The use of reverse auctions by agencies is on the rise, but the Government Accountability Office is concerned that many agencies simply aren’t aware of the fees they’re paying to use auction tools, said Michelle Mackin, GAO’s director of acquisition and sourcing management.
For example, FedBid, a Vienna, Va.-based company that offers the most popular tool, charges a fee of 3 percent of the winning contract, not to exceed $10,000, Mackin said Dec. 11 during a joint hearing of the House Small Business subcommittee on contracting and workforce, and the Committee on Veterans Affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
“We were, frankly, a bit surprised to learn that agencies didn’t know how much they were paying FedBid in fees. They didn’t know how much duplicative fees–for lack of a better word–they were paying when they were using a schedule contract, for example, for a reverse auction,” said Mackin.
Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/many-agencies-unaware-fees-incurred-reverse-auctions-says-gao-official/2013-12-12
