News for the Acquisition Workforce

Program managers, consider taking this high-level overview of how to manage climate risks. This new course is broken into three modules, and it explains the current climate science, the need to adapt to climate change hazards and steps program managers can take to mitigate risks. The course also highlights several resources that will assist with making your program more climate-ready. Don’t delay; program managers can register here and earn one CLP after completing the post-assessment. 

If you haven’t already joined the Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Management (C-SCRM) Acquisition Community of Practice (ACoP), email them at C-SCRM_ACoP@gsa.gov and tell them you want to be part of the group. Since launching the C-SCRM ACoP group, GSA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have led an effort to develop agency maturity in acquisitions, supply chain risk management, and cybersecurity across the federal government for IT and services. Sign up for the event here!

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy, in partnership with FAI and COR subject matter experts across civilian agencies, revised the FAC-COR competency model. The revised model reflects the evolving environment of CORs and is better aligned with the current role of a COR. The FAC-COR program is based on competencies that CORs must have to perform their duties as acquisition team members. Commerical training providers have crosswalked and/or updated their COR certification courses accordingly and there is no change to the status of existing FAC-COR certifications. 

A FAC-C-Digital Services (DS) is required prior to being assigned requirements for digital services acquisitions over $7.5 million (or $15 million for acquisitions described in FAR Part 13.500(c)). FAC-C Level II or III certified candidates can earn a FAC-C-DS via the Digital IT Acquisition Professional (DITAP) program. There are several vendors who provide the training: Management Concepts, ICF, CivicActions, EAGLES, Skylight and Graduate School USA.

FAR Final Rule 2021-008 Amendments to FAR Buy American Act Requirements will be effective on Oct. 25, 2022 and includes many changes to the Buy American requirements. Watch this video that details the changes from the FAR final rule. In addition, a new course will be launched in FAI CSOD this month, FAC 097 Navigating Buy American and Trade Agreements, which incorporates all of these new changes and also introduces two new Buy American and Trade Agreement online decision tools which are also available on FAI.gov.

The Mission Support Leadership Program is designed for GS-12 to GS-14 Federal employees in acquisitions. Federal professionals will become more effective leaders by focusing on the four core tenets of the Partnership’s Public Service Leadership Model—self-awareness, engaging others, leading change and achieving results. By the end of the course, participants are able to make values-based decisions, use their roles to build strong partnerships, identify how to drive positive impact within their organizations and demonstrate enhanced leadership attributes. Accepting applications now.

As a reminder, the FAI.gov Frequently Asked Questions page has a collection of resources for FAI CSOD users. Under the "training and help desk support" tab, you'll find a training video with answers to commonly asked FAI CSOD questions and a variety of task aids with step-by-step directions for performing FAI CSOD functions. While logged in to FAI CSOD, you can visit the Training Guides and Videos link under the “Help” tab to learn more about the roles you are assigned. Additionally, you can contact the Defense Acquisition University help desk for FAI CSOD troubleshooting, error reporting and password problems. Bookmark this page today!

The Acquisition Regulation Comparator (ARC) provides Acquisition.gov users the ability to compare up to three regulations side-by-side. The results are displayed in a column layout, with regulations compared at the part and subpart level and lined up by sections. FAR, the Department of Defense and all civilian acquisition regulations are included in the ARC. Visit the ARC here and view its user guide here.

FAR 52.219-9(l) establishes the due dates for contractors to file subcontracting plan reports in the governmentwide Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (eSRS). FAR 19.705-5(f)(2) requires contracting officers to review the reports and either accept or reject them within 60 days of the end of the reporting period. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Small Business Administration issued a memo on Sept. 20, 2022 to extend the due dates for the submission of fiscal year 2022 reports in eSRS by ten days for year-end ISR and SSR reports.

Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2022-08 was published in the Federal Register on Sept. 23, 2022. The list of documents included in the FAC are as follows: Introduction; FAR Case 2017-019, Policy on Joint Ventures, final rule, effective: Oct. 28, 2022; FAR Case 2018-020, Construction Contract Administration, final rule, effective Oct. 28, 2022; FAR Case 2019-007, Update of Historically Underutilized Business Zone Program, final rule, effective: Oct. 28, 2022; FAR Case 2020-013, Certification of Women-Owned Small Businesses, final rule, effective Oct. 28, 2022; Technical Amendments, final rule, effective: Sept. 23, 2022; and Small Entity Compliance Guide. View and download the latest version of the FAR.

Government/industry engagement is key to the success of the federal acquisition process. Yet, this indispensable part of a high-functioning procurement system is sometimes unknown or ignored. The article linked below illustrates that when done properly, government/industry engagement leads to better acquisition outcomes. It defines government/industry engagement and explains why it's important. In addition, it explains the role of the acquisition workforce and the rules governing government/industry engagement. The article concludes by discussing success strategies, myths, and truths related to government/industry engagement. Click here to read the full article and learn more.

The fourth annual Defense Acquisition University/George Mason University Government Contracting Conference is Friday, Nov. 4 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. E.T. AcquisitioNext, the conference theme, focuses on the need to replace the industrial age acquisition paradigm of linearity and prediction with digital age approaches of modularity, speed, iteration, and competition. You will explore the AcquisitioNext approach in: spurring small business innovation, implementing concepts such as Joint All-Domain Command and Control, reforming the budget process and more. Speakers will include senior officials from government, business, and academia AcquisitioNext is both in-person and virtual.