GSA | The Contracting Education Academy

June 23, 2020 By cs

GSA awards $7.5 million contract-writing system pilot as procurement modernization continues

The General Services Administration (GSA) took its first step toward launching a modernized agency-wide contract-writing system by awarding Sevatec a $7.5 million pilot phase task order.

Dubbed the Contract Acquisition Life-cycle Management (CALM) system, it will consolidate and standardize the Federal Acquisition Service‘s many internal processes and systems accounting for $60 billion in goods and services procured governmentwide annually.

CALM will also streamline suppliers’ ability to submit offers and manage contracts they’re awarded.

“CALM marks the beginning of a new era in agency-wide, end-to-end contract management and administration,” said Judith Zawatsky, assistant commissioner of the Office of Systems Management within FAS, in the announcement. “Our goal with CALM is to provide a comprehensive, flexible, scalable and highly configurable solution for all types of contract actions, from the simplest to the most complex.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/gsa-contract-writing-system-pilot/

June 15, 2020 By cs

GSA to take corrective action again on DoD’s $7.6 billion cloud contract

The Defense Department’s $7.6 billion cloud email and collaboration contract continues to be hung up by protests nearly 10 months after the initial award.

The General Services Administration (GSA) told the Government Accountability Office (GAO) it would take corrective action for a second time on the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS). GAO dismissed the latest protest from Perspecta on June 8.

GSA told GAO it will amend the solicitation, ask for revised proposals, and take other steps to address the pre-award complaint.

Under DEOS, the Pentagon wants to implement Microsoft Office 365 and associated capabilities including word processing and spreadsheets, email, collaboration, file sharing and storage.

This was the second time Perspecta filed a complaint with GAO after GSA awarded DEOS to General Dynamics-IT in August.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contractsawards/2020/06/gsa-to-take-corrective-action-again-on-dods-7-6b-cloud-contract/

June 3, 2020 By cs

The current approach to awarding big multiple-award contracts is broken — here’s how to fix it

It’s been awhile since I’ve jumped back on my soap box, but after the latest news of protests delaying yet another large multiple award, governmentwide contract, it’s time to bring back the call for competition at the task order level.

The General Services Administration’s Second Generation IT (2GIT) services is facing four new bid protests making 13 overall since the agency launched the effort more than a year ago.

At the same time, GSA is facing more pressure to make a decision about the Alliant 2 small business vehicle that has been on hold for more than a year and in the works for almost five years. GSA officials have said multiple times over the past few weeks that a new information about Alliant 2 small business would be forthcoming “soon,” which in government talk means anywhere from one day to six months.

These are just two of latest examples of why large multiple award contracts should just make getting on the vehicle as easy as possible and then let the real competition happen at the task order level.

Instead, agencies are dragged down by an acquisition model that is well past its prime and no longer meets the needs of today’s marketplace for many reasons.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2020/05/the-current-approach-to-awarding-big-multiple-award-contracts-is-broken-heres-how-to-fix-it/

June 2, 2020 By cs

GSA terminates McKinsey & Co.’s schedule contract

The General Services Administration has terminated the multiple award schedule contract of McKinsey and Company.

The company and the agency’s inspector general confirmed GSA’s decision in separate emails to Federal News Network.

The decision comes 10 months after a critical inspector general report found McKinsey’s prices were 10% higher than originally proposed, meaning the government paid as much as $65 million in additional costs.

The IG recommended at the time to cancel McKinsey’s schedule contract in part because they didn’t cooperate with the pre-award audit.

“We are disappointed with the GSA’s decision, and that a GSA schedule is not available to our clients at this time,” a McKinsey spokesman said in an email statement. “We attempted to negotiate in good faith and disagree with the GSA’s evaluation. We will nevertheless continue to serve the public sector in the United States.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition-policy/2020/05/gsa-terminates-mckinsey-co-s-schedule-contract/

May 29, 2020 By cs

The White House is rewriting contracting language to clarify security liability

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans to standardize language in all government contracts with cloud vendors that would update liability terms regarding security, according to the official in charge of leading federal agencies’ move to the shared-responsibility ecosystems.

**Technology vendors precluding liability in government contracts has long been an issue, and now COVID-19 has sped up some agencies’ cloud migration and amplified calls for cybersecurity assurances.**

“I think there is a need to update our [service level agreements] with the cloud providers and we’re actively working on that within [the General Services Administration],” Thomas Santucci, the director of the Data Center and Cloud Optimization Infrastructure Program Management Office at GSA, said.

Santucci provided a status report on the government’s efforts to improve efficiency and lower costs by moving to the cloud during a virtual conference the Digital Government Institute hosted today.

“OMB has just stood up a [program management office] to work on a cloud SLA template for the federal government to be attached to every contract,” Santucci said when asked about the liability issue and whether cloud service providers or government customers should be held responsible for security.

Security was one of the topics mentioned in establishing the new contract templates, he said.

Keep reading thi9s article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/05/white-house-rewriting-contracting-language-clarify-security-liability/165549/

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized. Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

The General Services Administration (GSA) took its first step toward launching a modernized agency-wide contract-writing system by awarding Sevatec a $7.5 million pilot phase task order.

The Defense Department’s $7.6 billion cloud email and collaboration contract continues to be hung up by protests nearly 10 months after the initial award.

It’s been awhile since I’ve jumped back on my soap box, but after the latest news of protests delaying yet another large multiple award, governmentwide contract, it’s time to bring back the call for competition at the task order level.

The General Services Administration has terminated the multiple award schedule contract of McKinsey and Company.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans to standardize language in all government contracts with cloud vendors that would update liability terms regarding security, according to the official in charge of leading federal agencies’ move to the shared-responsibility ecosystems.

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