GSA officials say they expect to award contracts under the Veterans Technology Services Governmentwide Acquisition Contract by next month.

Sales to service-disabled veteran-owned businesses through GSA schedules totaled $600 million in fiscal 2005, five times as much as the previous year, according to agency figures.

The Army awarded $5 billion in computer hardware contracts to six small businesses and three large ones. They will supply desktop and mobile computers over the next decade under the Army Desktop and Mobile Computing-2 (ADMC-2) contract.

Integration Technologies Group, MPC-G, NCS Technologies, Telos, Transource Computer and Westwood Computer won the ADMC-2 small-business contracts.

CDW-G, Dell and Hewlett-Packard are the large-business winners.

The number of set-aside contracts for IT work increased by 17% in the second quarter, compared to the year before. The market research firm Input says set-aside awards totaled nearly $1 billion.

During the quarter Input tracked 63 small business set-asides, sixteen to 8(a) firms, six for service-disabled veterans and one HUBZone award.

“More than half the awards in the second quarter were for professional services or maintenance support services,” said Marcus Fedeli, manager, federal opportunity products for Input. “Older hardware and software has to be maintained which is extremely costly, but agencies are continuing to look at new options in replacing these legacy systems.”

While many new companies are competing for federal IT contracts, that market will grow very little over the next three years, according to the market research firm Federal Sources Inc.

The company estimates the federal IT market will grow at a compound annual rate of only 1.6% from fiscal 2005 to 2008.

Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at FSI, said nearly 20,000 companies competed for about $75.5 billion in federal IT work last year.

A former Army acquisition official at Fort Belvoir, VA, and two contractor executives have been indicted in an alleged bribery scheme.

The Justice Department said Kenneth N. Harvey, former acquisition branch chief for the Army Intelligence and Security Command, received $35,000 through third parties in return for steering a $4.7 million maintenance and logistics contract to Program Contract Services Inc. of Bentonville, VA.

The company’s top executives, Michael and Karla Kronstein, were also indicted for bribery and wire fraud.

SBA is granting a waiver of the nonmanufacturer rule for Industrial Gases Manufacturing; Refinery Gases made in Petroleum Refineries; Cyrogenic Tanks, Heavy Gauge Metal Manufacturing; Liquid Oxygen Tanks Manufacturing; Liquefied Petroleum Gases (LPG) Cylinders Manufacturing; Bulk Storage Tanks, Heavy Gauge Metal, Manufacturing; Gas Storage Tanks, Heavy Gauge Metal, Manufacturing; and Cylinders, Pressure, Heavy Gauge Metal, Manufacturing.

The agency said no small manufacturer is supplying those products to the federal government. The waiver is effective May 12.