Hello. My name is Clara Arias Baumgarten, and I am an owner of an office supplies company and vendor to multiple agencies of the federal government. My company is focused of quality, service and value as recognized by our registration as an ISO 9001:2008 registered company. Based in Houston, Texas we have installed and sold high technology office equipment and supplies across the country and overseas as well. For almost 5 years, my company has given exceptional service and attention to our federal government customers. Our most recent General Service Administration audit produced an exceptional rating. But that rating means nothing to our company going forward. Recently, my company and approximately 500 GSA Contractors on schedule 75 have been the victim of some outrageous business practices by the Office of Management and Budget / Federal Procurement Policy, through a contracting award called the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative Blanket Purchase Agreement (FSSI BPA) and directed by the esteemed Mr. Daniel Gordon.

Allow me to provide some history. Before the introduction of the FSSI BPA, government agencies purchased their office supplies through schedule 75 and it was a competitive environment and provided the government with competitive pricing but also skilled and knowledgeable vendors who save the government money by directing the purchasing agents to the correct products for the application intended. This is customer service that no call center can provide. These 500 schedule 75 contractors consisted of women owned, veteran owned small business, service disabled veteran owned small business, SBA-Certified small disadvantage business, SBA-Certified HUB zone firm, and SBA-Certified 8(a) firm. Six classes of vendors in total. In 2005 the Office Management and Budget was directed to implement Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative Blanket Purchase Order Agreement in the hope of saving money by consolidating the government purchasing power. Our good former President George W. Bush, set this incompetent plan in motion.

The first FSSI was a failure, but our incompetent bureaucrats, with intense tunnel vision, marched forward with a new FSSI BPA initiative. Now Mr. Daniel Gordon has received his marching orders to implement these FSSI BPAs from our good current President Obama. What follows is a litany of conspiracy to cause the failure, bankruptcy, and massive layoffs of some 500 schedule 75 contractors. On December 23, 2009 we received an email invitation from Ms. Laurie Witherspoon of the GSA.

The invitation reads as follows:

"FSSI Office Supplies BPA 'Listen to Industry Day'.

GSA is re-competing this BPA and invites you to present lessons learned from the first generation and to provide us with insights as we move forward towards the second generation.

When: January 13, 2010
Time: 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Where: GSA Headquarters GSA Auditorium 1800 F St, NW (18th and F St) Washington, DC 20405
Who: All are welcome but be advised that the procurement will only be open to contract holders on Schedule 75 under category 75 200 who are Ability One authorized distributors.
Register on-line at https://www.fss.gsa.gov/events

The opportunity to provide us with your insights and experiences with this program will be on a first come first serve basis with a limited number of time spaces available so don’t delay, register today. If you have any questions about the FSSI Office Supplies BPA, please contact: Hassan Harris:(212) 264-4784 or Judy Poskanzer:(212) 264-0305. E-mail: fssi.officesupplies@gsa.gov"

Note the subtle invitation only to those who have an Ability One Contract as well as a Schedule 75 contract. Note the subtle “Limited Number of Time Spaces Available”. This now limited the pool of prospective contracts to only 40 companies, those that HAD BOTH ABILITY ONE CONTRACTS AND SCHEDULE 75. This is an OUTRAGEOUS limitation of competition and would be illegal if practiced by businesses in the USA! Allow me to emphasize contractors invited had to have both Ability One contracts and Schedule 75. DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS, THERE WAS NO POSSIBILITY FOR OUR COMPANY TO RECEIVE AN ABILITY ONE CONTRACT IN TIME TO REGISTER FOR THIS MEETING.

On September 2, 2010 the GSA announced that a contract FSSI BPA had been awarded to 15 contractors including Staples and Office Depot, effective October 1, 2010. With a stroke of the pen, the Office of Management and Budget had struck a death blow to approximately 500 Schedule 75 Contractors. Almost immediately, directives were sent from the Veterans Administration, the USDA, Department of Commerce, and US Navy to use the new 15 Favored FSSI BPA contractors. In total approximately 17 Federal agencies are being mandated to the FSSI BPA. To make sure that the new FSSI BPA would be successful, the GSA redesigned their website to favor the FSSI BPA contractors. Using the search algorithm on GSAAdvantage.gov, FSSI BPA contractors receive favorable treatment by being listed on the Office Solutions FSSI link as well as the regular Office Solutions link. The GSA purchasing has been gamed to allow only a few companies monopolize sales of office supplies to the federal government.

A recently conducted survey by one of our small business partners has demonstrated that FSSI has actually higher pricing than the GSA Advantage schedules over 70% of the time! Additionally despite, the assurances that small businesses are given a level playing field, the last quarter IFF reports prove that the two big businesses on the FSSI, Office Depot and Staples, have garnered over 50% of all FSSI sales. If the mandate is not lifted, a majority of small business contractors will be driven out of business and the 2 big box retailers will have a majority of all federal office supplies sales! Consider that municipalities and state governments have accused Office Depot of massive billing errors[i] and consider that a U.S. District Court decreed that Staples violated a patent of a stapler manufacturer [ii]!!

Why would the federal government issue a contract to these 2 companies? Why would federal agencies mandate the use of this anti competitive contract? Has Mr. Gordon no shame? Has Mr. Obama no shame? Does he understand that this mandate is causing massive layoffs from small businesses? No, they have a fat salary and have no interests in the big picture. Consider that Office Depot uses call centers staffed by people working from their home and also staffed by overseas call centers. Are those overseas call centers providing jobs for Americans? For the love of God, I am ashamed of these politicians, former President Bush, President Obama, and Mr. Gordon. I think it may be time for a nice cup of hot tea for this Hispanic small business owner. All of you join me in a cup of hot tea!!

View a video transcript on the web: FSSI BPA Obama Unemployment Act Video

[ii] https://www.paperpro.com/media/press.php?tid=114 PaperPro, January 13, 2011. Retrieved 2010-02-12.