On this edition of On DoD: a deep dive on other transaction agreements.   According to the Federal Procurement Data System DoD’s use of OTAs has skyrocketed from 342 agreements worth $1.4 billion in 2016 to 3,200 agreements worth more than $16 billion in 2020. Despite that growth, the rules governing OTAs – what few rules there are – aren’t universally understood even inside the department’s own acquisition bureaucracy.   To help demystify OTAs, we’re joined by Hallie Balkin, one of DoD’s leading experts on OTAs. She is a government procurement attorney who currently works at Defense Acquisition University, where she’s the learning director for other transactions. Balkin is also involved in an effort with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to update and reissue DoD’s Other Transactions Guide.