GSA Panel Members Consider Pricing Policies Most members of a GSA Advisory Panel indicated they favor changes in pricing policies for GSA schedules. The panel, appointed by former administrator Lurita Doan, was tasked to review the schedules’ most favored customer provisions and price reduction policies. It is due to report its recommendations in the fall. “Pricing against the schedules is a point of frustration for contractors, contracting officers, program managers and oversight agencies,” Debra Sonderman, senior procurement executive at the Interior Department, said at the group’s first public meeting May 5. Chairman Elliot Branch, executive director for contracts at the Naval Sea Systems Command, said the panel should be guided by three goals: “the most competitive price for the taxpayer;” fair prices for contractors; and transparency in operation of the schedules. GSA’s pricing policies were established decades ago, when the schedules sold primarily off-the-shelf supplies. Sales are now dominated by services. Those sales have grown from $4 billion in 1995 to nearly $36 billion in 2007. But sales growth has stalled in recent years, as many large agencies turned to their own enterprise-wide multiple award contracts and the schedules’ biggest customer, the Defense Department, imposed new controls on their use. Acting GSA administrator David Bibb said sales grew by less than 3% in the first half of fiscal 2008. Some in industry and government have said GSA’s pricing clauses are not suited for procurements of complex services. In recent months several large vendors, including Sun Microsystems and Canon, walked away from their schedule contracts after disputes over pricing. Panel members, including 11 from government and four industry representatives, revealed no specifics about what changes they might support. “No matter what we do, [it] will be controversial,” said David Drabkin, GSA’s acting chief acquisition officer. The panel will hear public comments at its next meeting, scheduled for May 22 at GSA headquarters in Washington.