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Federal Market Intelligence for Small Business |
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GSA Multiple-Award Schedules: How much more will they shrink?The General Services Administration’s Multiple-Award Schedules program is quietly shrinking. Total awards made through GSA schedules have dropped by 15% in value in five years, from $39 billion in fiscal 2010 to $33 billion in fiscal 2014, according to the latest data from the GSA’s Schedule Sales Query website. The schedules program generally flies under the radar, so awareness of the trend may have been slow to develop. But industry concern is now growing and could lead to more public debate on the schedules’ future. The timing of such a discussion could be apt as GSA is preparing another round of initiatives affecting the schedules, including category management and “hallways,” and also preparing for new leadership following Administrator Dan Tangherlini’s departure on Feb. 13. The schedules reduced spending trend mirrored the decrease in federal contract spending overall from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2013 due to severe budget cuts. But some forms of federal contracting rebounded last year. For example, small business federal contracting rose by 9.4% in fiscal 2014 in comparison to fiscal 2013, according to the latest White House Small Business Dashboard figures as of Jan. 19. However, GSA schedules sales did not bounce back in fiscal 2014, but rather continued to diminish, the GSA sales data indicates. The schedules’ aggregate dollar value has fallen each year through fiscal 2014. The reductions have hit most of the schedules. The largest schedule, Schedule 70, for sales of information technology, fell by 12% during the period, from $16 billion in fiscal 2010 to $14 billion in fiscal 2014. The second largest schedule, Schedule 874 (MOBIS), for mission-oriented business solutions, lost 23% of its value during the period, going from $5.2 billion in sales to $4 billion. Other schedule sales reductions were even more dramatic during the five-year-period, including Schedule 874V (logistics), down 50%; Schedule 56 (building materials), down 48%; Schedule 84 (law enforcement solutions), down 44%; and Schedule 72 (furnishings and floor coverings), down 42%. A few schedules bucked the downward trend. Schedule 599 for travel agent services rose by 60%, and Schedule 03FAC for facilities management rose by 47%, during the five years, GSA sales data shows. The latest data suggest that recent procurement trends and modernization initiatives may have contributed to dampened sales on the schedules. In addition to the impact of budget cuts, industry leaders have pointed to the growth in large governmentwide acquisition vehicles, such as NASA’s “SEWP” and GSA’s “OASIS,” as possible factors in reduced schedules sales. In the last two years, GSA modernization initiatives including strategic sourcing vehicles, reverse auctions, “Lowest Price Technically Acceptable” terms in contracts, an upcoming consolidated professional services schedule, and a new prices-paid Web portal for sharing pricing information all have been named as possible contributors to the schedules sales slump. Roger Waldron, president of the Coalition for Government Procurement, wrote in a recent blog that strategic sourcing and the prices-paid portal have hurt the schedules (http://goo.gl/JM930s). “To date, the experiences with (Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative) and GSA regarding the prices paid data is that of an agency seeking to drive down prices at all costs,” Waldron wrote. “For example, GSA is using historical, horizontal price comparisons to drive down pricing in the Multiple Award Schedules. Price comparisons that too often ignore differing terms and conditions, commitment and market conditions—even ignoring such basic price drivers as unit of issue!! It is ‘Lowest Price Regardless’ on steroids.” Jennifer Aubel, principal consultant with Fed Nexus Law, also is sounding an alarm. “Schedules modernization or MAS extinction event?” Aubel wrote in a recent blog entry (http://goo.gl/pQLsVw). “It is starting to seem to me that ‘modernization’ might just be a code word for ‘elimination.’ After all, GSA appears hellbent on driving contractors and ordering agencies off the Schedules and onto other contract vehicles (SEWP anyone?).” As of late 2014, GSA Administrator Tangherlini was leading the charge to consider even more changes to the schedules. “Everything should be on the table with schedules,” Tangherlini said at an industry event in November, according to Federal Times (http://goo.gl/XUdpWy). “We can really even ask some bigger meta questions about what is the role of the schedule in an environment in which you can have digital access to multiple-award vehicles across the government,” Tangherlini said. With Tangherlini’s departure, it’s not immediately clear how the new chief will view those priorities. GSA officials have described their motivation as a need to reduce redundancy, increase efficiency and lower prices. For the upcoming consolidation of several professional services schedules, for example, one of the goals is to reduce the costs of managing more than 500 contractors who hold multiple schedules contracts.GSA officials were not immediately available to comment further.
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GSA OASIS: Task orders, not BPAs
Washington Insider:
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