(Washington, DC) - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) David P. Gragan today announced administration’s plan to submit legislation to the DC Council that will streamline the District’s procurement system. The new bill, titled Procurement Efficiency Act of 2009 illustrates the Fenty administration’s strong commitment to significantly improve processes within the Office of Contract and Procurement (OCP).

“Improving the city’s purchasing system is a major priority for this administration,” said Mayor Fenty. “This new legislation brings us one step closer to a new-and-improved OCP, and elevates the District’s procurement system into the modern era.”

The legislation would amend certain sections of the District of Columbia Procurement Practices Act of 1985 (PPA), the authorizing legislation for the District’s procurement process. It also addresses two major issues in the current PPA: Competitive Sealed Proposals and Competition.

• Competitive Sealed Proposal - Currently, the PPA obligates OCP to perform tedious open negotiations of contract proposals. These negotiations require an extensive award process which can prolong the contract award. Under the new bill, OCP will simplify the evaluation process for requests for proposals (RFPs). Prior to issuing an RFP, the CPO may issue a request for qualifications from prospective vendors to determine vendor credentials upon which to award the contract. After reviewing the qualifications, the CPO would then issue the RFP to two or more prospects.  The procedure will bring a much more efficient award process for competitive sealed proposals while requiring less administrative and judicial review. 
• Competition - Under current law, PPA authorizes the award of procurement contracts through non-competitive negotiations, exchanges between the District and a single contractor. Under the new legislation, these negotiations will not be required when the District plans to purchase items that are exclusively available through one vendor. The new law will establish a list of items that will not require competition. Such items would include: professional fees, postage, metro cards, works of art, and maintenance and support of existing software and technology. 

“The time has come for a long-term plan of action to overhaul the District’s procurement process,” said David P. Gragan, Chief Procurement Officer. “Serious reform is needed in order to restore the public’s confidence in our system. We will achieve this goal by applying industry best practices in the way we do business in the District.”

OCP was established in 1997 to provide contracting services for selected agencies and offices in the District. The office operates:

• Contracting – provides acquisition services to District agencies so that they can have the supplies and services they need to support their missions; 
• Public Accountability – provides full disclosure of procurement information to the public to educate, inform and ensure transparency of the procurement process;
• Personal Property – provides surplus property management, reutilization and disposal services to District agencies and eligible not-for-profit organizations so that they can dispose of excess property; and
• Agency Management – provides operational support and the required tools to achieve operations and programmatic results.