Nonprofit group will evaluate Quicksilver projects

The General Services Administration last week hired a nonprofit group to evaluate the 25 Quicksilver e-government projects.GSA, the procurement arm of the Office of Management and Budget, awarded Altarum Institute of Ann Arbor, Mich., a one-year fixed-price contract for $388,000 to perform an independent verification and validation on all of the projects, agency spokeswoman Viki Reath confirmed.Karen Evans, OMB’s administrator for e-government and IT, earlier this year said the contract’s scope would include making sure the 25 projects comply with all federal laws and regulations for security, privacy, accessibility and enterprise architecture. Evans also said the contractor would delve deeper into specific areas or projects if needed.GSA evaluated proposals from five vendors and chose Altarum, which has worked with the Defense Logistics Agency. Altarum officials would not comment on the contract.