New DAU Continuous Learning Modules

CL Module- CLB 014
Name: Acquisition Reporting Concepts and Policy Requirements for APB, DAES, and SAR (Acq Rptg Concepts&Policy Rqmts- APB,DAES,&SAR)

CLP's: 3

Description: The Acquisition Reporting Concepts and Policies for APB, DAES, and SAR module provides information on the terminology, concepts, and policies pertaining to required acquisition reports, such as the Acquisition Program Baseline (APB), Defense Acquisition Executive Summary (DAES) and Selected Acquisition Report (SAR). Upon completion of the module, students will be able to apply these concepts and policies in the preparation and review of reports generated using the Consolidated Acquisition Reporting (CARS) software.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CL Module- CLC 108
Name: Strategic Sourcing Overview

CLP's: 2.5

Description: The U.S. Department of Defense, like the rest of the Federal Government, is discovering how Strategic Sourcing can be a key enabler for achieving improved quality and cost related to the purchase of goods and services. This course provides an overview of Strategic Sourcing concepts and techniques for helping organizations make the shift from tactical to strategic purchasing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CL Module- CLC 110
Name: Spend Analysis Strategies

CLP's: 4.5

Description: Spend Analysis is one of several tools the U.S. Department of Defense and other Federal agencies are using to gain critical insights into the procurement history and spend patterns for purchased goods and services. Ultimately, a Spend Analysis contributes to the "commodity fact base" that forms the foundation for identifying valuable strategic sourcing improvement opportunities.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CL Module- CLE 010
Name: Privacy Protection

CLP's: 1

Description: After completing this module, members of the DoD Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics community will be able to recognize and respond appropriately to fundamental privacy concerns when performing activities in acquisition, requirements and research by: Describing the general scope of privacy protection; Listing key privacy protection guidance and laws governing privacy; Stating potential risks to privacy; Describing existing procedures to promoting privacy protection; Recognizing breaches of privacy in current cases; Naming contacts and steps to take regarding privacy questions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

CL Module- CLM 028
Name: Space Acquisition

CLP's: 4


Description: The purpose of this continuous learning module is to explain the space acquisition process outlined in National Security Space Acquisition Policy 03-01 (NSS 03-01) dated 27 December 2004.

Congressman Out for Count

Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham was convicted of varoius criminal offenses involving Federal Government Contracting. Here is the federal plea agreement and the government's sentencing argument. Plenty of material for class discussion.

New Policy for Federal Civilian Agencies

A new policy for certification of contracting professionals was issued. DAU will play a prominent roll with FAI. Here is the reference.

Another GAO Update

MMI-Federal Marketing Service Corp., B-297537, February 8, 2006
DIGEST
Protest is sustained where the agency unreasonably determined that awardee’s quotation demonstrated compliance with the Berry Amendment’s domestic production requirements, in light of countervailing pre-award information that the awardee would not comply.

DECISION
We sustain the protest.

Good statement concerning GAO's standard of review:

In reviewing an agency’s technical evaluation of vendor submissions under an RFQ, we will not reevaluate the quotations; we will only consider whether the agency’s evaluation was reasonable and in accord with the evaluation criteria listed in the solicitation and applicable procurement statutes and regulations. American Recycling Sys., Inc., B-292500, Aug. 18, 2003, 2003 CPD ¶ 143 at 4. In determining the technical acceptability of a quotation, an agency may not accept at face value a promise to meet a material requirement, where there is significant countervailing evidence reasonably known to the agency that should create doubt whether the vendor will or can comply with that requirement. See Maritime Berthing, Inc., B-284123.3, Apr. 27, 2000, 2000 CPD ¶ 89 at 9. As relevant here, an agency should go beyond a firm’s self-certification regarding domestic manufacturing requirements where the agency has reason to believe, prior to award, that a vendor will notprovide compliant products. See Leisure-Lift, Inc., B-291878.3, B-292448.2, Sept. 25, 2003, 2003 CPD ¶ 189 at 3-4.

Another case -- Agencies Must Reasonably Consider and Evaluate OCIs

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) instructs agencies to identify potential organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) as early as possible in the procurement process and to mitigate significant potential conflicts before contract award. FAR 9.504. Contracting officers must exercise common sense, good judgment, and sound discretion in determining whether a significant potential conflict of interest exists and in developing an appropriate means for resolving it. FAR 9.505. Moreover, when evaluating potential OCIs, contracting officers should obtain the advice of counsel. FAR 9.504. In Greenleaf Construction Company, Inc., the offeror being considered for the award of a HUD contract also owned a HUD closing agent for the same area. To mitigate this OCI, the offeror transferred full ownership of the closing agent through the use of a purchase agreement. Prior to award, HUD discovered and advised the offeror of the need to further resolve this conflict as a result of learning that the offeror had retained a profit interest in the closing agent. The purchase agreement was subsequently amended to remove the profit interest and instead provided for a final fixed price to be paid over a number of weeks. Because of these changes, the contracting officer concluded that the OCI had been resolved and awarded the contract. Greenleaf protested the award and argued that the amended purchase agreement continued to pose an unacceptable OCI because the purchaser was still required to make significant monthly payments to the awardee. The GAO sustained the protest, holding that HUD failed to reasonably consider or evaluate the OCI implications resulting from the amended purchase agreement. The GAO determined that the contracting officer had failed to consider whether the magnitude of the payments was such to impair the judgment and objectivity of the awardee, or whether suitable mitigation was required to address the potential OCI.

Greenleaf Construction Company, Inc. From Steve Copetas at DAU South

GAO Update

GAO Denies Protest Involving "Neutral" Past Performance Rating

The GAO recently denied a protest to the award of a contract for lifeguard services at Andersen AFB, Guam. The protester took issue with the fact that it was assigned a "Neutral" past performance rating, indicating that it had no similar past performance, despite its experience managing the swim team on base. The GAO repeated its position that evaluation of past performance is within the discretion of the agency and that it will only review the evaluations to ensure that the agency's judgment was reasonable and consistent with the solicitation criteria and applicable statutes and regulations. The GAO found the evaluation unobjectionable in this case because the performance work statement for the solicitation required the contractor to provide services sufficiently different from what was required to manage the swim team. Before assigning a "Neutral" past performance rating, be sure to do the appropriate analysis to determine that the requirements of the current solicitation are sufficiently divergent from those of the offeror's past contracts to justify the rating.

Greater Pacific Aquatics, B-29765 From Steve Copetas, DAU South


GAO Denies Protest Where SSA Follows Minority Recommendation

In TruLogic, Inc, B-297252.3 (Jan 06), GAO denied the protest of a contract awarded at Tinker AFB for Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) systems development and Technical Order (TO) "sustainment." GAO found that the source selection authority's (SSA) disagreement with the majority of the evaluators and acceptance of the minority's recommendation that the awardee be selected for award was unobjectionable and was not evidence of a lack of impartiality, where the SSA reached a reasoned conclusion, supported by the record, that the awardee's lower-priced, lower-rated proposal deserved a higher technical rating than was assigned by the majority and represented the best value to the government. This opinion reinforces the importance of the SSA/contracting officer's thorough explanation of the reasoning behind the award decision in the record-especially when following a minority recommendation.

TruLogic, Inc. From Steve Copetas, DAU South

Another GAO Case

Novex Enterprises, B-297660; B-297660.2, March 6, 2006

DIGEST
Agency unreasonably selected higher-priced proposal based on the fact that its initial delivery was somewhat earlier than the protester’s, where the awardee’s overall delivery schedule was noncompliant with the delivery schedule established in the solicitation and significantly less advantageous than the protester’s compliant delivery schedule, and the agency apparently did not consider this in making the award selection.

DECISION
We sustain the protest.