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Tag: NASA

Speedy Payments? Yes Please.

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is changing to allow government contracting small businesses to get paid within 15 days of invoicing. Furthermore, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the General Services Administration (GSA) are working together to issue a memorandum that authorizes the expedited payments in advance of the updated changes to the FAR. (JDSUPRA, May 14, 2020)

Contractors should contact their government Contracting Officer to facilitate those payments. For example, a DHS Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) recipient currently paid within 30 days of invoicing may be eligible for a contract modification to accelerate payments upon the exercise of any options under that contract. (ibid)

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, Section 873, requires agencies to establish an accelerated payment date for certain contracts with a goal of payment 15 days after an invoice is received, if a specific payment date is not established by the contract. The change will be implemented via an applicable FAR revision.

Other formal additions to the FAR include 52.212-5 (Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders – Commercial items), FAR 52.213-4 (Terms and Conditions – Simplified Acquisitions (Other Thank Commercial Items)), and FAR 52.244-6 (Subcontracts and Commercial Items.) (ibid)

This is great news for small businesses looking to decrease hardships produced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Questions about the FAR changes and the expedited payment memorandum? Give us a call.

Show Me the Money! All the Money!

End of fiscal year 2019 spending will likely exceed that of 2018. So much so that hours are being extended for the largest Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts. (Federal Computer Week, August 30, 2019)

A few contributing factors precipitating  the uptick in spending:

  • The credit card threshold for micro-purchases increased from $3,500 to $10,000
  • A stable budget allows agencies the ideal scenario to plan and use their funding.
  • The last day of the fiscal year falls on a weekday this year. (ibid)

For instance, the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) expect a very busy September. They have been designated “best in class” across all three of their GWACs, which will likely bring in additional work. as extended hours in September as does the Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP). According to Joanne Woytek, manager for NASA’s SEWP,  processing systems have been updated to a High Availability System. The update took place earlier in the year and additional staff was added overall not just to respond to the additional spending in September.

NITAAC has improved its e-GOS next-generation customer ordering portal, which mirrors commercial online shopping and makes shopping easier for contracting officers. Item comparisons and photos will be part of the buying experience. The changes will be a key factor in streamlining the purchasing process, thus making ordering easier and faster. (ibid)

Not to be outdone, GSA also expects September to be the busiest month of the year for their Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts. (ibid)

Questions about the September buying frenzy and how you can take advantage? Give us a call.

FAR Changes

With the end of the Fiscal Year looming, the push is on to exhaust agency budgets. In an effort to make acquisitions move through the process more quickly and smoothly, DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued an amendment to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). The amendment fine-tunes the  FAR and eliminates a step in the acquisition process. (Fedscoop, July 15, 2019)

Per the FAR, agencies were required to justify the best procurement approach when using GSA’s IT Schedule 70, Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts, or assisted acquisition solutions. As of June 5, the new FAR amendment allows agencies to skip that step. Agencies are now able to quickly find GSA IT category contracts and acquisition solutions. (ibid)

According to Bill Zielinski, assistant commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition services office, agencies “can now identify and quickly use GSA IT Category contracts and acquisition solutions, especially as they embark on their end-of-year IT spending and acquisition efforts.” Zielinski feels the new change to the FAR reduces the administrative burden for agencies procuring through GSA’s IT Schedule 70 or through GWACs such as 8(a) STARS 2 and Alliant 2, as well as through assisted acquisition programs. (Federal Computer Week, July 15, 2019)

Curious about the new FAR language and how it affects your GSA schedule? Give us a call and we can review it with you.