GSA spotlights procurement tracker

FAMIS site

The General Services Administration is calling on agencies to help finalize the requirements for the new system that will track all federal procurements.

GSA and the Procurement Executives Council have been working on the vision for the Federal Acquisition Management Information System for almost two years. On Feb. 25, GSA announced it will hold open forums on March 7 and March 13 for agencies to discuss their information and operational needs for FAMIS.

This input will be used to develop the draft request for proposal, which GSA expects to release on or around April 17, when GSA holds an industry day for interested vendors.

FAMIS is intended to replace the Federal Procurement Data System, which was created in 1979 to collect, evaluate and report on information about federal procurements and contracts. FPDS is now in its third version and no longer corresponds to the current acquisition environment.

"The procurement executives, acting collectively, decided that the existing FPDS does not and cannot meet their management information needs," the GSA announcement states.

At the March 7 forum, GSA will release the data and performance specifications already developed with the Procurement Executives Council following an open forum in 2000. GSA also plans to release a document detailing what agencies will be expected to do to make FAMIS work as specified by the procurement executives.

GSA plans to make an award, possibly for several pilot systems, by the end of fiscal 2002, with initial operating capability expected by the end of fiscal 2003, according to the GSA schedule.

FAMIS is now part of the larger Integrated Acquisition Environment e-government initiative, one of 24 cross-agency initiatives getting started under the leadership of the Office of Management and Budget.

Other projects under that initiative include providing a common online access point for all governmentwide contracts and catalogs, a single point of registration for all government contractors, redesigning and simplifying the government-to-government transactions process, and setting standards for electronic transactions within government.