Public Architects Committee

The House Armed Services Committee reached out to the AIA looking for suggestions to make the federal procurement process run more smoothly and efficiently.  Their ultimate goals are to same time and money, while also preserving our standards for health, safety and welfare.  This is a unique opportunity to possibly impact legislation.  If you work on federal projects, please identify any current barriers, unnecessary hardships and suggestions for an improved process. 

For example, are there redundant paperwork requests, are the number of short listed firms growing too long, or are there processes in place that take too much time.  If you have examples, please offer them and be as specific as possible.  Please also note that this request is specifically for DOD projects, but we suspect additional inquiries for other government agencies, as well as state/local governments will come in, so make sure to indicate the specific sector/agency to which you are referring.  Thank you.

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Biljana Kaumaya
Manager, Federal Regulatory Relations
The American Institute of Architects
Washington DC
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One issue we have found very inefficient - and frustrating to our past clients - is the issue of PPQs (Past Performance Questionnaires).  Submittals/Responses are not archived, so for every submittal, we have to request them anew.  Since many of the projects are used repetitively for multiple submittals, the clients get perturbed at being asked over and over.  Not sure why USACE or NAVFAC can't archive these PPQs and "pull them" for a submittal.  There should be a methodology to allow the questionaairs can stay valide for a year or two. 
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Cory Miller AIA
Associate
Schenkel Shultz Architecture-Ft. Wayne
Fort Wayne IN
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