The General Services Administration and the Naval Supply Systems Command signed a memorandum of understanding that allows the Department of the Navy to use GSA’s reverse auction platform for acquisition processes.The Reverse Auction eTool is designed to speed up the process to buy office products and service offerings and give small businesses an opportunity to compete for Department of the Navy purchases, GSA said Jan. 18.
“Since the introduction of the RA platform in 2013, the Navy has been GSA’s most active user – awarding over $22 million in reverse auction procurements with an average savings of 7.82 percent over standard pricing,” said Erv Koehler, acting regional administrator and federal acquisition service regional commissioner for GSA’s Region 4.
Mark Bennington, assistant commander for contracts at NAVSUP, said the Navy’s strategic sourcing program management office is reviewing current GSA etools to determine if the military branch can save money through the integrated use of such tools.
The RA eTool was launched in 2013 and currently facilitates reverse auctions on multiple-award contracts managed by GSA and the Department of Veterans Affairs as well as blanket purchase agreements, non-GSA contracts and open market procurement transactions.
In a reverse auction, vendors lower their bids in order to win business from agencies.
