Surprisingly the answer is in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR).  By placing an order in accordance with FAR 8.4, the ordering agency achieves best value at the lowest overall cost alternative to meet the government’s need.  Or in plain English, the system works – pricing is good – when you use it like you are [...]

Here are our current “Top Five” issues that have a direct impact on our members that we will continue to address in 2012. Other Direct Costs (ODC). Developing an efficient, effective and accountable contract mechanism for including ODCs and materials on GSA MAS service contracts is vital to providing best value, comprehensive solutions to customer [...]

The $50 billion GSA MAS program is where federal requirements and commercial practices intersect creating a highly competitive governmentwide commercial marketplace. As the federal government’s largest commercial item contracting program, it is imperative that MAS contracts efficiently and effectively reconcile government requirements and commercial practices. With thousands of contracts covering millions of items, the ability [...]

Is it time to “reset” negotiation of MAS contract prices? Increasingly, GSA MAS contracting officers appear to be ignoring the General Services Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) guidance regarding the negotiation of price.The GSAR requires the MAS contracting officer to consider when the government and an offeror’s commercial customers are similarly situated when negotiating price. MAS contracting [...]

On September 29th the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) issued a policy memorandum entitled “Development, Review and Approval of Business Cases for Certain Interagency and Agency-Specific Acquisitions.” The memorandum outlines the required elements for the business case analysis as well as the process for developing, reviewing and approving business cases supporting the establishment or [...]

On August 18, 2011, the General Services Administration (GSA) issued its “Final Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules.” The review plan responds to Executive Order 13563 which, as discussed in last week’s Comment, requires agencies to conduct reviews to identify and address obsolete, unnecessary, unjustified, excessively burdensome, or counterproductive regulations. Interestingly, the GSA plan [...]

This week I am off to Boy Scout Camp with our son. It is his first time attending. It should be a lot of fun—at least for him. Personally, having not camped out for years, I confess I am a bit nervous about it. To relieve my nerves I started thinking about the calendar. June [...]