One large source of confusion for GSA contractors can be determining the Country of Origin for offered products. Many people think all GSA awarded items must be made in the USA, but this is not the case. Instead, all products offered on a GSA schedule must be produced in a country that is compliant with the US Trade Agreements Act (TAA). Many countries are TAA-compliant, but one major manufacturing course is not – you probably guessed it, CHINA. This means GSA cannot award any items that are manufactured in China onto your GSA contract. Some contractors have trouble determining the exact Country of Origin, as different components come from different countries or different manufacturing processes are performed in different countries. In cases like this, merchandise originates from the country where it has been substantially transformed into a new and different article of commerce with a name, character, or use distinct from that of the article or articles from which it was transformed. For this language, please see the Federal Acquisition Regulations 52.225-5 for more detail: https://www.acquisition.gov/far/05-10r/html/52_223_226.html#wp1169151

On November 2nd, the U.S. General Services Administration in coordination with the Federal Chief Information Officers Council released comprehensive requirements for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, for public comment. This is a huge milestone in the governmentwide adoption of cloud computing services. The security authorizations and continuous monitoring of cloud systems that FedRAMP will provide can be used by agencies to streamline their security process while still providing highly effective security services. FedRamp allows agencies to make use of commonly accepted risk assessment and cyber security evaluation of cloud services. Joint authorizations of cloud providers will result in a common security risk model that can be leveraged across the federal government, ensuring a consistent baseline for cloud-based technologies.

Many of you out there might be thinking to yourself, “There are so many opportunities for people and contractors who have security clearances…Maybe I should get one!” Not so fast—most people don’t realize that there are specific requirements that must be met in order to qualify for a security clearance. I’d like to take a moment to outline just a few of these requirements, the basic levels of clearance, and how these levels are granted. How do I qualify? To be eligible for a security clearance, the following conditions must be met: a) It has been determined by the U.S. government that you’re eligible for access to classified information; and b) you are sponsored by a government entity or a cleared contractor. In order to be sponsored, you must be employed by a cleared contractor (or hired as a consultant) and must be in a position requiring a clearance. These two conditions are important to remember.

With the recent Veterans Day holiday having already passed, I have been giving extra thought to those in the service and wanted to finish up my initial blog covering the effectiveness of Executive Order 13360. To recap, Executive Order 13360 or “the 21 Gun Salute initiative” was implemented by the General Services Administration (GSA) and aimed at meeting and exceeding the 3% federal contracting goal with SDVOSBs. Here’s what I found out. Did Executive Order 13360 work? (Part 2 – The Results) On my last blog I reported that the Department of Defense only spent 1.43% on SDVOSB Prime contractors (1.35% for Subcontractors) in 2009. This was just my first search, however, and was sure I would see much better results from the rest of our federal agencies. I mean, 3% isn’t that lofty of a goal, is it? Well, here’s how the rest of the results looked (Format of the table below is Agency, 2008 SDVOSB Prime Contracting Achievement, 2009 Goal, 2009 SDVOSB Prime Contracting Achievement)

The recent changes to the Women Owned Small Businesses (WOSB) Program were finalized and submitted to the Federal Register on October 7th. After analyzing data gathered from a study conducted by RAND Corporation on the representation of WOSBs in specific industries, the SBA found that 83 industries (segmented by the first 4 numbers in the NAICS code) were either underrepresented or significantly underrepresented. The new WOSB program requirements are only applicable to these industries. The contract value for each WOSB set-aside is not to exceed $5 million for manufacturing and $3 million for all other services and products and the WOSB set-aside requirement for total federal contracting dollars is 5%.

One of the most common challenges new contractors face after receiving a GSA Schedule contract is where to find new business. Often times a contractor is unsure of what agencies to market to and who is interested in their services or products. Not only can new contractors sell their products through GSA Schedules to other agencies, but they can also sell directly toGSA. In FY2010, GSA reported $16,978,003,265 dollars spent from 910,020 transactions. That’s a lot of opportunity! For FY2011, the General Services Administration has recently updated its website to include some very useful bid and opportunity listings, titled “Forecast of Contracting Opportunities.” This is a complete forecast of opportunities that GSA suspects it will need for the upcoming fiscal year (October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011), as well as any known opportunities for the following fiscal years. The opportunities you will find on this forecast are all at or above the $25,000 threshold and are anticipated awards to both large and small businesses. It is a downloadable file that you can export into Microsoft Excel. From there, you can search and filter by date of opportunity, by North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code, by location, etc. The descriptions of the opportunities include the primary NAICS code, the state where the opportunity is located, what type of product or service GSA is searching for, the award status, a procurement classification code, what type of qualifications are required, what type of contract it is, an estimated contract amount (min and max), the contracting officer in charge of the procurement, the contracting officer’s contact information, and the incumbent if there is one.