Industry Coalition Says Advisory Panel Proposals "A Step Backward" A coalition of industry groups is urging the Bush administration and Congress to reject key recommendations of the Acquisition Advisory Panel. The congressionally chartered Panel’s draft final report, issued in December, followed nearly two years of study of procurement laws and regulations. Some of its recommendations are already showing up in legislation introduced in Congress. The multi-association group, including seven of the leading industry trade associations, objected to three of the major recommendations. The Panel called for narrowing the definition of commercial services (but not commercial items) that can be purchased under streamlined procedures of Part 12 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The current rule says services can be considered commercial if they are “of a type” sold in the commercial marketplace. The Panel said commercial services should be limited to those services that actually are sold commercially in substantial quantities. The industry groups said that restriction would “take a step backward” from acquisition reforms of the 1990s and make it more difficult for the government to procure services. The Panel recommended permitting protests on orders above $5 million on GSA schedules and other multiple award contracts. The contractor groups said that would “ultimately cost the taxpayer and it hurts the government’s ability to get the work accomplished on schedule.” The industry associations opposed the Panel’s recommendations for restricting the use of time-and-materials contracts, saying current controls are adequate. In assessing the Panel’s 80 recommendations, the associations said no “radical changes” are needed as long as current laws and regulations are applied properly. The groups agreed with the Panel’s recommendations for wider use of performance-based contracts and for improving the federal acquisition workforce. The multi-association group is made up of the Aerospace Industries Association, Contract Services Association, Electronic Industries Alliance, Information Technology Association of America, National Defense Industrial Association and Professional Services Council. Separately two leading procurement-law scholars described most of the Advisory Panel’s recommendations as “neither revolutionary nor terribly controversial.” Steven Schooner and Chris Yukins, co-directors of The George Washington University’s Procurement Law Center, wrote in a paper that the Panel “performed a valuable public service” by emphasizing the need for more and better-trained acquisition personnel. But they said its recommendations regarding GSA schedules and other interagency contracts did not go far enough toward improving competition and transparency. The Panel said all task and delivery orders above $100,000 should be advertised to all qualified contractors, such as by posting them on GSA’s e-Buy, or should be circulated to enough contractors to get three bids. Schooner and Yukins recommended public notice for all task orders above $25,000 and allowing protests and debriefing of losing bidders on all task orders, regardless of size.