GSA’s $50B IT services contract on hold

Five unsuccessful bidders submitted protests to GAO over being left off of the Alliant 2 governmentwide contract.
Five unsuccessful bidders submitted protests to GAO over being left off of the Alliant 2 governmentwide contract.
State CIOs are making security and cloud services their top priorities for the upcoming year.
Today, there is a significant trend in public procurement: an increase in both the availability and the utilization of cooperative contracts.
Source: Cooperative Contracting | Insights for Government Agencies
Have you ever discounted the importance of good, sound internal controls over your purchasing system? You shouldn’t and here’s why.
A former employee of a U.S. Government contractor in Afghanistan will spend the next 21 months in prison because he accepted more than $250,000 in kickbacks from one of the contractor’s Afghan subcontractors. These kickbacks were given in exchange for assistance in obtaining subcontracts.
SOURCE: Prison Time for Accepting Kickbacks from Subcontractor
More than 160 companies bid on the contract but 61 made the cut.
Don’t miss Onvia’s interview with Brent Mass of NIGP, examining trends in local government contracts and cooperative purchasing.
Source: Local Government Purchasing Trends for 2018: Interview with NIGP’s Brent Maas
Oklahoma Senator James Lankford just released “Federal Fumbles Vol 3, One Hundred Ways the Government Dropped the Ball”. This represents his third annual edition of this football themed publication. You can read our coverage of Volumes 1 and 2 by clicking here for the 2015 version and here for the 2016 edition. To download all three editions, visit Senator Lankford’s dedicated webpage..
SOURCE: Federal Fumbles – Vol. 3
In FY18, 20 Super Small Business Tasks Orders (TOs) with combined ceiling values of more than $1.3 billion and spending to date of more than $1.2 billion will exceed their ultimate expiration date and become eligible for competition (see Exhibit 1). We define a Super Small Business TO as an individual TO awarded under the umbrella of an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) or Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). We required that the IDIQ or GWAC contain a selected pool of contractors who compete on request for TO proposals. We ensured all TOs had a distinct primary contract vehicle number and TO contract number and that all TOs were set aside for small business.
The threshold for requiring certified cost or pricing data is currently set at $750,000. This applies to the award of negotiated contracts, subcontracts and modifications (see FAR 15.403-4). This threshold is set by statute, a couple of statutes actually. 10 USC 2306A – Cost or pricing data: truth in negotiations sets the threshold at $500,000 while 41 USC 3502 – Required cost or pricing data and certification allows for that threshold to be adjusted for inflation every five years. There have been a number of adjustments since the 1994 baseline to bring the original threshold up to the current $750,000.
SOURCE: 2018 NDAA – TINA Threshold to Increase to $2 Million
A “similarly situated entity” cannot be an ostensible subcontractor under the SBA’s affiliation rules.
In a recent size appeal decision, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals confirmed that changes made to the SBA’s size regulations in 2016 exempt similarly situated entities from ostensible subcontractor affiliation.
SOURCE: “Similarly Situated Entities” Exempt From Ostensible Subcontractor Affiliation, SBA OHA Confirms