Minutes NITAAC IAC
Date 22
Jan 2004
Time
10:30 -
11:30 AM
Announcements:
- The previous meeting (3
months ago) was cancelled due to weather.
- No meeting minutes were
produced from the meeting 6 months ago for lack of a designated
note-taker. Debbie Rieger offered
to type up her notes and submit them to Esther Burgess who will provide
for their review and dissemination.
- Meetings will now be held
each 2 months in order to provide greater continuity of actions and to
lessen the impact of someone missing a meeting.
- Dr. Leamon
Lee has retired after 43 years of Government service
- Debbie Mays is now Debbie
Rieger, having married earlier in January
- David Ramos is now acting
chair of IAC. He is serving in
various positions in NIH/OD, including director of OLAO.
Information
shared by David Ramos:
- Several OMB and HHS mandates
are underway as part of ongoing consolidation of business operations,
including implementation of Oracle ERP, the consolidation of acquisition
functions. Mr. Paul Horton, a
senior member of the OLAO staff has been assigned by Mr. Ramos to serve as
Director of Operations of OLAO in order to meet highly aggressive goals
for competitive sourcing. Among the
highest priorities of current OMB A-76 studies are Real Property
management and Grants Administration (Extramural Research)
- OMB continues to scrutinize
the number and function of GWACs, looking at utilization not just inside
the sponsoring agencies, but government-wide to identify how the vehicles
perform according to current government policies. GSA’s travel module was mentioned as an
example of the results of procurement consolidation. The strategy of current consolidation
initiatives is attributable to the strategy developed by the Heritage
Foundation, and was developed prior to the current administration taking
office.
(See: e.g. http://www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/BG1380.cfm;
or e.g. http://www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/BG1452.cfm
- An example of consolidation’s
impact on NIH Human Resources is the reduction of a 40 person HR staff to
now 4.
- Two GAO-driven issues
concerning GWACs were noted:
- (per Victor
Powers) at a recent conference of GWAC personnel were
asked if they would be willing to discontinue minimally-utilized GWACs;
- A 5% assessment will
allegedly be levied on the 1% contracting fee now collected by GWAC
contracting offices. The accruals
will serve to fund the training of contracting office employees in
civilian agencies in a fashion similar to DAU (Defense Acquisition
University) DoD users of civilian agency GWACs would be exempt from the
5% ) [insert link to pertinent
enabling legislation?]
- HHS-driven policy changes are
also being considered or implemented, including:
- An increased emphasis on
strategic sourcing
- Increasing consolidation of
procurements, e.g. a recent RFQ specifically for peripherals;
- Consideration of HWACs, meaning HHS-wide acquisition contracts.
- Historically, centralized
procurement has been among the functions of NIH/OD, hence there may be
some measure of distrust among the ICs as procurement becomes more
consolidated.
General
Discussion, Questions, Views:
- Perception of NITAAC contracts
in the NIH community was discussed.
Some opinions expressed include:
- NITAAC contracts have become
much more of a standard within NIH
- Much more promotion within
NIH is warranted.
- The flexibility and utility
has been demonstrated to many new users who are now “converts” to NITAAC
vehicles.
- The relative depth and
breadth is a good combination (together with ease an
no-fee) for NIH users.
- HHS is looking at Strategic
Sourcing initiatives that may include:
- Designation of HHS and CDC
as procurement services regarding IT
- Program Support
Center at Parklawn
will be led by Bob Woods and has been designated as Shared Services Lead
for the Department.
- This is a particularly
important season for the promotion of NITAAC contracts
- Elmer Sembly and BMOCO team
have a leadership role
- The responsibility is shared
with Industry to promote the NITAAC Brand
- The 05 Feb 2004 event at Natcher
Center is an
example of the type of event that the NITAAC community should capitalize
on to promote the brand. Important
elements include:
- Marketing directly to the
right people
- How do we identify to whom
we ought to be marketing?
- Note that the key decisionmakers are not always physically at the IT
sites.
- The Marketing Subcommittee,
chaired by Tom White of iGov provided a verbal
report that included the results of a survey conducted since the last
meeting. A written report will be
provided after additional analysis is conducted. Following-up with respondents maybe
worthwhile to better understand their comments. Key data reported includes:
- 45 of 135 Primes responded
- Much was learned regarding
the ways that different recipients can interpret questions. Careful thought by multiple,
experienced people could be very helpful in generating useful, focused
feedback.
- These results will benefit
greatly from analysis and interpretation due to the various perceptions
of the respondents.
- The Program Subcommittee –
Just getting started, so there is nothing to report at this time.
- The Government Affairs
Subcommittee did not report.
- The former chair left the
industry. A new chair is being
sought.
- It is very important to
ensure that NIH contracts are keeping up with any changes in the
legislative requirements and the FARs.
- A volunteer is sought to take
meeting notes.
- The next meeting is the 3rd
Thursday in March (18 March 2004 1130 to 1300)
- Handling of Meeting Minutes
- Website updates will
continue.
- After approval by NITAAC,
Tim Warrington put the meeting minutes on the Web
- A discussion of the
perception of NITAAC contracts included:
- The DoD procurement
community has confused the message regarding “refrain from parking money
in franchise funds” with a policy of “don’t use non-DoD contracts”
- The attractiveness of GWACs
is a swinging pendulum and DoD will likely come around
- There are a wide variety of
regulations—even within a given Federal entity—that affect decisions on
what vehicle to use.
- Buyers are more pragmatic at
some seasons than others
- DCCW’s considerations are
principally keeping the procurement volumes high on their own vehicles to
prevent their organization from losing position, grade, staff and/or
work.
- The advantages of using
NITAAC GWACs are considerable, but need to be widely and effectively
communicated.
- Additional discussion of the
Federal GWAC business included:
- The MOA between CECOM and
NITAAC (for mutual promotion and utilization of each others’ ID/IQ
vehicles) is no longer in effect due to reorganizations at CECOM.
- GSA and now VA are targeting
NITAAC as competition to their mandates.
- OMB is looking particularly
at Franchise Fund vehicles for their alleged role in usurping competitive
or other processes. GWACS will
probably receive additional scrutiny as well.
- Perhaps the IAC and its
subcommittees should consider the Federal “marketplace” and identify
contracting groups that would respond to the message. “Let’s win back their mindshare.”
- DoD and other Departments
have been obliged to recompete several of their vehicles including MOBIS
due to several factors, including:
- Alleged misuse of the
designation of money protected by schedule 70 IT revolving fund
- The rotation of audits
through all regions that sooner or later will reach all GWACs, including
CIO-SP2.
The
meeting adjourned at 11:38 PM
Back