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May 2007 LIST OF ARTICLES WelcomeABCs OF IAE Cleaning up FPDS-NG Data Top Priority Spotlight on FFATA FACE and GSA Expo Provide IAE Training Sessions and CLPs IAE SYSTEM UPDATES Final FAR Rule Makes WDOL.gov Official CCR Redesign Rollout Underway What is FedTeDS? ORCA: E-Government at Its Best What Is the Difference between CCR and ORCA? WELCOME Welcome to the May 2007 "IAE Quarterly," your source for information about the IAE (Integrated Acquisition Environment) E-Gov initiative. We hope you will find this issue to be of interest; our intent is to update everyone on the progress and achievements of IAE. Our lead-off article focuses on the importance of data accuracy in FPDS-NG. With his memo dated March 9, 2007, OFPP's Administrator, Paul Denett, has made all Chief Acquisition Officers responsible for the accuracy of this data. It is hoped that Mr. Denett's memo will hit home the seriousness of this problem and contracting offices will take steps to resolve it "for once and for all." Implementation of the new FFATA legislation makes this critical. Training on this issue will be offered at FACE and GSA Expo-please see the articles on all these topics for more information. In systems news, WDOL.gov is now official; CCR has a new home page and search screens as part of the CCR redesign rollout; and Systems Updates provides the latest systems' stats. Please check out our articles providing clarification and more information on FedTeDS, ORCA, and CCR. And we know you will enjoy reading the opinion piece offered by the new ORCA Program Manager, Mark Gaillard. We invite e-mails, comments, suggestions and articles for the newsletter. Please contact us at integrated.acquisition@gsa.gov. ABCs OF IAE CCR - Central Contractor Registration
Cleaning up FPDS-NG Data Top Priority Paul Denett, the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) has announced that his top priority is timely, accurate, and complete data being input to the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) database. In a memo dated March 9, 2007, he made all the Chief Acquisition Officers (CAOs) responsible for the accuracy of this data. Spotlight on FFATA On September 26, 2006, the President enacted the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act ("FFATA") to reduce "wasteful and unnecessary spending" by requiring that OMB establish a free, public, online database containing full disclosure of all federal award information. FACE and GSA Expo Provide IAE Training Sessions and CLPs The Federal Acquisition Conference & Exposition (FACE) is back! FACE 2007, the premier conference to train acquisition professionals, provides networking opportunities, dynamic speakers, and vendors with a variety of information on acquisition products and services. IAE SYSTEM UPDATES Final FAR Rule Makes WDOL.gov Official Wage Determinations Online.gov (www.wdol.gov) is one of the IAE systems most appreciated by Contracting Officers (COs). CCR Redesign Rollout Underway The IAE PMO is happy to announce that the CCR homepage and search screens have been upgraded and redesigned to have more of the "look and feel" of the other IAE websites. A new logo reflects the "IAE branding" and the screens are simplified and better organized with more of a basic design. CCR is the central point for contractors to enter all common business information, including bank account information for electronic payments, and this information is deployed across the IAE space from CCR. Contractors must register in CCR to do business with the government. It is hoped that this screen redesign will make that process easier. This is just the beginning of the rollout of the screen redesign, so stay tuned for further upgrades. Check out the new CCR screens. What is FedTeDS? FedTeDS (Federal Technical Data Solutions) is a password-protected, web-based tool designed to safeguard the distribution of sensitive, unclassified, acquisition-related information for all federal agencies. ORCA: E-Government at Its Best I joined the Federal Programs Team within the Defense Business Transformation Agency (BTA), (which is partnered with IAE), as the program manager for ORCA in February 2007 and had a vision. My vision was clear…what a great job to land! What Is the Difference between CCR and ORCA? CCR is the central registry that enables the government to easily find procurement and business information on vendors seeking to do business with the government. CCR collects overall company information to include who the registrant is, the market area they perform in, and the financial data that is used to facilitate the electronic payment process via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). ORCA collects only the legal business representations and certifications that certify it for all FAR-based contracts at the time of solicitation used by the government to determine, among other things, that a company is eligible for a small business set-aside, if they follow the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules and if they provide products that contain material from countries outside the United States. (For more details see the article on ORCA.) We thank our guest authors for their contributions to this newsletter. Guest authors express their own views, which are provided for the information of our newsletter readers. Comments, suggestions and feedback can be e-mailed to Integrated Acquisition. |
