As the end of the fiscal year approaches, the Department of Defense (DoD) and other federal agencies rush to spend the remainder of their budgets due to “use-it-or-lose-it” budget rules. Failure to use these budgets before the federal fiscal year ends could cause congress to decrease these budgets for the following years drastically. The pressure to use these budgets often finds federal agencies spending nearly five times as much money in the last week of the fiscal year than any other week of the year.
Chenega Systems (CS) President, Ryan Maloney, spoke to Government Technology Insider (GTI) about the critical role of sole source contracting and how it assists federal agencies in optimizing federal buying season investments. “We take the process from a 3 to 6 to 12-month acquisition cycle down to 30 days or less,” Maloney told GTI. “The full-service model offered by Native 8(a) organizations ensures that dollars are not spent in haste and are targeted at programs that support the mission.”
By utilizing sole source contracting with 8(a) Native-owned small businesses, the contracting officer only needs to submit the solicitation to SBA for approval, allowing the agency to dive directly into open discussions and negotiations immediately. The sole source process allows for federal agencies to quickly utilize their remaining budgets on a rapid timeline.
As an example of this “use-it-or-lose-it” mentality, and how CS was quick to the rescue, Maloney goes into detail in September 2020 in which CS was contacted by a DoD customer late in the fiscal year. Within one week, the request was approved and just one month later, CS began developing custom course material tailored to the customers’ mission, including the technical instruction, classroom configuration, appropriate presentation methods, and technical consistency for network training. Due to the quick action of CS, this DoD customer was able to further use their budget from that fiscal year, lessening risk of a decrease in budget for the following year.
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Read the full GTI article about how sole source contracts help the DoD speed up procurement and optimize federal buying season below:
For more information about how Chenega Systems can help:
Sole Source Infosheet