Help Reform the GSA and VA NAC Schedule Divisions
(and the rest of our government, as well)
STOP THE FSSI BPA NOW!
The Federal Screw Small Business Initiative
Check out my on-going series - My Latest Beef - below
Background 2011 events 2010 Efforts GSA Program Management GSA People and staffing GSA Policies and lack thereof
Letters/Complaints to GSA's Group 70 Division Letters to Chris Van Hollen
2003 Interview w Terry Miller, founder of the GSA Schedule Consulting business. See links below- 6-part interview.
The Reform GSA initiative (this webpage, and my motivation for it) is dedicated to eliminating government waste and abuse within the General Services Administration (GSA) and Veterans Administration (VA) MAS schedule contract divisions. My approach to this is by identifying problem areas and drawing much needed attention to them. It is my opinion that the lion's share of these problems are self-inflicted wounds caused by inferior: management, people, programs, practices, policies, etc.
As my sole patriotic attempt to help point-out and fix routine, wasteful GSA problems, below, find a multitude of issues and seasoned suggestions on how to fix a wide-ranging set of low-hanging-fruit type problems.
Our government can no longer operate the way it always has. Like pre-9/11 days, those days are gone. It is time to hold government workers accountable for their actions. It is time to demand better. Government employees are not paid too much. In most cases, we just have the wrong people in place.
Just like in the commercial world, everyone needs to be held accountable. For government career and appointed employees, we can no longer allow the placement and assignment of people in positions that far out-weigh their ability or desire to perform. Political promises, hand-me downs, earmarks, pork and the like, have no place in the day-to-day management and operation of the government procurement process. People and policies tied to them are at best, unproductive. Some of the current systems in place are workable, but the quality, management and motivation of the people need a major overhaul and re-direction.
The status-quo is unacceptable. Dealing with GSA has always been a nightmare and in many areas, it is getting worse. Let's reward the good people and remove the bad ones. Let's rewrite the rules so it is easier to fire un-productive people.
Send me your "Latest BEEF" with GSA and/or our government, and I'll share it here. To protect yourself from possible GSA/government retribution, you can change the names of people and agencies if you feel the need to do so. I seldom publish real names on the web, but always publish the names of the government offices where these problems come from. So far, I have received multiple atta'-boys for this effort, as well as encouragement from GSA employees who feel they are unfairly treated by management. Send me your stories.
The Reform GSA Mailbag
Received 9/29/10 I manage
our GSA schedule (84), without undue burden at this point. I have to
say that my experience has vastly differed from yours. We’ve had a
few COs (not an inordinate number given the paucity of seasoned, trained
contract professionals in government these days) – and each of them has
been knowledgeable, responsive, efficient and pleasant – true
professionals. Our ACO and IO rep have, likewise, given us guidance
of the highest order.
Having said that, I have to admit the occasional eMod/Mass Mod glitch
(partly due to my own technical obtuseness), and I have a beef (only one)
to add to your collection. One of GSA’s main selling points in
touting Schedule “ownership” to industry is the ability to market
research ones competitors. My CO keeps my toes to the line in terms
price updates, but most of her colleagues are less conscientious. So
my current prices are always right out there, and so are those of other
competitors whose contracts are managed by my CO. But the vast
majority of pricelists are outdated, so I cannot, in fact, use them for
market research though my current prices can be accessed by my
competition.
If we need help managing our Schedule in the future, I’ll stop back by
your page. Name withheld
My response:
I responded to this individual that the sheer number of schedules I manage and have managed over the years plays a major part in my identification of problems with GSA people and programs. I have had the same problem she related regarding our competitors not being forced to upload their actual GSA pricing onto GSA Advantage, thus giving them an unfair advantage over us in bid and proposal situations. I have brough this issue to GSA's attention multiple times but, it persists.
My Latest BEEF Reports/Case studies on problems with GSA people and systems, contract management, policy and lack of policy.
These reports are real-life federal working experiences. The most recent "BEEFS" published are very likely still causing/affecting contract issues today, as are the rest of my previous "BEEFS".
My Latest BEEF - BEEF 8 - Oct. 19, 2010 - GSA Advantage Upload Rejections for no real reason - More than three times now, I have uploaded a product catalog and/or text file to the GSA Advantage system only to have it out rightly rejected, for no real reason. These uploads cost my contractor account's money and needlessly take up my time and energy. If I make a mistake on an upload, I eat the cost of the re-upload. If the client makes a mistake, I charge them for the re-upload; but when GSA makes a mistake, they should pay for it.
The most recent time this happened was with a Group 84 CO. My upload was rejected for increasing prices without approval. I replied to the CO that prices had been lowered in 2008 and no other pricing changes had been made. The reason for this upload was because it had been two years since our last upload. The CO realized her error and said, "send another SIP file". We do not use the SIP program and EDI uploads cost money. I asked the CO that rejected my upload to send me a check for $150 to cover the cost of the upload. She didn't send a check. I asked the ACO if the contractor could reduce the IFF payment by $150 to cover the cost of the upload and they said that can't be done. The CO told me they are unable to retrieve previous uploads and put them back in their (CORS) system for a second review. This is BS.
Suggestion to GSA: Keep an archive of uploads for instances exactly like this one. When your people reject uploads/files that are actually OK, you should have the ability to put those files back into the CORS system, again. This is an easy fix that will solve this issue.
To comment on this "BEEF" and/or add your 2 cents, send your email message to TSbridge@FBBS-GSA.com
Update on BEEF 7- Oct. 19, 2010 - GSA's Region 2 - Northeast and Caribbean Region - NYC - A model of bad management at GSA.
This NYC GSA division is the cause of multiple problems and issues. A GSA employee, in this division has been sending me emails about the waste, abuse and unfair treatment she is subject to in these offices. You can request a copy of this report through the FOIA and read about them yourself. Reference: GSA Region 2 Report on Fraud and Management Abuse - 2010.
Send your FOIA requests to Jennifer Diala-Wu 212 264-9723, Jennifer.Diala-Wu@gsa.gov
I have been complaining to the GSA Group 75 schedule management team (then National Administrative Services Acquisition Center- Center Director , Acquisition and Business Development Officer, Judy Poskanzer and former Acting Center Director, Susan Chin) to no avail, for some time, but had no idea other GSA publics in NYC were also subject to management abuse. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I first offered to come to Poskanzer's NYC office (on my time and at my expense) to discuss the laundry list of problems with the GSA Group 75 and specifically with Ms Chin regarding program management, policies, lack of policies and actions of the COs/CS staff in GSA's Group 75. I was quickly rebuffed.
As you may know from BEEF 7 below, in March of 2010, I was temporarily banned by Susan Chin and Judy Poskanzer, from my role as "GSA Contract Administrator" for one of the two contracts I manage in GSA's Group 75 . Ms Chin didn't like my direct communication of complaints about the Contract Officers/Specialist under her and the unfair treatment me, and the contracts I manage, receive.
It only took one day for Poskanzer to allow Chin to remove me, but it took four months to re-instate me. Now, it is my turn.
As you can imagine, I had to get other people involved to fix this situation and after Ms Poskanzer changed her story of the events (in an attempt to CYA), I was able to resume my role and duties. Get this, she blamed Ms Chin for removing me, yet she gave Ms Chin permission to do so. Upon re-instatement, I thanked Ms Poskanzer and asked for the name and POC for her immediate supervisor. I had to give up trying to help her and had to move up and out, just like I was forced to do with Group 70, years ago.
Poskanzer gave me the name of FAS Regional Commissioner, Paul McDermott, and as I have done many times over the years, I attempted to reach out to help GSA fix their problems. I wrote a couple emails and called McDermott requesting a meeting with him and his boss to discuss the plethora of issues plaguing Group 75 and to request the immediate removal of Poskanzer and Chin from GSA. Again, I offered to come to NYC (on my dime) to meet. I am still waiting.
I did receive an email from Proskanzer stating that both she and Chin had been moved to other positions.
Apparently, Mr. McDermott is too busy to respond to my multiple email meeting requests or to answer the phone or return a phone call. My last email indicated that I believe bad management flows down in his organization.
Just like with Group 70, it may be time to dismantle the entire NYC GSA presence and start over, somewhere else, starting with replacing Paul McDermott.
To comment on this "BEEF" and/or add your 2 cents, send your email message to TSbridge@FBBS-GSA.com
BEEF 7 - March 10, 2010 - GSA Group 75 Rides Again! - New Procedures and Unrealistic Demands Make It Impossible to Modify Your GSA Contract - e-Mod and CID mod initiatives amount to MOD REJECTION. Bring back the 10, 20 or 30-day Letter. Make It Easy To Work with GSA.
In my opinion, email was a great thing until spammers came along and ruined the experience. Due to spammers, it won't be long before email is deemed unreliable for industry. It is nearly unreliable now. When email was introduced as a way to send contract modification requests to GSA, I for one, was very relieved. Prior to email, I had to send duplicate hard copies of contract modification requests to GSA, as well as to the contractor points of contact. For some of my reseller contract accounts, a single add mod request package could easily measure several inches thick/high of paper. We went through a lot of paper in those days.
Back then, after submission of a mod request, when your GSA rep finally got around to reviewing your request, (yeah, and that could have taken several months, just like it still does today) if there was something missing or an issue with your paperwork, you might have received a call or letter from GSA telling you what was missing or what else they wanted/needed in order to award your request. None of these "complete" requirements were ever written down anywhere and it was and still is, up to the particular whims of your GSA rep, on any given day, as to whether your request will be reviewed, worked on, canceled, rejected or awarded.
As bad as the performance of the Group 70 division and personnel have traditionally been over the years, in the 1990s, they used to send out a letter if your request needed more information/clarification, etc. Some of these letters gave contractors deadlines to get back to them and were named after the deadline timeframe. Sometimes we would receive a five, 10, 20 or 30-day letter, meaning we had that many days to respond or they would cancel our request.
After email had been around long enough for most people at GSA to learn how to use it, (many are still struggling with email, as well as perfecting the complete sentence) some divisions/groups at GSA moved toward an email Central Intake Desk (CID) for all incoming mods. Unfortunately, over the years Group 70 phased out the 5, 10 or 20-day letters. Like eMod, the CID system allowed GSA management to see how long people were actually sitting on their work, and although there is no penalty at GSA for not doing any work, this fact causes all mods submitted to be automatically rejected by the CO/CS staff. Now, they are phasing out the CID system and replacing it with eMOD.
As an example, the NYC office of GSA Group 75 (In my opinion and that of many GSA insiders - one of the other worst managed divisions at GSA) for the third submission of what I consider a routine add modification, the CO staff gave me less than 18 hours to ship her a CD disk of my files before rejecting our modification request. This was the third such rejection of this routine add mod since Sept 09, and what made this GSA experience even worse was that on Feb 9th, I never received the "clarification" email the CO says she sent to me that day. Turns out, her "clarification" was no clarification at all. The files associated with this mod were too large to email in one message. I explained that in my mod request cover letter. In the past, when I have had this same file size problem, I broke the email into two messages only to have my request rejected because of double entry issues in their system. In this third request, I made it easy for my GSA rep to download the files/attachments from the web, but they said that was unacceptable.
DC had a record snow event and blizzard beginning on 2/5/10 and the entire region was shut down, all that week. Despite that national news, my CO in NYC rejected my mod request on 2/11, citing she sent me an email on 2/9 requesting a clarification (which I never did receive until 2/17) with a deadline on it of COB 2/10, to send her a CD disk in NYC. I guess it didn't matter to her that it was during a blizzard in DC, everything was closed including all the roads, post offices, etc. there was no USPS mail delivery for several days, and of significant note, I was on vacation in Colorado that week. What if I had been in an accident, at the hospital or sick in bed? Is this fair or reasonable? No. Is it an act of extreme arrogance? Yes.
Bring back the 10, 20 or 30-day letter. Get rid of unrealistic demands and bring about centralized sensible policy.
I wrote a letter of complaint to the Group 75 management. They said I was unprofessional and to never talk to them that way again. I didn't cuss or threaten their lives. I was trying to help them see their own mistakes.
The same is true with eMods. When eMod first came out, I used it. Then it stopped working. The problem was complicated, but had to do with the way my name was entered into the GSA systems. Something or someone changed the way my name appeared in their system. (The problem was my GSA Contract Specialist added a period after my middle initial and the digital certificate issued to me did not contain a period). Obviously, not something I could fix. Regardless of the method used to send mods, when GSA management can track how long someone is sitting on their work, every mod will be rejected. Obviously, it is easier for these under-performing CO/CS to reject mods and get them off their desks, than to actually work them toward award.
For my Group 75 routine add mod, the first time it was rejected, GSA said I did not have the Special Item Number (SIN) for Restroom Supplies on my contract and although I already had toilet paper, hand sanitizers (which I was trying to add more of during the FLU scare of 2009-2010) and other restroom supply items already awarded on my contract under SIN 75 200 for office supplies, it was rejected. I added the SIN for restroom supplies to accommodate their request. The second rejection came because GSA said our vendor's pricelist had clothing items like promotional hats and shirts and such, so we removed them. The third time it was rejected, it was because of the unreasonable timeframe and missing email message referenced above.
I submitted the mod again and it will be rejected again because of another two-day turnaround to revise over 13,000 items. Our new GSA person (the third one since September 09) tells me the pricelist from the vendor contains pallets and shipping items that do not belong on a Group 75 schedule. Look up pallets on GSA Advantage and you'll find them on a Group 75 contract. Why didn't they tell me that in September 09 when I first submitted it? GSA claims the same reasoning for not allowing us to include these items as well as office furniture on our schedule is because we don't have a "Full" catalog schedule. I had never heard of a "Full" catalog with any GSA schedule and I have been doing this work since 1989. I asked them to send me the information on a full catalog (Since it is not in the Group 75 solicitation anywhere) and that took three different people and several months before I received anything.
Yesterday, I learned that my letter of complaint to Susan Chin of Group 75 about these issues has lead her to declare I am no longer allowed to communicate with her Group. I thought this was a free country. Don't we have freedom of speech in the USA? How can letters of complaint to try and help GSA lead to censure? The way this latest motion plays out will be interesting, to say the least. (See the update to BEEF 7).
In 2003, when I was communicating with Neal Fox, then the Assistant Commissioner of GSA, about the multitude of problems the CO/CS/1102 staff bring into the contract management process, his ultimate solution (instead of weeding out and firing the poor performers) was the introduction of eMod. He said eMod would take the interaction (hostility and behavioral issues) with the CO/CS/1102 staff out of the equation and make it easier to get things accomplished. Today, GSA is promoting yet another new initiative called Rapid Action Modifications (RAM) a tool under eMod, which says a big advantage to RAM is that it removes the CO/CS/1102 staff from the process. Ya' think?
Since the beginning of GSA, and as long as I have been doing this work, the single biggest problem I can identify has been a lack of centralized management and sensible policies. This poor oversight allows each group and each CO to act in any way they choose. The fact that none of them are ever held accountable makes it easier for this craziness to continue. Requirements for a modification change with each new CO/CS we are assigned. Further, there is no set criteria for what comprises a complete modification request to change items on your contract. This is true for every type of contract modification for each GSA group. While there may be various checklists, the bottom line is that the COs will request items that are not written down anywhere, so they can reject a mod request. This too-wide breath of authority kills the process. Where is the oversight?
I have been doing contract modifications since 1989, and each mod I have presented to GSA in the last 6 months has been rejected with the exception of one deletion mod I received on 2/24/10. This mod was from a Group 70 CS that I can depend on to do her job. She is one of the good ones and always has been. She is an anomaly at GSA. She gets the work out, without attitude or behavioral issues and moves on to the next task. She is a model employee. Thank You. If I mention her name here, GSA will re-assign her away from me.
With no complete checklist of what is needed for a modification, it is literally impossible to get a any type of mod other than a flat-out deletion mod awarded the first time through the system. I see this as a catch-22 situation. GSA publishes no specific list of documents/data to be included in a modification, yet rejects every mod they receive for lack of information. This is insanity. And now, Group 75's Ms Chin says I can't communicate with them anymore. Stay tuned.
To comment on this "BEEF" and/or add your 2 cents, send your email message to TSbridge@FBBS-GSA.com
BEEF 6 - Dec. 31, 2009
CLOSE DOWN GSA FROM NOVEMBER THROUGH MID-JANUARY - ANNUALLY - No One Is Working Anyway. Click here to read the rest of BEEF 6.
To comment on this "BEEF" and/or add your 2 cents, send your email message to TSbridge@FBBS-GSA.com
BEEF 5 - Oct 26, 2009 - Getting uploads approved on GSA Advantage
As is more and more common these days, multiple GSA issues, from multiple GSA Groups, have been plaguing me and my contractor accounts for the last month or so. The worst of these issues comes from the GSA Furniture division, Group 71, and the latest miserable experience was two failures of the GSA on-line Mass Modification system in September which caused one of my newer GSA consulting accounts, to have their contract cancelled as of 9/30/09. The contract should be re-instated today, at least in the eLibrary system. (Note: The schedule contract was re-instated, but it took several weeks and many more calls and emails to make that happen).
Read below and learn what it took for me to get GSA to do the right thing and re-instate their contract. The second issue is from the MOBIS group and their continuous policy of rejected GSA Advantage uploads without ever communicating their specific group's upload requirements. This has been going on since the inception of text files onto GSA Advantage. The third issue is a another bad CO that just keeps coming. I have gotten rid of this lady over a year ago but she is back again. You can read about the first issue below. The second and third issues are still unraveling. Click here to read the rest of this BEEF.
To comment on this "BEEF" and/or add your 2 cents, send your email message to TSbridge@FBBS-GSA.com
BEEF 4- July 2009 - Can anyone say, "$18 million dollar website?"
That is the cost of a proposed GSA website for the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (in 2009).
Note: You can bet it came in over budget, too.
With a half million dollars you can build an incredible website.
Even $500K is too much to spend, but $18 million?
You've got to be kidding me? You've got be to kidding us?
Do you have any idea how many decent people GSA could hire for that amount of money?
To comment on this "BEEF" and/or add your 2 cents, send your email message to TSbridge@FBBS-GSA.com
BEEF 3 July 2009, GSA's Credit and Finance Office in Kansas City.
To comment on this "BEEF" and/or add your 2 cents, send your email message to TSbridge@FBBS-GSA.com
BEEF 2 November 2007, GSA Group supervisor fails contractor miserably, should be removed.
To comment on this "BEEF" and/or add your 2 cents, send your email message to TSbridge@FBBS-GSA.com
BEEF 1 September 2007, CO rejects upload to GSA ADV because he doesn't like product names. He wants manufacturer name on product name fields.
A future "My Latest Beef" is about the problems I have identified (and am having- 2009) with the Group 75 GSA schedule division (Office Supplies) operating out of NYC and the seemingly endless issues this unique group has brought upon themselves and the GSA contractors forced to deal with them. Of course, (and as I have been hearing since 1989) I am the only person having these problems, they say. Yeah, right.
To comment on this "BEEF" and/or add your 2 cents, send your email message to TSbridge@FBBS-GSA.com
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Recent media articles of interest.
Here is a link to a 2009 article about how aviation security whistleblowers have been dealt with.
Here is an interesting article on VA government waste.
Let's eliminate GSA waste. From the Contracting Specialist to the top managers, GSA needs new people, new thinking and new ideas. GSA needs to hire people with a college degree, a work ethic and common sense. They need to be held accountable for their actions. GSA needs to get rid of a majority of their staff and start over. GSA needs better program management. GSA needs better policies. GSA needs policies where none exist today. GSA needs people to actually do some work each day. I know that working hard each day is not the norm for most federal employees, but we have to change this reality before it is too late. We no longer have the money to pay people for not being productive. I knew a GSA CO that did a lot of tele-work, (worked from home, he said) he was never available and he had a better tan then me.
In our consulting business of assisting GSA contractors, the one thing that we deal with nearly everyday is trying to get our GSA reps to answer a question, work on a proposed modification, return a phone call or an email message inquiry. This task has grown more frustrating each year and it is getting worse. Help us, help GSA. They have thus far been incapable of helping themselves.
Unfortunately, there is no end in sight to this madness.
GSA Advertising Waste - Fall 2010 They are at it again, spending large sums on advertising and for what?
Why is/was GSA spending massive amounts of money advertising on the radio and in the newspapers? Isn't GSA a government contracting monopoly of sorts?
Recently, (written in early 2009) GSA has been buying full page newspaper ads and radio spots on the most expensive radio station in the Washington DC Metropolitan area, (possibly, one of the most expensive radio stations in the country) touting their American Reinvestment and Recovery Program. To me, this is as senseless as seeing the United States Postal Service (USPS) advertising on race cars, bike riders, sports teams, players and anywhere else. Can you imagine the number of decent people GSA could hire with that money? What are they thinking?
The money GSA is so free to spend is derived from the Industrial Funding Fee (3/4 of 1% and 1% of sales, depending on the GSA division) that they demand from their contractors. I consider this money an extortion/federal kickback which GSA charges each contractor on the total of their quarterly sales to the government under the GSA schedule program. It is obvious, GSA is more concerned with getting what they consider their fair share of the contractor's money instead of managing their contracts. From my experience, they have already squeezed the majority of contractor's profits out the window and now they are taking a piece of what is still leftover.
Linked to this page you can find articles about:
Known problems with GSA, possible solutions, bad policy identified and much more.
(Note: I use many of the accepted acronyms used in this business, throughout. For a list of widely used acronyms, click here).
Systems and Program Management
Some of the GSA schedule systems and processes are definitely in need of reform, no doubt. Some are ok, for now, as is. GSA could fix all the solicitations, and I understand they are at least moving in that direction. GSA should not be allowed to add or change a clause in the contract unless they can be specific as to the requirements per that change for the contractors. Many other process and systems, like the ORCA (On-line Representations and Certifications Application) web application and the resultant "MyFARORCARecord.pdf" document need plenty of work. ORCA, in particular is very hard to understand and read through. You can generally get around a bad electronic system if it is user-friendly or if the people you have to work with are cooperative, helpful, knowledgeable and professional. Neither of the foregoing are the norm at GSA.
And it is time for change. We are talking about taxpayer dollars here and government waste.
The reason for this web area is to get attention from someone who can and will actually do something about GSA. It is also to help GSA identify the people that are wrecking havoc on their systems and to replace them first, then continue working on their systems. Most of these people are un-trainable in the people skills department and they are not doing anything productive now, so what do we have to lose by replacing them?
Speaking as a taxpayer, I am outraged that these non-performing and counter-productive GSA employees are allowed to even earn a regular paycheck, not to mention the generous retirement package they are looking forward to. You should be outraged, too. They are wasting your money as well as mine, everyday.
More on GSA Advertising. (Note: Summer 2009, this ad campaign has stopped in the DC area). As mentioned above, in the DC metro area, GSA ads were on the radio (WTOP) and in the subway system last year (2008) promoting their "eTools" programs.
What is a government monopoly doing running expensive advertisements on the radio and on the walls of the subway stations?
In the advertising world, this is called "ego-advertising" as it serves no purpose other than to make the ad buyer or person in charge feel good about themselves. While GSA is promoting their "e-Tools" they still have huge opposition to "e-Tools" from within their own ranks. You have no idea how much time and money my contractor clients have wasted (through me) trying to use these GSA eTools? It is infuriating to see ads for systems that do not work and that are rejected by their own people. I have always opposed GSA spending our tax dollars on advertising.
If they have extra money, why not invest in new contracting people to actually do some of the work?
If GSA wants to promote their "e-Tools" program, first they need to assure us that their people will work with those systems and second, why not use direct mail or email to communicate directly with their contractor public? Why spend taxpayer money talking to a general public when only a small percentage of the general public actually know what "eTools" and/or GSA are? What sense does that make?
While we are grateful for the folks at GSA that try do a good job, and applaud their efforts; the good ones are an anomaly, being so few and far in-between. Over the years, I have tried to expose to the middle and top management at GSA many of these "people" and "systems" issues, only to find a quick fix here or no fix there. The frustration that ensues from these efforts, letters, meetings, emails, cry's for help, etc., finally compelled me to use this web area as a resource to help GSA identify bad staff and issues they can easily fix. We have to get the public involved or nothing will ever get better.
I like to call these ever-evolving issues, "Low Hanging Fruit."
In my opinion, the first thing our country needs to do to curb this tremendous waste of money is to change the political appointee system so that the top people at GSA are not political appointees with no prior GSA experience. And future GSA managers are not promoted to get them out of one group and into another, but because they have the knowledge to do the job at hand.
GSA has people "in charge" of areas where they have no real experience or working knowledge of what is going on under them. This is a joke on the taxpayers of America and a system that needs to be corrected. There is simply too much money at stake. We cannot continue to absorb practices like these when the state of our economy continues to drop. Let's fix what we can and save the taxpayers some money. Let's start with GSA's schedule divisions.
The government employees who work hard know who they are, and they too, welcome my efforts here. They tell me they are sick and tired of having work dumped on them because the person in the next cube does not work. GSA's allows some of their people to get away with not working at all (an hour a day is a full day for many) and being continually problematic to their co-workers and the contractors trying to obtain or maintain their GSA schedules. The reasons are obvious since the good ones end up with much heavier workloads than the rest; and they know that is not fair to them, either.
Personal note: My efforts here and in my daily business life have led to multiple GSA contractor clients firing me for being too "aggressive" with GSA. Other firms are afraid of the negativity of this space. I say, goodbye and good riddance. This is not about you and your contract; it is about saving American tax dollars and fixing a broken system. Try thinking globally, instead of selfishly.
Check here periodically for initiatives to help reform GSA.
Planned initiatives:
-GSA employee "Business Ethics and Conduct" statement
-GSA Schedule Contractor "Bill Of Rights"
-GSA Contracting Officer Report Card -
-Contractor feedback - identified or anonymous contributors welcome.
-My Latest Beef - featuring daily problems and issues with GSA
-GSA Advantage problems and possible fixes
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Stay tuned
to this webspace, it should prove exciting.
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Reform GSA-Background - How FBBS got involved in GSA
business
April 2003 cover letter to GSA/Neal Fox with 18 points of
"Industry Frustrations" with GSA.
Known Changes at GSA since submission of this 2003
interview/discussion
2003 Interview between Terry Miller and Tom
Strawbridge submitted to GSA's Assistant Commissioner Neal Fox.
Part I - An Introduction, 2
pages
Part II - Why I left GSA and The GSA Schedule Consulting
Business - 2 pages
Part III - Some problems, some fixes - 5
pages
Blind Survey - GSA could attempt to gain
feedback-learn how to fix themselves
Part IV - Bad Apple Staffing at GSA - 11
pages
The Coalition, GSA's "sister" organization, a
front for a GSA consulting firm
Part V - GSA lack of centralized contract management
policies - 7 pages
Part VI - GSA should form an Industry Panel - 4
pages
The Possibility of Reform - 3
pages
The Coalition Again - The End of the Interview
_________________________________________
On-going GSA problems
The people - Ignorance and Arrogance
The management - The higher you go in GSA management, the less they actually know about the daily activities and processes of schedule management. The person at the very top usually has no prior experience managing GSA schedule contracts, or any contracts as in the case of some of the past appointees/GSA Commissioners.
Future issues to discuss in more depth:
The discrepancies between GSA Schedule Divisions and Group Centers in policies and practices.
The GSA Finance and Credit Division
GSA deadlines and threats to cancel contracts
The Contract Renewal or Option Process
Is it a renewal of an existing contract or a new contract proposal?
The Small Business Sub Contracting Plan
Is it based on a five-year contract of estimated sales over $550,000 or is that $550,000 spread out over a possible 20-year contract lifecyscle?
How long it takes for everything
GSA Advantage
Sins with dashes or without dashes
Photo/Image policy
Minimum Order can be a dollar figure or be zero in the event of days engaged as minimum.
GSA Advantage text files
The lack of a concrete sensible format policy.
Multiple schedules mentioned in a single text file.
Terms and Conditions only
eBuy- Federal Spam