The General Services Administration has added a new group of companies, this time technology suppliers, to the agency’s ongoing review of federal contracts and push to extract more savings from them.
So far this year, GSA has sent letters to two groups of companies it identified as “consulting firms” to provide detailed reports on their contracts and include pricing information in those submissions.
GSA has now expanded the scope of its review to 10 contractors the agency labels as value-added resellers, or those that provide commercial IT products and services to agencies.
That group of companies was given a June 11 deadline to submit full breakdowns of their contracts with details on which agencies are customers, and the categories of services provided, according to the letter sent Wednesday.
These companies received this letter viewed by Washington Technology:
- Carahsoft
- CDW
- Dell Technologies
- FCN
- Four Points Technology
- Mythics
- NANA Regional Corporation
- TD Synnex
- Thundercat Technology
- V3Gate
Of those 10, FCN was also named in the May letter asking companies GSA identified as consultants to justify their contracts.
Josh Gruenbaum, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, sent and signed the latest letter as part of the larger review of federal contracts he is helping oversee.
Resellers historically have taken the lead in providing largely commercial technology products including licenses because of the government’s myriad requirements in cybersecurity, small business contracting and how contract vehicles operate.
But now GSA is looking at the overall reseller landscape amid its push to centralize technology purchasing under the OneGov effort, which prioritizes more direct relationships with commercial technology companies.
The agency is asking the 10 resellers who received the letter to break down all of their contracts including OEM costs, markups and any other additional fees.
GSA wants that information to help it put together a scorecard that would potentially inform a cap on markups or other cost controls pertaining to OEMs and vendors.
“GSA’s OneGov initiative is transforming how the government does business with industry. Centralizing procurement and acting as one federal wallet will deliver better services to agencies, better value for the taxpayer, and better relationships with industry,” Gruenbaum told us in an emailed statement. “Simplifying historically complex procurement processes, reviewing value-added resellers and their mark-ups, which often amount to a 5%-7% tax on the American people for very little benefit, and making outcomes-based contracting the default will allow us to deliver on the administration’s acute focus on efficiency and waste reduction, as well as return to commonsense procurement practices.”
OneGov stems from one of two contracting-focused executive orders President Trump signed in April that emphasize purchases of commercially available goods and services, including IT, and a shift away from acquiring more customized offerings.
As with those identified as consulting firms, Gruenbaum’s letter to the resellers includes an attached Excel spreadsheet template to help guide how respondents work on their submissions.
GSA also wants ideas on how to better identify wasteful spending and savings opportunities, mostly through an itemized and total spending reduction analysis.
The agency wants those savings ideas in order to determine whether, in its words, the pricing resellers have to offer “is appropriate given best commercial industry comparables.”
