Multiple Award Schedules

<p>&nbsp;</p><p>Ok here is the deal.&nbsp; You can put open market items on your bid, however as someone stated before it must be clearly marked &quot;open market&quot; and must be ancilliary to the main item being purchased and cannot cost more than the main or primary item.</p><p>However, a little market research could have cleared up all of this, as simple as going into to GSAAdvantage, putting in the product number and very quickly it would have told whether or not that items was on schedule.&nbsp; Also if you have found or think the contractor is trying to dupe the Government, which would be the case if the contract number and product numbers were wrong, this should have been reported to the GSA Contracting Officer and the remedy would be the Contract could have his contract terminated, he could have been made to pay for reprocurement cost if the agency had to go back out again and probably other remedies depending on how egregious the misconduct was felt to be.&nbsp; The GSA master contract specifically speaks to the issue of misrepresentation by Contractors and I have taken action (terminated contracts) when contractors have done things like this.&nbsp; It is very important that these things be brought to the CO&#39;s attention, if they are a good CO, they will follow up and take appropriate action on your behalf.&nbsp; Having worked for GSA for over 30 years, and e-buy for inception&nbsp;this I know.&nbsp;</p>

<p><b><font size="4">17. PURCHASE OF INCIDENTAL, NON-SCHEDULE ITEMS </font></b></p><p><font face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="3">NOTE: Open Market Items are also known as incidental items, noncontract items, non-Schedule items, and items not on a Federal Supply Schedule contract. For administrative convenience, an ordering office contracting officer may add items not on the Federal Supply Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) &ndash; referred to as open market items &ndash; to a Federal Supply Schedule blanket purchase agreement (BPA) or an individual task or delivery order, only if- (1) All applicable acquisition regulations pertaining to the purchase of the items not on the Federal Supply Schedule have been followed (e.g., publicizing (Part 5), competition requirements (Part 6), acquisition of commercial items (Part 12), contracting methods (Parts 13, 14, and 15), and small business programs (Part 19)); (2) The ordering office contracting officer has determined the price for the items not on the Federal Supply Schedule is fair and reasonable; (3) The items are clearly labeled on the order as items not on the Federal Supply Schedule; and (4) All clauses applicable to items not on the Federal Supply Schedule are included in the order. </font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="3">Does this hold wter?</font></font></p>

<p>In our industry where the Server Cabinet is on our IT70 schedule, but perhaps the shelves or power strip that is also requested is not on schedule, we bid anyway. We clearly mark on the quote which items are on schedule and which are open market so there is no misunderstanding by the CO or the end user. Typically the cabinet is the bigger dollar item and the cost of accessories is insignificant. If accessories are higher dollar items, we will discount the same percent we do on the GSA schedule so that the gov is still saving the same amount of money they would have if everything had been on schedule.&nbsp; So far we&#39;re not impressed with teaming arrangements. They are time consuming, rife with miscommunication and getting paid by the lead contractor is always in question.</p>

<p>I too have noticed that sometimes items requested on eBuy are items that can only be open market.&nbsp; In my industry there are certain items that are ONLY made in China and thus cannot (or should I say..&quot;should not&quot;) be on anyone&#39;s contract.&nbsp; In these cases I contact the buying official and inform them of this and ask for their direction.&nbsp; In almost every case they have been glad I have contacted them and often issue a modification to their RFQ.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Every eBuy RFQ clearly states in red type &quot;Reminder: Please do not include open market items with&nbsp;your offer&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp;Anyone who submits a quote with open market items clearly is violating the&nbsp;rules.&nbsp;&nbsp;If you don&#39;t carry an item on&nbsp;your&nbsp;GSA Schedule, find a vendor who does carry the item, or a similar item that is &quot;equal&quot;, and establish a Contractor Teaming Arrangement (CTA) that allows you to provide a&nbsp;100% GSA Schedule&nbsp;solution.&nbsp; If you are sure&nbsp;no one could fulfill the requirement with a 100% GSA solution, contact the Contracting Officer and explain why using eBuy will not result&nbsp;in a 100% GSA solution - ask that they&nbsp;cancel the eBuy RFQ, and post the requirement on FBO (they could still request a solution that has&nbsp;as many GSA priced items as possible).<font size="2">&nbsp;</font><br /><br />&nbsp;</p>

<p>Could you please&nbsp;provide a little more detail? Are the COs being duped or is it a nearly impossible task for vendors to keep up with the system. Admittadly, I am new and in experienced but I have see eBuy solicitations for cameras and associated equipment that mught require some obsecure mount or other item that is not on the schedule. If I&nbsp;get that part on the open market and include it to complete the solicitation, I should be diciplined? I think we should be trying to bridge the gap, not widen it.</p>

<p>I think this actually happens more than people realize.&nbsp; My agency received a quote on a brand name or equal and awarded to a compnay that offered an equal prodcut.&nbsp; It cited its GSA contract number, etc.&nbsp; Only when a problem arose with the equipment did we discover&nbsp;that not only was the product offered not on the schedule, but the FSS contract cited was for something completely different.</p><p>CO&#39;s should do some minimal research before making an award to ensure they aren&#39;t being duped.&nbsp; It would be nice if companies were disciplined for making misrepresentations when they include open market items in their quotes; that might stem the tide a bit.&nbsp; But I doubt that the government could keep up with it.</p>