The Defense Information Systems Agency has started adopting the “other transaction authority†as a contracting method to facilitate the acquisition process and speed up the delivery of new technology platforms designed to meet warfighters’ requirements.
“Many of the companies we’re dealing with are small start-ups,†Scott Stewart, technical director at DISA’s procurement services directorate, said in a statement published Friday.
Stewart noted that OTA works to provide flexibility to agencies and give small businesses “an added level of comfort†when transacting with the government compared with the Federal Acquisition Regulation process.
Congress has introduced two changes to promote the use of OTA methodology: expanding the description of a prototype and broadening the definition of potential recipients of OTA-based contract awards.
DISA said it is using OTA for several projects and intends to use the method to establish the structure for next-generation applications in the current command-and-control battlespace.