OMB’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy has issued guidelines for using procurement flexibilities for emergency purchases. The 2002 Homeland Security Act gives all agencies the authority to use simplified acquisition procedures in any dollar amount for any product or service necessary for the fight against terrorism and related threats.

The guidelines are available at http://www.acqnet.gov/Library/OFPP/PolicyDocs/empro11.doc.

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Small businesses won nearly 29% of the dollars spent through governmentwide acquisition contracts in fiscal 2002, according to Eagle Eye Publishers of Fairfax, VA.

The report said small minority-owned firms were awarded 17% of GWAC dollars. Non-minority small businesses won 11.9%

Agencies spent almost $3.6 billion through GWACs last year.

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Federal agencies will hire more contractors to do financial work, ranging from policy research to administrative tasks, according to a survey of government financial managers.

“Like private industry, the government is moving from an operations model in which most work is done by an entity’s employees, to a model that makes greater use of service providers,” said the study by Grant Thornton LLP for the Association of Government Accountants.

Some chief financial officers responding to the survey said they use contractors for data entry, freeing up agency employees for analytical tasks. Others said they rely on contractors for analysis that their own employees are not able to do.

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The Federal Acquisition Regulation Council is proposing to amend provisions of FAR Part 31 relating to contract cost principles. The proposed amendments are FAR Case 2002-008 in the July 7 Federal Register. Comments are due by Sept. 5.

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Kevin Boshears, formerly head of the Treasury Department’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, has been named OSDBU director at the new Department of Homeland Security.

According to the department’s website, plans are in the works for quarterly small business introductory workshops on how to do business with DHS.

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As contractors provide more and more services to U.S. armed forces around the globe, the Defense Department has failed to develop plans to replace contractor employees who may be killed or wounded in an attack, according to a General Accounting Office report.

GAO found few military units have backup plans to keep essential services going if their contractors cannot perform. The investigators said most commanders expect they could replace contractor personnel or call on nearby units for services.

The report noted that the military now relies on contractors to do far more than cooking and housekeeping. For example, Army units in Afghanistan counted on contractors to maintain equipment that detects biological threats. “The loss of this contractor support would adversely affect the Army’s ability to detect biological threats at deployed locations,” GAO said.