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Aruba: - into the chat box if you can't. As David mentioned, I'm going to present
on blanket purchase agreements and specifically, how they relate to the GSA
Multiple-Award Schedule Program. We're hoping that by the end of this
presentation that you're able to describe the role of BPA's in the
Schedules Program, that you understand the benefits of using Schedule BPA's,
you can - you know how to establish BPA's and you know how to order from
Schedule BPA's. So first we're going to start off with an overview of
Schedule BPA's. Now the FAR doesn't really define what a
Schedule BPA is, but rather it describes it in terms of how it functions.
Part 13 - FAR Part 13 is actually where it's defined and there, it calls BPA's a
simplified method of filling anticipated, repetitive needs for supplies or services
by establishing charge accounts with qualified sources of supply.
Now both Traditional, which is what we
call Part 13 BPA's and Schedule BPA's may be used to fill anticipated,
repetitive needs for supplies and services. Now BPA is not a contract, it
simply established just with terms applicable to the [audio cuts out] that
and to get some contract and not obligate a response.
Now how do Schedule BPA's differ from other BPA's? Well, the Schedule BPA is
established against a schedule contract and as the name denotes, the schedule
contract is a contract. In establishing a BPA against schedule contract, you're
establishing a charge account or an ordering agreement based on prices that have
already been subject to competition and determined to be fair and reasonable by GSA.
Now the terms and conditions for the
Schedule BPA, including what type of orders, as in time and material, labor
_______ and available clauses are constrained by the underlying schedule
contract. It's important to note that you can always add additional terms and
conditions to your BPA, just so long as they don't conflict terms and conditions
of the schedule contract. Schedule BPA's are subject to FAR
Sub-Part 8.4 not Part 13. So when you're establishing them or ordering
from them you look at Part 8 not 13.
Now BPA will streamline the acquisition process in several ways.
In accordance with FAR Part 6 which deals
with competition, Schedule BPA's are considered to be a competitive
procedure, as long as you follow the procedures in FAR Sub-Part 8.4.
Now BPA's don't have a minimum or a maximum amount. Since it's not a
contract, there are no guarantees that the government will ever place any
orders against that BPA. BPA's allow you to consolidate your agency
requirements or for multiple agencies, to consolidate their requirement.
An example of a multi-agency BPA is the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative
BPA's. There's multiple ones. There's one for office supply. This is just an
example. It's where multiple agencies got together, they said well we all buy
office supplies, so it would make sense if we had a set of BPA's that could
streamline that and we can take advantage of better pricing if we put
together - our requirements all together.
As I mentioned before, funding is not required for a BPA. The only time you
need funding is when you actually have an order or you have a need. So there's
no funding required on a BPA, unless you have a minimum guarantee in the BPA,
which as I mentioned before it's very unusual and it's not required. I have
yet to know of an instance where somebody has had a minimum order
guarantee for a BPA.
Schedule BPA's and orders are placed - or orders placed under those Schedule
BPA's are not synopsized unless they are based on limited competition.
I'm going to address limited competition later on in this presentation.
An important note; agencies don't need
to seek competition. Actually they can't seek competition outside of the
Schedules Program, when they're establishing a Schedule BPA.
Now Schedule BPA's offer many benefits. Some of the standard benefits are that
they increase buying power through volume discounts. That means as apposed
to making onesie, twosie buys. You tell a vendor hey, I have a million dollars
worth of requirements that I'm going to put through this BPA.
They also help ordering activities anticipate and prepare for recurring
purchasing needs. There are fewer acquisition requirements than a standard
FAR Contract, what we call Open Market Contracts or Traditional Part 13 BPA's,
since they are based on an established contract.
The establishment process and the order process for Schedule BPA is more
efficient. Schedule BPA's also have the flexibility to allow you to add terms
and conditions as long as they don't conflict with those of the base
scheduled contract and allow use of contractor team arrangements, which is
topic of our next training session. Now the terms and conditions that are
contained in the schedule contract flow down directly into Schedule BPA's.
This helps reduce lead time when compared to doing an Open Market Contact.
You don't need to search for sources or synopsize, because it's all based off
of schedule vendor base. Now all this reduction of lead time leads to lower
procurement costs and results in less administrative efforts.