Our
Firm
The attorneys of Petrillo & Powell are well versed in the requirements and intricacies of the General Service Administration's Federal Supply Schedule program. We assist numerous clients in obtaining and maintaining their schedule contracts, and in resolving schedule problems. In addition, we are, ourselves, a holder of two GSA schedules to provide management, logistic and business services to federal agencies.
State and local governments have been added to the General Service Administration's ever-expanding Federal Supply Schedule program. Under a provision of the E-Government Act (Public Law 107-347), FSS schedule contractors can agree to add state and local governments as authorized customers. State and local governments are already accustomed to looking to FSS contracts for "Federally-approved" pricing information.
Contractors will have to balance the advantages of adding state and local governments to their contracts against the disadvantages, such as the need to pay an Industrial Funding Fee to GSA for such orders. ( for information on the new reporting requirements attached to GSA's reduction in the IFF to 0.75% effective January 1, 2004).
The following are recent examples of our services.
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We have advised multiple clients on their disclosure obligations in the context of GSA Federal Supply Schedule contracts, including issues of what must be disclosed, how best to make disclosure, whether it is necessary to amend or supplement their prior disclosures, and how to do so.
- In the last year, we have assisted a number of companies in completing schedule contract solicitations and negotiating pricing with GSA.
- We advised a major supplier of office equipment regarding the status of trade-in allowances with regard to the requirement to pay the 1% Industrial Funding Fee (IFF) to GSA.
- We worked with an international concern providing professional services on pricing and other aspects of its Federal Supply Service contracting.
Many companies are unaware that schedule orders can be protested to both the General Accounting Office and to the Court of Federal Claims. We recently prevailed in a protest against the Department of Education's failure to award an order to our client for loan collection services. OSI Collection Services, Inc., B-286597, B-286597.2, (Jan. 17, 2001).
We recently presented a briefing to the clients of a major accounting firm on the little-known and often misunderstood subject of bid protests in the context of competitions for orders under the Federal Supply Schedule. Please contact us if your company, organization or group is interested in this briefing.
GSA adopted new standard leasing terms for information technology products in the summer of 2002. GSA provided three options for IT leases and several negotiable terms. Contact us for assistance in negotiating terms under your GSA schedule.