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Federal Market Intelligence for Small Business |
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GSA Adm. Emily Murphy: TDR, Schedules & “Frankenstein” ITEmily Murphy, the Trump Administration’s new administrator of the General Services Administration, is being hailed as probably the most qualified GSA leader in decades. Murphy has several decades of federal acquisition experience, including within the GSA and in Congress. In her first major interview with the media (Federal News Radio), Murphy outlined some of her goals for improved acquisition, including increasing competition by making Multiple-Award Schedules contracts and task orders more transparent, reevaluating Transactional Data Reporting (TDR), reducing duplication in acquisition systems and improving debriefings. Transparency One of her top priorities is increasing transparency, including in Schedules contracts and task orders. The idea is that more transparency would allow the public more information about the market and stimulate new bidders to enter the market. It also would improve oversight. But the drawback is that it could be negative for current Schedules holders if Schedules was the only program with such transparency. Murphy said she’s discussed options with the White House and with GSA’s Office of Governmentwide Policy, Office of General Counsel and the Federal Acquisition Service about it. All are “looking at it” and preparing options. “I think this needs to be addressed not just in the microcosm of the GSA Schedules,” Murphy said in the interview. “If we are looking at task orders, we need to be looking across government and making sure we are not disadvantaging the Schedules program versus other programs, and we are not putting our vendors or our customers at a competitive disadvantage.” TDR Murphy initially intended to phase out the controversial TDR program that collects data from federal vendors, but now she is trying to move toward a replacement program based on e-invoices. GSA developed TDR two years ago to replace the commercial sales rule and the price reduction clause, which together require vendors to report discounts they give to commercial clients, and to offer those same discounts to federal clients over the life of a contract. TDR data collection initially was to be mandatory for all new Schedules contract holders and for companies renewing their Schedules contracts, but it became voluntary after complaints it was burdensome. “I came in with a strong preconceived notion that perhaps it (TDR) was something we just wanted to roll back,” Murphy told Federal News Radio. “I came in and saw a lot of the value of it, but I also realized that rolling it back, in-and-of itself, creates a burden for the very businesses we are trying to help. We are trying to move toward an e-invoicing system instead.” “Frankenstein” IT systems Murphy is looking at the business processes and information technology systems within GSA and the Federal Acquisition Service, to identify opportunities to reduce duplication. “We have 173 systems supporting the Federal Acquisition Service. Each of those systems poses its own challenges, she said. “Every time we sort of “Frankenstein” a new system together, it ends up affecting our business processes,” and it affects how businesses, large and small, can access the federal market, Murphy said in the interview. Better Debriefings Murphy, while counsel for the House Armed Services Committee, helped commission a study on bid protests. The RAND study recently came out and said better debriefings may help reduce bid protests, among other findings. As a result, Murphy said she is working with the Office of Governmentwide Policy to create a training module to improve debriefings. She also is exploring whether the Defense Dept.’s enhanced debriefings could be applied more broadly.
More information:
Federal News Radio: http://goo.gl/Ju2ETo
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