GSA cancels troubled ALLIANT 2 small business vehicle
By
Nick Wakeman
GSA awarded spots on Alliant 2 SB to 81 companies in February 2018 but those award were followed by over a year of protests at the Government Accountability Office and at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
The General Services Administration has cancelled the troubled $15 billion Alliant 2 Small Business vehicle and announced plans for a new set of small business contracts in a July 3 announcement.
GSA awarded spots on Alliant 2 SB to 81 companies in February 2018 but those award were followed by over a year of protests at the Government Accountability Office and at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
In March 2019, GSA cancelled all the awards so it could rework the procurement in light of the court rulings against it.
In late August 2019, GSA said it was prepping for a redo of Alliant 2 SB. At that time, GSA said it was going to expand the number of winners to 120.
With Thursday's late-day announcement, GSA is abandoning Alliant 2 SB completely. The agency said it is working on a new approach to governmentwide contracts for small businesses.
"Plans are underway for a new and enhanced small business GWAC program that better reflects the changing landscape and addresses the needs of agencies to access the expertise of small businesses. The changes will support recent developments in cybersecurity, emerging technologies, and supply chain risk management," the agency said.
GSA is going to conduct more market research and develop new solicitations for contracts for small and women-owned, HUBZone, and service disabled, veteran owned small businesses.
It's expected that some of the gap left by ALLIANT will be filled by STARS II -- GSA's 8(a) Streamlined Technology Application Resource for Services contract vehicle. That contract recently bumped up against its ceiling value, but just last week GSA announced it was adding $7 billion to the current contract and said a solicitation for STARS III would be hitting the street this summer.
In addition to STARS II, GSA wants agencies to use the VETS 2 vehicle and the IT schedule to reach small businesses.
"We are working to expand the number of master contract awards to highly qualified small businesses on our [governmentwide acquisition contracts], while focusing on technology requirements that support our customer agencies for future mission success," Laura Stanton, GSA Acting Assistant Commissioner, Office of Information Technology Category, said in a statement.
While Alliant 2 SB never got off the ground, Alliant 2 Unrestricted has become a very active contract for companies competing in the full-and-open environment. According to Deltek, $1.6 billion of work has flown through the contract.
A version of this article ran in FCW's sibling publication Washington Technology.