New labor categories must not duplicate any categories currently awarded in terms of functions, and commercial/most favored customer rates must be supported just as with the initial offer.

In a year when the president and congress seem unable to work together and Washington has been mired in partisan gridlock, the two sides have found a common cause that they and all Americans can agree on.   Congress recently passed, and the president signed the Veterans Opportunity to Work to Hire Heroes Act of 2011(VOW to Hire Heroes Act).  The act provides tax credits and other incentives for employers to hire veterans. 

Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs said “I am committed to reducing the veterans’ unemployment rate to below 5 percent over the next two years. They kept their vow to us, now it’s our turn to vow to help them.” 

The DOD IG has substantiated two of three allegations in a hotline complaint which alleged that a Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) audit team in the mid-Atlantic region failed to provide adequate audit services. IG substantiated that the DCAA audit team (1) provided inadequate audit assistance in closing contracts by not reviewing final vouchers in a timely manner and (2) inappropriately canceled its review of a progress payment based on direction from a contracting officer who did not have the authority to cancel it.

Service Contract Act Effect On GSA Schedules

This week, we ran into a situation with a client (we'll call it XYZ Corporation) that could be problematic for many current GSA Schedule holders.

XYZ Corporation has an AIMS Schedule, which they submitted themselves and was awarded almost five years ago. For whatever reason, the labor categories were awarded with non-SCA (Service Contract Act) rates; in fact, the rates awarded were almost half of that required by SCA. It could have been the award was made before SCA was required by the AIMS Schedule. This would mean when XYZ approved the mass modification changing the Schedule to SCA, they never modified their schedule to contain SCA rates.

The Presidential has signed legislation that repeals the 2005 law 3% withholding rule.  The rule had been postponed by Congress and the Internal Revenue Service until 2013 and would have required the federal, state and large local governments to withhold 3 percent from payments over $10,000 to vendors. Lawmakers and business owners have contended that the legislation would constrict the cash flow of businesses and would cost more to implement than it would produce in revenue.

According to the DOD Inspector General (IG), DCAA tacks agency-wide guidelines on the timeliness of data tested during audits of contractor systems. Furthermore, the lack of guidelines delays DCAA contractor business system reviews. The Director of DCAA has agreed and promised guidance by November 2011 (tomorrow).

How to Get Government Contracts

If your business needs GSA Schedule services and is trying to sell to the government, contrary to what you might think, it’s actually quite possible with the right knowledge and tools. While a simple blog post won’t suffice, we can give you a few tips to keep in mind when it comes to selling to the government and getting a GSA Schedule.

Did you know 400 billion dollars worth of contracts go to private sector businesses? You must not only stand out but you have to be able to make a valuable proposition and communicate it to your prospects. Though it may seem obvious, don’t skimp on availability – make your business easy for the government customer to get to. After all, that’s the appeal of GSA Schedules. It simplifies the whole process!

Refresh 29 to GSA Schedule 70

Aside from the end of summer, September has brought us the latest refresh of Schedule 70, the General Purpose Commercial Information Technology Equipment, Software and Services.

The major update in Refresh 29 is to mandate the use of eContracting, including eOffer and eMod for submitting offers and modifications.

EZGSA congratulates the 77 incoming GSA Schedule and VA Schedule FSS contractors on their new schedules.

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.

Books on Getting a GSA Schedule

EZGSA's publications, Getting a GSA Schedule: A Step by Step Guide and Contract Management of Your GSA Schedule are now available in both book (hard copy) through Amazon, and in eBook (online copy) through this website. These publications help break down the monstrous task of obtaining and managing a GSA Schedule into small steps. Even those with little or no government contracting experience will be able to get a grip on each of the requirements and be able to work through the Schedule award and contract management processes.

New GSA Schedules awarded week ended 04/08/2011

AUTOMOTIVE SUPERSTORE - GSA purchases many types of new vehicles and vehicle related products for government agencies and DoD. Use AutoChoice to purchase: Alternative fuel vehicles; Ambulances; Buses; Light trucks; Light trucks - vocational; Medium and heavy trucks; Sedans; Wheelchair vans; Wreckers and carriers.

When using this schedule, you can access vendors directly to place an order for vehicles or accessories or you can contact GSA to place the order on your behalf! More information on these options is available through our CARS line at 703-605-CARS (2277).

FACILITIES MAINTENANCE AND MANAGEMENT - GSA offers a vast array of innovative, customer-focused facilities products and services. Facilities Maintenance and Management, Schedule number 03FAC, is a Multiple Award Schedule that provides federal agencies a streamlined procurement device to acquire all of the services necessary to maintain and manage a facility.

IceWEB, Inc. a provider of Unified Data Storage and building blocks for cloud storage networks, announced today that it is partnering with TST to offer the Enterprise visualization appliance powered by Google Earth on GSA contract, GS-35F-0084V, Schedule 70, providing government customers the ability to conveniently purchase and deploy the appliance and IceWEB Storage systems.

The IceWEB EVA Appliance, announced separately, offers customers high performance, easy to implement and managed enterprise GIS platform coupled with industry leading data storage that provides integrated SAN/NAS functionality on a single platform.

Choice Relocation Management, LLC of Cleveland, Ohio has been awarded a GSA Schedule 48 contract and is now certified to provide goods and services to the federal government.

They will be listing their relocation consulting services on GSAAdvantage! (http://www.gsaadvantage.gov) the government's electronic ordering system.

Last week, GSA released its “2011 First Quarter Sales Report for the IT Schedule 70 Multiple Award Schedule.”

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

A GSA Schedule is a contract issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) of the U.S. government.  The contract may be used by any federal agency -- and many other federally supported organizations and entities -- to fulfill any product or service requirement, without limit.  Based upon a vendor’s offer (or proposal) to GSA, the contract specifies the products and/or services, prices, terms and conditions within which the vendor may sell and the agencies may purchase. 

When awarded by GSA, the Schedule each contract is initially unfunded.  Funding occurs from each agency at the time they orders against the contract.  Multiple vendors can each be awarded contracts for identical products and services (each with different prices).  A GSA schedule has a base period of 5 years, and has 3 5-year renewal options, giving each a potential life of 20 years. 

This week, the GSA announced their most recent round of refreshes, including Schedule 51V, Hardware Superstore.

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.

The overwhelming demand for GSA Schedules is taking its toll on the Acquisition Centers. MOBIS has been advising vendors that their workload has tripled since last year. While they typically have 120 - 150 offers in process for award, they currently have over 400 offers.

During EZGSA's weekly production meetings, a few items continue to pop up time and again. One issue in particular should be of interest to two different classes of our clients: those who are in the midst of working on their GSA Schedule proposals as well as those who have their proposals already submitted to GSA but not awarded. This issue is turnaround time from submission to award at the GSA acquisition offices. The current economic climate is being blamed for many things, but most analysts believe that as business owners experience difficulty selling to the commercial marketplace, they turn to government buyers. Of course, the GSA Schedules promote the most efficient method of selling to the federal government, and subsequently, submissions to all GSA acquisition centers have increased tremendously. We wanted to update you about the following trends in some of the various GSA acquisition centers so that you can be better prepared for a realistic timeline with regard to your own submission.