The current procurement passion for collecting data, in particular prices paid data, raises many policy questions. Coalition members have, on a number of occasions, indicated that data is not a free good! Shifting the burden of data management and reporting to federal contractors increases costs for industry, and therefore, government; costs that are ultimately borne
Yesterday GSA issued a notice to its Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contractors entitled “Improving Product Number Data Quality on GSA Schedules.” The notice states the GSA is seeking “to improve product data quality on MAS through submission of all awarded base products and associated descriptive data on GSA Advantage.” According to the notice, GSA
On June 12th Tom Sharpe, Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), posted a new blog entitled “Modernizing GSA’s Schedules Program for Today’s Marketplace.” As you may recall, earlier this year GSA published its Strategic Plan for the next four years. The plan did not set forth a strategic vision for the MAS program—a troubling statement about the future of