System for Award Management

The General Services Administration’s new System for Award Management (SAM) is not running smoothly one week after it launched. GSA told IBM to fix the system or face possible penalties.

GSA’s System for Award Management is finding its footing after a rough start. OFPP Administrator Joe Jordan said he’s watching the systems’ progress carefully.

Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini shifted responsibility for the troubled System for Award Management to the CIO’s office and the Federal Acquisition Service and out of the Office of Governmentwide Policy. GSA is reconsidering all of its options, including possibly recompeting the contract for SAM. OASIS, Networks 2020 and changes to the schedules program also are making progress.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee members support Dan Tangherlini to be the permanent administrator of the General Services Administration. Lawmakers, however, wanted more answers about the troubled SAM program and the recent IG report on management interference of contract negotiations.

GSA says its problem-plagued System for Award Management is now working, but its failures have pushed agency officials to pursue a new path to consolidate the government’s approach to procurement data.

GSA awarded Booz Allen a $64.5 million contract over the next five years to develop a cloud service broker model using open source and cloud technologies to modernize the 10 databases that make up IAE.

The Missouri Democrat is frustrated over the lack of answers from GSA about the program to consolidate eight disparate databases holding vendor information. McCaskill said the System for Award Management is taking too long and is costing too much.

The General Services Administration has been working to combine eight contractor databases into a single system. Officials now say it will take at least another two years to complete. But, GSA has already been working on the System for Award Management since 2010. Not surprisingly, that timetable is leaving some on Capitol Hill frustrated. Federal News Radio’s Executive Editor Jason Miller joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with the latest on SAM and how the slow-moving program could impact Denise Turner Roth’s promotion to agency administrator.

GSA began alerting vendors on March 22 after it found a third-party changed the financial information of “a limited number” of contractors registered on the SAM.gov portal.

The General Services Administration’s System for Award Management still is recovering from a second fraud incident in the last three years.