Protest hits CIO-SP4 on proposal deadline day
Gettyimages.com/ Planet Flem
By
Nick Wakeman
One company is arguing that the 16 amendments to the $50 billion CIO-SP4 contract vehicle have not gone far enough to address the perceived problems.
On the same day that final proposals were due for the $50 billion CIO-SP4 contract vehicle, one more protester has thrown a fresh objection against the solicitation into the mix.
Summit Technologies' protest filed Friday, Feb. 11 does not entirely stop the National Institutes of Health's IT acquisition organization from evaluating the bids.
But Summit has at least put its concerns on the record because if it waited until after the proposal due date, its protest likely would have been rejected by GAO for being late.
When a company disagrees with terms in a solicitation, it must file the challenge before proposals are due.
Summit is objecting to the changes in the solicitation that were driven by an earlier Government Accountability Office decision that went against the NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center known as NITAAC.
In that November ruling, GAO said NITAAC was wrong to limit the number of past performance examples that could be submitted by a large business mentor in a mentor-protege joint venture.
Summit apparently thinks NITAAC didn’t go far enough in adjusting the solicitation.
Needless to say, the CIO-SP4 contract has been wracked by protests and industry-wide frustration since the solicitation was released in May 2021.
The solicitation has had 16 amendments, most of which were in response to protests filed by potential bidders. Many of the objections involved how NITAAC said it will consider past performance examples and how information from primes and subs are considered.
Many in industry have been frustrated with the sheer number of amendments. In August, one amendment came the day before proposals were due and that caused many companies to rescind proposals they had submitted.
NITAAC pushed the due date for proposals back to Feb. 11 after it faced more protests and was forced by GAO to amend the solicitation.
Even if NITAAC gets by the Summit protests, it will be no surprise if we see more protests when the agency begins making awards later this year. This one is far from over.