January 30, 2013
Industry Briefing at GSA Headquarters, Washington DC
Re: GSA Schedules - FSSI Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative
GSA’s Hunger Games – Government Contractors – “Clear Winners and
Losers”…
Yes, “Clear Winners and Losers” - GSA’s words, not mine. If you are a small business, you should be scared. GSA has decided that
the government is paying too high a price for the goods and services they
purchase. That’s what this FSSI (Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative) thing
there are selling you is all about. The last time I saw “SS” together, the
outcome was not favorable.
GSA states there are too many discrepancies in price for the
same product – and not enough volume discounts for the overall government
spend. Aren’t GSA Schedules designed to obtain “fair & reasonable pricing”
and obtain the same (or better) volume and quantity discounts offered to your
other customers in the commercial marketplace? Surprise, surprise - GSA is
putting the burden of work onto the contractors because their own – taxpayer
funded - accounting and financial systems cannot track this information.
Shameful. GSA is asking vendors in select Schedules to provide exhaustive data
so that they (GSA) can standardize what they are buying and at what price – to
eventually chop the expensive offerings off the block. These vendors would be
the “Losers” according to GSA. What will happen to the “Losers”? Can they bid
again to get on the FSSI short-list? How long is the wait to bid again? No
clear answer was provided in an open Industry session today at GSA HQ, but
don’t worry there is ample business – especially in large volume - for the
“Winners”.
Out here in the real world, perhaps our out-of-touch government
friends have not realized that this obviously hurts small business. There is a
huge cost involved in extracting the required information - and in case GSA has
not noticed, small businesses are struggling – just with staying alive each
month. Cutting certain industries out of competing for government contracts
with the 7 agencies who have “signed on” to FSSI just does not look, smell or
sound like a pro-small business program to me!
In fact, it smells like something else.
Why is it that buyers cannot obtain the lowest price for items
through novel ideals like GSA E-Buy, or simple FBO.gov solicitations and open
competition? Plus, lowest price is not always the best answer, because if that
is your only deciding factor, quality will surely be sacrificed. Lowest price
will eventually turn into a game of contractors buying contracts just to have
business, and recognize no margin. Not a great idea for business growth, which
oh, by the way, pays your salary, Uncle Sam.
There are many problems with this FSSI initiative. The real fix
could come from internal GSA reform. Perhaps GSA should consider educating the
agencies that use the Schedule for purchases to conduct some market research –
available at their finger tips on GSA Advantage. For example, plug in any MRO
product and you’ve got pages and pages to choose from. Amazingly enough you can
even sort by price! If GSA is complaining
they have buyers spending $100 and $20 for the same product – the repercussions
and penalties should be on the buyer/agency – not to the small business who
gets booted off this price war game. So, let’s fix this problem by educating
the buyers about how to spend government dollars - wisely!! Limiting
competition and a short list vendor pool is not the foundation and principles
that this country was built on. It is also not the answer in government
contracting. Plus, didn’t we hear during the debates and pre-election
propaganda that the current administration was pro-small business? Actions and
programs like this (among others - ie. Obama Care) speak loud and clear.
Ask any small business, woman owned, veteran owned, HUB-zone,
etc if FSSI is good for them. I’d be surprised if we got one “yes”. Heck, these
businesses cannot even get the 23% of the contracting goals set aside for them
as it is. The FSSI policy slick-salesman Joe Jordan ensures us that there will
be plenty of opportunity for small business in various socio-economic
categories – while in the same breathe pontificating about clear Winners and
Losers. In other words, “Happy FSSI’ing – and may the odds be ever in your
favor!”
