The Project on Government Oversight has urged the General Services Administration to drop its proposal for the government to use prices previously paid for goods and services as the basis for procurement rather than actual commercial pricing.
Scott Amey, POGO’s general counsel, writes in an opinion piece published Friday that GSA’s proposal for the price reduction clause would remove pricing protections and lead to lost savings.
“Although POGO fully understands GSA’s attempt to share transactional data to rein in price variations on schedule contracts, removing commercial market pricing safeguards will prevent the government from getting the best possible deal,” he says.
According to Amey, the organization joins the GSA Inspector General and government contractors in opposing the proposal.
He notes that GSA can instead use its new Calculated-Award Labor Category system alongside market pricing and prices-paid information to help the government get the best pricing data.
CALC will also enable contracting officers to search and compare labor costs by category and thus speed up the procurement process, he adds.
