By Bob Gourley
Everyone with any history in or around government has stories they can tell about federal government procurements. It really is a different beast. There are many reasons why. Perhaps the first 535 reasons are the 535 voting members of the US Congress that have the funding, oversight and legislative powers for how government works. Name another organization in the world that has a board of directors with 535 voting members?
And then there is the fact that the center of all executive power in our government, the President, is a political position. That is a good thing of course! We don’t want a king for life. But when the leader of government must fight for re-election it means every big decision becomes a political one and time after time that has a huge impact on how big programs are run. And just when things seem to be going well it is time for a new boss with a totally new team and for learning to start all over again.
Other challenges come because of the scale and scope of what the government has to do. Every agency has a different mission and therefore different requirements on their IT. And then there is also the blame game between government professionals and contractors. Contractors can blame government program managers, and government program managers can blame contractors. And both, from time to time, blame IT vendors!
We could go on and on. It is so easy to take pot-shots and assign blame and criticize. The bad news is, however, that that sort of blame game does not help.
The only thing I have seen that really helps is when great champions inside government take action to improve things. These are frequently CIOs or CTOs or enterprise architects. Other times they are agency heads. To the extent we can support these champions we can help the government execute its mission better.
But something else has just occurred that I feel very optimistic about.
I just read a post from the federal government’s Chief Acquisition Officers Council that has me thinking a new front can be opened on this never ending battle to improve government IT.
The post, titled Open Dialogue On Improving Federal Procurement, invites serious inputs on how procurement can be done better. This is not just about technology procurement, but for those of us who are techies, it is a way to insert ideas and suggestions into the mix.
Here is the text from their post:
WELCOME TO THE OPEN DIALOGUE
The Chief Acquisition Officers Council, in coordination with the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, the Chief Information Officers Council, and the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), is conducting a national dialogue to discuss burdens and barriers associated with the federal acquisition process and ways to address them. This dialogue is part an effort to improve the economy and efficiency of the federal acquisition system by identifying impactful steps that can be taken to make it easier for agencies to do business with the best companies and enter into contracts that allow these companies to provide their best solutions for the taxpayer.
We are anxious to hear from you. In order to engage in the Open Dialogue, you will need to register as a participant.
To Register, enter your email address in the indicated box on the landing screen. The Open Dialogue is anonymous, but you must enter your email address to register for the software to enforce its own processing rules. Your email address is converted to an algorithmically determined identifier by the software and your email address is discarded.
Once you are Logged In or Registered, you may proceed directly to the Tab which best describes your desired action: Submit a Comment, Browse the Comments (which also allows youto comment on existing Comments or it allows you to vote on Comments for which the moderators have added Voting options.
When you complete your session simply exit the Open Dialogue site.
The following sections will direct you to either the full Federal Register Notice, FAQs that we’ve generated to help you answer questions that might be of interest to you. The final section is your link to joining the National Dialogue
And additional information from the federal register:
The President’s Management Agenda lays the foundation for creating a 21st century government that delivers better results to the American people. This foundation includes an efficient and effective acquisition system that maximizes the value of every taxpayer dollar.
The federal acquisition system is governed by a myriad of rules, both administrative and statutory, that are designed to help agencies maximize results from their contracts, make sure that contractors are qualified to do business with the federal government, and ensure consistency with key economic and social policies. Efforts to streamline, modernize, and improve requirements may allow contractors and agencies to execute in a more efficient and effective manner, while still supporting the execution of these policies.
The CAOC, in collaboration with the FAR Council, the CIOC, GSA and OFPP, seeks to conduct an open conversation to identify specific rules and requirements, tools, procedures, and practices that impact the efficiency and effectiveness of federal procurement and ways to improve them. The CAOC is interested in hearing about proposed improvements that can be accomplished through executive (regulatory, administrative, or management) action, as well as potential legislative proposals where requirements are based in statute. Dialogue will be encouraged in each of the following areas:
- Reporting and compliance requirements – e.g., opportunities where collection processes and systems can be reengineered or automated, duplicative reporting can be eliminated, the frequency of reporting can be reduced, and outdated compliance thresholds can be changed.
- Procurement practices – e.g., opportunities where acquisition strategies can be modernized (to support more efficient and effective acquisition of IT, in particular), where best commercial practices can be utilized, as well as efforts to promote greater consideration of innovative solutions and contracting practices.
- Participation by small and minority businesses, new entrants, and non-traditional government contractors – e.g., opportunities for improving existing technical or strategic assistance programs, making buying platforms for finding business opportunities and bidding more user friendly, and lowering the cost of doing business.
To facilitate feedback, an online platform is being launched so that interested parties may submit ideas, respond to questions posed by moderators, and comment on other ideas – including those that they think are most promising and impactful. Information on the platform and the dates for participating in the dialogue are posted at www.cao.gov.
To learn more and to submit your ideas/inputs/suggestions you will need to register and log in and follow a process. Do that at:
