Mitigating counterfeit, cyber and supply chain risks in the e-commerce pilot

This column was originally published on Roger Waldron’s blog at The Coalition for Government Procurement and was republished here with permission from the author.

Earlier this month, the General Services Administration, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, issued the Phase II Report related to the implementation of Section 846 of the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.*

In the report, GSA reiterated its legislative recommendation to raise the Micro-Purchase Threshold (MPT) from $10,000 to $25,000 for purchases made through the Section 846 pilot. This requested increase in the MPT is significant because it has the potential to substantially expand the market for micro-purchases by millions of transactions and tens of billions of dollars over the coming years. Such an increase in the MPT, however, appears to set the Section 846 e-commerce program on a course that will conflict with many counterfeit, cybersecurity, and supply chain risk concerns of both the government and government contractors.

Section 846 calls for the OMB director, in consultation with the GSA administrator and the heads of other agencies, to…