United States Department of Agriculture Issued: September 26, 2012 Office of Procurement and Property Management Revision A: May 1, 2013 Revision B: July 12, 2016 Procurement Advisory No. 101B Shared First Policy in USDA Contracts SUMMARY The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) spends more than $5 Billion on goods and services each year. Acquisition workforce members, agency officials, managers and others involved in the acquisition process are responsible for getting the most value for each dollar spent. Central to our future success is the use of strategic sourcing and other strategic procurement methods. To further these efforts, USDA has implemented a “shared first” policy. 2. BACKGROUND Maximizing value for taxpayers is a top priority for USDA, and USDA shall continue to be prepared, in light of continuing budget challenges, to organize and implement successful strategies to maximize value from every procurement. Every acquisition provides an opportunity to reduce the prices of goods and services bought, reduce the cost of doing business, improve performance, and increase achievement of socio-economic acquisition goals. 3. REFERENCES Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 48 CFR, accessible at . 4. ACTIONS Strategic sourcing is the collaborative and structured process of critically analyzing an organization’s spending and using this information to make business decisions about acquiring commodities and services more effectively and efficiently. It is the policy of USDA to conduct its procurements using collaboration and resource sharing to reduce the number of procurement actions and the administrative burden of conducting large numbers of isolated, means that USDA shall make every effort to acquire goods and services individual procurements. “Shared first” using shared resources such as department-wide contracts, before issuing new awards, and to issue any new awards for as many users as possible. To implement the policy, all contracting activities shall “shared first” adhere to FAR Subpart 17.5 and as applicable take the following actions: All new indefinite-delivery contracts, including blanket purchase and other agreements against which orders can be placed, shall allow, to the maximum extent practicable, placement of orders by as many USDA contracting officers and Government Purchase Cardholders as possible. Consideration shall be given to opening all new contracts and agreements: Department-wide (to allow ordering by all USDA offices) Contracting agency-wide (e.g. Farm Service Agency-wide or Forest Service-wide to allow ordering by all offices in those agencies)
United States Department of Agriculture Issued: September 26, 2012 Office of Procurement and Property Management Revision A: May 1, 2013 Revision B: July 12, 2016 Procurement Advisory No. 101B Shared First Policy in USDA Contracts SUMMARY The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) spends more than $5 Billion on goods and services each year. Acquisition workforce members, agency officials, managers and others involved in the acquisition process are responsible for getting the most value for each dollar spent. Central to our future success is the use of strategic sourcing and other strategic procurement methods. To further these efforts, USDA has implemented a “shared first” policy. 2. BACKGROUND Maximizing value for taxpayers is a top priority for USDA, and USDA shall continue to be prepared, in light of continuing budget challenges, to organize and implement successful strategies to maximize value from every procurement. Every acquisition provides an opportunity to reduce the prices of goods and services bought, reduce the cost of doing business, improve performance, and increase achievement of socio-economic acquisition goals. 3. REFERENCES Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 48 CFR, accessible at . 4. ACTIONS Strategic sourcing is the collaborative and structured process of critically analyzing an organization’s spending and using this information to make business decisions about acquiring commodities and services more effectively and efficiently. It is the policy of USDA to conduct its procurements using collaboration and resource sharing to reduce the number of procurement actions and the administrative burden of conducting large numbers of isolated, individual procurements. “Shared first” means that USDA shall make every effort to acquire goods and services using shared resources such as department-wide contracts, before issuing new awards, and to issue any new awards for as many users as possible. To implement the “shared first” policy, all contracting activities shall adhere to FAR Subpart 17.5 and as applicable take the following actions: All new indefinite-delivery contracts, including blanket purchase and other agreements against which orders can be placed, shall allow, to the maximum extent practicable, placement of orders by as many USDA contracting officers and Government Purchase Cardholders as possible. Consideration shall be given to opening all new contracts and agreements: Department-wide (to allow ordering by all USDA offices) Contracting agency-wide (e.g. Farm Service Agency-wide or Forest Service-wide to allow ordering by all offices in those agencies)
Procurement%20Advisory%20101B.docx