Federal Acquisition Network implementation and certification

Abstract

The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) of 1994 requires that the Administration of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy establish a program for the development and implementation of a Federal Acquisition Network (FACNET). The FACNET, an electronic procurement system, is required to be universally available throughout the Government and provide interoperability among its users which includes the Department of Defense. The FASA incentivizes contracting activities by conditioning the use of new simplified acquisition procedures ($100,000 threshold) on an activity's ability to implement and certify their FACNET capability. Many Army contracting activities already have some form of electronic procurement capability and incorporate its application into their daily procurement activities. However, while the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) developed an initial standard for FACNET certification, the actual ability of agencies to achieve the standard remains nebulous. There are many barriers to the full use and certification of the FACNET. This is due in part to lack of detail in the FASA and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), which has yet to incorporate the FASA amendments. The objective of this research is to identify those inconsistencies in FACNET implementation and certification (if they exist) and to examine possible courses of action that may provide solutions or clarifications to the implementation process.