Up To 60 Places Open on Alliant GSA said it plans up to 60 awards under its Alliant Small Business governmentwide acquisition contract. The final RFPs for Alliant SB and the full and open Alliant GWAC were released Sept. 29. Alliant SB has a ceiling of $15 billion; Alliant is worth up to $50 billion. “To the best of our knowledge, the Alliant SB GWAC is the largest federal contract set-aside for small businesses,” said John Johnson, acting assistant commissioner of GSA’s Integrated Technology Service. Proposals are due Nov. 17. GSA said it expects to make awards in the summer of 2007. The final RFP had been delayed repeatedly as GSA underwent management changes and new managers ordered additional reviews of the contract. New GSA Administrator Lurita Doan is moving to increase the attractiveness of the Alliant vehicle by campaigning to put other agencies out of the GWAC business. She said she has asked the Office of Management and Budget to end NASA’s authority to operate its SEWP (Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement) GWAC. “NASA is just duplicating what GSA is doing,” she said at an American Council on Technology/Industry Advisory Council event Sept. 27. She has also urged OMB to end the Treasury Department’s Treasury Communications Enterprise telecommunications contract, saying it duplicates GSA’s upcoming Networx contract. Doan argues that reducing the number of GWACs would enable the government to leverage its buying power and would save contractors the cost of preparing proposals on multiple vehicles.