OMB limits civilian computer buys to three large acquisition vehicles

Agencies ordered to use Schedule 70, SEWP or NIH CIO-CS

Federal agencies awarded more than 10,000 contracts totaling $1.1 billion for desktop and laptop computers in fiscal 2014--contracts that the White House believes are inefficient and do not offer insight into prices paid.

To address that concern, the Office of Management and Budget has banned most new contracts for laptop and desktop computers, effective immediately, and ordered that all agencies take steps to standardize and consolidate their contracts for laptops and desktops.

Civilian agencies now must make at least 80% of all new computer purchases on three existing governmentwide acquisition vehicles: NASA’s SEWP, General Services Administration’s Schedule 70 or the National Institutes of Health’s CIO-CS.

Those three contract vehicles currently account for about a third of what the civilian agencies annually spend on new computers. The other two-thirds comprise more than 2,000 contracts.

The three vehicles fit the government’s category management approach and also support small business goals, Federal CIO Tony Scott and Office of Federal Procurement Policy Administrator Anne Rung wrote in a blog post on the Web on Oct. 14. They also issued a memo detailing the new policy on Oct. 16.

“These solutions support the government’s goals of increasing opportunities for small businesses as small business participation rates on these three solutions exceed the overall small business participation on all other laptop and desktop vehicles across government,” Scott and Rung wrote.

OMB said its previous research showed that laptop prices varied from $450 to $1,300 for the same configuration.

The government’s Workstation Category Team, led by NASA under the category management initiative, developed two standard configurations and three upgraded configurations that it said could meet nearly 80% of all agencies’ desktop or laptop needs. Those configurations are being posted in the General Services Administration’s Acquisition Gateway website.

“Effective immediately, CIOs shall ensure that at least 80% of their agency’s new basic laptop and desktop requirements are satisfied with one of these standard configurations, unless an exception is consistent with an approved IT acquisition strategy or plan, as required by OMB’s FITARA implementation guidance, and approved in writing by the agency CIO,” Scott and Rung’s memo stated.

Additional configurations for laptops and desktops are to be developed as well.

The new policy allows agencies to continue to use existing contracts through the current base year or option period. Six months prior to the new option period, they must analyze terms and conditions, pricing, performance, fees and savings and present their findings to OMB for approval.

In addition, 18 months before a recompete, the agency must report on how it will transition.

More information: OMB memo: http://www.setasidealert.com/OMB_M-16-02.pdf
OMB blog https://goo.gl/TDOa79

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