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CO Toolkit

The Contracting Officer Toolkit is a knowledge based, ready reference guide, developed by the Fall 2020 LEAP team in partnership with FAI. Some of the links provided may require you to register and login in order to access the material.

Policies & Guidance

Handy link to agency FAR supplements such as the DFARS, GSAR, HHSAR, etc.

OFPP, which falls under the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), plays a central role in shaping the policies and practices federal agencies use to acquire the goods and services they need to carry out their responsibilities.

Establishes the government-wide framework for creating a federal acquisition workforce with the skills necessary to deliver best value supplies and services, find the best business solutions, and provide strategic business advice to accomplish agency missions.

Required the FAI to develop a certification program for COs in civilian agencies that reflects common standards with the goal to standardize the education, training, and experience requirements for COs.

Refreshes the OFPP’s requirements to better align the FAC-C with the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) contracting certification curriculum and to strengthen the development of civilian agency contracting professionals.

Provides general information to help recognize some of the most common ethics and procurement integrity issues that can come up during the contracting process.

The FAR is the primary regulation for use by all executive agencies in their acquisition of supplies and services with appropriated funds.

CO Resources & Tools

CALC helps federal COs find awarded prices to use in negotiations for labor contracts. It offers ceiling prices, fully burdened costs, services data, and worldwide rates.

An interactive web platform that provides access to all electronic Requests for Quote (RFQ) /Proposal (RFP) submitted through the GSA eBuy system from FY14 forward.

The tool establishes a database that provides buying agencies with transparency into the prices paid by other agencies at the task or delivery order level.

Designed to help Contracting Professionals navigate and select PSCs quickly and accurately. Use of the PSC Tool will assist the procurement communities in properly representing the good or service being purchased, and thereby improve contract and spend data quality.

GPC is a comprehensive green purchasing resource designed for federal COs. It helps identify applicable green purchasing requirements by consolidating and organizing information from Federal environmental programs in one place.

Breaks down performance-based service acquisition into eight steps. Within the steps you will find information, references, examples, best practices and templates.

Provides visibility into the many offerings available from other agencies allowing COs to compare them side-by-side to see what makes the most sense for their specific acquisition.

Helps COs find data related to acquisition and category management spend, pricing, and market research information.

A market research tool that helps COs explore GSA services contracts, vendors, and vendor contract history to determine whether a GSA contract can meet their needs.

The official U.S. government website for COs to objectively evaluate performance; and review relevant performance and integrity information before making an award decision.

Interactive guide and flowcharts encompassing all aspects of Contract Formation and Administration. Includes identifying relevant tasks, related FAR references, links to relevant FAI and DAU courses, and related online tools (if applicable).

Tool used by COs to identify and document participation in the most common 1102 job tasks, creation of documents, acquisition strategies and contract types in an effort to gain a depth and breadth of experience in the career field.

Catalog of guides, references and tools to support daily contracting officer acquisition related work.

Beta.Sam.Gov consolidates data that has been migrated from a variety of legacy systems: CFDA.gov; FBO.gov; FPDA.gov; SAM.gov; WDOL.gov and more.

SAM.GOV is the system where contractors register to do business with the U.S. government and where Contracting officials can search for entity registration and exclusion records.

Searchable and filterable interactive tool to view or research information within the FAR.

Provides COs with a generalized order of events in the acquisition contracting process to learn more about a particular activity.

The BIC designation identifies government-wide contracts that satisfy key criteria defined by the OMB. Interagency category teams have designated nearly 40 Best-in-Class contracts to reduce the amount of effort individual buyers spend finding and researching acquisition solutions.

Training

General information and requirements to FAC-C specific Continuous Learning.

Listing of knowledge, skills, and abilities contracting professionals must have in order to perform their contracting duties.

FAC-C specific course catalog from FAI including DAU related contracting courses.

Certifications & Leadership Development

Provides listing of minimum core requirements needed to perform contracting functions at each level.

Provides Contracting Professionals with a guide to getting started and advancing in the 1102 career field.

Informative brochure and links regarding career opportunities in federal contracting.

A leadership development program for federal contracting professionals seeking to develop the leadership and business skills necessary to take on future government leadership roles.

Online catalogue of Federal Government Leadership Development Programs (FedLDP). Provides a searchable electronic library of programs to foster the development of leadership skills in employees.

Communities Of Practice (CoP)

A workspace for acquisition professionals and federal buyers to connect with resources, tools and each other to improve acquisition government-wide.

Quick access to acquisition information such as contracting laws and pending legislation, current and proposed regulations, guidance, courts and boards of contract appeals, bid protest decisions, contracting newsletters, and selected analysis of federal acquisition issues.

Comprehensive source that provides current and upcoming OFPP activities. The goal of inreach is to improve the flow of information about government-wide acquisition policies, guidance, tools and training to help COs succeed in their jobs.

Provide the Defense Service Acquisition Community a Knowledge and Intelligence Source to Better Meet the Demands of the DoD.

FAI.GOV

An official website of the General Services Administration

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