There is some debate within my organization regarding whether or not GSA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) orders (in this case, for information technology services on a time-and-material basis) can be incrementally funded. Does anyone know the answer to this, and can you provide a regulatory or other citation that will help me conclude the debate?

By Anon2U on Wednesday, September 12, 2001 - 10:21 pm:

At my agency we write a BPA IAW FAR Part 8 after conducting a mini-competition (or with a sole source justification). Then delivery orders are written against the BPA as funds become available. Very little gets funded for more than 3 months per order. Why, I am not sure but evidently budget officials run the railroad. This means each worker on body shop contracts have to have 4 delivery orders each fiscal year. What a waste of contracting manpower, but they tell me it has been this way for years.

By Anonymous on Thursday, September 13, 2001 - 09:37 pm:

Can anyone even figure out what clauses are in the GSA contract? Do they include LOF and LOC clauses?

By Dave Berkey on Friday, September 14, 2001 - 12:12 pm:

I have never seen incremental funding or LOC/LOF treated in the GSA Schedule contracts. So, without regulatory treatment, feel free to gin up equivalent LOC and LOF clause language. I routinely draft clauses or use FAR clauses in GSA Delivery Orders, such as the Continuity of Services clause.

By Bob Hansen on Friday, September 14, 2001 - 03:16 pm:

Incremental funding, using Limitation of Cost/Limitation of Funds (LOC/LOF) clauses, is for cost-reimbursement type contracts (FAR 32.705-2). Maybe the award should be a cost-reimbursement rather than a time-and-material type contract, where a D&F is required (FAR 16.601(c)(1)) to explain why no other contract type is suitable. Note that GSA IT awards are for professional services and the contract types are restricted to fixed price or time-and-material/labor hour.

By Vern Edwards on Friday, September 14, 2001 - 04:02 pm:

Bob Hansen:

Some agencies do incrementally fund fixed-price contracts. See DFARS 232.703-1 and 252.232-7007.

By Anon2 on Friday, September 14, 2001 - 04:16 pm:

I like the question "Anonymous" asked on Sept 13, "Can anyone even figure out what clauses are in the GSA contract?" I have spent many hours searching the GSA site looking for FSS or other contracts to read the clauses that are in them. I can tell you I have been completely unsuccessful. Even the contractors don't put that info. on their web site. I wanted to see what Section I looked like for one of the FAST contracts and while I finally find a page for FAST, no clauses were apparent. Why? I almost feel like GSA doesn't want us to know what are in those schedules or contracts.

By Hastur on Friday, September 14, 2001 - 04:45 pm:

Anon2 9/14/2001

There is a difference between the FAST program, now known as IT Solutions and operated out of various GSA FTS Client Support Centers, and what are still commonly known as the FAST contracts. The FAST contracts are called the FAST 8(a) contracts and were orgininally awarded in D.C. & Kansas City. The management of those GWACs is by the GSA FTS Small Business Solutions Development Center in Kansas City.

You may view the FAST 8(a) contracts by going to www.fast.sdc.gsa.gov

This will not answer the original question, but does help address the negative connotation present in your post.

I too have a hard time getting a hold of an FSS schedule contract when I need one.

The other GWACs managed by FTS may be reviewed by selecting the appropriate link from www.fts.gsa.gov.

This was relatively simple to furnish to you. Please ask instead of accusing.

By Anon2U on Friday, September 14, 2001 - 09:46 pm:

Many of the GSA Schedule contracts are now on FEDBIZOPPS as full time solicitations. The GSA contracting officers tell you to go there and download it if you need it. Evidently they award as solicited and don't add or subtract clauses. Maybe there is a GSA Schedule contracting officer out there to fill us in on this.

By anonymous8 on Saturday, September 15, 2001 - 10:02 pm:

Lack of access to the contract is a problem, I think. I have also been told to just copy the RFP. Seems to me I should be able to read the contract so I can do orders / modifications / administration properly. How do I know if I am adding a clause which is outside scope or contradicts the awarded contract? In any event, the potential to have to cite clauses in the solicitation (which may or may not be in the contract) when doing mods just seems risky to me.

By formerfed on Monday, September 17, 2001 - 07:47 am:

Anon2u,

It's been a number of years since I was a GSA Schedule CO. However, I don't think the process changed. You're correct. As far as clauses go, the award and solicitation are identical.

By Anonymous on Monday, September 17, 2001 - 09:00 am:

Anon2U, Anonymous 8, formerfed

I just recently tried to "get" a copy of the solicitation on-line so that I can know what clauses are included in the awarded contract. When I go on-line at the website GSA referred me to I see one solicitation, but I don't think it is the correct one. It was posted after the awarded document. Award 97/ solicitation 98. How do I tie the solicitation number to the contract award number. I e-mailed the GSA CO but have yet to hear back from him.

Appreciate any help you can provide.

Thanks

By Vern Edwards on Monday, September 17, 2001 - 10:02 am:

Frustrated:

The answer to your question about whether or not you can incrementally fund orders placed against GSA FSS schedule contracts is complicated, but depending on your own agency's fundings policies, the unofficial answer is probably yes.

GSA FSS schedule contracts are not very different from other government contracts. They contain the clauses prescribed by FAR and GSA's Acquisition Manual (GSAM). They do not contain clauses that provide for incremental funding -- FAR does not provide for the incremental funding of fixed-price contracts and the GSAM does not even mention incremental funding.

Officially, ordering agencies cannot modify (add or remove) contract clauses when they issue an order against a GSA FSS contract, they can only issue an order in accordance with the contract's terms. So, technically, the answer to your question is that you cannot incrementally fund orders against GSA FSS contracts because FSS contracts do not contain incremental funding clauses.

However, GSA allows lets ordering agencies write order-unique SOWs and "BPAs" for FSS orders and I imagine that many agencies insert what are essentially order-unique contract terms into those documents. If the GSA contractor does not object -- and it probably won't -- then I'd bet that GSA is not going to object or hunt you down if you insert a clause like DOD's Limitation of Government's Obligation clause, DFARS 252,232-7007, into a GSA FSS order. GSA does not closely scrutinize agency ordering behavior and, unofficially, probably could not care less what agencies do in that regard as long as the parties directly involved are in agreement. So, unofficially, you can do what you've got to do.

Frustrated, if your agency is strict and disciplined about proper procedure, then it will not let you do this. But strictness and discipline -- not to mention knowledge of the regulations -- are largely gone from the operational landscape of government contracting. Your question is one of those that you're better off not asking if the answer matters to you. If you can incrementally fund your own agency's fixed-price contracts, then discuss it with the contractor and if it agrees then just go ahead and incrementally fund your GSA order. Who knows what kind of answer you'll get if you start going to lawyers and such and asking if it's okay. But you'd better make sure that the contractor really understands the implications of incremental funding. Come to think of it, you'd better make sure that you do, too.

For those of you looking for copies of GSA FSS solicitations (tho' I cannot guess why you'd want to do that), they are posted at the electronic posting system site. The web address is www.eps.gov.

By Vern Edwards on Monday, September 17, 2001 - 10:15 am:

By the way, GSA periodically posts the FSS clause manual on the internet, at www.eps.gov. The last such posting was in August of this year. Here is the link:

http://www.eps.gov/spg/GSA/FSS/FCO/Reference-Number-FSS
-Clause-Manual-08-20-2001/Attachments.html.

The document is in MSWord.