The VA Achievement in Contracting Excellence (ACE) Award program recognizes contributions by VA acquisition teams, to include program officials, that create more efficient and effective contracting practices, and thus, provide the public with improved mission accomplishment and lower prices. The Department is committed to rewarding acquisition and program officials for creating and implementing significantly improved results in developing contracts, or innovative changes in the contracting process that saves money and enhances the mission's success.

The VA ACE Award Program was announced by the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Logistics in an all-employee policy letter and on the OA&L Website.   This award will also be announced through VAnguard and National Performance Review (NPR) articles.   A broadcast message will be issued on the program and hot line calls will be held between VACO and field facilities.

In order to ensure ongoing visibility and support of this program, periodic broadcasts, employee letters, hot line calls, VAnguard articles, and announcements at nationwide conferences will be used as publicity vehicles.

Also, additional releases of general award information will be made whenever inquiries from field facilities and employees request such information.

In the spirit of cutting red tape, the nomination process requires only one level of review and approval in order to be submitted for the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Materiel Management's review.   Nominations can be submitted by any employee, team member, or manager.   Submit courtesy copies to the appropriate office in VACO.   Nominations:

• must be submitted to the VACO Award Program Office (049A5) NLT June 30 (COB).   If, June 30th falls on a weekend, nominations will be accepted by COB the next business day.
  
  
• must be based on an initiative that was implemented within the preceding 12 months (July 1 - June 30).   The intent of this time frame is to keep the ACE award focused on current successes; and
  
  
• should be short and clearly show how the group contributed to the creation of more efficient and effective contracting practices and thus, provided the public with improved missions and lower prices.

There is no limit on the number of nominations that can be submitted for any team as long as it is new.

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ACE or Honorable Mention Awards:

To be considered for the ACE or honorable mention awards, nominations must meet the following basic criteria.   Nominations must:

• be the result of a team effort versus that of an individual;
  
  
• contribute to the creation of more efficient and effective contracting practices;
  
  
• be implemented within the preceding 12 months; and
  
  
• improve mission accomplishments and show cost savings.

Nominations will be judged on their creativity; originality; value to customers; cost-effectiveness; enhanced customer service; appropriateness; and transferability to other organizations.   The ACE winner (monetary) will be the result of the "best of the best" nominations, thus receiving the highest rating from the Review Committee.   The next three highest ranking nominations, if there are any, will all receive honorable mention awards (monetary).

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The VA ACE award nomination should be short and to the point.   A nomination   will be accepted in the attached format, in any medium (i.e., electronic mail, facsimile) as long as it is legible and contains complete information within a one-page narrative   attached.   The nomination format will be available on the Office of Acquisition and Logistics' (OA&L) Internet homepage.

Achievement in Contracting Excellence (ACE) Review Committee

Following receipt of nomination packages, the VACO Award Program Office (049A5), will assemble a committee of representatives from various Departments to evaluate and rank nomination submissions.   The committee will receive an advanced copy of all nominations 1 week prior to the review meeting.   Committee members will be asked to individually evaluate and score the nominations.   The winner(s) will be determined by combining all member scores and dividing them by the number of evaluators.   In the event of a tie, the committee chair will make the final selection of the overall winner.

The committee will generally include a representative from Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), National Cemetery Administration (NCA), the Office of Acquisition and Logistics (OA&L), the Office of Human Resources Management (HRM), the Office of Financial Management (OFM), Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OOSB) and the National Partnership Council (NPC).   The committee chairperson will be rotated between representatives from VHA, VBA, and NCA.   The committee chair will be a non-voting member and will ONLY make final selection in the event of a tie.

The committee will convene on/or about July 30 to evaluate the nominations received.

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VA ACE and Honorable Mention Awards: When possible and practical, preparations will be made for the Deputy Secretary to personally present the annual ACE and Honorable Mention Awards.   When this is not possible due to the Deputy Secretary's schedule or the location of the award recipients, either the station director or the Senior Procurement Executive or his designee will be asked to present the Award on behalf of the Deputy Secretary.   Award winners will be invited to VACO for the award ceremony to be held during OA&L week, usually the first week in November.   OA&L will fund the travel costs for up to five (5) members of the ACE team, and one member of each Honorable Mention team.

Every award should be given the personal attention that demonstrates the Department's support of the program and respect for the innovations of its employees.   Award presentations should be publicized to the maximum extent possible, since it is another way of sharing information on improvements that result in better customer service.

To the extent possible, the Office of Acquisition and Logistics will accommodate the special wishes of each of the Administrations and Staff Offices to ensure wide publicity of award recipients.

Careful and complete coordination of the VA ACE Award is not only a good business practice, it is a way to promote innovations, especially those with high "transferability" factors.   Information on each award will be shared, if appropriate, with the following elements at a minimum:

• VAnguard;
  
  
• Office of Federal Procurement Policy;
  
  
• Local Public Affairs offices;
  
  
• Employee suggestion and other award programs;
  
  
• VA's NPR representative (for referral of exceptional initiatives for Hammer and Scissors Award);
  
  
• VA Administrations and Staff Offices;
  
  
• Acquisition Reform Network;
  
  
• Internet (Office of Acquisition and Logistics homepage, VA's homepage under press releases), and
  
  
• National Contract Management Association (NCMA), to be published in the Contract Management Magazine's Bulletin Board.

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