Performance Goal Statement: By September 30, 2015, USAID will reduce procurement administrative lead time (PALT) by 40 percent from the 2009 baseline of 513 calendar days, increase the percentage of program funding going directly to local partners to 30 percent, and meet or exceed the prime contract acquisition dollars obligated to U.S. small businesses worldwide by 10 percent from the FY 2013 baseline of 8.2 percent.
Note: USAID agreed with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) not to carry forward the Procurement Reform APG for FY 2016-2017. Procurement reform continues to be an Agency priority, and USAID will continue to report progress on Performance Goal metrics in the FY 2016 Annual Performance Report and FY 2018 Annual Performance Plan.
Performance Goal Overview
To support the USAID Forward reforms, USAID is focused on streamlining the procurement process, building new partnerships, and institutionalizing the Agency’s USAID Forward reforms.
USAID is committed to working with local actors and is tailoring its approach to doing business accordingly. The Agency’s Local Solutions initiative will focus on the following:
• Convening USAID partners from across local organizations, such as governments, civil society, the private sector, donors, and implementing resource partners, to identify development challenges;
• Connecting these stakeholders with innovative products, processes, or policies to address these challenges; and
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• Contextualizing and scaling up these solutions within local systems
By doing the above, the Agency will support sustainable development results and allow cooperative and mutually accountable relationships to grow. These relationships between USAID and partner country stakeholders are critical to the development of resilient societies that can deliver results to their citizens.
The Agency collaborates with local stakeholders by investing in in-country projects and programs through its procurement process. Given the important role that procurement plays in enabling USAID to carry out its mission around the world, it is critical that the Agency’s acquisition and assistance processes operate efficiently and effectively to achieve the Agency’s development objectives. In FY 2009, the average time for USAID to award a contract originating in Washington was 513 calendar days. This delay in PALT for awarding contracts resulted in a delay in program implementation. Therefore, reducing the time it takes to make an award is a critical priority for the Agency.
By expanding opportunities for U.S. small businesses, the Agency energizes the U.S. economy and leverage a greater diversity of experience and expertise in the Agency’s development objectives. U.S. small businesses make up a majority of U.S. businesses, and USAID partners with these businesses to increase innovation and provide new approaches to the Agency’s programs.
Performance Goal Progress Update
The Agency continues to strive to improve the way it does business, modernizing the way it does development and enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. USAID’s indicators for this performance goal provide a snap shot of these processes as they relate to procurement reform.
In order to reduce PALT by 40 percent by the end of FY 2017, in FY 2015 USAID continued to institute a number of changes and best practices to manage PALT better. This includes: 1) creating and using more acquisition and assistance templates; 2) sequestering technical evaluation panels; 3) engaging procurement staff early in the planning process; 4) utilizing collaborative technology; and 5) reducing the complexity and number of evaluation criteria. In addition, USAID developed an innovative, cross-functional approach to manage the acquisition process for large Global Health (GH) supply chain awards. As a result, the Agency reduced the average PALT for the four GH supply chain awards to an average of 387 calendar days, which is a 25 percent reduction from the 2009 baseline. The FY 2015 three-year average PALT for Washington Acquisition was 456 calendar days. This is an 11 percent reduction compared to the FY 2009 baseline of 513 calendar days. USAID has undertaken a number of measures and adopted various best practices to reduce PALT, but are only now realizing their impacts. The Agency remains committed to achieving the 40 percent reduction, but believes it will not be realized until FY 2017.
USAID also focuses on increasing transparency and accountability for its awards. The Administrator reviews and clears all non-emergency awards worth $75 million or greater. In FY 2015, the Administrator approved 30 awards worth nearly $18 billion, 73 percent of which were acquisitions. In FY 2014, the Administrator approved 27 awards worth approximately $8.9 billion, 73 percent of which were acquisitions.
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USAID has made tremendous progress completing its contractor performance assessment reports (CPARS), increasing from 11 percent in FY 2012 to 82 percent by the end of FY 2015. Over the past three fiscal years, USAID has made substantial efforts to meet the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) ambitious CPARS target of 100 percent by the end of FY 2015. The Agency considers past performance reporting a top priority and works closely with Agency bureaus, missions, and independent offices to ensure completion. Despite this focus, some of the factors that contributed to USAID not meeting the target include: 1) A persistent backlog of assessments for older awards; and 2) Competing demands on the contracting workforce during FY 2015 quarter four, the busiest time for Contracting Officers.
Last year, USAID surpassed its target for obligating prime contract acquisition dollars to U.S. small businesses worldwide. Because of this, the Agency increased the target from 9 percent to 10 percent for FY 2015. Based on prior years’ performance data, the majority of the obligation actions occur in the final quarter of the fiscal year. USAID obligated about 36 percent of total prime contract dollars and 45 percent of small business prime dollars in the last quarter of FY 2015. Comparatively, the Agency obligated 42 percent of total prime contract dollars and 62 percent of small business prime contract dollars during the fourth quarter of FY 2014. However, in FY 2015, USAID barely missed its target, achieving 9.3 percent. This was due to the fact that USAID obligated
$1 billion more overall in FY 2015 than FY 2014, while obligating a similar level of funds to U.S. small businesses.
USAID did not reach its Contracting Officer fill rate target of 94 percent by the end of FY 2015. However, the fill rate increased from 76 percent in FY 2015 quarter three to nearly 85 percent in quarter four. Normally, this rate declines during the final quarter of the fiscal year because many Foreign Service Officers transfer between missions and are not at their new posts yet or are in language training when USAID pulls the data. This contributed to USAID not meeting its quarterly target. The Agency expects its fill rate to recover in the first couple of quarters of FY 2016, as it has traditionally.
Key Indicator: Procurement Administrative Lead Time (PALT) for Washington Acquisitions in calendar days
FY 2014 FY 2015
Target 268 268
Result 517
456
Indicator Analysis
USAID has taken the following steps to promote procurement efficiency and effectiveness to help reach its target:
● Established a mentoring program for contracting professionals;
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● Provided monthly reports to USAID leadership to enable them to better hold staff accountable for compliance;
● Developed additional procurement trainings and templates;
● Instituted an accountability review for complex awards;
● Continued to hire additional contracting personnel to effectively manage the procurement workload;
● Streamlined the number of PALT milestones in the Agency’s electronic procurement system, Global Acquisition and Assistance System (GLAAS);
● Instituted mandatory scanning and storage of all award documentation in the Agency Secure Image and Storage Tracking system for immediate, worldwide access;
● Required milestone plans as part of the submissions to the Contract Review Board for awards $25 million and above; and
● Streamlined procurement planning.
Indicator Methodology
USAID calculates PALT using data from GLAAS, and the memoranda of negotiation (hard copy) for each award.
The Agency averages the number of calendar days for each award, then submits the full milestone plan and dates to the Bureau for Management for review, which provides a final quality check and approves the calculations.
USAID includes only full and open acquisition awards based in Washington worth $25 million or above in the PALT indicator. These awards are the most complex and tend to take a longer period of time to complete. The sample pool is small; consequently, PALT can vary widely from year to year. To adjust for these variations, USAID reports a three-year average for each year.
Key Indicator: Percentage of mission program funds implemented through local systems
FY 2014 FY 2015
Target USAID does not establish public interim targets
30%
Result 16.9% Data is not available for this
reporting cycle
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Indicator Analysis
USAID partners directly with local governments, the private sector, civil society, and academia to ensure that local systems own, resource, and sustain the development results in which it invests. The global average of mission funds programmed through local systems increased from 9.6 percent in FY 2010 to 16.9 percent in FY 2014. The Agency's leveling on this metric is a result of a decrease in the overall levels of direct obligations in Afghanistan and the limited absorptive capacity of local governments in Pakistan. Excluding these countries, USAID continues to increase direct obligations from 12.3 percent in FY 2013 to 14.8 percent in FY 2014. Since 2010, the amount of funding has been doubled from $381 million to $862 million in FY 2014 provided to local civil society and private sector organizations.
FY 2015 data for this indicator will be available in May 2016.
Indicator Methodology
USAID collects data for this indicator using Phoenix, the Agency’s corporate financial management system.
USAID collects data from a consistent set of 79 missions overseas. Missions, regional bureaus, and Local Solutions subject matter experts subsequently review and verify the data.
Key Indicator: Percent of contractor performance assessment reports (CPARS) completed in Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS)
FY 2014 FY 2015
Target 80% 100%
Result 59% 82%
Indicator Analysis
Performance evaluations are important both for USAID as well as for partnering organizations. For the Agency, these evaluations serve as a means of identifying high-quality contractors prior to making awards and also holding contractors accountable to contract requirements once work has begun. For partners, past
performance evaluations serve as an incentive to meet and even exceed expectations as excellent performance usually attracts future business opportunities. These evaluations can also lead to improved communication and business relations throughout the duration of an award.
Bringing contractor performance reports current makes the vendor selection process more efficient, thus reducing the time to make an award. In FY 2015, USAID took the following steps to improve its compliance rate:
● Communicating with mission directors and senior leaders in Washington quarterly on past performance progress;
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● Publishing new best practices in its policy guidance which advises the contracting workforce to address past performance reporting in the post-award orientation meeting; regularly document contractor performance throughout the evaluation period; and provide contractors with appropriate and timely feedback during a given period of performance;
● Providing online CPARS training that educates staff on policies and regulations, past performance reporting workflow, and system navigation;
● Providing a CPARS workshop focused on writing contractor performance narratives;
● Updating CPARS guidance and templates;
● Instructing contracting personnel to keep a log of contractor performance for when an official assessment report is required, and entering these notes into CPARS on a quarterly basis;
● Providing “Focused Engagement Days” for global staff to devote all their attention to bringing all past performance reports current, and providing one-on-one technical support; and
● Providing monthly reports to Agency leadership to enable them to hold staff accountable for compliance.
The Agency continues to strive to increase CPARS to 100 percent.
Indicator Methodology
Contracting personnel are required to enter performance reports into CPARS when applicable for the contract.
USAID generates the CPARS compliance rate from PPIRS, and reports the figures to Agency leadership at least quarterly.
Key Indicator: Percent of prime contract acquisition dollars obligated to U.S. small businesses worldwide
FY 2014 FY 2015
Target 6.5% 10%
Result 12.1% 9.3%
Indicator Analysis
Small businesses play a critical role as USAID works to achieve its mission of ending extreme poverty and promoting resilient democratic societies. Since the very beginning of USAID Forward, the Agency has been actively supporting and engaging missions and regional bureaus in increasing partnerships with U.S.-based small
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businesses. In FY 2015, the Agency obligated 9.3 percent of prime contract acquisition dollars to U.S. small businesses worldwide, narrowly missing its annual goal of 10 percent.
Small business training and outreach events (both domestic and overseas) correlate to stronger performance on this indicator. The Agency also holds meetings with senior leadership to plan and discuss procurement awards to ensure that the Agency meets its needs in the most effective, economical, and timely manner possible. These meetings provide an opportunity to highlight small business use and identify opportunities to expand their use.
The Agency utilizes U.S. small businesses to build capacity of local organizations at some missions, and sees an opportunity to replicate this model in other countries in the future.
Indicator Methodology
USAID generates the data for this indicator from the Federal Procurement Data System. The Agency then aggregates the prime contract dollars of the U.S. small business acquisition dollars obligated in a fiscal year.
(These small businesses must be identified as a small business in GLAAS.) USAID then divides this number by its total worldwide prime contract acquisition dollar obligations.
Key Indicator: Percent of Office of Acquisition and Assistance (M/OAA) contracting officer series 1102 (Civil Service) and BS 93 (Foreign Service) positions filled
FY 2014 FY 2015
Target 91% 94%
Result 87.7% 84.6%
Indicator Analysis
The Contracting Officer fill rate peaked in FY 2015 quarter two, when it was 95 percent. The fill rate concluded FY 2015 at 84.6 percent, missing the target of 94 percent. This is due to several factors, the primary being many Foreign Service Officers (FSO) transfer missions during the summer months. Many FSOs are not at their new post yet, some are in language training, some new positions are unfilled, and some missions have staffing level changes.
The Agency continues to work hard to increase the Contracting Officer fill rate in FY 2016 by continuing the planning exercises that align staffing with priorities, including hiring additional Contracting Officers. Hiring additional staff in recent years has provided USAID with the necessary Contracting Officers to more effectively manage the workload and help reduce the amount of time it takes to make an award.
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Indicator Methodology
USAID calculates the Contracting Officer fill rate by dividing the number of filled positions by the total number of available positions. USAID tracks the Contracting Officer fill rate by referencing monthly Agency staffing
patterns. USAID’s Office of Human Capital and Talent Management maintains the staffing pattern for Civil Service (1102). USAID’s procurement office updates its staffing pattern for Foreign Service contracting officers (BS-93), which is more complicated due to consistent movement of Foreign Service Officers.