement; lowest priced offers win contracts. …Generally speaking, he said industry likes best-value procurements. They allow companies to propose higher prices, since officialsRead… Read more »

DHS Rule Protects Small Business? Think Again.

Federal Computer Week reported on a proposed change to the Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation, the supplement to the Federal Acquisition Regulation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in order to help small businesses fend off rapacious primes contractors from “windfall” payments on Time and Materials contracts. “Help” like this is not desired by smallRead… Read more »

Contractors and Procurement Officials: Customer Service Is A Two Way Street

There seems to be a development that is coming more and more to the forefront: the case of the out-of-control Contracting Officer (KO). There are usually two paths to interactions with a KO, one being the KO who is overwhelmed with the workload, doing the best they can to handle it, and simply have veryRead… Read more »