GSA Announces Plan to Modernize Schedules

Effort will save millions, reduce waste and streamline the schedule process.

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, The U.S. General Services Administration outlined the next step in a cost-cutting business model for its Multiple Award Schedules that will save millions of taxpayer dollars and reduce inefficiencies. Under this new plan, GSA will stop adding new contractors for outdated products such as typewriters, photographic equipment, trophies and commemorative or promotional items. Directing scarce acquisition resources away from the more than 8,000 obsolete contracts -- which each cost at least $3,000 per year to administer -- will streamline the schedule process and save more than $24 million a year.

"By stopping the proliferation of low performance contracts and cutting products or services that are no longer mission-critical to the government, GSA will reduce waste and save millions of taxpayer dollars annually," said Dan Tangherlini, Acting Administrator. "This helps us streamline the way we do business, save taxpayer dollars, and ensure the most efficient delivery of services to our customer agencies."

The Multiple Award Schedules leverage the purchasing power of the federal government to provide discounted products and services to government through thousands of contracts with private companies. GSA projects that more than 50 percent of the contracts awarded in 2011 will have low or no sales.

In recent years, the number of companies trying to get onto GSA's Multiple Award Schedules has roughly doubled and the number of modifications to existing contracts has tripled. Managing these contracts from the private sector requires significant investment in administrative and contracting resources. A demand-based model for Multiple Award Schedules will save millions of taxpayer dollars annually by phasing out outdated products and services, and eliminating contract agreements that have low or no performance. GSA will also be looking at more than 19,000 contracts with private sector firms to determine which industries are over saturated and where duplication has created a crowded and confusing market.

"When contracting officers are bogged down managing thousands of contracts with little to no sales, they can't focus on adding innovative solutions to the schedules, improving pricing, and simplifying the buying experience for our customers. Modernizing the schedules will change that," said Steve Kempf, Commissioner of the GSA Federal Acquisition Service.

GSA is strongly committed to working with small businesses to deliver services to the federal government and this plan to modernize the Multiple Award Schedules program will only impact low and no performance contract agreements. The MAS program routinely exceeds the governmentwide small business contracting goal of 23 percent. Specifically, more than 70 percent of all MAS vendors are small businesses and approximately 34 percent of all dollars spent on the MAS go to small businesses.

For more information about this effort, click here: http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/136643

As the federal government's workplace solutions provider, the U.S. General Services Administration works to foster an effective, sustainable and transparent government for the American people. GSA's expertise in government workplace solutions include:

• Effective management of government assets including more than 9,600 government-owned or leased buildings and 215,000 vehicles in the federal fleet, and preservation of historic federal properties;
• Leveraging the government's buying power through responsible acquisition of products and services making up approximately 14 percent of the government's total procurement dollars;
• Providing innovative technology solutions to enhance government efficiency and increase citizen engagement; and,
• Promoting responsible use of federal resources through development of governmentwide policies ranging from federal travel to property and management practices.

SOURCE U.S. General Services Administration