The General Services Administration (GSA) has proposed revisions to the Federal Acquisition Regulation on use of reverse auctions by federal agencies, saying that while they have been in common practice for more than 20 years, their use has been inconsistent.
In reverse auctions, multiple vendors compete with one another to win a contract by lowering the offered price.
They generally are used for acquiring commercial products and most often result in the award of a fixed price contract valued less than $150,000 to a small business, a Federal Register notice says.
The notice says GAO reports in 2013 and 2018 found that:
“Confusion exists concerning a lack of documentation about reverse auction service provider fees and their application to federal contracts;
“There is a lack of sufficient data available for agencies to verify actual cost savings resulting from a reverse auction; and
“The potential benefits of reverse auctions are not being maximized, as many reverse auctions are resulting in the receipt of only one offer or a lack of interactive competition amongst offerors.”
Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedweek.com/federal-managers-daily-report/gsa-proposes-to-standardize-policies-on-reverse-auctions/
Someone called it a matter of breaking through the “institutional density” of an organization.
One rule imposes new risks for contractors with delinquent taxes or felony convictions. Other rules address small business concerns by providing new authority for women-owned small business sole source awards and amending the current policy against unnecessary or unjustified consolidation. Another confirms a previously imposed cap on allowable employee compensation and another may open up new sources of services and supplies in Ukraine and Moldova.
