NITAAC's CIO-SP4 court filings due Friday
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By
Nick Wakeman
The National Institutes of Health's IT acquisition arm is tasked with collecting extensive documentation for its response to multiple lawsuits over the $50 billion contract vehicle.
The National Institutes of Health's IT acquisition arm has until Friday to file its administrative record for the $50 billion CIO-SP4 contract vehicle to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
This is the third such extension that attorneys representing NIH's IT Acquisition and Assessment Center have asked for. NITAAC does have to collect a large volume of records involved in this procurement.
Hundreds of companies submitted proposals for the vehicle's small business track. Hundreds have also filed protests with the Government Accountability Office. NITAAC has taken multiple corrective actions to try to address concerns.
A total of 16 companies have gone to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims with challenges to how NITAAC has conducted evaluations of proposals. Many of the complaints stem from how the agency validated self-scores and administered a pass-fail threshold.
Court filings indicate that NITAAC continues to evaluate proposals and is aiming to make awards by Dec. 31. That should give the court enough time to rule on the case and NITAAC to make any adjustments as necessary.
Following submission of the administrative record, the government has until July 22 to file a joint status report.
After that status report is filed, attorneys for all sides will propose a briefing schedule.
None of the 16 protesters objected to the extension.
The court case is not the only CIO-SP4 issues that NITAAC is facing. As that unfolds, NITAAC has started the process of paying the fees for companies that won protests at GAO during the summer of 2023.