My office has a major acquisition for a cyber-security center with an estimated value of $25M/year for a 5-year period, $125M total, and we would like to place the order with a SB by January, 2013. We have had success utilizing the Alliant SB GWAC on past IT requirements, however, I am concerned with utilizing the Alliant SB this time around because of the potential loss of the Small Business credit in the out-years of the resulting task order. Right now, less than two years remain on the Alliant 5-year base period. According to FAR 52.219-28, re-representation is required after the end of the base period and, under Alliant SB, most of the small businesses will probably only be considered “Small” during the first year of performance on new task orders. After the first year of performance on our task order, they would be considered “Large” and we will lose our SB credit for potentially $100M of the $125M effort. In accordance with the Alliant SB manual, the following section addresses the FAR clause:

“In accordance with FAR 52.219-28, Post-Award Small Business Program Re-representation, contractors shall re-represent their size status upon any change in ownership. In addition to change in ownership events, contractors are also required to re-represent their size status 60 to 120 days prior to the end of the fifth year of the basic contract. Should an Alliant SB prime contractor become other than a small business concern as a result of a merger or acquisition, with or without novation, it is a policy of the Small Business GWAC Center to remove the contract holder from the GWAC. Please refer to Appendix XII, Industry Partner Advisory for additional guidance regarding this policy”.

With the new SBA re-certification process, how can I ensure that we obtain small business credit for the entire five year period, whether its using GSA Schedule or any GWAC? Due to the size of our order, the resulting small business who receives the award would become a large business within the first year of performance. According to the regulation, the re-representation requirement under FAR 52.219-28 would result in the selected contractor becoming a large business within the second year of performance under the Alliant task order.

The Alliant CO basically agreed with my concern. Are there any good ideas out there for ensuring the small business credit for then entire effort? Thanks.

Contract with a firm owned by an Alaska Native Corporation or lower-forty-eight Indian Tribe.

Contract with a firm owned by an Alaska Native Corporation or lower-forty-eight Indian Tribe.

wasn't the unlimited money rule taken away for ANCs and Indian Tribes? I thought it was changed to a max of $20M (which is still a lot for a "small" business), while the rest of small businesses cap was $4M.

I'm sure your post was meant as somewhat humurous, but I'd say away from large awards to ANCs after all the publicity they are getting recently. Especially with the conviction of Eyaktek, Inc. for the thing they setup with the Army Corps of Engineers where $20M was smuggled into the PMs hands.

Thanks, I've actually used ANCs in the past, and it is a great process to obtain SB credit. However, as you mentioned, they are receiving some bad press in recent years, especially on their sole source contracts, and now that Ted Stevens is no longer around to defend/promote them, their reputation is suffering a similar fate as the man who built the bridge-to-nowhere.

One option we have been discussing is to require a teaming arrangement in response to the solicitation, or give a bonus point in the evaluation criteria for teaming arrangements, and then when the lead teaming partner becomes a large business, have the lead team member on the contract switch to the other SB team member so that we can continue to obtain SB credit. We would essentially process a mod changing the lead teaming partner, but I do not think FPDS-NG would recognize the teaming switch, and we're probably still screwed, but its an idea we are exploring.

If we use Schedule 70 instead of a GWAC, perhaps we could use an evaluation criteria which states that the the SB must be in its first year of their 5-year base. The problem with the Alliant SB GWAC is that all 68 "Industry Partners" on the GWAC must re-certify their SB status in Feb 2014, after their 5-year base expires. Therefore, all of the successful ones will become LBs. Under Schedule 70, since there are 5,000 business, there is a moving 5-year base period...just trying to think outside the box and get SB credit which is a lifelong struggle for most Agencies.