00:16:12 Andrea Patrucco: Yes! 00:17:50 Ian Clarke: In the UK we are seeing internal tensions between the public sector non procurement staff wishing to procure their own small value purchases using online marketplaces and procurement practitioners resisting their use as a go to option. The reason given is that their organisations obligations on product assurance and compliance with the UK’s Modern Slavery Act. This is particularly prevalent in University purchasing functions where many students are political and human rights activists. Is this an issue in the USA? 00:19:11 Ian Clarke: Following on from my previous question, I have attended several meetings where a major online marketplace provide has insisted that simply having policies in place is sufficient to meet their obligations. What is the panels view on policing these policies? 00:29:15 Andrea Patrucco: Panel slides are available here: http://publicprocurementinternational.com/ 00:34:53 Christopher Yukins: To Kyle Chadwick: the individual orders under the portal are separate contracts, presumably covered by the Contract Disputes Act. The normal threshold protections for the government -- technical evaluation by the purchasers -- will be limited, so more disputes are possible. An uptick in debarments is also likely. 00:35:46 Christopher Yukins: Slides are posted on www.publicprocurementinternational.com 00:37:13 Christopher Yukins: Pending question: India has a large e-market place and has been very useful during Covid. one the issues is how transparent the on boarding system is which could limit transparency and fairness Answer: the solicitation requires the contractor to make onboarding and supplier fees readily accessible -- that will be an important question going forward. 00:38:20 Christopher Yukins: Pending question: why are Governments creating these market places instead of tapping to already existing commercial platforms? Answer: Again and again in launching this initiative, GSA stepped back to defer to commercial practices, so GSA would probably argue that this is not a new marketplace, but harnessing a commercial marketplace. 00:39:50 Robert Handfield: Verified purchaser requirements is definitely something that needs to be considered, in assessing past performance. I do not know if it is yet part of the requirements. Amazon does do audits on Amazon brands, but not third party providers. This is likely going to be problematic, as there is not only a high incidence of counterfeit products on Amazon (as documented in the WSJ), but Amazon has a limited ability to conduct due diligence in the products sold on its platform, exposing buyers to violations of supplier code of conduct requirements. 00:39:54 Christopher Yukins: Question: We’ve seen gaming of the rating systems on Amazon’s public site - do you anticipate a “verified purchaser” type protection requirement to ensure the accuracy of end-user ratings? Answer: part of the answer will be when GSA sorts out how to let government users post reviews. That is still an explicitly open question with GSA. 00:40:59 Robert Handfield: To Abe’s question: ARC’s experience with Amazon business is that it does indeed provide item-level spend visibility, which will improve auditing visibility and better aggregation of spending to drive improved pricing and contract compliance. This will be a marked improvement over current spend visibility government systems. 00:41:07 Robert Handfield: Yes 00:43:26 Christopher Yukins: Question: Hello, Many thanks for this very interesting session. One theorical question: what about the liabilities and contractual duties of the private market places s in these big contracts just awarded by GSA? E.g in screening vendors? f transparency and fairness are at stake with private platforms, would it be interesting to consider a sort of "public Amazon" Answer: This is the critical question -- should public systems use a private platform, or stick with "dynamic purchasing systems" such as gsaadvantage.gov, which are the prevalent model in Chile, Europe, South Korea, etc.? 00:45:32 Christopher Yukins: Question: and the practical question: is there any hand-on tool available online where we can actually see/test how these market places work with public procurement? Answer: this is certainly the first major test internationally. 00:51:11 Christopher Yukins: Question: Good afternoon. I'm curious what impact the panelists envision this having, if any, on the AbilityOne program and other mandatory supply sources? Answer: As noted, the portals will need, within 120 days, to explain how they will accommodate AbilityOne preferences. This is very complicated -- the portals will need to identify the products offered by AbilityOne and help steer users to those products. 00:53:50 Dianne Lancaster: This is a tough issue already at the state level with punch-out contracts for catalog vendors (office and MRO supplies e.g.) The contractor does not want to incur the expense and time to create & maintain these special features - but it is possible with effort from both contractor and government procurement officer. 00:55:32 Alison Kinn Bennett: Akin to the AbilityOne question, there are a number of sustainability requirements, may of which require some sort of third party certification vs a manufacturer/vendor self-declaration of conformance. Do you expect the portals to address federal sustainability goals and requirements (per EO 13834 and its implementing instructions / https://sftool.gov/greenprocurement)? 00:55:39 Robert Handfield: To Dianne: There will need to be a new more rigorous vetting process to be listed on the Amazon site - and Amazon will need to create this requirement as part of the on-boarding process. They may also be able to highlight suppliers that are part of Ability One, Veteran Owned, etc. 00:56:03 Christopher Yukins: What types of products are being allowed to be procured off these 3 sites for the first 3 years? Answer: All COTS items normally available on the portals, including services (although as noted the solicitation materials are muddy regarding services) 00:57:01 Craig Barrett: (including attendees) With regards to debarments as a mechanism of quality control, I think the way you counter-act a debarred company from popping up under another assumed name is to include individual officers/owners of the company as being among those named as debarred members. 00:59:50 Ian Clarke: They will through punch out from procurement platforms! 01:04:01 Christopher Yukins: A lot of legal issues with the vetting/qualification functions transfered to the platforms. What if a refused/non qualified vendor wants to complain? 01:05:34 Christopher Yukins: To respond to that pending question: Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 9.4 gives extensive procedural protections to a debarred vendor -- protections grounded in the Constitution's due process clause. 01:08:17 Christopher Yukins: Pending question: with commercial platforms commonly using the transaction data as a means for understanding which products they can sell profitably/competitively, how do we control/police these platforms from doing so? 01:08:54 Dianne Lancaster: Yes, this will be fascinating - the issues are decades-old in state procurement. Will the speed and ease of use offset the demand for compliance to the extent that legislatures modify their stance on traditional policies on the use of government procurement as a tool for achieving goals other than price and delivery? At the state level, legislatures have wanted both, creating much of the current work of the procurement officer, without great metrics that support the adoption of one approach over others. If informal purchasers are 'let off the hook' then the professionals must learn to manage 3rd party marketplaces. But if each state is on its own, this will be a spotty effort, made more difficult by the magnitude of the marketplace itself. 01:12:30 Ian Clarke: If you are using P cards, would it not be possible to go with a single Scheme (Visa or Mastercard) and use their It to provide spend data? 01:13:32 Robert Handfield: To Ian - surprisingly, the level of spend data visibility on VISA or Mastercard is not useful. This has to do with the fact that vendors ability to provide granular level data is not always available… 01:15:13 Robert Handfield: To Susan - the intelligence concerns are legitimate. My opinion is that these platforms should not be used for special projects related to national security..hard to drive compliance on this.. 01:24:01 Dustin Lanier: Thanks for an interesting panel discussion!