NUWC Newport Meeting with SENEDIA and NCMA - 11 August 2011
Paul Lefebvre (Division Executive Director) started the discussion:
NUWC Newport estimated revenue for FY11 is $1.1B of which over 50% ($600M) will be contracted out.
Contracting is now a separate Department that reports directly to Paul Lefebvre.
A Technical Department Liaison position has been established within the Contracting Department to interface with the technical departments relative to their contracting needs and manage the portfolio of required contracting actions relative to schedule and risk management. Dr. Brian McKeon, Code 81, is currently “dual hated” and acting in this position. The position will be advertised in the future.
NUWC has internal tools to aid in monitoring and managing the priority of required contract actions.
External program office concurrence (NAVSEA, NAVAIR, SPAWAR, etc) has been obtained for all projected award dates for pending contracting actions.
CORs will be undergoing training (week long class – applicable to current and new 1800 NAVSEA CORs.) COR roles are more important, involve day-to-day monitoring and oversight, and many will become full time positions.
Denise Abraham (Contracts Department Head) detailed:
NUWC Newport has SAP authority (<$150K) back. They also have supply (C type) contracting authority back where there is less than 10% services involved. IDIQ authority for services and supply is still at NAVSEA for review and approval.
Approximately 560 NUWC actions have gone to NAVSEA for approval. This level of activity is similar to last year.
There is not a backlog at NAVSEA at this time.
Contractors can help the process by ensuring they are sending in their required notice of funding levels (i.e. 75% complete.) They should also ensure that their POCs in Seaport are up-to-date.
It is a Seaport restriction that only 1 mod can be processed at a time.
There are at least weekly meetings between Contracts and the department technical POCs. In addition there is a daily meeting between Contracts and NAVSEA.
Status questions from contractors should be directed to the CORs and not the technical POCs.
It is anticipated that Seaport Solicitation notices will be updated and released by the end of next week.
RFPs will have a minimum of 30 days for responses.
The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) inititative will not impact the ability to issue RFPs.
For existing contracts, period of performance may be extended (given the govt need) but ceiling will not be extended.
Seaport Council Meetings will continue to be quarterly – with the next one in October.
There is a new NAVSEA clause on invoicing – discussion that current level of invoicing that most companies do will probably meet this reqt. They anticipate providing training or documentation on the new invoicing requirement to the contractor community.
There will be increased emphasis on defining work – Task Instructions (Tis) will be used. NAVSEA is defining a new TI process. Review for scope will include cross- code work and work in line with defined programs.
The Seaport Portal will be the means by which the community will get insight into the contract extensions and schedules for RFPs.
As in past years, cut off dates for submission to the NUWC Contracting Department for contract actions to be executed prior to the endof the fiscal year (30 Sep) have been established and promulgated (in Jan 11). 1 September is the cutoff date for task orders and incremental funding.
Mark Montella, NUWC Newport ERP Program Manager detailed:
Under ERP “power users” have access to all data under ERP and in some ERP roles this includes access to proprietary information. Because of this the determination was made that certain ERP roles – 9 of which impact NUWC Newport, cannot have contractors. The roles with the most contractor support at NUWC Newport are Project Business Financial Manger (PBFM), Program Management, and Procurement Requests. A new contractor PBFM role has been created which eliminates access to proprietary information. Thisshould allow contractor performance in this revised role upon full operational tempo of ERP in the December timeframe.
NUWC Newport has in-sourced 23 positions, effective 29 August, performing the PBFM role and may in-source a “handful” more.
ERP training has begun and is taking place at the Kennedy School in Middletown. Contractors who have the need will also be trained.