On Monday, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced major changes to the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program. The changes include allowing contracts that fail to meet sales thresholds to expire, removing items with insufficient customer demand, addressing contractor noncompliance, and reducing procurement redundancies. These changes are foundational to, as GSA stated, rightsizing the program to prioritize value and fiscal responsibility.
As Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum highlighted, “[b]y refocusing the program on the items and services the government is actually buying, we can help our industry partners maximize their time and efforts while providing the best pricing possible for these mission critical needs.”
The MAS program contracts are awarded at fair and reasonable prices and promote the best pricing possible through competition at the task and delivery order level for agency specific requirements. Indeed, as GSA’s announcement notes, competition at the order level secures additional savings for customer agencies. Our March 7th FAR &Beyond blog highlights the key features in structuring requirements to achieve the best possible value or price. These features are universal and apply to structuring Requests for Quotes (RFQs) for task and delivery order competitions under the MAS program. The steps announced on Monday will simplify MAS contract operations, freeing customer agencies to more efficiently and effectively structure requirements for order level competitions and, correspondingly, empowering contractors to more efficiently and effectively compete for agency requirements.
The more that GSA simplifies and/or streamlines the MAS contracting process, the more customer agencies and contractors can focus on meeting agency mission requirements at the best possible price. As followers of this blog know, the Coalition for Common Sense in Government Procurement (Coalition) is seeking recommendations for the Government Procurement Efficiency List (GPEL) from members. The Coalition has received several GPEL recommendations for the MAS program that we will be sharing with the procurement community. Here are three key GPEL MAS recommendations:
- Delete/eliminate unnecessary Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and General Services Administration Regulation (GSAR) clauses. The MAS program is the federal government’s largest commercial item contract vehicle. GSA can issue a deviation to eliminate a host of contract clauses from the MAS solicitation and contracts that are not statutorily required to be included in commercial item contracts. This would simplify compliance, streamline offers, and enhance efficiency for GSA, customer agencies, and contractors. Complexity increases risk which increases costs which leads to higher prices.
- Eliminate the Price Reduction Clause (PRC). The PRC increases costs, inflates pricing, and unduly restricts competition both in the federal and commercial market. A Coalition survey of its members estimated that PRC administration collectively cost MAS contractors approximately $1billion dollars annually. The costs of the PRC far outweigh any benefits. The PRC reflects a different time and place in federal procurement, deriving from GSA’s 1982 Policy Statement (I was a senior in college that year). Eliminating the PRC will increase competition and support the delivery of the best possible price at the task and delivery order level.
- Empower agencies to leverage volume requirements through single award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPAs). The current FAR 8.4 ordering procedures include a strong preference for multiple award BPAs, requiring contracting officers to document and justify the use of single award BPAs. This disincentive to using single award BPAs undercuts agency flexibility to leverage its collective buying power to compete and award requirements at the best possible price. This non-statutory provision in FAR 8.4 places process above results.
Along with these three recommendations, the Coalition will be sharing a set of MAS GPEL recommendations with the procurement community. As GSA continues its journey of rightsizing the MAS program to optimize customer agency mission support for the American people, the Coalition looks forward to working with all stakeholders toward our common goal.