The Multiple Award Schedule program can be a dynamic market place where educated buyers make best value determinations when they actually buy something without having GSA consistently inflict new pricing and reporting requirements on Schedule contractors.  This is the central tenet of a communication sent last week by the Coalition for Government Procurement to leaders in the new administration.  Regardless of whether your blogger used to run said organization, the Coalition is absolutely right.  The Schedules program can and should make Read more

The federal hiring freeze imposed by President Trump last week presents opportunities for contractors who provide professional and support services to federal agencies.  Traditionally, agencies that can’t hire full-time replacements for departing federal workers turn to contractors to ensure that critical missions still get met.  After all, work both important and routine needs to get done if the government is to meet national security and other missions.  Outsourcing non-core government functions is also a trend more closely associated with Republican presidential Read more

Rumblings close to the new administration’s transition team indicate that new OMB leadership may pick up – at least in one area – where the previous team left off.  Contractors with multiple contract vehicles should pay attention.  The Obama Administration floated a rule this past Fall that would have made Category Management mandatory for government agencies.  In essence, Read more

While a GSA “landing team” has been gathering information for a smooth transition over the past month, actual members of the new administration may start to pop up at the agency as early as this week.  In previous administrations’ such people were usually designated as “Chief of Staff”, but really had a wide portfolio to assess agency operations and start making recommendations to OMB on changes they feel might be needed.  While it is unclear how much attention Federal Acquisition Service issues may get in this period, issues at the top of such a Read more

Federal agencies have the right to consider technically superior offers that may not always result in the lowest pricing, according to a GAO ruling last week.  Four companies had protested GSA’s Alliant 2 evaluation methodology as not being stringent enough on obtaining the lowest possible prices.  GAO dismissed the protests, though, and said that fair and reasonable pricing for technically superior solutions could be in the best interest of the government.  While the Read more