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Desparado

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Everything posted by Desparado

  1. Just curious what everyone's take is on the latest "hot thing", the Federal Strategic Support Initiatives.
  2. I agree with Vern, as I know of no reasons why this would not be permissible. I also see it as an opportunity. I have been on many SSEBs where this situation existed with other members. In every case, the employees were able to provide intelligent input into the conversations and I would imagine they impressed their supervisors with their active participation. Personally, I never saw any situations where the supervisor attempted to influence the employee during the board meetings (of course what happened, if anything, before/after the board meetings is unknown to me).
  3. Another side-effect of this situation is that if you attempt to do a "call" on a BPA or exercise an option on a contract that is no longer active, the FPDS-NG record will reject the input. I know that back when I worked for the Army (just a few years ago), if FPDS-NG rejected the input, PD2 would not allow you to process the action.
  4. I would recommend contacting the contracting officer and asking him/her to review and advise the Acceptor. If the KO can state there are not missing pages and the page numbers were simply a clerical error or system issue, the Acceptor's concerns could easily be addressed.
  5. I have a solicitation where one of the requirements is that an offeror has to have the listed NAICS code in their ORCA in order for them to submit an offer. In 13 CFR 121.402( it states, "... Acquisitions for supplies must be classified under the appropriate manufacturing NAICS code, not under a Wholesale Trade or Retail Trade NAICS code..." Since this solicitation is for an IDIQ contract for supplies, I would assume that we should follow this CFR. I have been an 1102 for awhile, and when I came across this CFR reference in a WIFCON post, it surprised me. I wonder why this isn't incorporated into the FAR somewhere (or at least I could not find it), as I would imagine many (if not most) 1102s are not aware of this. I have seen many FBO posts listing wholesale or retail NAICS codes. If a company is a retail company (for example, a department store), they would logically not have the manufacturing NAICS code in their ORCA registration. Could they add these NAICS codes in order to be in compliance with the solicitation, or would they be violating some law/rule/etc..? Or should local policy of the solicitation requirement be removed? Thank you in advance for your input.
  6. GSA routinely removes products from their Schedules when they discover that the items are not TAA compliant. With over 19,000 companies and millions of products, the COs cannot police every item, and rely on self-certification from the contractors. In many cases the contractors don't even know the country of origin as they receive the items from their suppliers. There are plenty of helpful citizens that bring these items to GSA's attention and when that is done, they get the products removed. As far as your basic question goes, I believe your interpretation of the FAR is correct, and that for micro-purchases the BAA and TAA do not apply.
  7. Actually, the normal period for a Schedule contract is 20 years. A 5yr base with 3-5yr options.
  8. For Q1, I would recommend contacting the GSA Contracting Officer. Be prepared to send the CO the documents pertaining to the acquisition of XYZ, as that CO will probably need them to send to their Legal to determine if a novation is to be done, or if another course of action is required, or nothing at all. Q2. See Q1 above. Q3. It might. Do you know if Company B is an Inverted Domestic Corporation? There are some issues that may arise, so once again I would recommend contacting XYZ's contracting officer.
  9. I would love the supplements to disappear. As someone who has transferred agencies a couple of times, learning that agency's supplement can be a pain. However, is that feasible? With specific language going into DoD appropriations, or VA, or whoever, it is possible to get rid of the supplements?
  10. Agreeing with Vern, the standard FSS contract awarded by GSA are 5-year IDIQ contracts with 3 5-year options.
  11. Vern, thank you for the correction... I often miss my 5th grade English teacher. <laugh>
  12. I do not know that there is anything "wrong" with it. There are several product lines on GSA contracts with multiple resellers, so I don't know that there really is any issue. Reading your question, it appears you are eluding to a collusion situation, and I guess my question would be, "What is the incentive for the other two companies to put those products on their schedule if the major reseller (who probably has the lower prices) does so?"
  13. The FSS's Price Reduction Clause is not triggered by sales to federal agencies (see GSAR 552.238-75). You are correct in that the VA must ask for a larger price discount, and also correct in that the contractor is not required to provide it. I would recommend that the terms of the BPA be read and understood, as if there are any pricing specifications, it should be stated within this document. I would hope that the CO would use the potential of the increased coverage/sales as leverage to negotiate an additional discount, incorporate that into the BPA, and thereby pass the additional savings on to all the authorized BPA users.
  14. My guess (and I'm sure Vern will correct me if I am wrong) is that it is because under a FFP it really doesn't matter to the gov't how much they pay for the items, since the price the gov't will pay is unchanged.
  15. Upon further review, perhaps I should put this into context. If you are sending a nationwide survey to hundreds (if not thousands) of 1102s, the survey should not be 30-45 minutes and should not include text-box answers. With that many respondents, it is not practicable that the text box answers will really be taken into consideration. If you want to maximize participation, keep the survey to no longer than 15 minutes (as opposed to the 5 I stated before). Any longer than that and I believe most people lose interest and the validity of the responses decline as people get to the point where they are just answering questions quickly to get through the survey.
  16. A lot would depend on your agency's requirements for documentation requirements. It also depends if you're using the GPC as the purchase method or the payment method. If a FSS BPA is established, I would think that the payment method could be the GPC, but the purchase method was probably done via a RFQ or other type of solicitation. The BPA could easily be written to include the GPC as the payment method. As far as FPDS-NG goes, each agency handles differently. A few years ago when I worked for the Army, they would consolidate it quarterly and report. I agree with Vern (and really, who doesn't?) that more information is needed before a more detailed response could be given.
  17. One reason. It is way too long. When you see that it takes 30-45 minutes to complete, a person thinks, "I don't have that much time" and they skip it. I think no survey should be longer than 5 minutes.
  18. You are correct that GSA Schedule contracts will lag when it comes to new clauses (as do most IDIQ-type contracts). The current policy is that the Schedule contracts be refreshed at least semi-annually. In regards to the second part of your question, an ordering activity may add any clause to their RFQ and resultant DO/TO as long as it does not conflict with clauses already in the Schedule contract. This makes it easy for DoD agencies to add the DFARS clauses where needed, as an example.
  19. Subject Matter Expert is the most common use of SME that I'm aware of.
  20. There are rare circumstances where the GSA will establish the Basis Of Award (BOA) as a customer different than the MFC. The BOA is what GSA uses when enacting the Price Reductions Clause. An offeror should indicate to GSA why their MFC should not be their BOA. Most common reasons are different buying patterns or differing T&Cs than what the Government offers. Putting together a GSA offer is not a cheap or easy task, so perhaps you can try to have a conversation with the GSA office hosting the Schedule you are considering offering for prior to submitting an offer?
  21. I'm sure she knew there was a conference, and maybe even attended... but to think she knew about how much it cost, or the number of advance trips. I just can't believe anyone at her level would know about details at that level. But, being the head of the agency in disgrace, she did the "correct" thing and resigned.
  22. She is a political appointee in an election year. My guess is that she was "asked" to fall on her sword. My guess would be that she had no idea of anything about the details of this conference. Nobody at her level would.... imho
  23. dcarver - Yes, the last question you ask is what I was curious with. Retreadfed - Very interesting point. GSA does not currently use the VetBiz program to certify businesses as VOSB/SDVOSB, but it appears that the contracting officer at the DO/TO level would need to do so as part of the process.
  24. I apologize for the font issue.. Apparently when I copied/pasted the protest info, it messed things up somehow.
  25. There have been at least 4 protest decisions (latest being Crosstown Courier Service, Inc., B-406262, Mar 21, 2012) which have stated that the VA must consider SDVOSB and VOSB businesses before it can consider using FSS procedures. Now that there is explicit authority to set-aside acquisitions in Part 8 (although per another discussion on WIFCON, it should have been going on all along), do you think the VA could set-aside an acquisition for and SDVOSB using FSS Procedures and be compliant?
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