Contract types and vehicles
What is a GWAC?
Governmentwide Acquisition Contract
A GWAC is defined by FAR 2.101 as a task-order or delivery-order contract for information technology established by one agency for governmentwide use.
Also written as: governmentwide acquisition contract, GWAC meaning, IT vehicle.
The definition is narrow in a way people routinely miss: a GWAC is for information technology. A vehicle established by one agency for other agencies to buy non-IT supplies and services is a multi-agency contract, which FAR 2.101 defines separately as a task-order or delivery-order contract established by one agency for use by government agencies to obtain supplies and services.
The commercial logic is consolidation. Rather than fifty agencies each running an IT services competition, one agency runs it and the rest order from the result. For contractors that means a small number of very large, very competitive award events, followed by years of order-level work available only to the winners.
Small-business set-aside GWACs exist, and are among the more valuable things a small IT firm can hold — but the competitions are long, document-heavy and infrequent, and they reward firms that have already accumulated relevant past performance.
What this means when you bid
If you sell IT to the federal government, find out which GWACs your buyers order through and when each is next recompeted. Everything else is downstream of that.
GWAC compared with the terms it gets confused with
GWAC vs IDIQ
A GWAC is an indefinite-delivery vehicle for IT open to the whole government; an ordinary IDIQ serves the awarding agency.
What IDIQmeans →Where this definition comes from
Federal contracting is one of the few fields where the authoritative answer is free, public and one click away. These are the sources this page is built from — go and read them.
- FAR 2.101→
The FAR's own definitions section.
- FAR 16.505→
Ordering under indefinite-delivery contracts.
This page explains a term in plain English and cites the authority it comes from. It is not legal advice, and the regulation governs where this page and the regulation differ.
Free tools for government contractors
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GWAC— common questions
- What is a GWAC?
- A GWAC is defined by FAR 2.101 as a task-order or delivery-order contract for information technology established by one agency for governmentwide use.
- What is the difference between GWAC and IDIQ?
- A GWAC is an indefinite-delivery vehicle for IT open to the whole government; an ordinary IDIQ serves the awarding agency.
- Why does a GWAC matter when you are bidding?
- If you sell IT to the federal government, find out which GWACs your buyers order through and when each is next recompeted. Everything else is downstream of that.
Related terms
- IDIQ — Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity contract
- Task order
- Fair opportunity
- Past performance
NAICS industries where this comes up most
An editorial pointer, not a measurement. These are the codes whose work most often involves a GWAC. Each page carries the official Census title, the SBA size standard where one is published for those exact digits, and whatever federal award history the record here holds for the code — which may be none, and says so when it is.