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By: FEDweek StaffAn IG report has said that the GSA is not assuring that agencies are getting the best prices when ordering through its “packaged office furniture” program, through which agencies made $169 million in purchases in 2019.
The program is designed as a streamlined way for industry to offer, and customers to acquire, furniture from multiple manufacturers without requiring separate purchases from each. However, the program “may not reflect the commercial market or the lowest overall cost alternative to meet the government’s needs,” said the report, which did not estimate a potential saving.
The report said that under the Federal Acquisition Regulation, contracting officers normally are required to determine whether offered prices are fair and reasonable, typically by obtaining an offeror’s “commercial sales practices” disclosure and evaluating the pricing offered to its other customers. However, under the furniture program, contracts are awarded based on the manufacturers’ schedule pricing and contracting officers do not perform a separate determination of pricing.
It said GSA agreed with its recommendations, including to require formal price analyses, including by requiring its contracting officers to obtain commercial sales practices disclosures.
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