Today's Special Acquisition Reform

ederal contracting officials are contending with a virtual barrage of reforms, involving new legislation, new contract vehicles and new business practices. In order to make sure agency needs are met within the regulatory framework, the challenge has always been to know the laws and rules. However, today's contracting environment brings with it a new vision of how agencies are to operate. Gaining sufficient expertise to implement these reforms is no small task.

The list of reforms is formidable. On the acquisition front, the first installment was the 1994 Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act. The Federal Acquisition Reform Act and the Information Technology Management Reform Act (jointly known as the Clinger-Cohen Act) followed in 1996.

These laws ease procedures for buying commercial services and products, simplify the process for smaller purchases, and require better business planning and a performance-oriented environment for information technology purchases. Moreover, each of these laws fits into an even broader agencywide structure for accomplishing missions and goals required by the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act. Under the Results Act, agencies need to develop strategic plans and tie their contracts and budgets to these goals.

All of these laws require agencies to answer the question former New York Mayor Ed Koch used to pose in his travels around the city: "How am I doin'?" Is the agency getting what it needs? Is the acquisition and information resources management system working and responsive? How do you know? Where's the evidence?

The pieces of legislation, however, are just the first course in a whole new acquisition reform menu. The second course includes a variety of contracting vehicles aimed at facilitating the acquisition process. They reduce procurement time and cost; they move away from grand-design, mega-projects toward a phased, solutions-based approach; and they focus on responsiveness, simplicity and outcomes.

The techniques include:

• Multiple-award, indefinite-quantity contracts, which use competitive task orders for acquiring goods or services.
• Governmentwide acquisition contracts, which allow one agency to offer its contract vehicle to the rest of the federal government.
• The General Services Administration's multiple-award schedules, which offer commercial products and services at pre-negotiated terms and prices.
• Blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) between agencies and schedule contractors, which are structured to meet recurring needs.
• GSA Advantage!, which allows web users to assemble their orders online.

The third course on the new acquisition menu offers the practices designed to validate agencies' needs and improve the contractor selection process. These include cost-benefit analyses to weigh the value of a purchase, as well as the use of oral presentations, past performance and performance-based contracting to get the best buy as quickly as possible.

Much of the deregulatory fervor pushing these reforms comes from a concern that rules clutter up and impede, rather than improve, the acquisition process. The concern has been that the Federal Acquisition Regulation was so complex that it was impossible for an individual to keep up with changes.

However, these laws are creating a whole new system of doing business for both agencies and vendors, a system that requires new skills and a different approach to contracting.

With this barrage of reform comes a wheelbarrow full of helpful advice:

• A Guide to Best Practices for Past Performance (Office of Federal Procurement Policy, May 1995, 62 pp.).
• A Guide to Best Practices for Performance-Based Service Contracting (OFPP, April 1996, 38 pp.)
• Executive Guide, Effectively Implementing the Government Performance and Results Act (General Accounting Office, June 1996, 56 pp.)
• IT Capital Planning & Investment (GSA Office of the Chief Information Officer, April 1997, 40 pp.).
• Best Practices for Multiple Award Task and Delivery Order Contracting (OFPP, July 1997, 55 pp.).
• Capital Programming Guide, Version 1.0, Supplement to Office of Management and Budget Circular A-11, Part 3: "Planning, Budgeting and Acquisition of Capital Assets" (OMB, July 1997, 90 pp.).

Just typing the titles of these publications, let alone reading them, could wear a person out. Many more documents could be added to the list. I'm surprised that Sunset Publications hasn't latched on to this budding industry, so you could find How to Remodel Your Procurement System right there on the rack with Basic Plumbing and Ideas for Great Home Offices.

A knowledgeable contracting officer should not only be familiar with but also be able to use these practices. The problem, of course, is the same as putting together a child's "easy to assemble" toy. When you think you've finished, you find three extra screws and two parts that don't quite seem to fit. Reading helps, but practice brings out the real questions and understanding. Hands-on, monitored training is essential.

Neither procurement executives nor chief information officers can succeed without allowing their staffs the time and resources to acquire the new knowledge, skills and tools to make this legislative vision a reality.