Simplified Acquisition Procedures - Research Paper Example

?Running head: SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION Simplified Acquisition Procedures Insert Insert Grade Insert October 26, Simplified Acquisition Procedures 1. Introduction The federal government has different agencies and government departments that often need different products and services. Similarly, the operations of the players in the business industry also include procurement of goods and services. In the normal business operations, the procurement procedures are extensive and the involved parties may incur huge losses especially if it does not involve large quantities supplies. The whole process is often inefficient due to several documentation procedures that are often involved. The slow procurement processes are often disadvantageous to the government departments like the Department of Defense whose operations can be delayed with significance negative impacts on its mission attainment. In relation to this, the government through the congress intervened to develop procurement procedures that could be more efficient and cost-effective for relatively smaller purchases. The program was initiated in the early 1990s and has hard various improvements since then. The US General Accounting Office (GAO) has provided various reports that focus on the effectiveness of the program. This paper focuses on a 2001 report by GAO on the benefits of these new procurement procedures. The report indicated that the benefits of the procedures were not clearly demonstrated even though the executives believed in their effectiveness. Similar results were provided in another 2003 report by GAO. 2. Simplified Acquisition by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) The Simplified Acquisition Procedures (SAPs) are procurement procedures authorized by the Federal Acquisition Regulations to speed up the procurement process to the benefit of the two or more parties involved. The SAPs allow for quick procurement procedures through accelerating the evaluation and selection of the contracting officers and removing unnecessary documentation procedures that can slow the procurement process (US GAO, 2001, p.2; GAO, 2003, p.2). The use of these procedures was authorized in 1994 by the Congress and at this time, it only applied for the purchases not more than $100,000. Further adjustments were made on the simplified acquisition procedures in the subsequent periods. In 1996, the Congress allowed an extension of these procurement procedures to the purchases up to $5 million worth of products or services (GAO, 2003, p.3). The program removed some of the procedural requirements involved in procurement when purchasing products worth this value in a bid to improve the operations at the business organizations and the federal agencies. The program was instituted to serve the government and the business industry in a number of ways. Firstly, the program aims at reducing the administrative costs at the federal agencies due to the improved procurement process (Straight, 2004, p.1). Various personnel involved in the usual procurement procedures make the agencies incur some huge operations costs. Secondly, the programs are aimed at improving efficiency and economy in contracting. The initiatives enable small business organizations to have a better access to the government contract since the tedious and costly procedures are not involved (Straight, 2004, p.1). The program ensures that the burden on the contracting agencies is reduced. 3. The conditions for use of simplified acquisition procedures according to the FAR It has been stated that the simplified acquisition procedures were extended to the purchase of items no not exceeding $5 million in order to improve the efficiency and economy of the procurement process. It is then inappropriate to apply the procedures in the situations that these desired objectives cannot be met. For instance, it will not be economical to apply the procedures for a procurement exceeding the stated value. Section 13.003 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation stipulates the federal agencies should use the simplified acquisition procedures. Section 13.003 states that the procedures should be used to ‘the extent practicable for all purchases of supplies or service not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold (including purchases at or below the micro-purchase threshold)’ (The General Services Administration, n.d). Thus, in order to use the simplified acquisition procedures, an agency should not be capable of meeting its requirements using the sources of supply as stipulated in section of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The agency should not be capable of meeting the requirements with contracts of indefinite. The agencies to apply these procedures are also not supposed to have some predefined contracting organizations or an established contracting channel to be followed. 4. Examples of Simplified Acquisition Methods There are different simplified acquisition methods that are used in the federal procurement processes. Some of the methods include the government-wide commercial purchase card, the purchase orders, and Blank purchase agreements among many others The Government-wide commercial purchase card is used in accordance with the provisions in the other sections of the FAR like part 1.6003.3 (The General Services Administration, n.d). The card can be used for the purchase of supplies and services. It can also be used in contracting construction firms by the federal agencies. In any of the cases, the purchases have to be legalized in order to allow for the use of this card. The card is used according to the procedures established by the respective agencies in accordance with the other regulatory policies in the country. In particular, the card may be used for micro-purchases, placing a delivery order or making payments (The General Services Administration, n.d). The purchase orders are issued on fixed prices except for the unpriced purchase orders. The orders specify the quantity of the supplies ordered and the required deadlines. It also contains information like the destination of the supplies. The unpriced purchase orders are used when pricing cannot be done at the time of issuance of some order (The General Services Administration, n.d). It is most applicable if the procedures involved some process cannot be defined explicitly and the costs of the required materials are not known. The Blank purchase agreements (BPAs) provide a simplified way of dealing with orders that are expected to recur and involve an identification of some qualified supplier (The General Services Administration, n.d). The method is suitable for an agency that manages its own supply chain and anticipates future needs for similar supplies and services. The procedure is used to avoid writing several purchase orders in a repetitive supply of products or services. The agency to apply the methods should not have a predefined procurement procedure to be followed 5. A summary of the 2001 GAO report This report was issued in response to the Congress mandate to the GAO to evaluate the simplified acquisition procedures that had been authorized for the procurement of supplies and services by different government agencies. To achieve this, the GOA officials examined how different federal agencies considered the program effective capable of achieving the set objectives. The officials collected the views from different heads of departments in the federal agencies. In particular, the GAO officials sought information from the procurement officials for different federal agencies (US General Accounting Office, 2001, p.1). The officials also examined the extent to which the procedures outlined in the program were applied in the few contracts that were considered. Some three buying organizations in the Department of Defense were also involved in the assessment with their respective contracts. The report does not provide detailed data that could be used to measure the extent to which the program achieved its objectives of maximizing efficiency and economy while minimizing the administrative costs. The assessment did not entail the collection of such data. Instead, it relies on a survey that was conducted by the Office of the Federal Procurement Policy that was conducted in 1999. The survey indicated that the federal procurement executives have positive feelings about the program and stated that the program had shown significant positives results on the procurement process (US General Accounting Office, 2001, p.2). The procurement executives even suggested that the regulations that were defined in the test program be adopted as permanent policies governing procurement services. The assessment of the different contracts by the buying organizations indicated that the buyers were not always satisfied with the prices set for the contracts. The buyers showed that these programs were not always fair or reasonable (US General Accounting Office, 2001, p.2). However, the validity of this fact can be established only if other factors like the advertisements that were used for the contracts are also considered. A double-check would be attained if it emerged that the unsatisfied buyers were involved in similarly advertised contracts. The General Accounting Office issued another report in 2003 that had similar observations. The 2003 report also indicated that there were no sufficient empirical data to warrant a conclusion that the simplified acquisition procedures were effective and had positive impacts on the federal procurement procedures. However, the report also reiterated the 2001 report that the procurement executives had confidence in the effectiveness and efficiency of the simplified procurement methods. 6. The recommendations in the report The report gave recommendations that could be very effective in realizing the objectives of the program. The report was issued when the program was under test and a permanent authority had not been put in the application of the procedures in procurement up to $5 million. The report recommended that the authority had to be extended and proper procedures established to measure their effectiveness in improving the procurement process. The assessment was supposed to provide the extent to which the objectives like cost reduction, reduction of selection period, involving small organizations, and improved product delivery were achieved. References Straight, R. (2004). Simplified Acquisition Procedures for Federal Purchases. Retrieved from http://www.ism.ws/files/Pubs/Proceedings/HJStraight.pdf The US General Accounting Office. (2003). No Reliable Data to Measure Benefits of the Simplified Acquisition Test Program. Contact Management. Retrieved from http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d031068.pdf The General Services Administration. (N.d). Subpart 13.3—Simplified Acquisition Methods. Retrieved from https://www.acquisition.gov/far/html/Subpart%2013_3.html The General Services Administration. (N.d). Part 13. Retrieved from https://www.acquisition.gov/far/html/Subpart%2013_1.html The US General Accounting Office. (2001). Benefits of Simplified Acquisition Test Procedures Not Clearly Demonstrated. Contract Management. 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