One of the most challenging aspects of being a GSA contract holder with a Multiple Award Schedule (GSA MAS) is maintaining compliance under the Trade Agreements Act. On the surface, the agreement seems simple: the GSA must only acquire U.S.-made and TAA-compliant products under the MAS program. However, non-compliance can occur because the TAA has implemented several grants through trade treaties to signatory countries, which have been given the ability to supply non-discriminated commercial products to the U.S. The TAA has also developed grants to discriminate and prohibit the supply of products from non-signatory countries. Needless to say, this agreement has often left MAS contract holders confused on its true meaning.

The ImmixGroup recently published an article that gave an overview of cooperative purchasing and some contract vehicles associated with it. In this overview they were able to touch on some points about the National Association of State Procurement Officers (NASPO) ValuePoint program. Immix, who has a very established presence in the federal market, highlighted advantages of utilizing cooperative purchasing contracts and the amount of dollars procured through NASPO ValuePoint. I will highlight NASPO ValuePoint from an inside perspective, as I have first-hand experience working in the program, working with State Procurement Officials and currently managing several companies within the program.

As a government contract holder, you need to understand that business won’t just fall into your lap - you must be proactive. But how can you be proactive, if you don’t know where to start?

While state and local governments are allowed to purchase services and products off the GSA Schedule Contract, often times, they have their other contracting vehicles and purchasing cooperatives they prefer to utilize. It is important to understand some of the different types of contract vehicles out there for state and local governments to procure from. Here are a few examples.

On Tuesday April 28th 2015, I was able to attend the NASPO ValuePoint Vendor Kickoff Meeting, hosted by NASPO ValuePoint in Bloomington, MN. This meeting was intended to educate both current and newly awarded contract holders for the Computer Equipment, Peripherals & Related Services Contract under NASPO ValuePoint.

If you’ve updated your SAM.gov registration recently, you may have seen a new ownership page. A final rule recently amended the Federal Acquisition Regulations to require all SAM registrants, if owned by another entity, to identify that entity by name, CAGE code, and type of ownership. This rule will provide government insight into 1) Federal spending patterns across corporations, 2) Traceability in tracking performance issues across corporations, 3) Contractor personnel outside the United States, and 4) Supply chain traceability and integrity efforts. As the final rule noted, “Increased transparency and accuracy of procurement data broaden the Government's ability to implement fraud detection technologies restricting opportunities for mitigating occurrences of fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.” Ownership is defined as a “Highest-level Owner” and “Immediate Owner”. Ownership is defined as an Entity having ownership or control. And an “Entity” is defined as an Individual, Partnership, Corporation, Joint Venturer, or an Agent. To help respond correctly to this new requirement, we’ve outlined the ownership definitions below.