To some extent, that is what is happening at the General Services Administration. It is trying to launch a national digital certificate project, Access Certificates for Electronic Services. No vendors are clamoring to bid on ACES even though GSA has made many revisions to its request for proposals. The haggling dates back nearly a year. The need for a uniform approach to digital signatures in the government dates back far longer than that.
Vendors consider ACES risky for many reasons.
Would-be bidders said they would prefer signing on as subcontractors rather than leading a team. In uncharted waters, such as a national digital certificate service, it's easy to see why vendors don't want to lead with their chins. With ACES, the usual financial risks, as GSA has acknowledged, are compounded by the liability exposure of vendors holding citizens' digital keys. By contrast, in an era of modular development and governmentwide acquisition contracts for commercial items, everybody and their brother bids on GWACs. GSA has had to stall ACES again as it tries to craft an RFP someone will bid on.