GSA announces selections for Alliant Small Business

The General Services Administration on Thursday announced that 72 companies will have the opportunity to provide information technology services through the Alliant Small Business contract once they have been certified by the Small Business Administration.

Mary Powers-King, director of governmentwide contracts at GSA, told reporters during a conference call that she expected the final list of Alliant Small Business awardees to be virtually unchanged. The 70 losing bidders for the contract will be eligible to protest either 10 days from the award or 10 days from a requested debriefing.

Alliant is a governmentwide acquisition contract worth up to $50 billion over a five-year base period with a five-year option. The Alliant Small Business portion is aimed at smaller vendors, and has an estimated value of $15 billion. The contract, originally awarded to 62 companies in December 2007, was canceled after the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled in favor of protestors challenging the awards for the larger Alliant contract. In response, GSA agreed to reevaluate past performance data for both contracts and to issue new awards.

"We focused pretty much exclusively on past performance [during the reevaluation]" Powers-King said. The past performance evaluations were conducted exclusively by GSA personnel this time around, she said. One of the main reasons the judge ruled against the original Alliant awards was the fact that an independent polling firm, Calyptus, was used to collect past performance data.

Powers-King said she hoped the companies selected after the reevaluation will be certified by SBA by January, allowing agencies to start buying off the new vehicle early in 2009.

New awards for the larger portion of Alliant are not expected until March 2009, despite GSA's promises to deliver the awards before the New Year. Powers-King said the reason for the delay was GSA's decision to enter into discussions with companies bidding on the contract.

GSA has narrowed the field to a list of companies whose offerings have been deemed competitive and has started talks with those companies to allow them to amend any weaknesses in their proposals, she said. By allowing companies to update their proposals, agency officials expect it will be easier to compare the different offers and secure the best value for customer agencies.

Vendors bidding for the larger Alliant contract are expected to return their updated proposals to GSA by Dec. 19; once officials have that information, they will be able to establish a definitive timeline for the award, Powers-King said.