If the objective of hiring an intern is to reduce cost, the result will be the opposite: unlimited legal and financial exposure for inaccurate disclosures; profit lost due to under-pricing, or deals lost due to over-pricing; time lost growing your business or serving your customers.

The Buy American Act & Government Contracts

Home Depot is facing a lawsuit for violating the Buy American Act (BAA). The suit, brought by whistle-blowers employed at a partner company of Home Depot, alleges that both companies supplied goods to government agencies through their GSA Schedules that were incorrectly identified as being compliant with BAA, but were actually made in China.

Buy American Act & GSA Schedules

When applying for a GSA Schedule, companies are required to certify the source of each product offered. GSA allows only items made in the United States or in Trade Agreement Act (TAA) compliant countries to be offered through the Schedules. The plaintiffs accuse Home Depot of misrepresenting the countries of origin of many of their items.

Congress has approved a short-term stopgap measure that will keep the federal government funded until a longer term solution can be agreed upon.  

Vendors on GSA Schedule 03FAC (Facilities Maintenance/Management) and GSA Schedule 871 (Professional Engineering Services) will see their subcontracting plan threshold increase, while all future modifications to their GSA Schedules will have to be submitted electronically.

The Department of Defense’ s Defense Logistics Agency Information Service has begun notifying over 600 Open Market Suppliers on DOD EMALL that their catalogs of products will be removed from the DoD’s online marketplace by October 29, 2010.

The General Services Administration announced this week that it will suspend consideration of new offers for GSA Schedule 75 for office supplies on October 1, 2010. This GSA Schedule 75 suspension will last through October 2012.