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By: FEDweek StaffGSA’s FASt Lane Program to provide customer agencies quicker access to vendors with new and emerging technologies appears to be meeting its intended goal of awarding new contracts on a streamlined schedule of within 30 to 45 days, an IG audit has said.
The program shortens the process for awarding and modifying Schedule 70, general purpose commercial information technology equipment, software, and services contracts. In a sample of 22 such contracts, the IG found that 18 were awarded in 45 days or less; the rest were awarded between 48 and 69 days, which a report said still was “significantly less than the average 110 days” for similar contracts not awarded through the program.
However, auditors said they could not assess whether the program is achieving its intended purpose and program goal of awarding contract modifications within 24 to 48 hours. The Federal Acquisition Service does not identify requests for FASt Lane modifications upon receipt and does not track the processing of such modifications, it said.
“Instead, FAS retroactively designates modifications as FASt Lane only if they were processed in two days or less. Consequently, its reported program results are unreliable and cannot be substantiated. To evaluate the FASt Lane Program’s performance and provide accurate results, it is imperative that FAS develop an effective process that identifies requests for FASt Lane modifications upon receipt and tracks their processing,” the report said.
