GSA to Retain Pricing at Contract Level for Multiple Award Schedule Program

The General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service will keep pricing at the contract level for Multiple Award Schedule contracts after customer agencies raised concerns about a section in the fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that sought to increase competition at the task order level.

Section 876 of the FY19 NDAA provides GSA the authority to eliminate price as an evaluation factor in certain Federal Supply Schedule and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts, shifting pricing negotiations to the task order level, GSA said Wednesday.

Customer agencies said such a move would lessen the value they get from MAS contracts.

Sonny Hashmi, commissioner of FAS and a previous Wash100 Award winner, expressed support to FAS’ recommendation not to implement Section 876 into the MAS program.

FAS said keeping pricing for MAS contracts at the contract level would enable agencies to negotiation discounts at the order level, improve competition and gain faster response times.