“For most of the past 18 months, the federal contracting community has expected the Polaris small business governmentwide acquisition contract to have a ceiling of $50 billion. It’s unclear whether it was an estimate from a market research firm like Deltek or Bloomberg Government, or just a rumor that took off on its own, but for much of the past year, every story and every discussion about Polaris by multiple media organizations highlighted this $50 billion number.”
“Then a few weeks ago, the General Services Administration suddenly asked for a correction on a story about Polaris that says it has this $50 billion ceiling. The request was a bit surprising given the 18 months of stories and discussion, and never a request for a correction previously.”
“Well like any good journalist, I put on my investigative hat and found out why.”
“GSA quietly issued a class deviation to the Federal Acquisition Regulations in March removing the requirement for Polaris to have a minimum or maximum quantity under the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) type contract. By the way, and to be clear, FAR deviations are rarely big news items that deserve big fanfare and press releases. But you’d think that with Polaris being in the news and garnering attention like it has, GSA may have wanted to alert folks of the significant change.”
“A GSA official said in an email to Federal News Network that while they issued the deviation in March, it was planning for some time to remove the ceiling requirement.”
“’GSA incorporated a number of good-for-government key features in the Polaris GWAC program. An important one that we’ve seen misrepresented in the media is the mention of a contract ceiling on Polaris,’ said the official, who requested anonymity in order to talk about an active procurement. ‘In fact, designed to ensure ongoing availability for customers and maximum opportunity for vendors, Polaris will not have a contract ceiling at the master contract level.'”
“This may be the first time that GSA, or any agency for that matter, created a multiple award, IDIQ type contract that didn’t have a ceiling…” Read the full article here.
Source: Polaris, Services MAC will be the first governmentwide contracts without maximum dollar values – By Jason Miller, June 7, 2022. Federal News Network.
