GSA posts winning Recovery.gov overhaul contract proposal

The General Services Administration made public on Friday around 9 p.m. the winning contract proposal for the potential $18 million overhaul of Recovery.gov.

Redacted copies of the contract package now are available on Recovery.gov, the official site that tracks stimulus dollars.

"The new Recovery.gov will provide citizens and communities with easy access to information on recovery spending, thus increasing government transparency and accountability," the GSA press release stated. "The contract award for the new Recovery.gov is part of this effort."

GSA had postponed releasing the award documents to make them accessible to the disabled, agency officials told Nextgov on Friday.

Proprietary information has been excised in the online copies, which are available in a special format for the blind and visually impaired, as well as in Microsoft Word and as a PDF. Recovery.gov provides a link to a form that allows a user to download software for viewing the special format.

GSA announced on July 8 that it had awarded Smartronix, a Maryland-based Web services company, a contract to add new functions to Recovery.gov and to provide security, backup and maintenance services. The upgrade is set to launch on Aug. 27. Government transparency advocates immediately demanded to see the details of Smartronix's proposal and the official contract documents.

Agency officials said on July 13, in cooperation with Smartronix, that GSA would delete competitive information and upload the contract proposal during the week of July 20.

The previously undisclosed documents include Smartronix's management and technical proposal and pricing descriptions of awarded and optional line items. The site also published subsequent modifications to the initial award, including an amendment that establishes limits on travel and ancillary expenses. Many of the pricing description details are blacked out.

U.S. Code allows certain content to be removed such as technical design, nonfederal customer and supplier lists, overhead and operating costs, resumes of company employees, names of consultants and subcontractors, details of production or quality control systems information, staffing patterns, or any information that would place a company at a competitive disadvantage for future government business.