Effective
Date: September 1, 2005
Subject:
Temporary Administrative and General Support Services under the
Basic Ordering Agreement
This memorandum supersedes Operations Memorandum No. 20 dated
June 1, 2005.
1. PURPOSE
This memorandum provides the procedures to be followed by Federal
customers, central nonprofit agencies, and nonprofit agencies when
using the Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) to order or provide Temporary
Administrative and General Support Services (referred to below as
"temporary administrative services") that are on the Committee's
Procurement List. This memorandum includes guidance for:
- Parameters for use of the temporary administrative services
BOA;
- Pricing of such services;
- Payment of wages and benefits;
- Verification of participating nonprofit agencies;
- Payment of commissions and fees to the General Services Administration
(GSA) and the appropriate central nonprofit agency (CNA);
- Requirements for placement of people who are blind or severely
disabled; and
- Reporting requirements.
2. PARAMETERS FOR USE
a. The Procurement List includes an unspecified 50 percent of the
Federal government's national requirements for the temporary administrative
services BOA. Therefore, it is not mandatory for any specific Federal
customer to use this BOA. A Federal customer decides whether or
not it falls within the 50 percent on the Procurement List.
b. Orders placed under the BOA must not exceed the time limits
dictated by the Office of Personnel Management's regulations at
5 CFR 300.504 for temporary work (i.e., 120 days, extendable for
an additional 120 days, within a two-year period).
c. The BOA is intended solely for use to fulfill a temporary need
for staffing to supplement Federal government personnel. As such,
the BOA must not be utilized for any requirement where (1) a service
contract is already in place; and (2) where the Federal agency intends,
at the time that the order is placed, to enter into a subsequent
contract exceeding the time limits cited above in paragraph b. Under
no circumstances may the BOA be used as a bridge to enable the nonprofit
agency to begin performing work that is under development or consideration
for addition to the Procurement List.
d. Requests for Addition to the Procurement List of services that
were performed previously under the BOA will not be processed unless
the Federal customer provides acceptable documentation and verification
that the nature of the requirement changed from temporary to permanent
during the BOA performance period. In such cases, the required documentation,
as well as contact information for the Federal customer, must accompany
the Request for Addition to the Procurement List, which is provided
by the appropriate CNA to the Committee. If a nonprofit agency is
performing the work when an addition to the Procurement List is
requested, there must be documentation that the contract covering
the period of time between the current performance and Procurement
List addition request was not awarded under any JWOD authority,
including the BOA.
e. The scope of work to be performed under this BOA must be limited
to direct labor hours in the provision of administrative and general
support services. The nonprofit agency performing the work can expect
the Federal customer to furnish necessary materials and/or equipment.
No other direct costs may be added to the price of the work performed
under the BOA.
f. Federal customers, CNAs, and nonprofit agencies using the BOA
to order or provide temporary administrative services must comply
with all applicable requirements of the Federal Acquisition Regulation
(FAR), including 48 CFR 16.703.
3. PRICING OF TEMPORARY ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
JWOD fair market prices for temporary administrative services will
be determined in one of two ways:
(1) Formula. If both the Federal customer and the nonprofit
agency agree, use a formula consisting of the current Wage Determination
(WD) hourly wage and Health and Welfare rate multiplied by a factor
of 1.39 (inclusive of the 0.75 percent GSA Industrial Funding
Fee and the CNA Fee) to arrive at a fully loaded hourly rate;
or,
(2) Negotiation. If the Federal customer prefers, use negotiation
to arrive at a mutually agreeable price. It is recommended that
the WD be used as the starting point for the negotiation.
In the event that the Federal customer and the nonprofit agency
cannot reach a mutually agreed upon price using either formula or
negotiation, the Federal customer may determine its requirement
for temporary services does not fall within the unspecified 50 percent
of the Federal government's national requirements for the temporary
administrative services BOA on the Procurement List, and may seek
other sources in compliance with its agency's acquisition policies
and procedures.
4. PAYMENT OF WAGES AND BENEFITS
All employees placed in temporary administrative service positions
are considered to be fully trained and job-ready, and therefore
must receive the entire appropriate Service Contract Act wage and
fringe benefits. No commensurate wages may be paid on the basis
of worker productivity for these positions. Nonprofit agencies must
correctly account for each employee's time in service at the nonprofit
agency in providing vacation benefits under the Service Contract
Act (41 U.S.C. 351 et seq., as updated).
5. VERIFICATION OF NONPROFIT AGENCIES
Nonprofit agencies may not participate in this initiative unless
and until they have completed the usual agency verification process
required by the Committee regulations at 41 CFR 51-4.2. The appropriate
CNA must complete its inspection and certification of a nonprofit
agency, and all required paperwork must be submitted to the Committee's
General Counsel for review. A nonprofit agency cannot accept a purchase
order and contract for provision of the services until it has been
formally authorized by the Committee. No provisional authorizations
will be allowed. A nonprofit agency may market itself as a provider
of the temporary administrative services only after that agency
has been verified by the Committee.
6. PAYMENT OF COMMISSIONS AND FEES TO GSA
The commission owed to GSA under the terms of the BOA must be paid
by participating nonprofit agencies according to the schedule published
in the GSA Basic Ordering Agreement. The commission is a part of
the Fair Market Price.
An additional order-taking fee, applicable when GSA handles the
placing of orders for other Government agencies requiring temporary
services, is not a part of the Fair Market Price. GSA will determine
what that fee, calculated as a percentage of the order's total value,
is. That additional fee is to be paid in full solely by the Federal
customer requesting GSA's assistance in order-taking. The fee must
be a straight pass-through from the Federal customer ordering the
temporary services to GSA and will be remitted to GSA by the participating
nonprofit agency on a quarterly basis (at the same time the GSA
commission is paid).
All fees and commissions owed to GSA and the CNAs that are generated
by the sale of services to Federal agencies must be paid promptly
by participating nonprofit agencies according to GSA and CNA schedules
for such payments. Such payments cannot be withheld for any reason.
7. RATIO OF PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR SEVERELY DISABLED
The goal of this initiative is to fill all temporary administrative
service positions with people who are blind or severely disabled.
When this cannot be done, the Committee requirement is that at least
75 percent of the positions in each order for temporary administrative
services received from a Federal agency be filled with people who
are blind or severely disabled. The Committee will consider requests
for exceptions from this requirement on a case-by-case basis as
they occur and may grant variances depending on the justification
provided by the appropriate CNA and the nonprofit agency involved.
Under no circumstance would a variance be granted that would result
in less than 60 percent of the employment positions on any order
being filled with people who are blind or severely disabled. Under
no circumstance may a nonprofit agency accept an order under the
BOA and perform the work with less than the Committee-approved minimum
for direct labor by people with disabilities, as stated above.
8. DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
Each nonprofit agency providing temporary administrative services
under a BOA must collect and transmit data through the appropriate
CNA to allow the Committee to evaluate the effectiveness of the
BOA. The data must include:
- the number of jobs provided,
- the volume of sales dollars generated,
- the term of temporary positions (in days), and
- direct labor hour ratio information per BOA project or placement.
The format of the data and any additional data elements may be
proposed by the CNAs to the Committee staff for approval. This information
must be provided to the Committee on a quarterly basis by the CNAs.
Participating nonprofit agencies must also provide sales data to
GSA, as requested.
(Signed)
Leon A. Wilson, Jr.
Executive Director
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