Budget cuts, scandals and travel restrictions have caused the General Service Administration to cancel their 2013 Expo. “It is the first time in almost 20 years that GSA has put on the Expo that they have decided to cancel it. Even in 2012 when the agency was racked by conference related scandal, they moved forwardRead… Read more »
As per current federal statutes, the inability of Congress to agree on ways to reduce the United States deficit will result in $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts in federal spending, referred to as sequestration, effective March 1, 2013. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), this could translate into as muchRead… Read more »
The other day I had a good conversation with a GSA Contracting Officer interested in hearing how other Acquisition Centers are improving the wait time for a GSA Contract review. She seemed overwhelmed by the increase in workload over the past 2/3 years, and for good reason. The GSA has left the response in thisRead… Read more »
Have you taken the comprehensive MAS Basic Course yet? Join us for this training online and receive a 4-credit CLP certificate towards your warrant requirements. The target audience for this training is contracting professionals at all levels who seek to gain understanding or strengthen their knowledge of Schedules contracting and ordering procedures. This course willRead… Read more »
“The Government Man” has been quiet lately but an obscure news release over the weekend pushed my buttons again about one of my favorite topics, our ineffective and morally lacking Congress. Buried in the news on a Saturday before New Year’s weekend, the slowest media day of the week, if not the year, was aRead… Read more »
There is much to learn about federal contracting, especially between your Schedule Solicitation document and the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). But there is also a great deal to gain in the federal market. An example is with a manufacturer who gives distributors a 50% discount, retailers a 30% discount, and the list price for generalRead… Read more »
I have been using this blog as a forum for satirical commentary concerning some elected officials and certain components of my former lifetime employer, GSA. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no humor to be found in discussing Hurricane Sandy, one of the great disasters of a lifetime. In the last year GSA has been in theRead… Read more »
After you have isolated the proper GSA Schedule, you will want to view the list of Special Item Numbers (SIN’s) under that Schedule. SIN’s are the subcategories of a GSA Schedule. For example the Facilities Maintenance Schedule has a SIN for Electrician services and another for HVAC services, and so on. These sub-categories can helpRead… Read more »
There are so many choices when it comes to obtaining a GSA Contract, but they all can be categorized into 3 basic groups (everything can be categorized, right!). The first category is the “Do-it-yourself” where either the an chief executive officer staffer or assistant is tasked with acquiring their GSA Contract. They do not knowRead… Read more »
How do you communicate with someone you don’t talk to? This is some more fun stuff excerpted from my book,Confessions of a Government Man. Underlying the levity, however, was a serious personnel management issue. Have any of you faced a similar situation? * * * As a division director I was just far enough fromRead… Read more »