GSA to reveal physical access procurement changes
08 June, 2015
category: Biometrics, Contactless, Government, Smart Cards
Clearing confusion
Industry confusion was found in several areas, explained Chi Hickey of the GSA Office of Government-Wide Policy Identity Assurance and Trusted Access Division, during the webinar.
One of these was the fact that vendors could only be listed on a single schedule. “We realized that was a huge confusion and we’re working to clarify that in our terms and conditions agreement,” said Hickey. “We did not intend to restrict the community to one schedule or one SIN,” she said. GSA has proceeded to work on a means to allow listings on multiple schedules.
Certification requirements for workers on government projects were another major source of confusion and attracted the most industry questions. “There was confusion over who needed to be certified,” Hickey explained. The requirement to use Certified System Engineer ICAM Physical Access Control Systems led to major questions, especially in Schedule 84 contracting.
“There was confusion over who needed to be certified and who qualified as a past integrator,” according to Hickey. “Respondents are unclear over the distinctions between ‘integrators,’ ‘services’ and ‘service providers.’”
Hickey clarified that certification only extends to individuals, rather than companies as a whole, in order to maintain control over the people doing the work. This extends to both installers and engineers.
Additionally, state and local agencies were interested in whether GSA would accept certifications outside GSA’s current arrangement for CSEIP training by the Smart Card Alliance.
Other concerns included questions of whether approved products for physical access controls needed special indicators, whether certified engineers and products needed to be used for training and whether SIN descriptions were outdated.
The next step
“Since we’ve had the Industry Day we’ve received a lot of comments from the community as well as other stakeholders, and GSA embarked on the process of analyzing and consolidating the comments,” Hickey reported.
SIA added its comments and many companies echoed them. The results of those comments and their incorporation into GSA requirements will be revealed, but it is reasonable to expect that many of the industry’s concerns will be met.
SIA will follow up that Industry Day with a preconference session during the SIA Government Summit on June 8 at the W Hotel in Washington, D.C., offering attendees an exclusive opportunity to engage GSA officials before they finalize the requirements, which are anticipated to be published in July. For more information on the Summit, visit www.securityindustry.org/summit.