“Over the last 25 years, during the era of the governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) and governmentwide multiple award contracts (MACs) it’s difficult to remember the last time when one of those vehicles hit its total dollar ceiling.”
“Not Alliant at $50 billion. Not Networx at $20 billion. Not even Veterans Technology Services (VETS) GWAC at $5 billion.”
“But for the General Services Administration’s 8(a) STARS II program, it’s a different story. Not only did GSA announce the popular small business contract hit its $15 billion ceiling, it did so nearly 16 months before the contract’s sunset date of Aug. 30, 2021.”
“While it would be easy to see the bright side of this predicament because 8(a) STARS II was so popular that agencies awarded task orders at faster rates than predicted, the unfortunate truth is this is not a good news story for many small businesses.”
“’We were awarded a spot on the 8(a) STARS II program two years ago, during an on-ramp and now about 25% of our revenue come from 8(a) STARS,’ said Stephanie Wilson, the chief operation officer of NetImpact Strategies in Falls Church, Virginia. ‘The biggest impact are the contracts already marketed to STARS. Now customers need to regroup and figure out what to do…’”
“To be clear, GSA has not completely closed down 8(a) STARS II. The agency issued a memo on April 6 detailing the process by which a customer agency can use the contract if the GSA contracting officer issues a control number for the task order…”
“Bill Zielinski, the assistant commissioner for the Office of Information Technology Category (ITC) in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said in an email statement that the control number process is to ensure 8(a) STARS II doesn’t exceed its ceiling…” Read the full article here.
Source: The downside of a wildly successful governmentwide 8(a) contract – By Jason Miller, May 18, 2020. Federal News Network.
