As agencies face a changing threat environment and any number of crisis and emergencies, federal managers must strike a balance between how they respond with rapid contract awards while adhering to regulations for full and open competition.

Rapid acquisition should be the norm in government for both emergencies and routine procurements, given the rapid pace of technological change. With that model, agency officials have to anticipate emergencies, putting in place competitively awarded contracts that can be used in the event that a crisis occurs.

"You have some cases during a natural disaster or terrorist attack where you don't have the time to go out to the marketplace to do a full competition. The most important thing is to provide relief for the situation," said Stan Soloway, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, an advocacy group for the government contracting community.

In some cases, this could mean awarding a sole-source contract to a vendor. But when does the agency transition back to a more traditional competitive marketplace?

"That is something agencies have a mixed record of doing," Soloway added. "Sometimes they do it and sometimes they don't at the right timing."

OPM Woes

The General Service Administration's Federal Acquisition Service is set up to provide a variety of contract vehicles for use by agencies across government to purchase products and services at best value, according to GSA officials. As such, all federal agencies are required to act in compliance with the rules of the Federal Acquisition Regulation with respect to competition – even in times of emergency or crisis.

There are exceptions. FAR § 6.302 guidelines outline seven scenarios where contracting without full and open competition may be appropriate, two of which relate to an unusual and compelling urgency and national security implications.

For instance, shortly after the Office of Personnel Management's networks were hacked in March 2014, OPM officials awarded a sole-source contract to strengthen security and eventually overhaul OPM's IT infrastructure. The initial part of the four-phase project, strengthening security of existing systems, was completed in April 2015, and was in part responsible for detecting a previously unknown attack that had exposed data on millions of federal employees. The second phase, the creation of a modern IT architecture known as the Shell, is expected to be completed in the fall.

To maintain consistency, OPM wants to use the same vendor for the next two stages, which includes the migration of systems to the Shell and cleanup or decommissioning of the older systems. OPM Inspector General Patrick McFarland disagrees, arguing during a June hearing that the migration and cleanup phases should be subjected to open competition to avoid ballooning costs.

Spreading the concept of rapid acquisition

"By and large we have a strong preference in government and industry for an open government marketplace, but there is an understanding that it is not always possible," Soloway said.

This was the case when Department of Defense deployed mine resistant ambush protected vehicles within six months to thwart improvised explosive devices during the Iraq war, and in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina.

More recently, during the Ebola virus crisis, the U.S. Agency for International Development initiated a program, supported by federal funding, with the aim of quickly devising new tools to combat the deadly disease. Five awardees were initially selected for the program. An advanced protective suit for health care workers who treat Ebola patients, devised by a Johns Hopkins team, was one of the first five awardees in the program. The team was able to develop a prototype in about three weeks, Soloway noted.

If rapid response contracts can be quickly conducted in time of emergencies, why can't this concept of rapid acquisitions be applied to routine procurements? Soloway said that the government is not mapping into the acquisition process the flexibility and lessons learned from the pockets of innovation happening. Among the examples are the Health and Human Services' Buyers Club for modernizing federal acquisition of IT, and the GSA's digital services agency 18F.

"There are lots of things we should be able to learn from those other rapid acquisition programs that we could apply broadly, Soloway added. That would drive more flexibility and innovation into a system, which is right now rigid and risk averse."

Agencies at serious disadvantage

Emergency situations aside, there is risk associated with a bureaucratic process of buying. The nature of the threats faced are distributed, viral and entrepreneurial, putting agencies that rely on large static weapons and technology acquisition programs at a serious disadvantage, said Jonathan Aberman, the managing director of Amplifier Ventures and founder of TandemNSI.

"If that's the world we are in the question we need to ask ourselves is, 'How can we change the national security infrastructure so it is more nimble and able to react and win in this new world?'"

TandemNSI is an initiative funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia and Arlington County, seeking to bring innovative, small entrepreneurs together with National Security agencies looking to build next-generation technology.

The national security communities need to engage and incentivize non-traditional players – those who invent technology in their garages and are lured by Silicon Valley, Aberman added.

"We need more than one mechanism to get those people in," he said. "There is a need for change in how we engage and contract with these performers."

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