Progress Report: OCon&PPM process improvements

Secretary Bunch offers an update on improvements to several administrative processes designed to simplify and streamline such things as purchasing agreements and vendor contracts.

Over the last year, units and individuals from across the Smithsonian have worked together to create more nimble administrative processes and procedures. Not only is this work an integral part of our strategic plan, but it also is of great benefit to our staff across the Institution.

In 2023, I asked Under Secretary for Administration Ron Cortez to work with Tom Dempsey, Director of the Office of Contracting and Personal Property Management (OCon&PPM), to find areas that would benefit from high-yield process enhancements. OCon&PPM prioritized several areas, such as addressing the complexities inherent in registering vendors in the Federal System for Award Management (SAM) for trust-funded purchases and increasing the micro-purchase threshold.

The OCon&PPM team is now expanding their focus to other areas where changes will better support Smithsonian’s needs and enhance the customer experience. This month, OCon&PPM implemented additional process improvements to increase efficiencies in the processing of contract actions. These improvements include:

• The release of several new templates that can be used at the unit level without the need for OCon&PPM review, such as contributor agreements and live performance agreements.
• Allowing the use of Smithsonian Purchase Cards for the purchase of collection items valued at less than $10,000 that do not require an associated license, including images, artifacts and other material without an associated license.
• Reducing the requirement for OCon&PPM review of purchases categorized as low risk—for example, hotel contracts and purchases under $25,000 that do not require IT security or privacy review.

In addition, OCon&PPM will continue to identify ways we can be more agile and responsive as an organization, including the improvement and automation of forms, offering online rather than in-person training opportunities and the roll-out of additional tools for the procurement community.

Thank you all for your ongoing work to pinpoint and address areas that can be improved as we build a more nimble Smithsonian. I look forward to seeing where these advancements take us and the strides we make as a community working together.

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