GSA awards 72 small business Alliant contracts

The General Services Administration awarded 72 small businesses spots on the Alliant Small Business contract — 10 more companies than in the initial award, the agency announced today.

The information technology governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) is worth an estimated $15 billion over the five-year base period and the five option years, GSA said. The award is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract and the companies will compete for orders placed by agencies.

GSA originally made the initial Alliant Small Business awards Dec. 17, 2007, but officials pulled back the initial 62 awards in April, after the awards of its larger sister contract, Alliant, were revoked by the Court of Federal Claims in March.

The court found problems with the past performance information GSA used in the formula to determine which companies received Alliant awards. GSA based its past-performance evaluations on “sketchy” information, and the agency used that information as a major factor in awarding the massive contract, according to the court’s ruling.

GSA decided to re-evaluate the Alliant Small Business contracts, too. Earlier this year, GSA asked the 62 small businesses on GWAC to extend their offers until Oct. 28.

The $15 billion contract is a gateway to a lot of business for the small companies. The contract’s value rivals the $17 billion in sales on GSA’s largest schedule contract, Schedule 70.