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GSA Schedule contract

GSA’s New Rules!

GSA has issued a final rule amending the following parts of  the GSA Acquisition Regulation (GSAR):

  • Part 515, Contracting by Negotiation,
  • Part 538 Federal Supply Schedule Contracting
  • GSAR Part 552, Solicitation Provisions and Contract Clauses (GSA Interact, June 3, 2019)

The above changes were enacted to clarify, update, streamline and incorporate existing Federal Supply Schedule contract administration policies and procedures. The final rule became effective on May 23, 2019. (ibid)

Changes include the following:

  • deletion of 85 obsolete/duplicative clauses and provisions (see GSA Order ADP 29800.12B Change 100)
  • incorporation of 30 “new” clauses and provisions into GSAR.
  • reincorporation of four GSA Schedules program clauses and provisions (previously removed from GSAR in a rewrite) into GSAR.
  • updating 10 existing GSA Schedules program clauses and provisions to reflect current references and practices. (ibid)

The above changes will be part of GSA’s new Consolidated Schedule solicitation. More information to follow in the coming months.

If you have questions about the GSAR rule amendments will affect your contracts, give us a call at 301-913-5000.

 

Price Inconsistencies on Schedule 70? Nah…

GSA’s IG audit of GSA schedules in 2016 found large price discrepancies between identical items. For instance, the cost of one of Sharp’s 70-inch LED Smart TVs showed prices ranging from $1,597 to $3,000. The audit also turned up prices much lower on commercial products. In addition, from August 2014 to July 2015, most IT schedule purchases were for top-selling items priced higher than the lowest IT schedule price, completely defeating the purpose of the Schedules program. (Nextgov, May 21, 2019)

Recommendations to correct the disparities include:

  • Verify prices for identical IT schedule items by price analysis
  • Improve price protection for IT schedule reseller contracts by setting controls
  • Ensure contracting officers receive accurate and complete information around manufacturers’ commercial sales practices (ibid)

Per the review by the IG, the Federal Acquisition Service has taken “appropriate corrective actions” to address these price inconsistencies.

Questions about IT Schedule or other GSA Schedule pricing? Give us a call at 301-913-5000.

GSA’s New Cool Tool

GSA has launched the Contract Awarded Labor Category (CALC) tool to make it easier for agencies to determine hourly rates for various labor categories. CALC allows purchasers to analyize labor category pricing on more than 5,000 recent GSA contracts. The new tool will make it far easier for contracting officers to determine accurate labor rates while conducting market analysis. (Federal Times, May 14, 2019) 

CALC works by searching awarded prices on GSA’s professional services schedules, such as:

  • Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services (MOBIS)
  • Environmental
  • Logistics Worldwide (LOGWORLD)
  • Professional Engineering Schedule
  • Language
  • Advertising and Integrated Marketing Schedules (AIMS)
  • Consolidated Schedule (ibid)

CALC cannot yet compare labor categories to those already awarded showing where rates fall; however, future versions will likely include this capability.(ibid)

Questions about how your labor rates stack up against other vendors? Give us a call at 301-913-5000.

The Eagle (II) is Not Landing

DHS will not be recompeting their EAGLE II IT services contract when it expires in 2020. They are moving toward a strategy called EAGLE Next Gen, which allows them to rely on existing contracts in order to meet IT services needs. Agile development and special or niche mission needs will be met by smaller targeted contracts competed as necessary. (Nextgov, April 20, 2019)

The EAGLE Next Gen strategy is just that, a strategy whereby DHS would use already established governmentwide acquisition contracts or GWACs. These include:

  • the National Institutes of Health’s CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP3 Small Business
  • GSA’s Alliant 2, 8(a) STARS II
  • GSA’s VETS 2

When requirements cannot be met by this strategy, DHS will build in-house contracts.

So far, DHS is beginning to build an in-house contract for cloud and data center optimization. Over 100 responses were received from their initial RFI. Most likely, resulting RFPs will ultimately be the family of contracts under DHS Next Gen, and are expected in the Fall. (ibid)

Some Homeland Security components are still using EAGLE II to support their agile development. Work with each of the components is at various phases of the procurement process. Each component has different requirements; therefore procurements will be specialized to meet individual needs. (ibid)

The future procurement strategy is far from finalized. There may be full and open competition or a blanket purchase agreement using pre-vetted vendors.

Would you like to learn more about the EAGLE Next Gen strategy and where you might fit in? Give us a call at (301) 913-5000.

 

Couple of Specifics in 00Corp Refresh

The latest Refresh 34 of the Solicitation introduced some major changes in the requirements for the PSS (00CORP) schedule.

The Solicitation added a new Clause SCP-FSS-008 applicable only to offers under 00CORP. Below is directly from the Solicitation:

      1. Add new Provision SCP-FSS-008 Specific Proposal Submission Instructions for Schedule 00CORP – PSS. Provision SCP-FSS-002 no longer applies to offers submitted under 00CORP – PSS. SCP FSS-008 makes the following changes to proposal instruction requirements:
      2. Only one project experience is required per each SIN
      3. No project substitutions are allowed
      4. All training courses proposed must have training course descriptions; all products or ODCs must have descriptions
      5. All additional proposal instructions specific to PSS SINs are removed from the SIN descriptions and included in SCP-FSS-008.

We’ll continue looking into the changes, but call us in the mean time at 301-913-5000 if you have any questions.