Labels and Tags

Accountability (71) Adequate documentation (7) ADR in procurement (4) Allocation of risks (6) Best interest of government (11) Best practices (19) Best value (15) Bidder prejudice (11) Blanket purchase agreement (1) Bridge contract (2) Bundling (6) Cancellation and rejection (2) Centralized procurement structure (12) Changes during bid process (14) Clarifications vs Discussions (1) Competence (9) Competition vs Efficiency (29) Competitive position (3) Compliance (35) Conflict of interest (32) Contract administration (26) Contract disputes (4) Contract extension or modification (9) Contract formation (1) Contract interpretation (1) Contract terms (3) Contract types (6) Contract vs solicitation dispute (2) Contractor responsibility (20) Conviction (4) Cooperative purchasing (3) Corrective action (1) Cost and pricing (13) Debarment (4) Determinations (8) Determining responsibility (37) Disclosure requirements (7) Discussions during solicitation (10) Disposal of surplus property (3) Effective enforcement requirement (35) Effective procurement management (5) Effective specifications (36) Emergency procurement (14) eProcurement (5) Equitable tolling (2) Evaluation of submissions (22) Fair and equitable treatment (14) Fair and reasonable value (23) Fiscal effect of procurement (14) Frivolous protest (1) Good governance (12) Governmental functions (27) Guam (14) Guam procurement law (12) Improper influence (11) Incumbency (13) Integrity of system (31) Interested party (7) Jurisdiction (1) Justification (1) Life-cycle cost (1) Limits of government contracting (5) Lore vs Law (4) market research (7) Materiality (3) Methods of source selection (33) Mistakes (4) Models of Procurement (1) Needs assessment (11) No harm no foul? (8) Offer & acceptance (1) Other procurement links (14) Outsourcing (34) Past performance (12) Planning policy (34) Politics of procurement (52) PPPs (6) Prequalification (1) Principle of competition (95) Principles of procurement (25) Private vs public contract (17) Procurement authority (5) Procurement controversies series (79) Procurement ethics (19) Procurement fraud (31) Procurement lifecycle (9) Procurement philosophy (17) Procurement procedures (30) Procurement reform (63) Procurement theory (11) Procurement workforce (2) Procurment philosophy (6) Professionalism (17) Protest - formality (2) Protest - timing (12) Protests - general (37) Purposes and policies of procurement (11) Recusal (1) Remedies (17) Requirement for new procurement (4) Resolution of protests (4) Responsiveness (14) Restrictive specifications (5) Review procedures (13) RFQ vs RFP (1) Scope of contract (16) Settlement (2) Social preference provisions (60) Sole source (48) Sovereign immunity (3) Staffing (8) Standard commercial products (3) Standards of review (2) Standing (6) Stays and injunctions (6) Structure of procurement (1) Substantiation (9) Surety (1) Suspension (6) The procurement record (1) The role of price (10) The subject matter of procurement (23) Trade agreements vs procurement (1) Training (33) Transparency (63) Uniformity (6) Unsolicited proposals (3)

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

A conflict of views on organizational conflicts of interest

Proposed OCI regs would allow government to tolerate conflict of interest
Acquisition officials representing both the military and civilian branches of government released the much-anticipated proposed regulations April 26. Among the main changes from the status quo in them is the addition of acceptance to the three current methods of addressing conflict of interest, which are avoidance, neutralization and mitigation.

Contracting officers could propose acceptance only when the potential danger is to government business interests as opposed to the integrity of the acquisition process. An example of the latter would be risk of a contractor obtaining an unfair advantage in competing for a future government contract, whereas an example of the former would be risk of a contractor offering up advice to the government "in a way that degrades the value" of the advice.

Acceptance would "generally" have to combined with other methods, particularly mitigation, but a contracting officer could accept the mitigation plan even if it does not remove all the risk of a conflict, the proposed regulations say.

Read more: Proposed OCI regs would allow government to tolerate conflict of interest - FierceGovernmentIT http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/proposed-oci-regs-would-allow-government-tolerate-conflict-interest/2011-04-26#ixzz1KlzVJhc2
Subscribe: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/signup?sourceform=Viral-Tynt-FierceGovernmentIT-FierceGovernmentIT

Obama offers different vision of conflicts of interest
The Obama administration and the Defense Department apparently view organizational conflicts of interest from different perspectives. The administration has put out a potential rule on OCIs that differs from the DOD's 2010 draft. It allows the government to accept more risk and raises questions about conflicts among business affiliates.

The White House kept the general framework of the DOD’s proposed OCI rule with its preference for mitigation, but gives contacting officers more flexibility when faced with potential harm to the government and other vendors, according to the new proposal published April 26.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council, along with the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, propose two types of harm that arise from OCIs. One type hurts the integrity of the competitive acquisition system. The other affects the government and its business interests alone.

While the DOD prefers mitigation, the administration's new proposal would allow contracting officers to accept risk if it’s appropriate. The risk factor would apply after the government and contractor first attempt other avenues.

“The risk of harm to the government’s business interests may sometimes be assessed as an acceptable performance risk,” according to the proposal.

Prior posts on this subject

No comments: