On Wednesday, August 30th, 2023, GSA’s Senior Procurement Executive Jeff Koses and GSA’s Assistant Commissioner for FAS Office of Policy and Compliance Mark Lee jointly signed Supplement 3 of Acquisition Letter MV-22-02, which extends the expiration of the temporary moratorium policy from September 30, 2023 to March 31, 2024. As a reminder policy letter provides more flexibility to both GSA and Schedule vendors in raising prices under the GSA MAS Schedule contract due to inflation.
Background
On March 17, 2022, Acquisition Letter MV-22-02 was initially issued by GSA to provide a temporary moratorium on the enforcement of certain limitations contained in GSA EPA contract clauses. Various factors such as inflation, supply chain shortages, and price volatility continue to significantly impact the global economy. The temporary moratorium was first extended on September 12, 2022 through March 31, 2023, then through September 30, 2023 and now through March 31, 2024.
For EPA increases exceeding the ceiling percentages established in the solicitation, Acquisition Letter MV-22-02 initially lowered the approval level from the contracting director to one level above the contracting officer. Both the first, second and third Supplements, in recognition of ongoing price volatility and impacts to the global economy, removes the requirement to obtain additional approvals. This means that all requests for EPA increases can be approved by the contracting officer, whether above or below the ceiling percentage established in the solicitation. GSA Contracting officers will still review all EPA requests consistently and in line with the terms of the underlying contract.