Can a grantee obtain a letter from a vendor/manufacturer stating that the vehicle being offered meets GSA pricing and then purchase small buses from that vendor with a bid process?
A. Grantees are not authorized to use the GSA contract schedules at this time. The fact that a vendor has a contract with the Federal General Services Administration does not authorize grantees to contract with that vendor on a non-competitive basis. The issue of whether the GSA price can be construed as a fair and reasonable price is not the first issue here. The first issue here is the FTA Circular 4220.1E* requirement for full and open competition when using Federal funds (paragraph 8.a of the Circular). Grantees can only contract non-competitively if they process sole-source justifications through their agency management, setting forth the reasons why competition is not feasible and getting management approval for the action. To do otherwise is to risk Federal participation in the procurement when FTA learns of the contract award, either through a protest from a vendor that was not allowed the opportunity to bid, a procurement system review (PSR) done by FTA, or some other means. _
