Federal Contracting Personnel Honored for Outstanding Work The Office of Federal Procurement Policy recognized outstanding performers in government contracting with its “Shine” awards. OFPP Administrator Paul Denett said missteps by acquisition personnel attract bad publicity while excellence is too often overlooked. Award winners include two that were involved in programs that have been lightning rods for criticism. Jean Todd, chief of contracting at the Army Corps of Engineers’ Louisiana Recovery Field Office, won the Ida Ustad Award for Excellence in Acquisition. Todd set up an on-site, full-service contracting office amid the chaos of Hurricane Katrina. The award, named for a former senior GSA official, includes a $5,000 prize. The Army’s Joint Contracting Command for Iraq and Afghanistan won the Chief Acquisition Officers Council Acquisition Management Innovations in Contract Management Award for the defense sector. The command created effects-based contracting, which synchronizes contracting resources and capabilities in time, space and purpose to help warfighters. Under a 26-day deadline, the command built a judicial complex and a 900-person detainee prison, and expanded other facilities. The information technology team in the procurement operations division of the Agriculture Department’s Office of Procurement and Property Management won the same CAO Council award for the civilian sector. The team developed performance metrics for buying IT products and services. The Federal Acquisition Regulation Acquisition Law Team won the FAR Team Award for its work on FAR cases involving the Buy American reporting requirement, Lobbying Disclosure Act, and Contractor Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, among other cases. The FAR Acquisition Strategy Team also received the award for developing recommendations for nine complex and significant FAR cases including commercial time-and-material/labor-hour contracts, emergency acquisitions and Alaska native corporations, among others. The Justice Department’s Bureau of Prisons and its contracting company, Hensel Phelps, won the Alternative Dispute Resolution Award for using an innovative partnering approach in constructing a new federal correctional facility on time, on budget and without formal claims or appeals. The winners were honored at the Federal Acquisition Conference and Exposition in Washington on June 19.