GSA IG Recommends Changes to Telecom Procurement Procedures
The General Services Administration’s inspector general recommended tightening procedures used by the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) to ensure contractors don’t provide unsecure telecom gear as part of federal multiple award schedule (MAS) contracts. Addressing this is “especially important with the…
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increase in national security and intellectual property threats to the federal government’s supply chain,” the report said. The report said “FAS has not taken adequate actions against contractors that repeatedly violate the … restrictions on providing or using prohibited telecom items.” The service “does not have a process in place to notify customer agencies about their purchases of prohibited telecom items” and didn’t “initially comply” with federal acquisition regulation requirements “to include subsidiaries and affiliates of named entities in its efforts to identify prohibited telecom items on MAS contracts." The IG recommended FAS beef up rules to ensure contract modifications are “issued promptly when FAS identifies prohibited telecom items on MAS contacts” and that contractors “promptly remove prohibited telecom items from MAS contract price lists.” The IG wants “more stringent consequences for contractors that repeatedly attempt to offer prohibited telecom items” and a process instructing contractors that violate the restrictions to “notify and remit refunds to any customer agencies that purchased prohibited telecom items.” The FAS commissioner agrees with the findings, the IG said.