“Contractors and their representatives report troubles with the Multiple Award Schedule system. The MAS is the long running and very popular system for delivering routine products to the government. The General Services Administration has operated the schedules for decades. For what’s going on, federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin…”
“Tom Temin: Right. And of course, everyone’s feeling the inflation right now. But it could be a long time so they can get their prices adjusted. And you’re also writing that there are tendencies by GSA contracting officers to reject applications for contracts over a minor detail instead of letting people just update the application already in there. And that resets the clock back however many weeks it took to get to that point.
Larry Allen: Right. And it does. Look, what usually happens, Tom, is that you know, somebody submits an offer. And if it has some questions, or not everything was in the original package, the contracting officer needs to see, they send a clarification letter. You know, it’s kind of a minor administrative change. And you update the offer and continue on with the process. Now, a lot of times, what happens is that GSA will just send a rejection letter that says, not good enough, clean it up, try again,. That makes the process longer and more expensive for contractors because they got to go back to a whole lot more work, do a lot more stuff. And it makes it longer for GSA. But ironically, the way the system works is it actually makes it look like it’s taking a shorter amount of time for GSA, because every time they issue a rejection, their own performance clock starts over with the resubmission of a new offer. So that’s a little time management tool that GSA is using. But it’s one that increases time and aggravation for contractors…”
“Tom Temin: We’re speaking with Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners. The other thing I wanted to ask you about is the budget is finally enacted for 2022. What are we, six months into the fiscal year? It’s kind of a joke. But nevertheless, the $1.5 trillion, is there gravy and all. What should contractors do now to make the most of the time they’ve got in the fiscal year?
Larry Allen: Contractors have to be prepared to be best friends to their government customers. They have to anticipate what the customer is going to ask them for, have it ready before the customer asks for it. Whether it’s a response to an RFI or a draft RFQ whether it’s a request to, hey, what should the scope of this acquisition look like? Or a request on what type of acquisition method the government should use to acquire a specific good or service. Contractors should be ready to offer suggestions that help their customers get things done quickly, efficiently and with minimal amounts of fraud, waste and abuse, so that we can get this money that Congress has allocated, full year money as far as I can tell, Tom, and more of it this year than last year for every federal agency. With all of that the big question mark is time, and there’s not going to be enough time to get everything out the door. So what can contractors do? Contractors can help make the process as timely as possible. Be ultra responsive, be quick, don’t assume that your contracting officer knows the best way to buy something, make sure you’re their recommended…” Read the full interview here.
Source: Is the GSA throwing sand in the gears of the multiple award schedule machinery? – By Tom Temin, March 15, 2022. Federal News Network.
