New reporting guidance for competitive sourcing from the
Office of Management and Budget requires agencies to report
on actual savings, quantifiable improvements on competitions
completed in fiscal 2003, fixed costs for fiscal 2004, number
of offers received in competitions and acquisition strategies
used.
OMB said the new requirements were aimed at improving the
usefulness of the data it collects and the overall transparency
of the process — and that agencies will be asked to describe
the steps their HR and competitive sourcing organizations have
taken to identify skill imbalances, competency gaps, and
organizational redundancies, according to an OMB memo.
It said agencies should prepare a draft report consisting of
a “transmittal, narrative statement, and spreadsheets with
data on individual competitions,” by November 12.
The guidance also requires agencies to report on the cost of
directing and overseeing competitions – or fixed costs – for
fiscal 2004, but said it would accept estimates.
For standard competitions in fiscal 2004, agencies must
identify the number of bids or proposals from private sector
contractors or public reimbursable providers and the
strategy used to select the winner, such as a sealed bid,
lowest price, technically acceptable evaluations, or phased
evaluations, according to the guidance.
It also directs agencies to “describe how their competitive
sourcing decision making processes relate to the
implementation of the strategic management of human capital,”
and “to address the steps human resources and competitive
sourcing organizations have jointly taken to identify skill
imbalances, gaps, and organizational redundancies.”
