Now that GSA is awarding Schedule contracts for five-year base terms and three five-year renewals, the art of contract modification Ñ "mods" for short Ñ is becoming more important than ever. It's simple: The longer your contract, the more mods you'll have to process to keep your GSA Schedule contract current.
There are four basic types of GSA Schedule mods, with some variations. These are the Deletions mod, Price Reductions mod, Additions mod, and Administrative mod. A fifth mod, although it doesn't fall under the Schedule's Modification clause, is a request for Economic Price Adjustment, which might as well be a mod. Then there are Name Change mods, Novation mods, Assignment of Payment mods, and other specialty mods.
Before delving into the intricacies of mods, a brief discussion of mods is in order. Mods in general are either unilateral or bilateral. Unilateral mods can be issued by one party to the contract without the other party's approval. You guessed it Ñ only the government is authorized to issue unilateral mods.
Bilateral mods must be signed by both parties to the contract. Either the government or the contractor can initiate a bilateral mod, but both must agree to it. The GSA Schedule Deletions, Price Reductions, Additions, and Administrative mods are bilateral mods. Once both parties sign the mod, it becomes part of the contract superseding provisions that conflict with it and governing future relations between the parties to the extent covered by the mod.
Next, a word about the mod process. To submit a mod, you first need to review the Modifications clause in the contract. It sets forth the basic information required for each type of mod. No matter what the Modifications clause says, however, the contracting specialist or officer assigned to your contract may require additional information to process and approve the mod. In addition, the information required can vary somewhat among different GSA Schedule offices and branches.
Once the mod is submitted, it can take anywhere from a day to a year to process the mod, depending on the complexity of the mod and the number of mods on your contracting specialist's or officer's desk that must first be processed before he or she gets to yours. Also a factor is whether your proposed mod is complete or must be supplemented with the additional information needed to negotiate and approve it.
Once the mod is approved by GSA, you'll need to update your official GSA Schedule pricelist with the changes to your contract. You'll also need to upload these changes to GSA Advantage!
Now the mods. We'll tackle Administrative and Deletions mods first since they're the easiest.
Administrative. Administrative mods are used to change your order or payment address, contact information, authorized negotiators, and similar type clerical matters. They're as close to a unilateral mod as a contractor is going to get. They are generally processed quickly by GSA.
Deletions. A Deletions mod allows a contractor to delete items from its GSA Schedule contract. You can delete individual items, whole systems, product lines, or the products of one or more manufacturers. You can even delete whole Special Item Numbers (SINs) if you no longer offer, or want to offer, that product or service to the government.
Theoretically, you must offer an explanation for why you are deleting products or services from your GSA Schedule. The easiest explanation is that you deleted the products or services from your commercial pricelist as obsolete or discontinued, and thus no longer offer them commercially. In practice, GSA rarely insists on a rationale for deleting items.
The deletion of products from a GSA Schedule, of course, doesn't discharge your obligation to provide those goods in response to any open orders, nor does it relieve you from your responsibility to provide warranty or support services as otherwise required under the contract for orders of the items previously sold. Also, once an item is deleted, GSA may refuse to add a substantially similar item at a higher price if GSA finds that the new, higher priced item doesn't provide the government with additional value.
To prepare a complete Deletions mod package, you need to submit a modification request that clearly identifies your company and GSA Schedule contract number, and that the purpose of the mod is to delete product. The mod should reference an attached list of the product being deleted, and if necessary, the reason behind the product deletion, such as the bulletin announcing removal of the product from your commercial pricelist.
Finally, the mod should include a copy of your GSA Schedule pricelist, as revised without the products or services deleted. This is also good opportunity to update the text of your GSA Schedule pricelist with any changes that GSA may have issued since you last published your pricelist.
