IG: GSA has amassed a collection of data that is almost entirely inaccurate, unreliable, and unusable. Image: DCStockPhotography/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA GSA pilot project for collecting data on contracts under the multiple awards system yielded information that is not accurate or useful, an inspector general report says.
The IG was assessing “transactional data reporting” pilot project dating to 2016 designed to test an alternative way of gathering pricing over the life of contracts under the MAS program, which seeks leverage the government’s buying power to obtain products and services for other federal agencies.
Under the pilot, MAS contractors are required to report transactional data, including prices paid by government customers, for products and services sold under their respective contracts, the report said. In exchange for this transactional data, contractors are not required to disclose commercial pricing or adhere to price reduction requirements, it said.
The GSA in 2021 issued a report characterizing the program as a success, but that evaluation “ignores the fact that the data collected through the pilot program has never been used to analyze and negotiate contract-level pricing. Instead, GSA has amassed a collection of data that is almost entirely inaccurate, unreliable, and unusable,” the IG said.
It said that of transactional data for fiscal 2022 sales totaling over $14.6 billion, sales accounting for $12.6 billion “cannot be used for meaningful price analysis.” Reasons included missing information such as descriptions of the services provided, inaccurate reporting by the contractors of part numbers and differences in how they identify identical products.
It added: “After more than 6 years of running the pilot, GSA could provide us with only one example purporting to show its use of TDR pilot data for contract-level pricing decisions. In that example, however, the contractor asserted that its TDR pilot data was unreliable, and the contracting officer concluded that the data was likely inaccurate. As a result, contrary to GSA’s assertion, the contracting officer ultimately did not use the TDR data to make the contract-level pricing decisions on that particular contract.”
It said the GSA should either “take comprehensive action to fix the significant problems that plague TDR or terminate the pilot by executing the exit strategy.” In response, agency management said it will “consider the continuing maturity of TDR as part of any expansion decision.” In turn, the IG called that response “vague” and one that fails to address the “severe deficiencies in the TDR pilot that must be corrected before its expansion across the MAS program’s annual sales of more than $40 billion.”
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