Page 25 - FCW, September/October 2020

Trending
GSA won’t budge on STARS II deadlines
3/1/21 is the deadline for agencies to “publish and operationalize” vulnerability disclosure policies
under OMB memo M-20-32
More legacy tech woes at IRS
It’s no secret that the IRS has a modernization problem. For decades, the agency’s outdated technology — including some critical systems that date to the Eisenhower administration — has been a target for lawmakers, government watchdogs and tech- nology advocates.
A new audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Admin- istration (TIGTA) has concluded that the problems could be even worse than advertised.
Despite a number of different strategy documents and a six- year, $2.7 billion business systems modernization initiative, auditors say the IRS lacks specific plans to identify, retire and replace legacy systems. The documents provided to TIGTA show that “for the majority of legacy systems, no efforts have been made to identify time frames, activities to be performed, and functions to be replaced or enhanced.”
The report warns that “if further action is not taken to address the growing number of and reliance on legacy systems, the IRS faces the risk of increasing cybersecurity threats and maintenance costs as more of its systems become legacy.”
In response, IRS officials said some of the systems TIGTA cited are in the process of being modernized or no longer qualify as legacy because of changes in programming languages or application age.
Acting CIO Nancy Sieger also defended the agency’s modernization push as a whole, saying that officials are updating as many legacy systems and applications as possible with the available resources.
— Derek B. Johnson
The General Services Administration is refusing to reverse its decision to significantly shorten vend o r performance timelines for a popular governmentwide acquisition contract set aside for small businesses despite objections by contractors and lawmakers.
The 8(a) Streamlined Technology Application Resource for Services (STARS) II vehicle has been extended past its expected lifetime and recently had its ceiling value bumped by $7 billion to
a total of $22 billion to help agencies respond to changing needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
GSA also cut the
period of performance
for task orders from
Aug. 30, 2024, to June 30,
2022. GSA and the Small
Business Administration, whose standards qualify businesses for the STARS II contract, explained that participating companies had outgrown their small-business status and could move to GSA’s Alliant 2 set-aside or partner with small companies to join the forthcoming STARS III.
Some contractors complained that the shortened period of performance was announced with little fanfare in GSA’s notice about the STARS II ceiling increase. Vendors say the move hinders their ability to provide longer service agreements to federal IT buyers, and it comes during the busy buying season at the end of the fiscal year.
“Federal procurement doesn’t like surprises,” said John Shoraka, co-founder and managing director of GovContractPros and a former associate administrator at SBA.
Furthermore, he said some federal customers are moving to GWACs offered by other agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the Army, and that could potentially deprive STARS II vendors of opportunities.
A group of contractors are considering taking their concerns to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. James Fontana, managing partner at contracting law firm Dempsey
Fontana,
told FCW: “We plan to challenge the legitimacy of the changes.”
The move also caught the attention of some lawmakers. In July, Rep.. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee’s Government Operations Subcommittee, and
“Federal procurement doesn’t like surprises.”
— JOHN SHORAKA, GOVCONTRACTPROS
committee member Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) sent letters to GSA and SBA asking them to take a look at some of the consequences of raising the STARS II ceiling and shortening the period of performance.
GSA officials told FCW that they were in the process of responding to those letters. They also reiterated the initial reasoning for shortening the period of performance, saying the ceiling for the vehicle had been reached and GSA had to act to help its federal customers.
“To that end, once the remaining contract ceiling had been fully allocated, GSA’s priority was ensuring agencies could continue to acquire IT services needed to enable the most rapid possible response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” a spokesperson told FCW.
— Mark Rockwell
September/October 2020 FCW.COM 25