Did your proposal fall victim to GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Consolidation? If you submitted a proposal under the legacy GSA Schedules before October 1st, there is a chance you received a rejection notice.
GSA kicked off government fiscal year 2020 with the release of the new, Consolidated GSA MAS Solicitation. While the Consolidated GSA Schedule is likely to benefit government contractors in the long-run, it’s presenting a few speed bumps in its initial release. One of those speed bumps is an increased risk of rejection.
Leading up to the MAS Consolidation, GSA made a sincere commitment to review all proposals submitted under the legacy Schedules by the close of this calendar year. GSA’s goal is to process these proposals before proceeding with Phase 2 of the MAS Consolidation process in January. Considering the normal processing time for a proposal can range from a few months to over a year, this condensed timeframe is understandably placing a significant burden on GSA Contracting Officers and Specialists.
The GSA Schedule Solicitations are complex, so if you’re unfamiliar with the process it’s not unusual to make proposal mistakes that lead to rejection. We highlighted eight of the most common GSA Schedule proposal mistakes here. However, there are times when the reasons for a proposal rejection may seem unclear or unsubstantiated. For example, a rejection for “system errors” may seem like a technical error that is outside of your control.
Substantiated or not, receiving a rejection letter from GSA can be frustrating. Particularly if you’ve spent upwards of 6 months and countless hours weeding through financials, invoices, and past performance write-ups to prepare your GSA Schedule proposal. If you received a rejection notice for your GSA Schedule offer, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is once GSA rejects your proposal, valid or invalid, there’s nothing they can do to reverse course. The good news is, you can resubmit your proposal at any time. However, if you developed your proposal under one of the legacy GSA Schedules, you’ll have to rework your proposal to meet the format and requirements of the new MAS Solicitation.
Need to Resubmit Your GSA Schedule Proposal?
On a positive note, our team here at FEDSched is already familiar with the new GSA MAS Solicitation and has submitted several proposals under the new requirements. Contact us to discuss how we can help you develop and resubmit your proposal.