The Professional Services Council has asked the Office of Management and Budget to revise certain measures in its June 15 memorandum that seeks to reduce reporting requirements for federal agencies.Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at PSC, told OMB Director Mick Mulvaney in a letter published Thursday that the agency should release a new memo that would direct agencies to continue to speed up payments to small businesses and small subcontractors as well as eliminate quarterly reporting requirement among agencies.
The memo paused until fiscal year 2020 a reporting requirement for reviews of acquisition functions in compliance with OMB Circular A-123.
“In our view, requiring agencies to continue to perform their review of internal controls of their acquisition functions should remain an essential element of agency management, even during their internal reorganizational assessments,†Chvotkin wrote.
“These assessments have been instrumental in measuring agency compliance with federal procurement law and regulation, in shaping corrective actions to address root causes for non-compliance, and in measuring effectiveness and efficiency of agency operations,” he added.
PSC also raised concern about a requirement in the memo that would direct agencies to discontinue submission of quarterly reports on all previously covered cross-agency and agency-specific priority goals through performance.gov.
PSC believes that such quarterly reports offer insights into agencies’ challenges and activities and that OMB should determine priority objectives that support the administration’s priorities, Chvotkin noted.
