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GSA preparing switch to e-signature for Multiple Award Schedule offers and mods

Contract holders will also see new security measures being implemented in the near future for eOffer and eMod.

In less than one month, contract holders on the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedule will be able to sign offers and contract modifications digitally using DocuSign. The move will come ahead of more changes that will bring additional security to two contract management portals.

On November 30, GSA will be turning on the ability to electronically sign documents in eOffer and eMod, which will become the standard method going forward. But the transition means contract holders need to prepare.

“This change to DocuSign aligns with GSA’s overall IT modernization efforts to support security and provide a solution that is legally recognized internationally,” GSA officials wrote in a post on Interact.

The post notes there will be some downtime during the transition, meaning vendors will “not be able to submit new offers and requests for modifications in eOffer and eMod” from November 25 through 29. That said, vendors will still be able to start the process for new offers and modifications—just not submit them—and will be able to work on tasks already in process.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/10/gsa-preparing-switch-esignature-multiple-award-schedule-offers-and-modifications/169653/

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Administration adds 16 months to transition from DUNS to Unique ID

The General Services Administration will extend Dun & Bradstreet’s services while agencies get more time to patch and test systems. 

GSA pushed the deadline for adopting a new identifier for non-governmental organizations receiving funds from the government, giving federal agencies and contractors another 16 months to patch and test their systems.

The government is shifting from the DUNS number — the unique identifier for every organization doing business with the government since 1962 — to the Unique Entity Identifier. Agencies were originally expected to make the switch by December 2020 but have been given an extension to April 2022.

However, federal officials tell Nextgov the deadline extension will only help if agencies and organizations are able to use DUNS and UEI numbers at the same time during a testing period, which might be possible under the revised timeline.

Procurement, grants and financial reporting executives across the government were scrambling to meet the December 2020 deadline to turn off an almost 60-year standard for identifying organizations doing business with the government and switch to a brand new system introduced last year.

“This is a pretty unique business problem,” an agency official working through the transition told Nextgov. “This is not just large-scale system modernization. This is the most interdependent thing about doing business between the federal government and a non-federal entity—it’s at the heart of it.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/analytics-data/2020/10/administration-adds-16-months-transition-duns-unique-id/169636/

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GSA, DoD try again to get multi-billion dollar cloud contract up and running

More than a year after the initial award, the General Services Administration and the Defense Department chose the same contractor for the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS) contract.

GSA announced it again picked the team led by CSRA LLC, now known as General Dynamics-IT, for the 10-year, $4.4 billion blanket purchase agreement. The initial award back in August 2019 was estimated to be worth between $7.6 billion and $12.6 billion. It is unclear why the estimate of the BPA changed.  GSA declined to comment about the award until after the 10-day protest period.

GD-IT, which also runs the MilCloud 2.0 platform, is teaming with Dell Marketing L.P. and Minburn Technology Group LLC.

“DEOS is a key part of the department’s Digital Modernization Strategy and its fit-for-purpose cloud offering will streamline our use of cloud email and collaborative tools while enhancing cybersecurity and information sharing based on standardized needs and market offerings,” said Dana Deasy, the DoD chief information officer, in a statement. “The last six months have put enormous pressure on the department to move faster with cloud adoption. All across the department there are demand signals for enterprisewide collaboration and ubiquitous access to information.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contractsawards/2020/10/gsa-dod-try-again-to-get-multi-billion-dollar-cloud-contract-up-and-running/

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Former GSA contract specialist sentenced to prison for accepting bribes

A former government contract officer with the General Services Administration (GSA), was sentenced last week to a 21-month prison term on a federal bribery charge stemming from a scheme in which he accepted bribes from government contractors during a six-year period. 

Ronnie Simpkins of Maryland pled guilty to the charge in December of last year.

According to the government’s evidence, from 1989 until May 2019, Simpkins was employed by GSA as a Contract Specialist in procurement related positions, and between August 2013 and May 2019.  From February 2010 to August 2017, Simpkins was assigned to a sub-division of the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) which oversees the administration of GSA Schedule 70 contracts. “Schedules” are long-term government-wide contracts with commercial companies that provide access to commercial products and services at fair and reasonable prices to the government. “Schedule 70 contracts” provide IT solutions, services, and software to federal, state, and local customer agencies. GSA pre-negotiates the vendors’ pricing, terms, and conditions, to streamline the acquisition process while at the same time providing the best value to the end user agency.

According to court papers, Company A, a Northern Virginia corporation, held a GSA Schedule contract, which it actively advertised to prospective federal agency customers.  To maintain its GSA Schedule contract, Company A was required to have annual sales in excess of $25,000 — a requirement that could be waived by GSA’s administrative contracting officer.  Company A was also required to pay an Industrial Funding Fee (IFF) of 0.75% of all its Schedule sales.  Dating back to 2006, Company A maintained its GSA Schedule contract despite reporting no sales and not paying any IFFs since 2006.  Simpkins oversaw the contract dating back to 2009.

Simpkins admitted that, for approximately six years between 2011 and 2017, he accepted cash, meals, and furniture from two Company A officials to use his position to help Company A maintain its GSA Schedule contract.  Simpkins admitted to meeting the Company A officials over a dozen times at various restaurants in Northern Virginia, the Company A officials’ residences, and other places, often outside of normal GSA business hours and on weekends.  At these meetings, the Company A officials treated Simpkins to meals and gave him cash totaling “thousands of dollars into the teens.”  In July 2016, Simpkins accepted more than $2,000 worth of furniture paid for by the officials.  Simpkins admitted to taking more than $12,000 in cash and furniture from the Company A officials.

Simpkins admitted to using his GSA position to help Company A in exchange for these payments.  Specifically, Simpkins recommended and signed Company A’s contracts with GSA, even though Company A:

  • failed to meet program requirements,
  • deliberately neglected to notify GSA, as he was obligated to do, when Company A’s contract under his supervision no longer met program requirements, and
  • advised Company A about ways to avoid contract cancellation despite failing to meet GSA’s program requirements.

United States District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, who presided over the case, sentenced Simpkins to 21 months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release.  The Court also imposed a $10,000 fine and ordered Simpkins to forfeit $12,108.91.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office Criminal Division and the GSA’s Office of Inspector General, and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/former-federal-government-contract-officer-sentenced-prison-accepting-bribes

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IG finds ‘significant inaccuracies’ in Federal Acquisition Service’s reporting of small business contracts

This resulted from issues with the GSA-managed federal procurement data system. 

There have been “significant inaccuracies” in the Federal Acquisition Service’s reporting of small business contracts, a watchdog reported earlier this week.

The General Service Administration inspector general has issued a report that looked at the data GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service entered into the Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation, which is managed by GSA. The Small Business Administration uses that system to assess if the federal government achieves its overall annual goal of awarding 23% of contracts to small businesses. Based on its review of Federal Acquisition Service procurements from fiscal 2016 and 2017 (that totaled $3.7 billion), the IG identified issues that led to overstating of small businesses procurements.

“We found that FAS’s reporting of small business procurements contained significant inaccuracies. We identified $89 million in procurements erroneously recorded as small business in [the Federal Procurement Data System–Next Generation],” said the IG. “In addition, FAS’ small business procurement reporting does not identify the extent of the work performed by large businesses. We found approximately $120 million of small business procurements in which large businesses performed a portion of the work.”

The IG reviewed the agency’s contracting data and internal policies as well as interviewed GSA officials and small business contractors, for its audit that was conducted from June 2018 to June 2019. While the report was about FAS, the IG found the issues were, in some ways, out the agency’s control.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/analytics-data/2020/09/ig-finds-significant-inaccuracies-federal-acquisition-services-reporting-small-business-contracts/168602/

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