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[ Market Watch ]
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You need answers, we've got questions
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by Andrew Mohr & C. Kelly Kroll
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To quote the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, "[n]othing endures but change." And perhaps no other agency has undergone more change in the past few years then the General Services Administration.
During the past two years, GSA has been under seemingly constant attack by Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, the Government Accountability Office, and other agencies for perceived misuse and overall weaknesses in its procurement policy. GSA, to its credit, has responded quickly by implementing various programs designed to combat these programs. Whether these programs were for better or worse is an entirely different subject.
GSA's most recent change, however, could prove to be the most significant. On May 31, Lurita Doan took the oath of office, becoming the GSA's 18th administrator. Within the very short period of time that she has been in office, the founder and former president and CEO of New Technology Management (which provides border surveillance technology to the federal government) has made her presence known.
Lofty Goals
Since taking the reins, Doan has quickly responded to criticisms that GSA is applying unwritten pricing policies such as 10 percent caps on profitability, defended attacks from DOD's Inspector General regarding GSA's procurement practices, and has let it be known that her plans to rejuvenate GSA include taking aim at other well-utilized Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts, such as NASA's Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement (SEWP-IV) program, which operates in direct competition with the GSA Schedule program. All told, she has been working hard to make it clear that she is firmly committed to returning GSA to its former position as the government's foremost acquisition agency.
While Doan has generated many provoking headlines over the past two months, the one we find of utmost interest is the one prompted by the statements she made (and has since reiterated) with respect to the troubles currently facing the GSA Schedules program. Specifically, Ms. Doan made the following statement before a wide gathering at the Coalition for Government Procurement 2006 Spring Conference:
"GSA is going to take a hard look at the existing process and we are going to make substantial improvements. I believe that the GSA schedule is already a good example of best practices. We are moving on this immediately and I will not rest until it is possible for a business to get a basic GSA schedule within 30 days. It will take some work, and it will take a little time, but we are going to get it done."
A GSA Schedule contract in less than 30 days? Now we're talking! We don't want to date ourselves, but we can remember a time when you could get a GSA Schedule in less than 10 days if the proposal was properly prepared. We also remember modifications approved and processed in less than a day, and a time when contracting officers and contractors worked together in a partnership to provide the federal end-user customer with the best in customer support, quality and price. Ah, the good old days.
While Doan's pledge is a welcomed surprise, the questions remain. How will this goal be accomplished? When will this goal be achieved? Is this simply too good to be true?
In reply to the first question, Doan has made public pleas to federal contractors to work together to provide workable solutions that she can put to practice. In our opinion, the GSA Schedule process could be greatly improved if GSA contracting officials simply took more time to get to know their vendors -- new and old.
A face-to-face meeting with a new offeror would greatly improve the contracting officer's understanding of what the vendor offers and how they sell that product or service commercially. Face-to-face meetings with new offerors would also enable a contracting officer to more quickly identify problem areas with respect to an offerors' proposal and allow any misunderstandings or misperceptions to be quickly clarified by the offeror. Yearly meetings with current Schedule holders would get both parties to touch base with each other and make sure they are still operating on the same assumptions upon which the contract awarded. For some reason, however, most GSA contracting officials are notoriously reluctant to conduct these types of meetings.
New Attitude
As to when we can expect to see GSA Schedules awarded within 30 days, the answer is unclear. To our knowledge, GSA has not established firm milestones for reaching this goal, so whether or not this is indeed too good to be true is anyone's guess. In all fairness, however, it must be said that while Doan's 30-day promise seems laughable given the state of affairs during the past couple of years, it is an attainable goal. There is nothing inherently unreasonable in assuming that the current workforce at GSA is capable or willing to work hard to achieve this goal. They did it once and they can do it again.
To this end, we have seen some subtle changes in the atmosphere at GSA over the past few months since Doan has arrived. A rejuvenation in spirit, if you will.
For example, a contract renewal application for a GSA Group 70 Information Technology Schedule contract that was submitted by one of our clients over a year ago is almost finalized, the contracting officer suddenly interested in putting the file to rest after months of neglect. Another contracting officer actually contacted a vendor -- that's right, they called the vendor -- to let the vendor know that its Small Business Subcontracting Plan was due to expire and would need to be resubmitted. Yet another contracting officer profusely thanked another client for taking the initiative to call and let her know that its GSA Group 36 Office, Imaging, and Document Solution Schedule was set to expire in the upcoming months.
Now we may be making a mountain of a molehill, but in sum the atmosphere at GSA has brightened considerably over the past few months, whether or not due to the arrival of the new administrator and her staff. As with all things, only time will tell if GSA will get back on track and whether Doan will be able to keep her promise. We wish her luck and will keep our fingers crossed.
Andrew Mohr is a partner in the law firm of Cohen Mohr LLP and a Professorial Lecturer at American University in Washington, DC, who specializes in government and commercial contracts, including GSA schedules. C. Kelly Kroll is an associate at Cohen Mohr with extensive experience in GSA Schedule contract proposal preparation, negotiation, and administration. Contact them at (202) 342-2550, fax (202) 342-6147, or at www.cohenmohr.com.
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