Page 6 - Federal Computer Week, July 2019

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GSA issues new RFQ for COMET
The General Services Administration issued the solicitation for a blanket purchase agreement under the CIO Modernization and Enterprise Transformation contract on June 17.
COMET — a re-compete of GSA’s CIO Application Maintenance, Enhancements and Operations contract — supports the main IT environment at the Federal Acquisition Service, which encompasses the GSA Global Supply, multiple-award schedules, personal property management, travel, fleet, purchase card services and integrated technology programs.
The agency split COMET into two parts that are being bid separately. The request for quotations on the architecture, engineering and advisory support portion closed on April 29, and GSA plans to select a single provider for architectural and programmatic services under that part of the contract.
In April, the agency said it was reviewing vendor responses to the other half of the contract, the multiple-award BPA. An earlier draft solicitation split companies into large- and small-vendor tracks for app maintenance, enhancement and transformation services. Officials said each track would likely contain up to five vendors.
In its June 17 notice, GSA said vendors had until July 1 to submit information for step one in a five-stage bidder selection process.
According to the draft RFQ, the first factor focuses on past experience, which could lead to an invitation to explain bidders’ technical and management approaches. When GSA selects bidders to move on, they will face a technical challenge exercise and then submit pricing.
$75M is the value of Perspecta’s sole-source contract to continue updating the National Background
Investigation System
Defense bill includes more oversight of OTAs
The House Armed Services Committee passed its 2020 defense authorization bill in June with a provision requiring annual reporting to congressional committees on the prototype projects that the Defense Department chooses for other transaction authorities, including their purpose, the parties involved and the amount of money spent.
their use has been expanding, Congress should exercise oversight.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the bill echoes a commitment to agility with a provision that requires “mechanisms and waivers designed to ensure flexibility in the implementation of the authority, including the use of other transaction
Lawmakers “have oversight responsibilities to make sure that
the tools are being used properly.”
Darryl Scott, former director of the Defense Contract Management Agency and now a commissioner on the Section 809 Panel that is seeking to update DOD’s acquisition practices, said the proposed reporting requirement makes sense.
With OTAs, “Congress has provided a tool that can speed up the acquisition cycle,” he told FCW. “[Lawmakers] have oversight responsibilities to make sure that the tools are being used properly.”
He added that the reporting requirements are a natural progression as OTAs become more popular, but it’s also important to note that “Congress has not decided that DOD can’t be trusted with OTAs. They’ve just said now that
— DARRYL SCOTT, SECTION 809 PANEL
authority, broad agency announcements and other procedures.”
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the committee’s ranking member, expressed support for flexible acquisition practices at an event in June. “It is so long and cumbersome to go through the normal acquisition process that we’ve developed various workarounds to buy things faster where there’s an urgent need,” he said. “So it is important for us to have transparency and oversight of these other authorities, but I want to be careful about limiting them too much because that will send us back to [taking] 20 years to get an airplane.”
— Lauren C. Williams
Veterans Experience
@VetsExperience
@DeptVetAffairs is looking to improve customer experience by changing its culture and tapping its own workforce as a resource for innovative ideas via @FCWnow #CX #CXCapGoals https://bddy.me/2VRbKG0
11:05 AM - 28 May 2019
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July 2019 FCW.COM
— Mark Rockwell