Open Dialogue on Improving How to Do Business with the Federal Government 1. Reporting and Compliance

When we have more than 5 Task Orders active at the same time, each task order requires monthly progress report and end of task report. These reports increase the administrative burden for both the contractor and the contracting agencies. Several agencies required same set of reports in terms of our general business qualifications, for example the Annual IT Risk Analysis and Security Reports. We have to repeatedly report ...more »

The government (and the taxpayer) could be best served if procurement officials modernize their processes for managing and tracking procurement data. Why ’reengineer paperwork’ when the trend is to go paperless? I get the point—I’m just being a bit whimsical. The meaning of the message really: How can we improve our processes, decisions, and trust if we don’t have a piece of paper validating what we are doing? There are ...more »

There needs to be more of an emphasis on Level 3 data. Currently government buyers may only be receiving reports on their organization’s spend that states X spent Y amount of money at Z store. Reports should really state that X spent Y amount of money at Z store on A, B, and C items. With this data in hand, CFOs could hold their teams more accountable for their decisions regarding the use of funds. Such data would ...more »

there are increased requirements for reporting and compliance that are not reimbursed by the Government but require contractors to develop tracking and reporting systems and have dedicated resources to maintaining the system and information for reporting. CDM is an excellent example of this.

Issue: Intellectual property rights as currently set forth in GSA Schedule contracts are unclear, cumbersome and unduly burdensome for contractors. The End User License Agreement (EULA) requirements remain unclear in IT Schedule 70. As such, each license agreement must be reviewed by the contracting officer and legal counsel. Recommendation: A basic set of terms should be developed that identify the key requirements ...more »

Issue: Restrictive experience requirements under the GSA Schedule program. For example, under IT Schedule 70 a company must have been in business for at least two years to be eligible for a contract. The GSA Schedule experience requirements limit access to new, innovation companies providing cutting edge technologies. It is an unnecessary barrier to entry to the federal market place. Recommendation: Eliminate ...more »

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 ...more »

Issue: Reform the MAS Pricing Policies. Specifically, eliminate the Price Reduction Clause (PRC), GSAR Clause 552.238-75. The current MAS pricing policies do not reflect current practices in the commercial market place. The pricing policies are inconsistent with the statutory and regulatory mandates for competition at the order level. The increased transactional and contract administration costs for compliance with ...more »

Issue: Extensive data collection requirements via the Federal Acquisition Regulation combined with an explosion in data reporting for agency specific procurement programs and the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI). These data reporting requirements are increasing costs and risks for contractors across the federal procurement enterprise. Costs that are ultimately borne by customer agencies through higher prices ...more »

Over the last decade, the number of laws, regulations and provisions that apply to commercial item have dramatically increased. For example, in 1996 under 52.212-5(b) there were 17 provisions of law or executive orders identified as applicable to commercial item contracts. In 2012, the number has climbed to 51. The resulting explosion of statutes and regulations applicable to commercial item contracting increases ...more »

Government reporting systems have a tendency to grow over time without an overall design or architecture. As a consequence they can quickly become an alphabet soup of acronyms, with indecpherable connections and frustratingly different methods and rules of entry and extraction. A good example of this is the confusing jumble of systems that make up the government's past performance/integrity system. Suggest that systems ...more »

FAR needs updated so that the contractor community does not have to submit numerous copies of forms such as an assignment of claims, novation agreement or change of name agreement. With going electronic, paperless, and electronic signatures, duplicate copies shouldn't be required.