BPAs play out amid schedule consolidation

A handful of companies have yet to merge their contracts into the General Services Administration's consolidated Multiple Award Schedule, but the agency is giving them some leeway, according to the agency's top manager.

GSA Administrator Emily Murphy said in interview on Government Matters that aired Aug. 30, her agency is allowing some Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) to work their way through their lifecycles instead of pushing them onto its consolidated schedule. Some BPAs, she said, could take as long as five years to move over to the consolidated schedule, but the agency expects it will be much sooner.

In early August, GSA said it was a embarking on the third and final phase of its multiple award schedule consolidation. The agency said that it had completed the second phase of the consolidation on the last day of July with almost 100% of contractors signing off on contract updates that streamline terms and conditions for the new multiple award schedule solicitation.

In late July and August, GSA has moved smartly ahead with the third phase of the consolidation to get companies to sign off on modified contracts, according to Murphy. "We've got 99% of them onboard," she said. "That beat our own goal of 90% by the end of last month."

Murphy added that phase 3 involves the remaining companies on multiple schedules and "work with them on the best way to transition."

That transition work could take up to five years, according to Murphy, but, it might not take that long, she said. As BPAs expire, or contractors and agencies push to take advantage of the easier, more streamlined consolidated schedule, the timeline might be shorter, according to Murphy.