GSA contract vehicles are the most popular source for federal buyers, according to a survey by 1105 Government Information Group.

The company asked readers of its federally oriented publications which contract vehicles they planned to use in the coming year. GSA SmartBuy took the top spot with 34% of respondents said they would use it.

The top 10, with the percentage of users:

1. GSA SmartBuy, 34%.
2. GSA Schedule 70, 31%
3. GSA 8(a) STARS, 16%
4. Army ITES-2S, 15%
5. GSA Networx, 13%
6. DISA I-Assure, 13%
7. DOD Enterprise Software Initiatives, 13%
8. GSA Alliant Small Business, 12%
9. GSA Millenia/Millenia Lite/Alliant, 12%
10. Army ADMC-2, 12%

Under pressure to expand its acquisition workforce, the Air Force is offering $20,000 retention bonuses to experienced contracting officers. Government Executive magazine reported the number of acquisition officials has dwindled from 43,000 in the late 1980s to about 25,000 today.

Many contracting officers are being deployed overseas for six-month tours following only six months at home. “We’ve stressed them out considerably, so we’re losing a lot of them,” Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, the military deputy to the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition, told the magazine.

The U.S. Minority Business Development Agency gave its Ronald H. Brown Leadership Award to Theresa Alvillar-Speake, former director of the Energy Department’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. The award was presented at Minority Enterprise Development Week in Washington.

Alvillar-Speake has been involved in small and minority business development for three decades in California and at the national level. She served as Energy’s OSDBU director during the administration of President George W. Bush.

The Ronald H. Brown Leadership Award recognizes individuals who are willing to take risks to achieve change and who have demonstrated exceptional leadership by significantly enhancing the development of diversity in the domestic and worldwide economies.

Other awards presented at MEDWeek included:

Minority Supplier Distributor of the Year – PetroCard Services Inc., Kent, WA;
Minority Technology Firm of the Year – PointandShip Software Inc., Walnut Creek, CA;
Minority Construction Firm of the Year – Rubecon General Contracting Inc., San Francisco;
Manufacturer of the Year – CVE Technology Group Inc., Plano, TX;
Minority Service Firm of the Year – PRWT Services Inc., Philadelphia;
Advocate of the Year – Morehouse College Entrepreneurship Center, Atlanta;
Distinguished Supplier Diversity Award – Kraft Foods, North Geld, IL; and
Access to Capital Award – Birmingham Business Resource Center, Birmingham, AL.