Being a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) can add a whole list of tasks and activities to a manager’s already busy day-to-day responsibilities. A lot of time can pass from the date of certification as a COR to the time when a procurement request (PR) package is needed to acquire products and/or services to carry on …
Category Archives: Acquisition Management
Writing a Task Order Against an IDIQ – Make Sure You’re Covered!
Do not assume anything when you are writing a task order against an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. Why? Ever write a task order and miss something or miss ensuring the proper contract language rigor is included? For example, what happens when a task order is written against an IDIQ contract and language requiring …
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Getting LPTA Right – Raising the Bar for Technical Acceptability
Blogs criticizing the misuse and overuse of Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source selections for services will flood your search engine results in seconds. Because integrity matters, let’s step back and ask the tougher question: How can we effectively apply LPTA source selection to complex services? Can we raise the bar for technical acceptability?
4 Ways Acquisition Professionals Should Engage With Industry
Integrity Management Consulting and GovLoop are proud to present a 12-part series called “Conscientious Contracting: A Thoughtful Approach to Acquisition and Program Management,” that aims to address common challenges and achieve new efficiencies in government procurement. Integrity Matters will bring you occasional posts written by GovLoop’s Andrew Krzmarzick, featuring the expertise of Integrity subject matter experts and …
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Do CORs Matter in Your Agency? Why They Should
Picture the acquisition process flow as a wheel. Around the wheel are the pre-award and award process, contract management and finally the contract close-out. Because Contracting Officer’s Representatives (CORs) may be involved in all aspects of the acquisition cycle, they operate as the linchpin that holds it all together. What would happen if you pulled …
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Why Your Program Should Tackle Risk Head On
Being “risk-averse” often means trying to completely eliminate risk, which is counter-productive and often impossible. Good managers embrace risk. Why? Because they know that setting up a proper risk management program up front can ultimately save time, money, and avoid potentially serious program execution problems. Think of it as building “sweat equity” into the investment. …
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Why Federal Contracting Should Be More Like Made-From-Scratch vs. Store-Bought Cookies
Integrity Management Consulting and GovLoop are proud to present a 12-part series called “Conscientious Contracting: A Thoughtful Approach to Acquisition and Program Management,” that aims to address common challenges and achieve new efficiencies in government procurement. Integrity Matters will bring you occasional posts written by GovLoop’s Andrew Krzmarzick, featuring the expertise of Integrity subject matter experts. It’s …
Performance Based Budgeting – Is it just another buzzword?
Recently the US Chief Information Officer (CIO) Steven Van Roekel (@stevenvdc) has been discussing the Federal Information Technology FY 2014 Budget Priorities on social media such as Twitter and elsewhere. In his budget priorities presentation, he discusses the shift towards Performance Based Budgeting (PBB). So what exactly is PBB? Sounds like a great buzzword, right? …
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Certification Update – the Latest on NCMA’s ICCM
A few months ago I wrote about the National Contract Management Association’s (NCMA’s) new Industry Certification in Contract Management (ICCM) in a blog titled “New Certifications Could Help Ease Acquisition Shortfall.” The ICCM is the only available direct equivalent to Defense Acquisition Improvement Act (DAWIA) and Federal Acquisition Certification-Contracting (FAC-C) certifications. Based on the tremendous …
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How an E-Library Can Help Keep You Compliant
Does this sound familiar? You’re developing a solicitation document and vaguely recall an agency or departmental policy memo or directive that might impact your solicitation. Where is that document? Was it issued last month, maybe last year? Is it still in effect? What did it say? Or worse, you aren’t even aware that a policy …
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