2. Procurement Rules and Practices
Issue: Contract Duplication. Across the federal enterprise there has been an explosion in the number of multiple award IDIQ contracts for the same or similar services. Contract duplication increases bid and proposal and administrative costs for customer agencies and contractors. Contractors are compelled to compete for contracts for fear of being locked out of a market. At the same time there are many IDIQ contracts ...more »
2. Procurement Rules and Practices
Issue: Failure to incorporate/utilize FAR 52.212-4, Alternate I in Multiple Award Schedule contracts. This gap in the MAS program limits competition, increases costs, fosters contract duplication and reduces efficiency. FAR 52.121-4, Alternate I provides the contract mechanism/procedures for including Materials, Other Direct Costs and Indirect Costs in commercial item contracts. The failure to utilize this FAR-based ...more »
2. Procurement Rules and Practices
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 the ...more »
2. Procurement Rules and Practices
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 ...more »
2. Procurement Rules and Practices
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 »
2. Procurement Rules and Practices
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 complexity, ...more »
2. Procurement Rules and Practices
The dollar cost involved in the production of a proposal has already been broken down in other Ideas. I would like to add the human cost to the mix. It seems to be standard practice for solicitations to be released right before the Acquisition Office leaves for the week or season. It is common for Industry to receive a solicitation on a Friday afternoon, or a couple of days before a major holiday (this seems especially ...more »
2. Procurement Rules and Practices
GSA needs to have a single senior manager to advance the Schedules Program. This +30Billion dollar program needs to be updated to allow significant taxpayer savings and eliminate contract duplication.There is no one in charge of this multi-billion dollar commercial services and products program.
2. Procurement Rules and Practices
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 the mandatory ...more »
2. Procurement Rules and Practices
If a member of the Chief Acquisition Officers Council has never participated with a contractor in developing a formal proposal in response to a Federal solicitation, each is encouraged to engage one of the Agency contractor’s and ask to observe the (painful and expensive) processes industry goes through to respond to a Federal solicitation, particularly a high dollar value procurement involving submission of a complex ...more »
2. Procurement Rules and Practices
Rather than continually develop more government unique rules and regulations, encourage the use of commercial business practices and standards in procurement/acquisition. Why? Creates opportunity for government to benefit from innovations, technologies and services found in the broad marketplace. Lowers the cost of doing business with the government for companies. Allows quicker incorporation of latest technologies ...more »
2. Procurement Rules and Practices
As a small business, we had a gap of 4 months just for an office to exercise an option on our IDIQ. Despite our requests, it was not clear who was responsible for each step in the process and where things fell down. Revealing the steps, person responsible and due dates will prevent small businesses from suffering when government people don't do their job. Somehow, government acquisition people need to be held accountable. ...more »