Showing posts with label A-76. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A-76. Show all posts
Monday, December 29, 2008
Homeland Security delays solicitation for IT consolidation
The Homeland Security Department has postponed until after the holidays a request for proposals for integrating its financial, acquisition and asset management processes.
Department officials expect to publish the solicitation for Transformation and Systems Consolidation on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site by Jan. 9, several weeks after the Dec. 17, 2008, release date they originally planned.
The revised solicitation follows a draft version circulated in October. DHS accepted comments on the draft until Nov. 7 and prospective bidders had until Dec. 15 to submit initial proposals that would determine whether they qualified to compete for the contract. Federal agencies that are designated as shared service providers of human resources and financial management under the President's Management Agenda goal to expand e-government also are eligible to bid, under the rules of public-private competition established by the Office of Management and Budget in Circular A-76.
Members of Congress and the Government Accountability Office have criticized DHS for delays in consolidation of disparate IT systems from the 22 agencies that combined to form the department in 2003.
According to the solicitation's cover letter, DHS is "seeking a partner to transition components from existing environments to the integrated solution" that relies on a set of standardized business processes. The winner of the contract will be responsible for the following:
Analysis and documentation of system requirements;System design, development and configuration;IT security controls and integration;System integration, quality assurance and user acceptance testing;Implementation;Training;Operations, maintenance and enhancements.
- Jill R. Aitoro, NextGov.com
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Friday, June 01, 2007
OMB details approach for HR Line of Business migrations
The Officer of Management and Budget late last week gave agencies the how-to guide for moving to a human resources shared service provider.
The much-anticipated directive tries to answer questions regarding how OMB Circular A-76 fits into the HR Line of Business initiative as well as step-by-step directions for evaluating offers and competing work only with private-sector or public-sector providers.
In a memo to agency deputy secretaries, Clay Johnson, OMB’s deputy director for management, said the framework establishes a competitive selection process, and the opportunity to improve cost, quality and performance of shared services.
Agencies also must consult with OMB if they choose not to ask vendors on the GSA schedule to bid on their work, and if they want to have limited competition—either just public-sector or just private-sector providers.
For either noncompetitive migrations or private-sector only competitions, the agency must justify its decision which must be approved by the chief human capital officer, the CIO, CFO and the chief acquisition officer, the guidance states.
-Jason Miller, FCW.com
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The much-anticipated directive tries to answer questions regarding how OMB Circular A-76 fits into the HR Line of Business initiative as well as step-by-step directions for evaluating offers and competing work only with private-sector or public-sector providers.
In a memo to agency deputy secretaries, Clay Johnson, OMB’s deputy director for management, said the framework establishes a competitive selection process, and the opportunity to improve cost, quality and performance of shared services.
Agencies also must consult with OMB if they choose not to ask vendors on the GSA schedule to bid on their work, and if they want to have limited competition—either just public-sector or just private-sector providers.
For either noncompetitive migrations or private-sector only competitions, the agency must justify its decision which must be approved by the chief human capital officer, the CIO, CFO and the chief acquisition officer, the guidance states.
-Jason Miller, FCW.com
READ MORE...
Monday, November 13, 2006
Democratic leaders may be wary of president’s management agenda
Elements of the president’s management agenda, never fully embraced by the Republican Congress, could be endangered under a Democratic Congress, some information technology industry analysts say.
“The new Congress doesn’t too much care about or even support the president’s management agenda,” Kevin Plexico, executive vice president of operations at INPUT, a market research firm, said at a Nov. 9 conference on government IT spending.
With federal employees’ groups and their legislative allies empowered, Plexico and other analysts singled out competitive sourcing, an administration effort to let private contractors compete for federal jobs like data collection and administrative support, as particularly vulnerable.
Linda Brooks Rix, a former Office of Personnel Management official who now heads a human resources consultancy that competes for federal human resources work, said “the election will have a dramatic impact on what gets outsourced.”
Rix argued certain “lines of business” — back-office functions like financial management and human resources that the Office of Management and Budget is pushing to consolidate across agencies — could face trouble when Congress weighs their renewal in February.
Congress has never fully funded the program and has remained unenthusiastic, in part because cost savings have not appeared, Rix argued. And Democrats will be even more wary, she said.
OMB spokeswoman Andrea Wuebker said both political parties want to improve program performance and agency management. “We will continue to work with Democrats and Republicans to achieve this goal through implementation of the president’s management agenda,” she said.
READ MORE...
“The new Congress doesn’t too much care about or even support the president’s management agenda,” Kevin Plexico, executive vice president of operations at INPUT, a market research firm, said at a Nov. 9 conference on government IT spending.
With federal employees’ groups and their legislative allies empowered, Plexico and other analysts singled out competitive sourcing, an administration effort to let private contractors compete for federal jobs like data collection and administrative support, as particularly vulnerable.
Linda Brooks Rix, a former Office of Personnel Management official who now heads a human resources consultancy that competes for federal human resources work, said “the election will have a dramatic impact on what gets outsourced.”
Rix argued certain “lines of business” — back-office functions like financial management and human resources that the Office of Management and Budget is pushing to consolidate across agencies — could face trouble when Congress weighs their renewal in February.
Congress has never fully funded the program and has remained unenthusiastic, in part because cost savings have not appeared, Rix argued. And Democrats will be even more wary, she said.
OMB spokeswoman Andrea Wuebker said both political parties want to improve program performance and agency management. “We will continue to work with Democrats and Republicans to achieve this goal through implementation of the president’s management agenda,” she said.
READ MORE...
Private sector grows skeptical of IT consolidation efforts
Flaws in the Bush administration's attempt to streamline agency management systems are frustrating potential private sector participants and putting the initiative at risk for derailment, industry representatives said Thursday.
The lines of business effort, backed by the Office of Management and Budget, is an aggressive attempt to consolidate agency information technology systems that support common functions such as financial management and human resources. The goal is to move all agencies to a handful of federal or private sector service providers.
But murky competition guidelines for prospective service providers, congressional skepticism, union opposition and ambiguity surrounding interagency contracting are poised to sink the initiatives, industry representatives said at the FedFocus 2007 conference hosted by the Reston, Va., market research firm INPUT.
Speaking before an audience composed mostly of industry officials, Amy Laderberg O'Sullivan, counsel in the government contracts practice group at Crowell & Moring, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, said the lines of business initiative has noble intentions but is bogged down in implementation.
OMB has said that public-private competitions under the dictates of Circular A-76, the rule book agencies use when they open federal jobs to bids from the private sector, will be required for federal agencies outsourcing their financial management systems under the lines of business initiative. Private sector competition for agency IT work is an important way of keeping prices low and service satisfactory at cross-agency service centers, OMB has said.
In a competition framework released in late September, OMB said that once agencies determine they're ready to replace their in-house financial management operations in favor of a shared service center, they must hold a competition that includes bids from the private sector.
Government officials have said that agencies and contractors vying to be selected as providers under the human resources line of business likely will follow the A-76 rules too, but a competition framework has not been released.
In response to questions raised by industry officials, OMB spokeswoman Andrea Wuebker said the government is using established procurement laws, policies and regulations to guide the development of the lines of business.
"As we continue to work through implementation issues, the intent is to take advantage of both private and public competitions in order to ensure we deliver the best services at the best prices in the interest of the American taxpayer," Wuebker said.
READ MORE...
The lines of business effort, backed by the Office of Management and Budget, is an aggressive attempt to consolidate agency information technology systems that support common functions such as financial management and human resources. The goal is to move all agencies to a handful of federal or private sector service providers.
But murky competition guidelines for prospective service providers, congressional skepticism, union opposition and ambiguity surrounding interagency contracting are poised to sink the initiatives, industry representatives said at the FedFocus 2007 conference hosted by the Reston, Va., market research firm INPUT.
Speaking before an audience composed mostly of industry officials, Amy Laderberg O'Sullivan, counsel in the government contracts practice group at Crowell & Moring, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, said the lines of business initiative has noble intentions but is bogged down in implementation.
OMB has said that public-private competitions under the dictates of Circular A-76, the rule book agencies use when they open federal jobs to bids from the private sector, will be required for federal agencies outsourcing their financial management systems under the lines of business initiative. Private sector competition for agency IT work is an important way of keeping prices low and service satisfactory at cross-agency service centers, OMB has said.
In a competition framework released in late September, OMB said that once agencies determine they're ready to replace their in-house financial management operations in favor of a shared service center, they must hold a competition that includes bids from the private sector.
Government officials have said that agencies and contractors vying to be selected as providers under the human resources line of business likely will follow the A-76 rules too, but a competition framework has not been released.
In response to questions raised by industry officials, OMB spokeswoman Andrea Wuebker said the government is using established procurement laws, policies and regulations to guide the development of the lines of business.
"As we continue to work through implementation issues, the intent is to take advantage of both private and public competitions in order to ensure we deliver the best services at the best prices in the interest of the American taxpayer," Wuebker said.
READ MORE...
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