GSA to change Alliant past-performance review policy

General Services Administration officials haven't reviewed contractors’ performances on work done through the agency’s major governmentwide IT contract, as required and they had planned, according to a new report.

Office of Management and Budget officials granted GSA the authority to award the Alliant governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) with a stipulation of recording companies’ performance on individual task orders and make the information available to source selection officials, such as contracting officers, GSA's Inspector General’s Office wrote in a March 30 audit.

GSA has also laid out plans to do annual past-performance reviews, and it also developed procedures for the annual reviews, the report states.

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However, officials in the Alliant program office instead intend to get past-performance information on companies at the end of the contract’s base period in April 2014.

By doing so, the office will not have the appropriate data to make decisions on extending contracts and providing performance reviews to contracting officers. the IG said. The report also points out that GSA doesn’t have the essential information to determine if contractors are meeting the governmentwide contract’s terms and conditions.

“Annual task order assessments would provide essential feedback on contractor performance to both the client agencies and the program office,” according to the report.

Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Steve Kempf agreed with the IG’s recommendation to record past-performance information more frequently.

The Alliant GWAC is designed to provide innovative IT solutions to agencies. GSA awarded spots on the contract to 59 companies. The contract is possibly 10 years long and worth up to $50 billion.

Through January, 98 task orders had been awarded, valued at $4.3 billion, according to the report.