Contracts/Awards

GSA faces first protest of Alliant 2 RFP

Enterprise Information Services submitted a complaint to the Government Accountability Office on Aug. 10 on the unrestricted version of Alliant 2.

Jason Miller@jmillerWFED

August 15, 2016 5:14 pm

2 min read

Six weeks after releasing the request for proposals under the next great IT services multiple award contract, the General Services Administration is facing its first protest on the Alliant 2 vehicle.

Enterprise Information Services of Vienna, Virginia submitted a complaint to the Government Accountability Office on Aug. 10 on the unrestricted version of Alliant 2.

EIS is protesting GSA’s terms of the solicitation. Sources tell Federal News Radio EIS is arguing the RFP violates federal contracting law as it does not state that the agency will perform a cost realism analysis before picking the multiple awardees. The company says since some of the task orders under Alliant will be the cost reimbursement type, it means the RFP has to have a cost realism review.

GAO has until Nov. 18 to decide on the protest.

GSA released the RFP for Alliant 2 on June 24 and has since issued 11 amendments. On Aug. 15, GSA said on its interact site that it will release a revised solicitation shortly.

Alliant 2 will be the follow-on governmentwide IT services contract to $50 billion Alliant, which GSA awarded in March 2009 to 59 companies. GSA also is pursuing an Alliant 2 small business as a follow-on to the $15 billion Alliant small business contract, which it awarded to 72 firms in December 2008.

Both contracts expires in 2019, but GSA wants to award Alliant 2 and have some overlap. GSA expects Alliant 2 to be worth $65 billion over 10 years.

Chat with Alastair Thomson, CIO of NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Aug. 16 at 11 a.m. Sign up here.

Alliant has been one of the most successful GWAC contracts. Bloomberg Government reports agencies spent $2.7 billion under Alliant in 2015 and already $2 billion in 2016. Since 2012, Bloomberg Government reports agencies spent more than $11 billion.

An email to EIS seeking comment on the protest was not immediately returned. EIS’s attorney Alex Brittin declined to comment on the protest.

GSA confirmed the bid protest but didn’t say how it impacts the RFP process.