micropurchase | The Contracting Education Academy

January 15, 2020 By cs

GSA reissues e-commerce platform solicitation with significant changes

After an extended bid period and a short-lived protest, the General Services Administration (GSA) has re-released the request for proposals for an e-commerce platform with some significant changes.

However, vendors that didn’t bid on the original proposal won’t get another chance this time around.

The government buyers at GSA want federal employees to be able to purchase standard goods through a digital platform, similar to e-commerce platforms like Amazon. For the last few years, the agency has been working on a solicitation for just such a platform and released an RFP in October for “online e-marketplace platforms [that] feature multiple suppliers offering the same product and will allow buyers to decide which supplier/product combination meets their needs.”

The first instance of this platform will be a three-year, multiple-award pilot to test the marketplace idea. Once up and running, agencies will be able to purchase products directly through the portal for any transactions under the micropurchase threshold of $10,000.

After bids were submitted in mid-November, GSA received a protest of the solicitation, prompting the agency to pull it back and rework the RFP. The agency reissued the solicitation on Jan. 8, with revised bids due Jan. 15.

The revised solicitation includes several changes. The most important is the insertion of language in two places requiring bidders to provide a full, working solution rather than one developed in conjunction with GSA.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/01/gsa-reissues-e-commerce-platform-solicitation-significant-changes/162374/

October 23, 2019 By cs

How GSA plans to capture $6 billion in under-the-radar spending

The General Services Administration (GSA) plans to see if micro-purchasing innovation makes a big difference in agency acquisition.

Each year, federal agencies spend billions of dollars collectively making purchases using their federal government purchase cards or other micro-purchase methods, which receive little notice on a governmentwide scale when compared with higher-value contracts.

GSA is currently looking for a way to change that, by offering an e-marketplace platform that not only allows agencies to more easily search for and make those smaller-cost purchases, but also gives GSA and user agencies better data about how their spending stacks up.

At the beginning of October, GSA released its request for proposals for a proof-of-concept of the program, which will kick off a three-year maximum test to see whether a government-organized e-marketplace is more valuable than agencies simply making these purchases on their own, as they do now.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/acquisition/2019/10/18/how-gsa-plans-to-capture-6b-in-under-the-radar-spending/

November 19, 2018 By AMK

How contracting officers want to use the new micropurchase threshold

Steve Kelman’s recent talk with feds reinforced his view that a $10,000 micropurchase limit opens up vast new acquisition possibilities.

Recently I did a webinar at the request of the General Services Administration’s Acquisition Gateway for professional services, as part of their Spotlight training series, on the new micropurchase threshold. As I have blogged before, the threshold has been raised to $10,000 for civilian agencies and, through a strange anomaly that hopefully will be corrected soon, to $6,000 for the Department of Defense.

This change will allow agencies to make procurements of up to $10,000 without (if they choose) competitively soliciting or evaluating proposals, though some of the agencies that have started using the authority have chosen to develop one-page requirements statements and solicit one-page competitive proposal. Regulations implementing this change are unfortunately not out yet, but a number of agencies — including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security and GSA itself — have received class deviations to introduce the change now. However, the GSA class deviation applies only to GSA’s own purchases, not more broadly for any purchases using GSA vehicles.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/blogs/lectern/2018/11/kelman-micropurchase-ideas.aspx

September 10, 2018 By AMK

DoD’s micropurchase threshold just increased to $10,000

The Department of Defense has issued a class deviation raising the micro-purchase threshold to $10,000, effective immediately.

The increase implements Section 821 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed into law last month.

The memo explains that there are a few exceptions to the standard $10,000 threshold.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/statutes-and-regulations/dod-increases-micro-purchase-threshold-to-10000-effective-immediately/

To see a handy table of current purchasing thresholds, click here: Purchasing Thresholds – September 2018

August 10, 2018 By AMK

Death knell for using LPTA for services and other acquisition highlights in the NDAA

Every year the Defense Authorization bill is filled with golden nuggets of little noticed provisions that make a big impact on the federal acquisition community.

This year they range from a strong focus on making it easier for agencies to buy commercial items to mixed messages around the use of other transaction agreements to the ever increasing concerns about too many bid protests.

This is, by far, not a comprehensive list, but several that most federal and contractor employees interested in acquisition should know about.

The House passed the NDAA on July 26. The Senate is expected to take up the bill next week. House and Senate conferees agreed to the bill on July 23, clearing the way to passage.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2018/07/the-death-knell-for-using-lpta-for-services-and-other-acquisition-highlights-in-the-ndaa/

After an extended bid period and a short-lived protest, the General Services Administration (GSA) has re-released the request for proposals for an e-commerce platform with some significant changes.

The General Services Administration (GSA) plans to see if micro-purchasing innovation makes a big difference in agency acquisition.

Steve Kelman’s recent talk with feds reinforced his view that a $10,000 micropurchase limit opens up vast new acquisition possibilities.

The Department of Defense has issued a class deviation raising the micro-purchase threshold to $10,000, effective immediately.

Every year the Defense Authorization bill is filled with golden nuggets of little noticed provisions that make a big impact on the federal acquisition community.

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