CIO-SP3 on-ramp protests should be near the finish line

Protests involving the small business on-ramp for the $20 billion CIO-SP3 vehicle may finally be near the end.

The Government Accountability Office's protest docket indicates only one is remaining from a slew of protests that have hit the procurement over the last couple of years.

MicroTech had protested in the wake of the original May on-ramp awards. That protest and others led NIH to take a corrective action. In late September, NIH awarded MicroTech a seat on CIO-SP3.

But InterImage is on a different path and they too filed a protest after the May awards. But that corrective action did not result in a contract award, so InterImage has again filed a protest with GAO to argue they have been unfairly excluded.

NIH added 244 small businesses to the vehicle in May through the on-ramp process. The small business on-ramp was the last in a series of on-ramp actions to add more 8(a) small businesses as well as HUBZone and service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses.

InterImage filed its protest on Oct. 20 and a decision is expected by Jan. 28. InterImage’s protest is likely the last one that challenge NIH’s award decisions, which is probably a relief for the agency.

Since the on-ramp process started in 2017, there have been 48 different filings at GAO objecting to some aspect of the procurement. Many protests were pre-award protests such as when a company was eliminated from consideration before awards were made.

But with InterImage’s protest, the end is very close for this protest saga.