Ida Ustad Award for Excellence in Acquisition
The Ida Ustad Award for Excellence in Acquisition is an annual $5,000 award sponsored by the General Services Administration (GSA) recognizing an individual Government employee whose actions demonstrate or embody the concept of &contract specialist as business leader/advisor& and had a major impact on improving the acquisition process. Nominations may be submitted January 3, 2007, through February 16, 2007, to the following web site: http://www.acquisition.gov/comp/ida/2007award.html.
More About the Ida Ustad Award.
In order to be eligible for this award, an applicant must be a Government employee in the 1102 series working for an agency subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulation and must have high ethical standards. The accomplishments for which the applicant is nominated must have taken place after February 1, 2005, but before February 1, 2007. Anyone may nominate an applicant for this award. However, the nomination must be approved by the applicant's Head of the Contracting Activity (HCA). The nomination requires the following information:
- A description of the nominee's original, innovative approach to an acquisition issue.
- A description of how the nominee's approach lowered prices and/or improved the quality of performance the Government receives from its contractors.
- A description of how the nominee has served as a business leader/advisor, focusing on both the customer and the market and bringing the two together effectively.
- A description of how the nominee demonstrated a commitment to professional development, both personally and organizationally.
- A description of how the nominee's accomplishment (s) resulted in substantial small business participation or created significant subcontracting opportunities.
GSA will present the award in June 2007 at an awards ceremony. (Download Ida Ustad Award 2007 PDF 16 KB)
The Ida Ustad Award for Excellence in Acquisition honors Ida Mae Ustad, Deputy Associate Administrator for Acquisition Policy in the Office of Governmentwide Policy, General Services Administration (GSA), who died November 29, 1999, in Rockville, Maryland. She earned a well-deserved reputation throughout the Federal Government and with private industry for providing expert acquisition and procurement advice. This annual $5000 award recognizes an individual Government employee whose actions demonstrate or embody the concept of &contract specialist as business leader/advisor.&
To be eligible for the Ida Ustad Award for Excellence in Acquisition, candidates must:
- Be a Government employee in the 1102 series working for an agency subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulation and must have high ethical standards.
Anyone may nominate an applicant for this award. However, the applicant's Head of the Contracting Activity (HCA) must approve the nomination.
Award Winner 2006
The Government Services Administration (GSA) presented the 2006 Ida M. Ustad Award for Excellence in Acquisition to Barbara Gerace. As an Army Contracting Officer, Ms. Gerace plays an important role in helping our brave troops fight terrorism. When Ms. Gerace learned there was a countermeasure available to improvised explosive devices (IED), which have killed more than 1,200 of our troops in Iraq and wounded thousands more, she acted with a strategic sense of urgency. Through her excellent leadership, she guided a team of contracting and technical experts from the army research laboratory to review 10 large and small businesses that demonstrated they could manufacture these countermeasure units, known as ICE, and meet time schedules for proposal, award, production and delivery. Ms. Gerace's strategy was to proceed quickly from design and development to production by utilizing electronic warfare support contracts, government engineering, and extensive military input. The process, leading to an initial fielding of the systems, was completed in just five months. The end result is that the government owns the design and components of the ICE system, and all projected options are commercial off-the-shelf items-providing value for the government and taxpayers-and, most important, saving the lives of our troops in harm's way.