The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration makes room for one additional company on that agency s $2.1 billion IT systems modernization blanket purchase agreement reserved for small businesses.
By Stephanie Kanowitz
Jan 29, 2021
When the National Defense Authorization Act required the IRS procurement office to insert telecommunications security language into all its contracts, staff used a bot to accomplish in three days what would have taken a year.
“As we looked at the number of contracts that had that criteria, it was 1,466 active contracts,” IRS Chief Procurement Officer Shanna Webbers said. “It would have taken us almost up to a year to modify all of those contracts.”
Called the DATA Act Bot, the tool focuses on improving transparency and accuracy of data in the Federal Procurement Data System and on improving compliance with its namesake, the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014. The bot, which incorporates artificial intelligence, natural language processing, optical character recognition and robotic process automation, is one of three that the office uses to streamline operations.
By Ross Wilkers
Dec 18, 2020
Both the continuing resolution keeping government agencies funded and a piece of legislation contractors believe is crucial to maintaining their financial well-being and employees on payroll expire midnight Friday (tonight).
As we are put this story up Friday afternoon, no extension to the stopgap funding bill or Section 3610 of the CARES Act economic relief legislation has been passed by Congress and hence sent to President Trump’s desk for signature.
But some figures are starting to come in on how the Defense Department has used the Section 3610 authority to modify contracts for reimbursement of paid leave costs to contractors covering employees who cannot get to work during the coronavirus pandemic.
By
Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on December 09, 2020 at 4:12 PM
The Army remains the leading user of Other Transaction Authority, but the other services are starting to catch up. SOURCE: Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS)
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon’s use of Other Transaction Authority, which bypasses a sclerotic contracting system, rose 75 percent in fiscal 2019 alone, according to a new analysis of Defense Department data by the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Since 2015 – the year Other Transaction Authority first took off, spurred on by congressional reforms – the annual value obligated under OTAs has soared
712 percent.
CSIS scholar Rhys McCormick delved deep into the Federal Procurement Data System database to come up with both those staggering big-picture trendlines and some intriguing caveats.