Koniag subsidiary lands State Department writer work, up to $1.6 million

Koniag Professional Services, an Anchorage subsidiary of the Alaska Native corporation Koniag, has won State Department work to staff a writer and editor position in the department's Office of Inspector General. The first year is worth $314,270 and begins at the end of September, with four option years that would bring the total to about $1.6 million. The job is not in Alaska: the position is based in Arlington, Virginia.

The department signed the order Aug. 3, so the work has not begun. The award came through the federal 8(a) set-aside program, which reserves certain federal contracts for disadvantaged-business owners, including Alaska Native corporations. Two bidders competed for it. The company won a second State writer and editor order July 1, worth $355,222.

A 1986 amendment to the Small Business Act opened federal contracting to Native corporations and tribes. Koniag is the regional corporation for the Kodiak archipelago.

The program the award came through is under strain. The Small Business Administration has not approved a new 8(a) applicant since August 2025, a gap Native contractors have called unprecedented. Koniag was among roughly 50 Native organizations that signed a letter this spring pressing the agency to resume timely reviews, and the Alaska Legislature passed a resolution in May supporting Alaska Native corporations' participation in the program.