The MGT Act lets agencies reinvest IT savings

      The Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act approved as part of the recent NDAA is getting attention because it can help agencies turn IT savings into investments.

      The act authorizes a $500 million revolving capital fund at the OMB, managed by GSA, for agencies to modernize their legacy IT systems. There’s no appropriation for the fund yet.

      Even so, MeriTalk and others say the fund is valuable because it allows agencies to reprogram IT savings from one year into new IT investments in future years.

More information: MeriTalk release: http://goo.gl/jjVDdv

Styles: NDAA provisions good for small biz

      The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) provision setting up an Amazon-like marketplace for federal buyers--in tandem with other NDAA changes--should be good for small business, Angela Styles, a former federal procurement official under President George W. Bush, said in a recent interview.

      The NDAA’s setting up the online marketplaces, and its lifting of the micro-purchase threshold for civilian agencies from $3,000 to $10,000, should make it easier and quicker for agencies to buy from small businesses, Styles, the former Administrator of Federal Procurement Policy within the Office of Management and Budget, told Federal News Radio.

      In addition, the NDAA also hikes up the thresholds for Simplified Acquisition, which now applies to purchases up to $250,000, and raises the Certified Cost or Pricing Data threshold from $750,000 to $2 million.

      The effect of raising both of those thresholds should be beneficial for small businesses, Styles said.

More information: Federal News Radio story: http://goo.gl/HiArhX

DHS: $1.9B in errors

      An audit of Homeland Security Dept. spending data under the DATA Act found $1.9 billion in alleged inaccurate data.

      “We determined that DHS could not align nearly $1.9 billion (38%) of the total obligations associated with its award transactions for the quarter,” the DHS Office of Inspector General wrote in its report.

      The OIG also found that nearly 64% of the 385 procurement and financial award transactions reviewed had inaccurate data. The dollar value of the errors ws $1.7 million.

     DHS officials responded that if timeframes for reconciliation were extended, about $1 billion worth of spending could be reconciled. The officials also recommended a different way of calculating the inaccuracy rate that resulted in an 18% inaccuracy rate.

      The OIG made six recommendations.

More information: DHS OIG report: http://goo.gl/beJBGk

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