The Office of Federal Procurement Policy says performance-based service acquisition should be used in half of all eligible service contracts by 2005.

OFPP plans to issue new regulations and guidance to promote the technique.

OFPP adopted recommendations by an interagency working group, including: amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation to define terms such as “performance-based service acquisition” and “statement of objectives;” and issuing new guidance for the use of performance-based methods.

The working group said agencies should not focus on cost savings as a goal in performance-based contracts. “There is little current data to support monetary savings, and if such data did exist, it would be extremely difficult to isolate the exact reasons the savings occurred,” the group wrote in its report. “The working group does agree that we are seeing improved quality of performance and improved customer satisfaction.”

The report is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/procurement/july_revision_pbsat_task_force.pdf.

Identity thieves have gone online.

The Federal Trade Commission is warning of a new, fast-growing scam called “phishing.” The phisherman puts out his line by sending an e-mail to his target, with a phony return address that looks like it came from an Internet service provider. The scammer asks the target to verify his or her account information by providing personal information, sometimes including credit card numbers and Social Security numbers.

Internet service providers said they would never ask customers for that kind of information in an e-mail.

The FTC said a 17-year-old in Los Angeles created a fake America Online member page and used the data he gathered to open credit card accounts that were billed to his victims. The FTC said he ran up about $8,000 in purchases.

The unidentified teenager agreed to a settlement of the charges.

Small businesses won nearly 37% of the dollars spent through GSA schedules in fiscal 2002, according to a study by Eagle Eye Publishes of Fairfax, VA.

Orders to small firms totaled $5.8 billion. Minority-owned small businesses were awarded more than 10% of the schedule dollars.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has asked Congress for funding to restart its competitive sourcing program.

VA suspended sourcing competitions in its largest unit, the Veterans Health Administration, after agency lawyers said Congress had prohibited use of any funds for that purpose. (SAA, 7/11)

Now the department is asking Congress to re-program $50 million to cover costs of sourcing competitions this year and next, although a spokesman said it’s not likely that all the money will be needed.

The proposal ran into immediate opposition from unions and some Democratic lawmakers.

SBA plans to hire a contractor to develop online certification forms for the 8(a) and small disadvantaged business programs. The agency announced last year that it would work to simplify and speed up the certification process.

The solicitation is to be issued around July 25, according to a notice on FedBizOpps. For details, see page 4.

The number of SBA loans has jumped by nearly 36% in the first three quarters of fiscal 2003, compared to a year ago.

The agency says the difference reflects its emphasis on streamlining approvals of smaller loans. The average loan size in the 7(a) program fell to $164,600 so far this year, from $232,075 in the same period a year ago, while the total dollar value of 7(a) loans declined.

Counting both 7(a) and 504 loans, SBA said loans to African Americans increased by 88%; loans to Hispanic Americans increased by 44%; loans to Asian Americans increased by 34%; and loans to Native Americans increased by 27%. Loan approvals for women small business owners increased by 40% and loans to veteran-owned small businesses rose by 22%