GSA sets new OASIS deadline

Proposals for GSA's $60 billion One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services multiple award contracts are now officially due the day before Halloween.

The GSA posted the newly formalized Oct. 30 deadline for submissions for both OASIS contracts in FedBizopps on Oct. 17. The agency has two OASIS contracts; one tailored to small businesses (OASIS SB) and an unrestricted contract, simply called OASIS.

In the middle of the government shutdown, GSA said Oct. 7 that the agency "fully intends to establish the proposal dates 10-14 calendar days from the date the government shutdown is resolved." The federal shutdown officially ended the night of Oct. 16 and government employees returned to work the next day.

The deadline for OASIS proposals has been repeatedly rescheduled over the last couple months. The agency said Oct. 3 that it was suspending the due date for proposals indefinitely because of the shutdown. In that notice, GSA said a new deadline would be established once the shutdown was resolved, but it gave no time frame.

In early September, GSA said OASIS proposals that had been due later in the month would not be due until Oct. 10. The agency said it wanted to give bidding companies more time to prepare because of changes to past-performance requirements in OASIS.

In late September, Aljucar, Anvil-Incus & Co. protested the contract at the Government Accountability Office, saying it limited small businesses' ability to team up to compete against larger vendors. The GAO closed its protest office along with the rest of the agency during the shutdown, which some said could affect the OASIS' bid process. The protest office has reopened and is operating normally, said a GAO spokesperson on Oct. 17.