E-commerce could hurt small biz

GSA plans for schedules

      Congress’ order that the government establish an e-commerce portal is likely to hurt small business suppliers, advocates are saying.

      There are two major areas of concern. First is that small firms with contracts on the General Services Administration’s schedules are likely to be vulnerable to losing sales to the online portal or portals, especially if the micropurchase threshold for the e-commerce platforms is raised to $25,000.

      The second concern is that some buys from an e-commerce portal may circumvent longstanding acquisition laws, including preferences for small businesses and the Buy American Act.

      In a town hall on the e-commerce plan, a GSA official partially addressed those concerns by saying GSA is working on a plan to reduce burdens on schedules contract holders. The plan would allow schedules suppliers to offer multiple items, or supplies and services, possibly on a single schedules contract, Fedscoop reported.

      Many micropurchases are made from GSA schedules contracts, often with small business suppliers. A portion of that demand likely would shift to the e-commerce portals, especially if purchases below $20,000 would not be required to comply with longstanding laws, including preferences for small business suppliers, the Buy American Act, rules on competition and sole-sourcing, and rules against organizational conflicts of interest, Roger Waldron, president of the Coalition for Government Procurement, wrote in a comment to the GSA.

      “Such a shift will create parallel procurement systems: one for compliant products under pre-existing contracts, and the other for products that do not meet certain government requirements through e-commerce portals. Coalition members would like to better understand if this outcome is intended by GSA,” Waldron wrote.

More information: Coalition letter: https://bit.ly/2KJBIGO
Fedscoop article: https://bit.ly/2K2bjI5

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