Schedules | The Contracting Education Academy

May 22, 2013 By AMK

GSA owes more than $3 million to small businesses

The General Services Administration has failed to fully pay 1,334 federal contractors, shorting them by more than $3 million since 2008, according to a House committee report released Thursday.

The amount may not be large, but lawmakers on the Republican-led House Small Business Committee emphasized the importance of such companies.

“Contracting with small businesses is good for the economy and it’s good for the taxpayer because small companies bring cost-savings to the federal government,” Sam Graves (R-Mo.), the committee chairman, said in a statement. “But when federal agencies don’t live up to their end of the bargain, small businesses are discouraged from competing and taxpayers lose the benefits of government efficiency.”

The agency did not fulfill a “guaranteed minimum payment” clause outlined in many of its contracts, the report said.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/exclusive-gsa-failed-to-pay-thousands-of-small-government-contractors-since-2008/2013/05/15/305c4422-bd93-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html

May 21, 2013 By AMK

MAS vendors don’t always provide accurate information or qualified labor, says GSA OIG

The General Services Administration still permits vendors that provide inaccurate commercial sales data and supply unqualified labor to remain on schedules contract vehicles, says the agency’s inspector general.

In the report, auditors say problems related to vendors providing accurate commercial sales practices and providing price justifications improved somewhat from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2011, but still remain a concern. The prevalence of unqualified labor rose in fiscal 2011.

While the prevalence of CSP issues dropped 14 percent from fiscal 2010, auditors still found that more than two-thirds of vendors in preaward audits during fiscal 2011 provided contracting officers with flawed CSP information that “adversely affected the contracting officers’ determination of fair and reasonable pricing for those contracts,” says the report.

Problems include instances when schedule contractors offered discounts at a level greater than they disclosed to GSA, auditors say.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/mas-vendors-dont-always-provide-accurate-information-or-qualified-labor-say/2013-03-11

April 22, 2013 By AMK

Focus of IG investigation now oversees GSA’s IT supply schedule program

An ongoing investigation by the Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general into contract steering and wasteful spending raises questions about a former OPM official who left the agency in September 2011 to oversee the General Services Administration’s biggest federal supply schedules program.

The probe found that top OPM officials steered consulting work to prominent human resources expert Stewart Liff, raising broader concerns about the overall procurement practices inside the agency’s human resources services division, according to an interim report by OPM Inspector General Patrick McFarland.

Investigators found that Liff was hired in 2010 and 2011 without competitive bidding through a “pass-through company,” with three task orders paid out on the contract totaling about $450,000.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20130416/ACQUISITION01/304160003/Focus-IG-investigation-now-oversees-GSA-8217-s-supply-schedule-program?odyssey=nav%7Chead

January 24, 2013 By AMK

GSA appoints Federal Acquisition Service chief

The Federal Acquisition Service, one of two divisions of the General Services Administration that courted trouble last year for overspending on conferences, has a new commissioner, GSA announced on Tuesday.

Thomas Sharpe, the senior procurement executive at the Treasury Department who has 30 years of public and private-sector acquisitions experience, will take over the FAS, according to an announcement by acting GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini, who also came from Treasury.

Sharpe’s position had been held on an acting basis by Mary Davie, following the September departure of Steven Kempf, who went on medical leave just as lawmakers began probing an FAS conference held in Arlington, Va. Thousands of dollars were spent on team-building exercises and props at the conference. Kempf has returned to GSA as a senior adviser on acquisition.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2013/01/gsa-appoints-federal-acquisition-service-chief/60808/?oref=govexec_today_nl.

October 2, 2012 By AMK

Challenges await GSA’s plan to cut agency contract fees

The General Services Administration, as part of its top-to-bottom review of its operations, is eying a cut in the fees it charges other agencies that use the pre-negotiated contracts in its multiple award schedules program. The move comes as the White House is considering directing agencies to take advantage of bulk buying through governmentwide strategic sourcing vehicles.

Acting GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini earlier in September told a Senate panel that “several fees assessed by the Federal Acquisition Service on purchases made by other agencies could be reduced below their current levels without a negative impact on the operations of FAS.”

He then announced a new interagency group to review and develop recommendations on the overall fee structure for contracts and services that FAS provides, including lower fees to help agencies reduce administrative costs.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2012/09/challenges-await-gsas-plan-cut-agency-contract-fees/58350/?oref=govexec_today_nl.

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