“All of the confusion and consternation over the solicitation for the CIO-SP4 IT services governmentwide acquisition contract finally has boiled over. Five companies filed pre-award protests with the Government Accountability Office after the National Institutes of Health Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) failed to clarify several questions about its request for proposals…”
“The five companies who submitted protests to GAO on July 1 and July 2 said the solicitation is overly restrictive. GAO has 100 days or until Oct. 11-12 to make a decision on the protests.
2TechJV, Sara Software Systems, Mahani Technical Services, GPSITek JV and Amaxiam said NITAAC’s decision to change the requirements for past performance through the Small Business Administration’s Mentor-Protégé program doesn’t follow the regulations and doesn’t give the companies enough time to meet the new requirements and submit a proposal…”
“Another big issue that NITAAC failed to clarify is around past performance for multiple award indefinite delivery/indefinite quality (IDIQ) type contracts versus single award IDIQ contracts.
‘In the Q&A, NITAAC answered the question around multiple award IDIQ, saying all obligated dollars should be used as one reference. But for single award IDIQ contracts, NITAAC was silent,’ [Cy Alba, a partner with the law firm Piliero-Mazza] said. ‘It seems like attempts to ask questions about this issue were not answered.’
Alba, [Stephanie Kostro, the executive vice president of policy for the Professional Services Council] and other industry experts said NITAAC should rescind the CIO-SP4 solicitation, fix the problems and reissue it. They said it may delay the final award, but it would be worth it in the end…” Read the full article here.
Source: Frustrations over NITAAC’s $50B CIO-SP4 GWAC boiling over – By Jason Miller, July 7, 2021. Federal News Network.
