by Brianna Crandall — March 2, 2016—Earlier this month, in the spirit of data transparency, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) went live with a public view of the Acquisition Gateway, giving non-government users access to a subset of what is available to federal government employees.
The Acquisition Gateway, built by GSA, helps federal government buyers from all agencies act as one acquisition community. Inside the Acquisition Gateway, users can find side-by-side comparisons of government-wide acquisition solutions, connect with other acquisition professionals, and explore product and service category “hallways.”
The hallways, which include Cleaning Supplies and Chemicals, Facilities Maintenance Services, Professional Services, Security and Protection, and Workplace Environment, among others, feature category-curated articles, templates, market-research tools, prices-paid data, and more to achieve successful outcomes at each step of the acquisition lifecycle.
Tom Sharpe, commissioner for GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, explained:
The public will have access to as much of the Acquisition Gateway as possible and will experience the same user-centric design as federal users. The Gateway will enable that access while protecting the integrity of critical federal data and the security of private information supplied by contractors and others.
Laura Stanton, Acting Director of Strategy Management for GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, added:
Although the Acquisition Gateway’s primary stakeholder is the federal user, publicity about the tool garnered attention from citizens, the media, industry, government contractors, third-party consultants, and state and local governments. Operational transparency is one of the Gateway’s underlying principles, and a public view has been part of the Gateway plan since day one.
The items below will be visible to the public:
- Project Center
- Solutions Finder
- Statement of Work Library
- TechFAR Hub
- News and Events feeds
- Releasable category-curated articles
- Buy Online button (Releasable transactional platforms)
- Contribute and Share button
GSA’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Division and the Office of General Counsel reviewed the Gateway content and ensured that its release is protected against the disclosure of information which would substantially harm national defense or foreign policy, individual privacy interests, business proprietary interests, and the efficient operation of governmental functions. The Gateway content that was analyzed was held to the same releasability legal standards as a FOIA request.
Senior Procurement Executives (SPEs) from each agency that provided content for the Gateway also reviewed and confirmed its appropriateness for public posting, says GSA. What the public will see is the result of those reviews. There are a handful of things that will be not accessible to the public, such as contracts, community feeds, eBuy Open, and the Prices Paid Portal. The View Prices Paid button in each hallway will also be disabled, as will the Contract button in the Solutions Finder.
The public may visit the Acquisition Gateway site and click on the “Non-Federal Government and Public Users” button after hitting “Enter Now” at the bottom of the page.
