Judge pauses Polaris GWAC

GSA must amend RFP, accept new proposals

      A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge has ordered the General Services Administration to temporarily stop making awards for the multi-billion-dollar Polaris IT services contract until it amends the solicitation and allows firms to resubmit their proposals.

      It affects Polaris’ Small Business, Women-Owned and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned tracks.

      The judge objected to GSA’s strategy of not evaluating pricing in the proposals. Instead, prices are evaluated with each task order.

      Industry analysts are calling the decision potentially far-reaching and likely to affect other acquisitions, such as OASIS Plus. Currently, price evaluations in most IDIQ contracts are structured in the same way as in Polaris.

      The court prohibited GSA’s attempts to push all consideration of prices to the task order level, except for Labor Hour contracts and Time & Materials contracts.

      The judge said GSA wrongly interpreted Section 876 and the agency must include pricing as an evaluation factor at the master contract level.

      Emily Murphy, former GSA Administrator, said the ruling is likely to hurt small business contractors. “Getting Section 876 in place was something I am very proud that we did,” Murphy told Federal News Network. “It was supposed to take a lot of burden off small firms and contracting officers, and it was a meaningless burden because it was not delivering results.”

      “I’m surprised the judge went this far with the decision,” Murphy added. “It doesn’t seem to reflect GSA’s knowledge of how awards are made under the contract.”

      The decision forces GSA to return to a method close to the former way it evaluated pricing.

      The court ruled on a lawsuit filed by VCH Partners and SH Synergy. The plaintiffs also objected to the self-scoring method of awarding points for past performance, particularly for mentor-protege joint ventures. The judge asked GSA to amend that portion as well.

More information:
Court decision: https://bit.ly/3VFPEXs
FedNewsNetwork article: https://bit.ly/44GIvu5

While 8(a) set-asides slump, are riskier SDB awards soaring?

Judge pauses Polaris GWAC

SBA’s six new vet biz centers

CIO-SP3 for 6 more months

Debt default starts June 1

Wide-ranging Govcon rule

FAA awards to small biz’s

GSA’s FAS Web catalog

Column: In-Person GovCon Industry Meetings Are Back!

Washington Insider: