[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 221 (Thursday, November 16, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66782-66783]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-19392]
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GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
[OCAO-2006-N01; Docket GSA 2006-0013; Sequence 1]
Proposed Best Practices Guide for Contractor Performance Data
Collection and Use
AGENCY: Office of the Chief Acquisition Officer, GSA.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Director, Integrated Acquisition Environment Division,
General Services Administration invites comments on the proposed best
practices guide, Contractor Performance in the Acquisition Process, for
the collection and usage of contractor performance data.
DATES: Interested parties should submit written comments to the
Integrated Acquisition Environment Division, GSA on or before January
16, 2007.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by OCAO-2006-N01 by any of the
following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Search for any document by first selecting the proper document types
and selecting ``General Services Administration'' as the agency of
choice. At the ``Keyword'' prompt, type in the notice number OCAO-2006-
N01 and click on the ``Submit'' button. You may also search for any
document by clicking on the ``Advanced search/document search'' tab at
the top of the screen, selecting from the agency field ``General
Services Administration'', and typing the notice number in the keyword
field. Select the ``Submit'' button.
Fax: 703-872-8598.
Mail: GSA--Integrated Acquisition Environnent Division,
2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 911, ATTN: OCAO-2006-N01, Arlington VA 22202.
Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite OCAO-2006-N01 in
all correspondence related to this case. All comments received will be
posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any
personal and/or business confidential information provided.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT For clarification of content, contact
Ms. Teresa Sorrenti at 703-872-8610. For information pertaining to
status or publication schedules, contact the Regulatory Secretariat at
(202) 501-4755. Please cite OCAO-2006-N01.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Background
The enactment of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) of
1994, made contractor performance information a mandatory evaluation
factor for all procurements. This is an important factor in making best
value decisions in the acquisition of goods and services. In order to
do this, agencies moved out in different directions to share the
performance data they collected individually. There was no concerted
effort to share data Governmentwide. It has long been a vulnerability
that Government agencies would award to a vendor who owes another part
of the Government money or services, or is in the process of being
debarred. This was due to the fact that information about performance
was maintained at the local contracting office level.
Evaluating contractor performance is also useful as a tool to
encourage outstanding performance throughout the
[[Page 66783]]
life of a contract. Contractor performance information can leverage the
use of common contracting events such as option extensions, earned
value management discussions, and award fee discussions to populate a
Governmentwide database and reduce the reliance on external steps and
non-value added processes. As additional value, Government agencies
could be encouraged to monitor performance and provide evaluations of
other Government agencies performing on Memorandum of Understanding
agreements and other interagency agreements. The benefit of this effort
will result in a unified method of vendor evaluations.
An Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum dated July 3,
2002 announced that all Federal contractor past performance information
currently captured through existing tools would be centrally available
on-line for use by all Federal agency contracting officials effective
July 1, 2002. A Governmentwide past performance retrieval database
supports the Administration's E-Government initiatives to ``unify &
simplify'' and reduce burden by eliminating collection redundancies.
Performance data is currently collected in the Past Performance
Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), which is a web-enabled,
Governmentwide application. Two of the collection tools have been
eliminated: Past Performance Information Management System (PPIS) and
Architect-Engineer Contract Administration Support System (ACAAS).
Other collection systems are positioned to be turned off in the next
year. However, it was determined by senior procurement executives that
a lack of widespread use resulted in insufficient information in the
Governmentwide shared database. A review of how to streamline the
collection of data, simplify the evaluations of vendors, and improve
the value of the data in the Governmentwide database was requested.
In a memorandum, OMB's Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP)
established a working group to re-visit the regulations, policies, and
business considerations associated with contractor performance
information.
During this tasking, the working group reviewed some of the
thresholds and made the following recommendations:
The contractor performance information be removed from the
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Part 36 and moved to FAR Subpart
42.15 so that all of the contractor performance information is in one
location in the FAR.
Removed the reference ``past'' from contractor performance
information. Evaluating contractor performance is encouraged throughout
the life of the contract, not just a completed contract. As such, it is
useful both as an evaluation factor in awards and as a tool to
encourage continuous outstanding performance.
Removed duplications in the FAR guidance.
Clarified the guidance relating to contractor performance
information.
Revisited and discussed the different feeder and retrieval
systems.
The working group has prepared proposed language for the FAR and
has updated OFPP's guide ``Best Practices for Collecting and Using
Current and Past Performance Information'' (June 2002) incorporating
the Department of Defense's (DOD), Office of the Under Secretary of
Defense for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics (Defense Procurement
and Acquisition Policy) guide, ``A Guide to Collection and Use of Past
Performance Information'' (Version 3 May 2003).
OFPP's current guide was a joint effort of agency procurement and
program officials and representatives from the private sector. The
techniques and practices used to implement the current and past
performance initiatives that are discussed in the OFPP best practices
guide are not mandatory regulatory guidance. They are useful examples
of techniques for recording and using contractor performance to better
assess contracts and to enhance the source selection process.
DOD's guide was a joint effort by members from the DOD Past
Performance Integrated Product Team. The Team's purpose was to serve as
a practical reference tool regarding the DOD past performance policy.
It was designed to articulate the key techniques and practices for the
use and collection of past performance information for use by the
entire acquisition workforce in both Government and industry. It
explains best practices for the use of past performance information
during the periods of source selection, ongoing performance, and
collection of information.
The new guide is entitled ``Contractor Performance in the
Acquisition Process'' and can be accessed at http://www.acquisition.gov. It also is a joint effort of Federal agency and
DOD procurement and program officials. In an effort to continue to
solicit private sector input, it is distributed for public comment.
This guide is designed to help agencies know their role in addressing
and using contractor performance information. It addresses the types of
performance information that exist, resources for finding the data, and
standards to employ. It discusses best use of performance data
throughout the acquisition process, from the pre-award and planning
phase, through source selection, and into contract evaluation.
The proposed FAR rule reflecting the findings of this tasking is
currently being processed by the FAR team and will be issued for
comment at a later date.
Dated: November 7, 2006.
Teresa Sorrenti,
Director, Office of Acquisition Systems.
[FR Doc. E6-19392 Filed 11-15-06; 8:45 am]
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