GSA to miss 2008 deadline for Alliant services contract
But agency plans to issue awards for the IT services pact to small businesses by the end of the year.
The General Services Administration won't meet its stated goal to award a megabillion-dollar information technology services contract this year that was blocked after a court upheld a protest in March from eight companies.
In a statement released on Monday, GSA officials said they had completed the technical and cost/price evaluations of offers on the Alliant contract, a $50 billion governmentwide information technology contract the agency had awarded in July 2007. Soon after, eight companies filed a protest, arguing the process used to evaluate the bids violated the law. In March, a judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled in favor of the protestors and ordered GSA to re-award the contract, this time with more focus on pricing.
The agency said it wanted to award Alliant by the end of the year. GSA officials now say they plan to award the contract in early 2009.
GSA intends to award an Alliant contract to small business this month. The Alliant Small Business contract has a ceiling of $15 billion. "I am pleased to announce positive progress," said Mary Powers-King, GSA director of governmentwide contracts, in an email sent on Monday. "Alliant Small Business re-evaluations have been completed and the contract is on schedule for award by the end of December 2008."
GSA requested final proposals from companies for the Alliant contract on Dec. 5, and it expects to receive revisions by Dec. 19. The agency declined to specify how many awards it would make or whether there was a substantial turnover among the vendors being considered. GSA plans to award the larger Alliant contract by the end of March, an agency spokesman wrote in an e-mail.