“Federal spending for large quantities of medical supplies sucked in many companies doing business with the government for the first time. In fact, five times as many as in a normal year. The Government Accountability Office says agencies learned a thing or two, and now they need to remember them. Earlier we talked to the GAO’s Marie Mak, director of contracting and national security acquisitions, about use of other transaction authorities. She’s back and talked to Federal Drive with Tom Temin about how agencies can apply the lessons learned with non traditional contractors…”
“Tom Temin: And in this report of the contracting on lots of vendors — lots of new to the federal government vendors — using all of that money that was appropriated for pandemic response, what are some of the key findings in bringing in these new vendors to federal contracting, much of which was under OTA, but I guess some of it was FAR also?
Marie Mak: Just for a little context, I think it’s important to understand that although agencies did award about five times as many contractors to vendors without prior federal contracting experience, when it comes to responding to the pandemic, overall, 88% of the contracts were awarded to vendors with prior federal contracting experience. But some of the other important facts to recognize is that small business received most of the contract awards — about two thirds — but then when it comes to dollar amount, that was only equivalent about 25% of the dollar amount in terms of contract obligations. And then the other point is that vendors without prior federal contract experience were more likely to provide certain products and services. For example, while nearly all the obligations for drugs and treatments, such as vaccines and therapeutics, went to vendors with prior federal government experience, vendors without prior federal government experience received a higher proportion for contract obligations for things like medical equipment and supplies, such as the N95 respirators, gowns, gloves, and laboratory testing — services related to diagnostic testing for COVID-19. In USDA, fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry, and fish for food boxes, for that Farmers to Families Food Box program, that’s where they had relied most heavily on vendors without prior federal contracting experience…”
“Tom Temin: Because, as we spoke about earlier, there was a lot of spending under other transaction authority, and that lacked some of the reporting and transparency that you get under the FAR. On the other hand, there’s all this flexibility. A lot of the spending under the FAR is bureaucratic, I guess, in looking difficult, especially if you’re outside the government looking in for the first time, the FAR can be daunting to comply with all of the accounting rules and so on. Yet, there’s a lot of transparency and reporting mechanisms built in for the government. It seems like there’s a chance for some crossover here, maybe a little bit of simplification in the FAR, but a little bit of reporting and oversight mechanisms in the OTA.
Marie Mak: I think when it comes down to the FAR, I think a lot of these industries that don’t work with the federal government, when they start doing that they realize what is required. And once it’s more established and understood, I guess what I’m saying is I wouldn’t recommend changing certain FAR requirements, they’re there for a reason. But, I think there’s other things that we can address in terms of how contracting is done better in these kinds of situations. And that’s where this report really went towards, in terms of contracting officials making a responsibility determination before awarding a contract to a prospective vendor, and capturing lessons learned. That’s where some of those details in this particular report focused on and I think that’s important…” Read the full interview here.
Source: OTAs and FAR: Lessons learned with non traditional contractors during the pandemic – By Tom Temin, August 10, 2021. Federal News Network.
