Apr 2, 2008

In the wake of many protests to the Alliant Small Business contract, the General Services Administration is halting the procurement process to re-evaluate all 142 bidders. This is the second time GSA has postponed part of its Alliant program because of protests.

The $15 billion small business set-aside contract, which is the companion to the troubled $50 billion Alliant contract, was the subject of four protests filed in February that were dismissed by the Government Accountability Office on March 13. GAO dismissed the protests because GSA promised to re-evaluate the bids, a corrective action that could have made a GAO ruling moot.

GSA awarded the small business contract to 62 companies in December. The decision to re-evaluate the small business contract comes on the heels of GSA’s announcement that it would take another look at the larger of the companion contracts following a judge’s March 3 ruling.

Last week, GSA told Alliant Small Business bidders they needed to extend their offers through October so GSA could resolve issues with the evaluation process, said David Belak, president of Alliant Information Technologies LLC, a joint venture of 11 small businesses and a winning bidder.


Even though the small business contract was evaluated by a different team and evaluated in a different way than the large business contract, GSA told the bidders they wanted to check to ensure those evaluations were done properly, Belak said.

“It’s disappointing it’s been delayed, but it’s wise they’re resolving it now before there is trouble down the road,” he said.

Potential Alliant competitor, Janus Research Group of Appling, Ga., agreed. “They want to make sure they get everything right,” said Thomas Duke, chief operating officer at Janus Research Group of Appling, Ga., one of the Alliant Small Business winners. “We’re looking forward to getting this contract going.”

The large business contract, which GSA awarded to 30 firms in August, had been plagued by protests ever since. On March 3 the U.S. Court of Federal Claims upheld a protest by eight losing bidders, saying GSA did not evaluate their bids properly. The court ordered GSA to stop the procurement until it resolved the issues with the evaluation criteria.

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