Contract management: Opportunities to improve pricing of gsa multiple award schedules contracts
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JOPP-06-03-2006-B005 |
| Date | 01 March 2006 |
| Published date | 01 March 2006 |
| Pages | 296-320 |
| Author | |
| Subject Matter | Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management,Government,Economics,Public Finance/economics,Texation/public revenue |
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT, VOLUME 6, ISSUE 3, 295 2006
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Copyright © 2006 by PrAcademics Press
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT, VOLUME 6, ISSUE 3, 296-320 2006
CONTRACT MANAGEMENT: OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE PRICING OF
GSA MULTIPLE AWARD SCHEDULES CONTRACTS
U.S. Government Accountability Office*
ABSTRACT. Federal agencies can directly purchase more than 8 million
commercial products and services through the General Services
Administration's (GSA) multiple award schedules (MAS) contracts. Over the
past 10 years, MAS contract sales have increased dramatically--with sales
jumping from $4 billion to $32 billion. In addition to simplifying the
procurement process, the MAS program is designed to take advantage of the
government's significant aggregate buying power. While GSA seeks to
negotiate best pricing for its MAS contracts by analyzing vendor-provided
information--such as discounts given to other customers and recent sales
data for the same or similar items--past reports have found that GSA has not
always used pricing tools effectively and that management controls for
better ensuring fair and reasonable pricing had been reduced. This report
discusses GSA's process for negotiating most favored customer prices for
MAS contracts and its efforts to improve the overall quality of negotiations.
Contract negotiators at the four MAS acquisition centers that GAO
reviewed use a variety of tools for obtaining most favored customer pricing--
that is, the prices vendors offer their best customers. However, the GAO
analysis of GSA's review of selected fiscal year 2004 MAS contract files
found that nearly 60 percent lacked the documentation needed to establish
clearly that the prices were effectively negotiated. Specifically, the contract
documentation did not establish that negotiated prices were based on
accurate, complete, and current vendor information; adequate price
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* Reprinted from the U. S. General Accountability Office (2005, February).
“Contract Management: Opportunities to Improve Pricing of GSA Multiple
Award Schedules Contracts” (GAO-05-229). Washington, DC. Several
modifications are made, including endnotes and exclusion of its
Administrator’s transmittal memorandum.
Copyright © 2006 by PrAcademics Press
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