U.S. General Services Administration
GSA's special emergency procurement authority for hurricane relief
September 7, 2017
GSA Senior Procurement Executive Jeff Koses has signed acquisition letters and memorandums to assist GSA contracting officers responding to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
The letters explain a new FAR deviation for GSA procurement specialist establishing the authority to raise the micro-purchase threshold, the simplified acquisition threshold, and the simplified leasing acquisition threshold, all to help GSA respond to major declared disasters. The memo invokes this FAR deviation as part of GSA's response to both hurricanes.
Koses's memos walk through details for buying actions in direct support of the relief efforts. Specifically, it:
- increases GSA's micro-purchase threshold to $20,000;
- increases GSA's simplified acquisition threshold to $750,000 ($13,000,000 for commercial items); and,
- increases GSA's simplified lease acquisition threshold to $750,000.
The senior procurement executive does not have the authority to address the $2,000 threshold under the Davis-Bacon Act or the $2,500 threshold under the Service Contract Act. Those thresholds remain unchanged.
"It's very important that our contracting officers don't lose the thread on documentation for any action associated with these Special Emergency Procurement Authorities," said Koses. "It's imperative, as always, that we clearly define and document all our actions."