GSA posts schedule sales, contract details and other buying info on Web
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Flooded by Freedom of Information Act requests about Multiple-Award Schedule contracts, the General Services Administration is creating a Web site that will provide access to the details of vendors' schedule sales. The Federal Supply Service gets hundreds of FOIA requests for contractor sales information, assistant commissioner of FSS for acquisitions William N. Gormley said this month at the GCN Forum luncheon in Washington.
Flooded by Freedom of Information Act requests about Multiple-Award Schedule contracts,
the General Services Administration is creating a Web site that will provide access to the
details of vendors schedule sales.
The Federal Supply Service gets hundreds of FOIA requests for contractor sales
information, assistant commissioner of FSS for acquisitions William N. Gormley said this
month at the GCN Forum luncheon in Washington.
You all want to know whats going on about the person sitting next to you,
and youre killing us, he said. We just cant handle the volume any
more.
So FSS is putting the information online where anybody can access it, he said. The FOIA
reporting system will let users search the past five years of data that GSA collects on
Form 72A, which vendors submit when they fulfill orders.
Vendors have been filing the 72A forms electronically since the beginning of the year.
GSA is now posting that data on its Web site, said Teresa Sorrenti, director of FSS
Acquisition Operations and Electronic Commerce Center.
The FOIA system is part of an effort by FSS to do more business electronically, which
is in line with the agencys CyberGSA concept [GCN, Oct. 19, Page 1].
FSS this month posted an electronic library of GSA Multiple-Awards Schedule contracts,
Gormley said. And earlier this year, it posted an FSS Vendor Guide at http://pub.fss.gsa.gov/vendorguide and began
posting all solicitations electronically at http://eps.arnet.gov/cgi-bin/We4bObjects/EPS.
FSS is also developing what Gormley called the MAS Virtual Campus, which will give
users information about MAS contracts and programs.
There are people who want to know what it is and get more information,
Gormley said. FSS plans to launch the MAS Virtual Campus by years end. It will
provide information about schedule contracts, how to place orders and definitions of MAS
terms.
Gormley said that GSA remains committed to GSA Advantage, the agencys online
ordering site. GSA Advantage did $61 million in business in fiscal 1998, up from $27
million in 1997 and $5 million in 1996. GSA expects online sales to top $100 million in
fiscal 1999, he said.
FSS, however, has had problems getting vendors to post products on GSA Advantage. To
encourage participation, GSA will require such postings of vendors that want to
negotiation evergreen rather than fixed-period schedule contracts, Gormley said.