micropurchase | The Contracting Education Academy

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/

July 26, 2018 By AMK

The rise of the microconsultants

One of the first — and even more than two decades later, still one of the most important — changes during the procurement reform era of the 1990s was the introduction of a “micropurchase” authority in the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1995.

In the background was the desire to allow program customers the ability to use a government credit card to make very small purchases directly, without the significant extra time (think of the purchase order request landing at the bottom of the contracting person’s in-box) and administrative cost that come with working through the contracting office.

An interesting backstory to this statutory change was the role of a young contract specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services named Michelle Craddock in helping develop the administration’s legislative proposal on this. Even before the 1995 law, the government could make purchases under $2,500 without going through a competition. Having just arrived in Washington in 1993 to become administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, I was tasked with trying to find out if there were any statutory barriers to using a credit card for under-$2,500 purchases. On a learning tour of contracting offices to prepare me for my job as a Washington outsider awaiting Senate confirmation, Craddock was one of the contracting people I met in a visit set up by the HHS senior procurement executive.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/blogs/lectern/2018/07/kelman-microconsulting.aspx

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.

One of the first — and even more than two decades later, still one of the most important — changes during the procurement reform era of the 1990s was the introduction of a “micropurchase” authority in the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1995.

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