GSA to clear schedules of typewriters and other ‘outdated’ offerings

The General Services Administration announced Thursday that it plans to phase out contractors that offer typewriters, photographic equipment, trophies and other “outdated” products from its Multiple Award Schedules.

Each of the more than 8,000 obsolete contracts costs at least $3,000 per year to administer, according to the GSA press release, which said the new streamlining initiative will save more than $24 million annually. The agency will stop adding new contractors for these products.

A GSA spokesman told Government Executive the agency is “still working through the early stages of these changes” and declined to provide a specific date for when they will go into effect.

The release also projected that more than 50 percent of the schedule contracts GSA awarded in 2011 “will have low or no sales.”

In addition to gradually eliminating the agreements for outdated equipment, GSA will look at more than 19,000 contracts with private sector firms “to determine which industries are oversaturated and where duplication has created a crowded and confusing market,” the release stated.

GSA could not immediately provide more detail on the outdated products.

(Image via Stokkete /Shutterstock.com)