Polaris RFPs released

Small biz, WOSB offers are due May 13

      The General Services Administration on March 25 issued solicitations for the small business and women-owned small business (WOSB) pools of its Polaris governmentwide contract. Bids are due May 13 for those two pools.

      GSA also released a “Q&A” document noting changes in the solicitations in comparison with the draft versions as well as a draft Scoring Table.

      Polaris is the follow-on to Alliant 2, focusing on IT services and solutions.

      Offers are to be submitted through the Polaris Submission Portal, which will open for registration on April 5.

      The delayed opening is due to the transition to the Unique Entity ID on SAM.gov and other GSA systems. The systems will be down from April 1-4 for the transition.

      Also, contractors should note that they must be registered in SAM.gov prior to registering in the submission portal.

Q&A on Polaris

      The GSA also revealed some changes to the initial draft solicitations in a Q&A document released on March 18.

      The changes include:

• Points will be given for accounting system audits from Third-Party Certified Public Accountants (CPAs);
• Restrictions have been removed that limited mentors in a joint venture to providing three or fewer relevant experience projects. “There are now no restrictions on the number of relevant experience projects that may be provided by a mentor in a Joint Venture mentor-protege arrangement”;
• Offerors submitting as a joint venture must provide evidence of any claimed system, certification, or clearance in the name of the joint venture itself or in the name of a member of the joint venture."
• Past performance scoring has been updated “to provide scoring for each project demonstrating positive past performance. This is a change from the draft indicating scoring only if all projects demonstrated positive past performance”; and
• The definition of “business arrangement” has been updated.

More information:
Small Biz RFP: https://bit.ly/3NuPXjm
WOSB RFP: https://bit.ly/3iG8ICv
GSA release: https://bit.ly/3K38DVz
Q&A: https://bit.ly/3DgllO5

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