8(a) STARS Fall at Option Time Almost half the companies on the 8(a) STARS governmentwide acquisition contract have been dropped because they failed to meet minimum sales requirements. GSA did not exercise options for 197 of the 416 firms on the set-aside GWAC after the three-year base period for the contract expired May 31. Spokesman Jon Anderson said the contract terms required companies to book at least $100,000 in sales during that period, and those that fell short did not get an option. The STARS contractors provide IT solutions in eight functional areas. GSA said sales through the GWAC totaled nearly $805 million in the first three years, compared to about $500 million in the first three years of the predecessor FAST contract, the first to be set aside for 8(a) firms. The top 20 STARS contractors won nearly half the sales dollars. “Many of the contract holders had other contract vehicles that they chose to market, rather than the STARS Contract, or they found that their market niche didn’t really fit into the contract scope of STARS,” said Mary Parks, director of GSA’s Small Business GWAC Center in Kansas City, which manages the contract. She said the majority of companies that were axed had no sales. In evaluating offers on the 2003 RFP for STARS, Parks said, “most everyone who responded” received an award, as long as they had fair and reasonable prices and were found to be responsible. “This was in keeping with the Business Development nature of the 8(a) program,” she added in an email message. Asked whether some of the contractors may have been too small to compete, she replied, “I don’t believe that the companies’ size had any effect on their ability to self-market the STARS GWAC.” GSA spokesman Anderson said, “We offer our contract holders assistance with their marketing efforts as well by encouraging them to contact us when they are having difficulty marketing to any of the federal agencies. We have provided training and ordering information to a lot of federal customers, and also follow up on the tremendous number of leads that the contractors bring to us.” More companies will be added to the contract in 2009, when the next option is exercised. In January GSA’s inspector general reported that some STARS contractors had been subcontracting more than 90% of their work, in violation of regulations. The IG recommended stricter review of subcontracting, and GSA officials agreed. (SAA, 1/26) Anderson said companies that relied heavily on subcontractors have been told to submit “a get-well plan.”