After Years In Limbo, GSA Cancels $15B Governmentwide IT Contract
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By
Aaron Boyd
The agency rescinded awards on the Alliant 2 Small Business last year, then canceled the solicitation altogether.
The General Services Administration is canceling its small business IT governmentwide acquisition contract, with plans to reissue a new solicitation.
Thursday, the agency announced the cancelation of Alliant 2 Small Business, the $15 billion companion to the $50 billion Alliant 2 Unrestricted GWAC. The small business pool contract has been in trouble for years, originally awarding 80 spots in December 2017, then swapping some vendors in and out in February 2018, only to rescind all awards in March 2019 after a series of protests and court challenges.
“This is to notify interested parties the government is examining and wants to bring to market significant updates and new requirements to A2SB; therefore, solicitation QTA0016GBA0002 is cancelled,” according to a notice posted Thursday to beta.SAM.gov.
While changes are underway, GSA stressed that the small business IT vehicle isn’t going away.
“A2SB is an important part of GSA’s GWAC portfolio, and—upon development and approval of the updates and new requirements—will be re-procured under a new solicitation,” the notice stated. That new solicitation will have an entirely new structure, according to GSA.
“The needs of our customer agencies, small business partners, and industry partners are rapidly evolving,” acting GSA Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Information Technology Category Laura Stanton said in a statement Thursday announcing the cancelation. “GSA is committed to finding ways for our GWACs to reflect the current IT marketplace so that we can maximize the opportunities for small and women-owned, HUBzone, service-disabled veteran-owned, and 8(a) small businesses to contract with the government for cybersecurity, emerging technology, and IT supply chain risk management needs.”
In the announcement, GSA said the new solicitation will include pools for all of the above-mentioned socioeconomic pools.
“We are working to expand the number of master contract awards to highly qualified small businesses on our GWACs, while focusing on technology requirements that support our customer agencies for future mission success,” Stanton said.
GSA did not give a timeline for the new solicitation process, but pointed federal buyers toward its other IT and small business focused GWACs, such as the IT category on the Multiple Award Schedule—formerly IT Schedule 70—and the 8(a) STARS II vehicle, which just raised its ceiling from $7 billion to $22 billion.
Thursday’s announcement also mentioned the forthcoming release of the final request for proposals for 8(a) STARS III.