During the GSA proposal process, your submitted contract may be subject to a review by a special branch of GSA, the Credit & Finance bureau. This third party is a separate entity from GSA and plays a unique role in the contracting process. Their main function is to conduct a pre-approval survey and analysis of a prospective contractor to ensure that they are financially viable, solvent and able to fulfill requirements under if a GSA contract is awarded.

Whether you are a current GSA contractor or you are thinking about preparing a proposal to obtain a GSA contract, it is important to monitor your commercial sales and make sure you remain consistent in how you discount your Most Favored Customer (MFC), or the customer that receives your best prices. In this blog I will discuss why pricing consistency is important and how to avoid violating the Price Reductions Clause (PRC).

Over the weekend GSA posted an announcement on its Vendor Support Center website stating that it would no longer require vendors to manipulate Manufacturer Part Numbers in cases where a contractor has multiple manufacturers with the same part number.

Due to recent contract migrations, there has been a noticeable increase in rejected new offers – in particular for the Professional Services Schedule (PSS). In an attempt to keep up with an overwhelming workload, GSA contracting officers have developed a more standardized Schedule acquisition process. In turn, vendors without “perfect” Schedule PSS proposals are being rejected and are made to fall back in line for yet another 12 months before their evaluation process begins.

CIA Director John Brennan’s personal @AOL.com email account was hacked into by a high school student and his personal information was exposed on WikiLeaks on October 21, 2015. They published his Social Security numbers, passport numbers, credit card and addresses of his family and associates. In addition, they released emails and documents generated before Brennan’s time in the Obama administration and while it did not contain classified government information, this has triggered great concern within the intelligence community and U.S. Government.

GSA continues to make improvements to its e-Tools portfolio in order to streamline the acquisition process and further its mission of providing cost-effective ways to do business with Uncle Sam. The latest development is the unveiling of a web portal called GSA AdvantageSelect, which will allow users to easily purchase high volume IT goods that have been pre-competed by a government agency.