“The General Services Administration could soon start requiring on-site assessments of certain federal contractors under a new program to scrutinize risks to the supply chain.
Tucked into the draft of a new governmentwide acquisition vehicle for information technology services called Polaris is language describing a tool to ‘identify, assess and monitor supply chain risks of critical vendors.’ It would use classified and unclassified sources.
GSA said once the tool it’s developing—referred to as the Vendor Risk Assessment Program—is complete, ‘the contractor agrees the government may, at its own discretion, perform audits of supply chain risk processes or events,’ adding, ‘on site assessments may be required.’…”
“‘Given the increased focus on supply chain risk management, GSA will be implementing the VRAP to strengthen due diligence processes for ensuring vendor compliance,’ a GSA spokesperson told Nextgov. ‘As stated in [the draft Polaris solicitation], GSA is developing a VRAP tool to assess SCRM related issues. Additional details about the tool will be shared at a later date; however, we are seeking feedback on the initial concept.’…” Read the full article here.
Source: GSA Introduces Vendor Risk Assessment Program in Draft Solicitation – By Mariam Baksh, January 8, 2021. Nextgov.
