The latest Other Transactions (OT) protest case highlights the critical need for education and training for participants involved in awarding these agreements. In this case, it appears that no party involved understood the Other Transactions for prototypes statute.
Also in this podcast episode we poke at the much venerated consortia model. The so-called consortia model does fulfill the DoD’s two favorite, but ultimately meaningless, metrics. They provide an easy way to obligate funding and improve time to contract, but this completely misses the purpose of the statutes. Using these arrangements as an ‘easy button’ is understandable and even an improvement, but given the purpose and potential of OTs, it is pretty lame. By the end of this episode we question if the current consortia model, created out of ignorance and replicated dozens of times, is even a legal structure, or is the whole model vulnerable?
It is time to get serious about Other Transactions education and training and dare to comprehend beyond the FAR.
Related articles:
Opening the Floodgates? COFC Hints at Broad Jurisdiction Over Prototype OTA Protests
OT Consortia: Vulnerable to Protest?