Laura Stanton, deputy assistant commissioner for category management at the General Services Administration, said a plan to field an e-marketplace platform seeks to provide GSA and other agencies better visibility into their spending, Federal Times reported Friday. Earlier this month, GSA started soliciting e-commerce platforms to demonstrate a proof-of-concept meant to facilitate purchases in the federal government.
“What we’re doing with the proof-of-concept isn’t intended to change buying from the Multiple Award Schedule or the Global Supply Program or the other things agencies use for above micro-purchase,†Stanton told the publication. “But this is intended to target that $6 billion that agencies are spending under the micro-purchase [threshold] on these items. And if we can do that really efficiently, then that does free up people’s time and gives us the access to that data in a way that we just don’t have today.â€
Stanton said about six to eight agencies have expressed plans to take part in the proof-of-concept and GSA intends to award a contract by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2020 with plans to launch the program in calendar year 2020. Responses to the request for proposals are due Nov. 1.
