2. Procurement Rules and Practices

Burdensome Ordering Procedures for BPAs

Issue: The overly complex, burdensome ordering procedures for the establishment of Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) under the GSA Schedules program. Specifically the preference for multiple award BPAs over single award BPAs.

 

The strong preference of multiple award BPAs undermines the ability of customer agencies to achieve best value outcomes using the GSA Schedules program. It essentially limits the tools in the tool box for agencies that have specific requirements that would lend themselves to competition and award of a single BPA. Single award BPAs provide agencies with an effective tool to further leverage requirements. In contrast, generic, multiple award BPAs create vertical contract duplication (Level 1-GSA Schedule contract; Level 2 – Generic BPAs; and Level 3 – task order competitions. A great example of vertical contract duplication is the Managed Print Services FSSI BPAs.

 

Recommendation: The FAR should be revised to put single award BPAs on par with multiple award BPAs to the extent competition of specific, recurring requirements is the focus of the competition.

 

Generic multiple award BPAs should be limited to the maximum extent practicable. Customer agencies should utilize the GSA Schedule contracts as the platform for task order competitions---in essence agencies s go from Level 1 – GSA Schedule directly to Level 3 –task order competition.

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Voting

45 votes
Idea No. 38