Multiple Award Schedules

On June 23, 2016, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) published a General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) final rule to capture transactional data on procurements across all of its Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) program contracts and Governmentwide Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contracts, to include Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs). The Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) Rule requires vendors to electronically report the price the Federal Government paid for an item or service purchased through GSA acquisition vehicles.

As part of the strategic implementation of the rule across all GSA contracts, the agency will introduce the transactional data reporting requirement with a pilot of select products and services in the FSS program. This pilot was introduced in a phased approach beginning in August 2016.

Why is the GSA Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) implementing this change? The goals of TDR are to:

• Significantly reduce burden to industry partners by eliminating Commercial Sales Practices (CSP) disclosure and Price Reductions clause (PRC) tracking requirements from Schedule contracts participating in the TDR pilot.
• Reduce contract administration burden for TDR pilot vendors once TDR is implemented. 
• Provide business intelligence to strengthen “best value” decision-making by ordering activities, which will allow customers to take full advantage of the wide variety and complexity of products and services offered by Schedule Partners and pass on savings to the taxpayer.
• Improve competition and increase transparency.
• Support category management and promote smarter buying.

Summary of Planned Changes 

The Schedules listed below make up the TDR Pilot and will be rolled out in phases as shown.  Each Schedule solicitation refresh and mass modification will be preceded by an advance notice posting on Interact, approximately 30 days prior to the refresh and mass modification release date:

Upon acceptance of the bilateral mass modification and the compliance requirements becoming effective for the contract, the requirement for providing a CSP disclosure to accompany modification requests will be eliminated. In addition, vendors will no longer be required to track price reductions granted to their Basis of Award (BOA) customer or category of customers, beginning on the first day of the standard business quarter following acceptance of the mass modification for orders placed on or after the effective date of the modification. Other clauses and provisions are also being updated to implement TDR. This will result in significant burden reduction for our industry partners as outlined in the TDR Federal Register notice.

Vendors are strongly encouraged to accept the bilateral mass modification in a timely fashion in order to minimize future burden in submitting modification requests and make administration of FSS contracts easier.

In order to ease the transition from the current 72A reporting database to the TDR reporting module, the requirement for commencement of reporting will not begin on the date the modification is signed; rather, reporting will begin at the beginning of the next full business quarter as shown below:

Please note: For new offers received after the solicitation refresh under TDR pilot Schedules/SINs, the transactional data reporting clause and corresponding pricing disclosure changes will be mandatory for all awarded contracts.

Existing contractors under TDR pilot Schedules/SINs may adopt the new transactional data reporting clause and corresponding pricing disclosure and PRC changes via a bilateral modification to be distributed via the mass modification process. Contractors may also decline the modification. However, contractors that decline the mass modification will be required to accept transactional data reporting terms and conditions before exercise of their next option period.

There is one exception to this policy: If a contractor has already received the 210-day letter stating GSA anticipates exercising the option to extend the term of its FSS contract when the TDR mass modification is distributed, the contractor will be allowed to decide whether to incorporate TDR terms and conditions prior to exercise of the option period. 

GSA believes this approach creates a level playing field for new offerors while incorporating a measured and manageable transition period for existing contractors.

For new contractors, reporting begins 30 days after the month in which the contract is awarded. For existing contractors, reporting begins 30 days after the end of the first month of the quarter following acceptance of the modification. If a current contractor accepts the modification during the last 15 days of a standard business quarter, reporting begins 30 days after the end of the first month of the next business quarter.

GSA FAS published a public notice (Notice-FAS-2016-01) to solicit comments regarding the public release of transactional data reported in accordance with the GSAR Transactional Data Reporting clauses. GSA FAS will consider comments received in establishing its final position on which TDR data elements are releasable under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). GSA looks forward to sharing publicly in what format intelligence gathered through TDR will be made available. 

GSA FAS will host multiple identical public webinars to provide interested parties an opportunity to learn about the planned changes and ask related questions. Webinars will be in a listen-only format with the ability for participants to type questions via an online chat function at the end of the presentation. Information for the next two scheduled webinars is provided below:

Session 1:

• Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2016
• Time: 1pm - 2:30pm EDT
• Web Meeting Registration Link: https://meet.gsa.gov/e71g5kugaew/event/event_info.html

Session 2:

• Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2016
• Time: 1pm - 2:30pm EDT
• Web Meeting Registration Link: https://meet.gsa.gov/e178x519p4f/event/event_info.html

For additional information, please review this post’s attachments.

ATTACHMENTS:

1. Draft Significant Changes Document (includes summary of clause changes)

2. External TDR FAQ

3. External TDR Fact Sheet

For all inquiries please comment on this posting below or email tdrteam@gsa.gov. Thank you for your continued partnership. 

DISCLAIMER: GSA FAS is posting this notification of a planned solicitation refresh or mass modification as a courtesy to industry. All comments on the attached DRAFT document should be submitted in the “Comments” section below within ten (10) business days of this posting. Comments provided elsewhere or after 10 business days may not be considered. GSA FAS will consider all relevant comments and may make changes to the DRAFT as appropriate, but will not issue a formal response to industry comments or related inquiries. Interested parties should review the final version of the solicitation refresh or mass modification closely for additional changes made to this DRAFT.