GSA launches effort to streamline contracting process

The General Services Administration Wednesday unveiled a pilot program to streamline the cumbersome process by which agencies can get listed on GSA's contracting schedules.

The Multiple Award Schedule Express Program, launched on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site, will include five of GSA's 37 multiple award schedules, including Schedule 70, a notoriously slow program for procuring information technology products and services.

GSA officials said they eventually want to include all of the agency's schedules under the program. The goal is to meet a 30-day target established by GSA Administrator Lurita Doan for companies to get listed. The current average time is 120 days.

At the core of the program is a comprehensive and mandatory "Pathway to Success" education program for vendors and the "Schedule Program Express Evaluation Desk," which will consolidate the intake of applications and initial reviews of companies. GSA anticipates receiving as many as 1,000 applications under the MAS Express Program in the first year.

The other schedules included in the program are Schedule 58 for audio, video, telecommunications and security solutions; Schedule 67 for photographic equipment; Schedule 78 for sports, promotional items, trophies and signs; and Schedule 81 for shipping, packaging and packing supplies.

Industry observers said the program represents a philosophical shift away from GSA's "Get It Right" program, which focused on compliance with contracting laws in the wake of procurement abuses uncovered in 2003.

Get It Right was not popular with the federal agencies that use GSA's services, because it added new hurdles in the procurement process. That, in turn, adversely affected GSA's business. Annual sales of information technology products and services at GSA failed to keep pace with the overall rate of government IT spending in fiscal 2006 and GSA's IT fund finished that year $96 million in the red, according to a year-end agency statement.

Jim Williams, head of GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, said Wednesday that companies won't be the only beneficiaries of the program: "Our customer agencies will also enjoy more rapid access to state-of-the-art goods and services from quality businesses, allow greater focus on high-value and -risk contracts and increase savings to the American people."

Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, an Arlington, Va., contractor association, said if the program is properly run, it should serve both the government and industry well.

"As this test program rolls out, GSA should carefully document where the challenges and hiccups are before rolling it out to the whole program," Soloway said. "People have been talking for a long time about streamlining this process. Kudos to Lurita and GSA for identifying the way forward."

Warren Suss, president of Suss Consulting Inc. in Jenkintown, Pa., also said the program was a step in the right direction for GSA.

"Because of the overreaction to some of the problems they have had, they have been moving in the wrong direction," Suss said. "They've dotted every 'i' twice, crossed every 't' twice and reviewed every contract three times, and as a result the whole GSA system has slowed down to where it is difficult for them to be nimble and responsive to their customers."

Suss, though, said it isn't clear yet whether GSA can succeed in speeding up the award process, given recent staff cutbacks and increased scrutiny of the agency's operations by auditors. "The toughest part of it all is to validate that the government is getting the best price … and that part of the work is often inherently time-consuming," Suss said.

Doan said in October 2006 that she is planning to curtail the role of the agency's inspector general in scrutinizing the prices offered by vendors with multiple award schedules contracts. Members of Congress have expressed concern over Doan's attempts to limit the audits conducted by the IG.

Neal Fox, a former GSA Federal Supply Service assistant commissioner who now works as a consultant, said except for the IT schedule, GSA officials have chosen some of the simpler schedules to start this program, which he believes is a wise approach because they still have to look after the best interests of their customer agencies.

Because of the complexity of the contracts offered on Schedule 70, it has traditionally been one of the slowest for companies to be listed. Fox said contracting officers could feel pressure to award contracts in the allotted time frame and could fail to adequately negotiate prices.