Contract duplication remains one of the most pressing issues in Federal contracting today—untold levels of resources and taxpayer dollars are being expended to create new contracts, when effective vehicles already exist, that can provide the same products and services to meet agency requirements.
The Coalition for Government Procurement commends the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy Anne Rung’s efforts to update the 2011 business case guidance for new interagency and agency-wide contracts to reduce contract duplication. Our members view a reduction in contract duplication as a significant opportunity for the Office of Management and Budget to save agencies, the private sector, and taxpayers by reducing bid, proposal and contract administration costs over time.
As part of the Coalition’s efforts to raise contractor concerns on this issue, we have conducted a member survey on the impacts of contract duplication and with member input, developed a GWAC/MAC Chart of Federal contracts that offer the same or similar commercial products and services. We look forward to adding additional contracts and product/service categories based on member input.
The Coalition supports GSA Schedules and Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) such as NASA SEWP; GSA’s Alliant, Alliant Small Business, 8(a) STARS II, and Veterans Technology Services (VETS); and NIH CIO-SP3, CIO-SP3 Small Business and CIO-CS. Agencies should look to these contracts and other already existing contracts to meet their requirements before developing new vehicles.
We are interested in what contracts the Coalition should track on the GWAC/MAC Chart. Please take the time to review it and send any additional contracts you have for the chart to Roy Dicharry at rdicharry@thecgp.org by Friday, February 26th. We look forward to your input!
In future FAR & Beyond blogs, look for more commentary about both “horizontal” and “vertical” contract duplication.