Governmentwide acquisition contracts (known as GWAC) is the process by which agencies of the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

purchase goods and services (

procurement Procurement is the process of locating and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. The term may also refer to a contractual ...

); these involve legal

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

s between the agency and a private business. A GWAC is an acquisition tool that facilitates and streamlines the purchasing of IT solutions by United States federal government departments and agencies, while ensuring that the many government-mandated rules are followed. These rules are complex, deriving from laws and

regulations Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...

that guide the purchasing processes of each agency. According to the GSA website, "A Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) is a pre-competed, multiple-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity ( IDIQ) contract that agencies can use to buy total IT solutions, including both products and services." Federal agencies may create GWACs to support the work of the federal government. This has been done by the GSA,

NIH The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

(NITAA

and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

( SEWP). A GWAC is not necessarily restricted to the agency that runs it (see the article on SEWP as an example). All IDIQs, including GWACs, are regulated by FAR, a set of rules and regulations that must be followed by federal agencies and resellers of goods and services (known as Contract Holders) to the government in the procurement process.

References

Federal government of the United States Government procurement in the United States {{US-gov-stub