“The General Services Administration isn’t budging from its decision to significantly shorten vendor performance timelines for a popular small business set-aside governmentwide acquisition contract.”
“STARS II – short for 8(a) Streamlined Technology Application Resource for Services II – offers small businesses opportunities to sell technology services to government. The popular contract vehicle has been extended past its expected lifetime and had its ceiling value bumped this summer by $7 billion to a total of $22 billion to keep the contract running to support agencies’ urgent needs for COVID-19 response.”
“Along with the additional funding, GSA worked out an earlier sunset for performance — cutting contractors’ period of performance for task orders under the contract from Aug. 30, 2024, to June 30, 2022.”
“GSA and the Small Business Administration — whose standards qualify businesses for the STARS II contract — explained that contractors on the vehicle had outgrown their small business status and could move on to another set-aside contract, GSA’s Alliant 2 contract, or partner with small businesses to get on the developing 8(a) STARS III successor.”
“Some contractors complained that the shortened period of performance was announced with little fanfare in the GSA’s notice of the STARS II ceiling increase. Two related complaints from vendors: The move hinders their ability to provide longer service agreements to federal IT buyers, and it comes at the busiest buying season as the fiscal year comes to a close…” Read the full article here.
Source: GSA won’t budge on STARS II deadlines – By Mark Rockwell, August 28, 2020. FCW.
