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GSA finally pushing price competition to where it belongs: At the task order level

Emily Murphy, the General Services Administration’s administrator, uttered her “famous” words during her nomination hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in October 2017: “We are trying to make sure GSA’s contracting officers and our policies support really vigorous competition at the task order level because that is the amount we actually are going to spend so we want to get the best deal there, the most competition we can there.”

She offered experience, understanding and hope where only previous administrators’ words offered hallowed general concepts before.

If anyone understood the ridiculousness of asking a vendor’s price for something they haven’t seen the requirements for, it was Murphy.

And when Congress blessed the concept of creating an “unpriced multiple award contract” where costs only mattered at each individual task order level in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, many in the acquisition community — including myself — thought the clarion call finally has been heard.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2020/08/gsa-finally-pushing-price-competition-to-where-it-belongs-at-the-task-order-level/

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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/

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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/

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NDAA requires COs to provide information to unsuccessful offerors for task and delivery orders less than $5.5 million

The FY 2020 NDAA mandates the FAR be revised to require Contracting Officers to provide the rationale for award and other information to unsuccessful offerors for task or delivery orders.

Currently, FAR Part 16 only requires a debriefing be provided for task and delivery orders valued over $5.5 million.

The FY 2020 NDAA requires FAR Part 16 be revised to require that Contracting Officers provide information to unsuccessful offerors on contracts above the Simplified Acquisition Threshold but below $5.5 million.

This new information could prove invaluable for contractors hoping to gain insight and improve their proposals for future opportunities.

The annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has long been used to impose government-wide procurement reforms. The recently enacted NDAA, signed by President Trump on December 20, 2019, continues this practice, by requiring agencies to provide unsuccessful offerors on smaller dollar task or delivery orders above the Simplified Acquisition Threshold an explanation as to why their proposal was unsuccessful as well as the rationale for the award.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/ndaa-requires-contracting-officers-to-30028/

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2019 NDAA analysis: Enhancing IDIQs and other provisions

Over the past several months, this blog has analyzed several key provisions of the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that impact government contractors. This post briefly summarizes a variety of other government contracts-related provisions of the FY 2019 NDAA that we have not yet discussed, including several that reflect a congressional intent to enhance the use of multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts and encourage commercial item contracting, several that concern subcontracting and supply-chain considerations, and assorted other issues.

Awarding IDIQ Contracts Without Considering Price to Increase Order-Level Competition.

Section 876 provides a limited exception to the general requirement in 41 U.S.C. § 3306 that agencies must include cost or price to the government as an evaluation factor in evaluating proposals. The exception applies to task-order contracts (i.e., IDIQ contracts) for services that are priced on the basis of hourly rates. Specifically, agencies need not consider price as an evaluation factor for such contracts if:

  1. the agency will award a base contract to every “qualifying offeror”—meaning a responsible source whose proposal conforms to solicitation requirements, meets all technical requirements, and is otherwise eligible for award; and
  2. the agency will consider cost or price to the government in competitions for individual task orders.

This provision applies to non-defense agencies. Defense agencies had previously been granted a similar exception in the FY 2017 NDAA. See 10 U.S.C. § 2305(a)(3)(C).

Congress’s goal, as evidenced by the title to section 876, is “Increasing Competition at the Task Order Level.” By awarding base IDIQ contracts to all compliant proposals, without discriminating between them based on price, agencies are likely to have more contract-holders available to compete for specific work at the task-order level. Use of this mechanism should reduce an important barrier to entry to many potential competitors—not holding the necessary IDIQ contract to compete for work solicited under task order solicitations—and, by increasing competition, could result in lower pricing and better technical offerings at the task order level.

 

 

Keep reading article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=810088

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