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Tag: GSA

Strike Force vs. Collusion

The Justice Department has created a new interagency partnership to battle procurement and antitrust crimes, the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF). The PCSF is comprised of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, multiple U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Inspectors General for multiple Federal agencies. (Justice.gov)

The PCSF will “deter, detect, investigate and prosecute antitrust crimes and related criminal schemes,” according to Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim. He feels many open investigations are related to procurement crimes. Last year alone, the federal government spent almost $500 billion on contracts for goods and services. The overcharge stemming from illegal actions can be significant not only to the government but to all taxpayers as well.  (Government Executive, November 5, 2019)

Bid-rigging is alive and real. According to the Justice Department, earlier this year five Korean oil companies were prosecuted for bid-rigging contracts to provide fuel to U.S. military bases. The PCSF uses data analytics to identify occurrences of procurement collusion. The website has a complaint form, training materials, and legal resources for anyone who believes they have witnessed suspicious activity. (ibid)

Questions about the new interagency partnership? Give us a call.

Modernizing and Funding IT

GSA will continue IT modernization through the new fiscal year, according to Suzette Kent, Federal Chief Information Officer, and Emily Murphy, GSA Administrator. (Federal Times, October 21, 2019)

While Kent and Murphy were speaking at the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Imagine Nation conference, the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), announced $8 million of funding to be made available for the Department of Agriculture and $4 million for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). (TMF provides funding to agencies for IT projects.) TMF recently granted GSA $20 million for its New Pay HR system.

The EEOC will implement a Cloud-based charge and case management system while the Agriculture project will replace an outdated, manual IT system used for food inspection and certification. Both of these systems have thousands of touch points around the country. The Office of Management and Budget has said both agencies will leverage modern commercial capabilities to move their digital modifications. (ibid)

Interested in the upcoming GSA RFQ or DoA or EEOC opportunities? Give us a call.

Update on GSA’s Schedule Consolidation

Stephanie Shutt, who is spearheading the GSA Schedule consolidation, recently spoke about the effort’s three phases. On October 1, GSA completed the first phase of the consolidation and released the new single solicitation. (Nextgov, October 9, 2019)

Phase one organizes the Multiple Award Schedule Consolidation into categories that correspond to OMB’s category management approach. This allowed GSA to work with a template instead of starting from nothing. During the Schedule review, duplicates were removed as were multiple versions of specific contract clauses. (ibid)

To date, the Schedules had been divided into service and supply subcategories or Special Item Numbers (SINs). Duplicate SINs were removed, about 600 in all. The new SINs structure is based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) which many agencies already use. (ibid)

Phase two, set to begin after the new year, will focus on existing contract holders completing a mass modification to update their base terms and conditions, which will ultimately moving most current holders to the new Schedule. Updates do not apply to negotiated elements of contracts, such as warranties or periods of performance. They will, however, impact the baseline terms and conditions. Vendors will also see a relocation of SINs and have the opportunity to select SINs that previously were across separate Schedules. Look for an advanced notice regarding mass modifications from GSA in early November. (ibid)

Phase three is slated to launch in July 2020. During this time, contracting officers will assist multiple Schedule holders with more than five years remaining on their contracts to consolidate into a single contract under the new Schedule. (ibid)

Shutt stressed that vendors with one contract under MAS or multiple contract holders that see completion within the next five years will have reviewed and completed the process by signing the “mass mod” during phase two. Phase three affects only contractors with multiple contracts, especially those with more than five years remaining on the contract. Those particular contractors will receive support directly from Shutt’s team to devise a plan to funnel all products and services down to one contract. (ibid)

Questions about how these phases might affect your current contract or a current bid? Give us a call.

GSA Updating their e-Market Portal

On October 1st, GSA issued a solicitation requesting proposals from e-marketplace portal providers. The solicitation is for the initial proof of concept of the Commercial Platforms program, part of the foundation of GSA’s Federal Marketplace Strategy (FMP) to simplify federal buying and selling and how federal agencies buy commercial off-the-shelf products. Proof of concept implementation is through partnerships with many commercial e-marketplace platform providers currently offering business-to-business capabilities. This gives federal agencies greater visibility into their online spending. (GSA.gov, October 2, 2019)

GSA Administrator Emily Murphy said, “As federal procurement continues to evolve, simplifying how we purchase basic commodities will allow agencies to focus more on work that directly serves their missions. Federal agencies spent approximately $260 million using online portals last year and it is critical that we use the Commercial Platforms program to better understand and manage this.” (ibid)

The proof of concept is GSA’s kickoff for changing the way federal agencies purchase commercial products via the open market, implementing the requirement of Section 846 in the FY 18 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Last year GSA conducted stakeholder outreach and market research to get a better understanding of the open market place. They determined to take small steps through an iterative program management approach to Commercial Platforms. (ibid)

Proposals are due by November 1, 2019, at 5 PM EST. (FedBizOpps.gov, October 1, 2019)

Are you wondering how the e-marketplace will affect your current contract? Do you provide B2B services in the private sector and have questions about the solicitation? Give us a call.