Is it possible to use commercial e-commerce platforms for commercial item buys of any size and still meet government acquisition rules?  That is the fundamental question facing GSA and OMB as they move forward to try and do just that in response to a Congressional mandate.  The early signs, frankly, are not encouraging, and it may well be up to contractors to maintain integrity in commercial item procurement.

There is little doubt that GSA and OMB will try to develop commercial e-commerce platforms that meld easy and fast acquisition with procurement rules.  There may just not be much appetite for doing so among platform providers. Similarly, federal buyers excited about the ability to use the same buying methods in the office that they do at home haven’t shown a concern with following the rules so far when using commercial systems for micro-purchase buys. Few are taking steps to ensure that they’re buying from authorized sources and, therefore, are getting what they thought they were buying.  Even fewer are considering mandatory sources like Ability One and Federal Prison Industries.

In addition to these behavioral challenges, GSA acknowledged that Congress will have to pass legislation authorizing it to waive certain rules or take other actions to square commercial e-commerce with federal acquisition realities.  It remains to be seen whether Congress will actually act on GSA’s recommendations, though history, again, is not on the agency’s side.

Contractors that favor level playing fields and who understand that speed does not automatically equate to good values have an important role to play in this process.  Involvement with GSA, OMB and even Congress is essential.  So, too, though, is taking whatever protest or educational actions as may be necessary at high enough federal agency levels to ensure that feds know that Congress has not thrown the FAR out the window and that, no matter how shiny the new toy is, it can get them in trouble if they don’t use it correctly.