About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

GAO-01-855R 1 (2001-07-02)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptanph0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SGAO Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 July 2, 2001 The Honorable Tom Davis Chairman Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy Committee on Government Reform House of Representatives Subject: FTS2001 Implementation Issues Dear Mr. Chairman: As you know, GSA awarded FTS2001 contracts to Sprint and MCI WorldCom to provide long distance telecommunications services to federal agencies. The federal government began the sizable and complex effort of transitioning from the existing FTS 2000 contracts to FTS2001 in June 1999. This transition is presently nearing completion. In your letter of May 3, 2001, you asked that we respond to several follow-up questions pertaining to your Subcommittee's April 26, 2001, oversight hearing regarding the FTS2001 contracts. My responses to your questions follow below. Question 1: How feasible would it be to build into future contracts an accountability mechanism that may include penalties that the General Services Administration (GSA) could apply against the contractors' guaranteed minimum revenue over the life of the contract? What is the feasibility of renegotiating the current contracts? Answer: It is feasible to include an accountability mechanism in future contracts that include such civil penalties as provisions for credits or liquidated damages. It is also feasible to modify the current FTS2001 contracts to include such an accountability mechanism, because federal acquisition law does permit such modification of contracts (although such action would require negotiations with, and the agreement of, the contractors). We should make it clear, however, that the existing FTS2001 contracts already include accountability mechanisms, in both specific and general terms. As we stated in our report of last March,' the existing FTS2001 contracts establish specific performance requirements,2 including timeliness of service delivery, 1FTS2001: Transition Challenges Jeopardize Program Goals (GAO-01-289, March 30, 2001). 2 These terms are stated at paragraph H. 13 of the FTS2001 contracts. GAO-01-855R FTS 2001 Implementation

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most