GSA Meets with Industry on Contract Consolidation and FAR Overhaul Changes

Several senior GSA officials held a meeting with industry yesterday to focus on two key acquisition activities taking place at the agency: contract consolidation and the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) initiative.

To open the session, GSA’s Acting Administrator, Steven Ehikian, stated that the agency has one driving acquisition goal – to return the department to its original mission and have one streamlined process in government procurement. The agency is set to focus on areas such as best pricing, performance, innovation, and making it easier and worth it to do business with the government. Josh Gruenbaum, Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner, followed Ehikian’s opening remarks stating that GSA is “building a procurement system that works better for everyone,” and encouraged industry to reach out and be involved in the forthcoming changes.  

GSA Contract Consolidation

The White House has released 30 Executive Orders (EOs) since January that impact federal acquisition, according to Senior Procurement Executive, Jeff Koses. The two primary orders for GSA include EOs 14240, Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement and 14275, Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement.

In terms of consolidating procurement, Koses acknowledged that it will significantly expand GSA’s role as well as impact industry greatly. Nearly 20% of common spend at federal agencies, or $72.8B, goes through GSA-approved contracts. This results in an estimated $60B in cost avoidance through GSA-led and best-in-class contracts. How much more can be saved? That, Koses stated, is the heart of the contract consolidation EO.

Accordingly, GSA is now in the evaluation process for consolidation, taking into consideration areas such as understanding current GWACs and contracts, cost savings, commitments by other agencies, capacity in areas of staffing and financially, and the risks and impacts associated with the changes. GSA is also speaking with federal partners and collecting input and has not reached any decisions yet.

For its part, industry will need to understand where GSA is, meaning it is a smaller agency with a smaller IT budget and larger responsibilities and mandates, stated Koses. This means GSA will need to do business differently and have different priorities that may result in de-emphasizing, reducing or stopping other work entirely. All of this, Koses said, will require much industry engagement. Koses warned that GSA plans to ask industry for ideas and input, and especially encouraged industry input in areas that GSA may not particularly realize to ask certain questions.

GSA Revolutionary FAR Overhaul

Koses confirmed that a fundamental rewrite of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) has not occurred in 30 years. The EO states that the current FAR is too big and too complicated and must be rewritten in 180 days and stripped down to both statutory requirements and those non-statutory requirements that are essential for sound procurement. Moreover, the restructured FAR will treat elements of current EOs the same way as statutes to ensure incorporation into the revisions.

The FAR overhaul is much bigger than rewriting an entire workbook, stated Koses. GSA is approaching it as a change management initiative through four primary workstreams: policy, practitioner, legislative and technology, which will all require continued stakeholder and industry engagement:

Source: GSA

Polly Hall, Executive Sponsor to Practitioner Workstream and Daniel Briest, Project Manager for Acquisition.gov explained the buying guides section of the Strategic Acquisition Guidance and demonstrated how to navigate the Acquisition.gov website. These are areas of which I touched on here a few weeks ago. Hall stated that with regards to the practitioner workstream, GSA is aiming to help the acquisition workforce adapt to the changes and test those changes before formalizing them.  

Hall requested that industry exercise patience with the acquisition teams as they implement new revisions at a rapid pace. Additionally, Hall advised contractors to direct any questions or concerns regarding the changes initially to their Contracting Officers (COs), and subsequently through the feedback mechanisms provided on Acquisition.gov.

For his part, Nick West, Deputy Director of Office of Acquisition Policy, Integrity and Workforce, walked attendees through what a sample agency deviation looks like. Although COs are not mandated to amend existing contracts based on GSA deviation documents, industry is asked to notify their COs if they identify clauses that can reduce government costs for revision, stated West.

Questions and Answers with GSA Officials

Below is a select set of questions and answers from the event that contractors may find useful:

Q: When will companion guides and category guides be available?

Hall: GSA does not have a definitive date, but they are working on finalizing the guides with the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) and will be released by section.

Q: Will GSA cancel the SEWP VI solicitation and start all over again?

Koses: No. GSA is still meeting with NASA to understand the GWAC thoroughly then put together a long-term strategy that meets the mission of rationalization. Cancelling the solicitation is the opposite of that mission.

Q: Will all procurements going through GSA be through GWACs, MACs or the MAS program, or will there still be standalone procurements on Sam.gov?

Koses: Schedules are continually open for new offers, and GWACs and other vehicles have periodic on-ramps. If a solution has already been built for the need, then it should be used. If it has not been built, then a standalone solution will be sought. Best-in-Class contracts and vehicles should be the first place agencies should look and then go from there.

Q: What is the FAR Council’s plan for industry feedback?

Koses: With the release of each deviation, GSA is inviting feedback within a 45-day window. The agency is reading through all feedback but will not respond to it in this stage of the revision.

Q: Will each agency have its own buying guide or is there one all agencies will follow?

Hall: the SAG will consist of the FAR and buying guides and are collectively intended to be government-wide. There may be guidance at the agency level but will not be under GSA’s purview.

Q: Are buying guides bound by law or regulatory?

Hall: Buying guides are part of the non-regulatory resources that are set to complement agency supplements. Think of them as shared best practices where discretion can be applied.