The General Services Administration’s “JanSan” strategic sourcing initiative is raising fears that hundreds of small vendors are likely to get left in the dust.

The GSA recently issued a draft solicitation for the Janitorial/Sanitation procurement, which it has valued at $599 million.

GSA officials have said they are planning for at least 15 Blanket Purchase Agreements under JanSan; at least half would be with small vendors. That means that the vast majority of the 1,300 or so vendors currently selling cleaning supplies to the government likely would not be selected.

As more buys are channeled through JanSan, the impact on the small firms left out would be negative, similar to what happened with the GSA’s office supply strategic procurement, advocates say.

If JanSan becomes mandatory, the negative impact is much greater, Robert Burton, partner at Venable LLP, testified to the House Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce on June 13.

“A large number of small businesses likely will be forced out of business,” Burton told the panel.

Samuel Bornstein, tax and accounting professor at Kean University, created a JanSan website (http://www.jansanfssi.com/) to warn of the risks to small sellers.

Most of the industry is not aware of JanSan and “the tremendous impact it will have,” Bornstein said. “The (website) is an effort to raise awareness of the risk for businesses to lose a substantial amount of their government business.”

GSA officials, in response to such concerns, have noted in previous statements that the office supply (OS2) procurement included a BPA awarded to a consortium of more than 100 vendors. JanSan vendors presumably also may form consortia to seek BPAs.

In addition, GSA officials have said that as small vendors with JanSan contracts grow large, on-ramps would ensure a flow of new vendors into the program. GSA’s communications office did not respond to a request for comment.

However, Bornstein was skeptical. On-ramps and consortia are “nice ideas, but I doubt they will do any good,” he said.

More information: GSA Interact JanSan Webside http://goo.gl/9czWs