Government Contracting References--Short List

Just a short list if because who has time for a long one?

Government Sources

From the Office of the Director of National Intelligence:  Key Facts About Contractors

Army Contracting Command
Army Single Face to Industry (ASFI) Acquisisition Business Web Site
CECOM Contracting Center
FAR Table of Contents
FARSearch
FARSite
FEDBIZOPS
GSA Advantage
Mission and Installation Contracting Command
TRADOC G-8


Private Sources

Center for a New American Security
Contracting in Combat Zones: Who Are Our Subcontractors?

Certified Public Accountants
Hoyman Dobson (Sign up for their newsletters)

Proposal Writing
Capture Planning
Deborah Kluge
The 24-Hour Company

Contractors and the Army

CONTRACTORS

This is not the guy
who posts this stuff

A-9. Contractors are not members of the Army profession; however, they provide valuable support and augmentation to the capabilities of the Profession of Arms and the Army Civilian Corps, both stateside and overseas. Hired under contractual terms for specific tasks of a specified duration, they provide essential skills and perform technical and administrative tasks that allow Army professionals to focus on their primary missions. Contractors are an important part of any current or future Army effort.[1]

Just in case you were wondering.  And I think I'm going to get myself one of those yellow hard hats, too.

---

[1] ADP 1, The Army (Headquarters, Department of the Army, September 2012), A-4.

The Road Less Traveled by, Again

A favorite of mine, and of many, by Robert Frost (1874-1963).  The odd thing about it is that, while the story seems to describe a one-time event, it is really something that occurs over and over again ... at least it has seemed that way to me.

Way leads on to way ... always.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

RLM Communications, Inc.

This is the sign posted outside my cubicle
in Moran Hall on Fort Gordon

RLM Communications, Inc., is the company I've worked for since the 29th of September 2009. Founded in 2004, RLM is a Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned business, certified by the Small Business Administration as an 8(a) small disadvantaged business. Headquartered in Spring Lake, NC, RLM employs a staff of more than 150 in ten states, Washington, DC, and in two foreign countries.

Near our headquarters, we serve clients in the Spring Lake vicinity and at Fort Bragg, like the 1st Theater Sustainment Command, the 18th Airborne Corps Mobilization/Deployment Cell (G-5 Mobile Support Element), and the US Army Special Operations Command.  Within the Military District of Washington, our clients include the Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and customers at Fort Detrick, MD and at Fort Belvoir, VA.  We also have a number of clients at the US Army Signal Center and Fort Gordon, GA and at the Charleston, SC branch of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center.

Service Contracts and the National Defense Authorization

This is a repost, revised, from an older Blog.  It is closely related to an earlier post on contractors working within the government's work sites.

The National Defense Authorization (NDA), an annual congressional product, has sections that pertain to government contracting.  The last version to make significant changes to government service contracting was the 2008 NDA.

The Capability Brief

Reposted from an older blog.

It is common for contractors to provide capability briefings to government agencies who may at some point require the type of services these contractors can provide. This is a good business practice and it is beneficial to both parties, to the contractor, but especially to the government.

For the government, capability briefings are part its market research. Good market research leads to a good acquisition plan. A good acquisition plan leads to a precise work statement (the guts of an RFP). And a precise work statement makes it a lot easier to keep the contractor on track during the period of performance. Not only that, but a clear, concise performance work statement resulting from thorough market research and acquisition planning tends to ensure that the government actually gets what it's contracting for. That doctrine holds true whether contracting for product development or for services.

Especially for services.

Contractors Working on a Government Site with Government Furnished Property

Reposted from an older blog.

Emphasis of late is on weeding out service contracts.  In TRADOC, requiring activities are filling out detailed worksheets for general officer or SES approval before a requirements packet may go forward to the contracting activity for action.  These worksheets, in part designed as questionnaires, proble for yes or no answers in reference to FAR prohibitions against unauthorized personal services contracts as well as the outsourcing of inherently governmental functions.

Just to make sure, it seems, that no contractor gets away with anything, one of TRADOC's worksheets zeros in on what FAR 7.5 defines as "functions generally not considered to be inherently governmental functions."  These are "certain services and actions that are not considered to be inherently governmental functions [but] may approach being in that category because of the nature of the function, the manner in which the contractor performs the contract, or the manner in which the Government administers contractor performance."  In TRADOC's language, they are functions that are "closely related to inherently governmental functions."

The FAR Side of Government Contracting

Reposted from an older blog.

The entire edifice of government contracting rests upon the foundation of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the FAR.