All for one and one for all: MAS consolidation update

In January 2020 the General Services Administration (GSA) began Phase II of the GSA Consolidation effort with the release of a Mass Modification (Mass Mod) to all current schedule holders. The purpose of the Mass Mod is for all GSA contractors to align the terms and conditions of their contracts with those of the new consolidated Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) that was released on Oct. 1, 2019. Contractors will have until July 31, 2020, to review the Mass Mod, negotiate any exceptions and migrate over to a single GSA MAS contract.

What contractors need to know

Exceptions to terms and conditions

Contractors are required to review each clause in the Mass Mod and either accept or request an exception. If an exception is requested, contractors must include a written narrative to justify each request and all exceptions must then be negotiated with their Contracting Officer (CO). We recommend that contractors with clause exceptions reach out to their CO sooner rather than later to ensure there is adequate time to negotiate the exceptions before the July 31, 2020 deadline.

If contractors are taking an exception that was previously negotiated prior to the MAS consolidation, the CO will validate those exceptions and determine whether the exception still applies. Contractors should have any documentation that supports the exception ready to provide to their CO.

For clauses that don’t apply, contractors do not have to take an exception to the clause. For example, if your contract is under the Transactional Data Rule (TDR) you do not need to take exception to the Price Reductions Clause (PRC) as it does not apply to your contract. Additionally, contractors with multiple GSA Schedule contracts will have to accept a Mass Mod for each of their contracts. The terms and conditions will be migrated into a single contract during Phase III of the consolidation.

Special Item Number alignment

The MAS consolidation reduced the number of Special Item Numbers (SINs) by more than 60% to approximately 318 unique numeric or alpha-numeric codes that directly correspond to North American Industrial Classification Standards (NAICS) codes. When a contractor accepts the Mass Mod, their contracts will be automatically updated to the new SIN structure. In many cases, multiple SINs have been consolidated into a single SIN. For example, six legacy financial (520) and consulting (874) SINs were combined into a single SIN.