CIO-SP4 Amendment 6 Impacts and Recommendations
It’s time again to review another amendment to the NITAAC CIO-SP4 solicitation. Amendment 6 was released late afternoon on Friday, July 9th. We’ll take a quick look at what changed and how those changes might impact companies’ bids.
- NITAAC has updated its Limitations on Subcontracting clause in RFP Section I.2 (52.219-14) to be consistent with the June 2020 revision to that contract clause.
- NITAAC has deleted the requirement to submit form SF1407; you no longer have to submit that form for any bidder.
- RFP Section L.5.2 updates the limitations on contract examples provided from a Mentor in an SBA Mentor-Protégé Program (MPP) Joint Venture. For a small business that has an SBA-approved mentor-protégé agreement, the Large Business mentor may now provide two experience examples for the Self-scoring sheet, rather than one. This limitation specifically applies to the Corporate Experience, Leading Edge Technology Experience, Federal Multiple Award Experience, and Executive Order 13779 rows.
- RFP Section L.5.2 clarifies that signatures on the J.6 forms are never required if you are providing an FPDS report (this applies to experience examples for corporate experience, Leading Edge Technologies, Federal Multiple Award, and Executive Order 13779).
- RFP Section L.5.2 clarifies that examples must be from the last 3 years from the date the original RFP was released; therefore, experience examples must have been active at some point in the period between May 25, 2018 and May 25, 2021 (this applies to experience examples for corporate experience, Leading Edge Technologies, Federal Multiple Award, and Executive Order 13779).
- RFP Section L.5.3.3 SB Subcontracting Plan has been changed to delete the requirement to submit a Small Business Subcontracting Plan. Bidders now only need to submit form J.7. The section was also updated to clarify that you have to express SB subcontracting goals in terms of percentages of total planned subcontracting dollars.
- RFP Section L.5.7 provides more specifics on file naming convention and lists 14 specific files to submit.
- RFP Section L.5.8 provides more specifics on file type for submission, including that the self-scoring sheet and the pricing tables must be submitted in Excel.
We’ll also note that there are now seven pre-award protests filed with GAO on the CIO-SP4 procurement. We, of course, don’t have insight into the substance of those protests, and so far, NITAAC has not issued any statements about the protests or made any obvious, wholesale changes to its procurement strategy in response to the protests (reference).
Since these are pre-award protests, NITAAC is not under any obligation to pause, delay, or extend the CIO-SP4 procurement. They can still move forward with receiving proposals, evaluating offers, and even conducting discussions. The only thing they cannot do (unless there were special circumstances) is make contract awards. If a bidder decided not to submit due to the protests, that may impact their standing as an “interested party” in GAO’s eyes and limit their ability to pursue or protest further.
Proposals remain due on July 23rd at 2pm EDT. Teams should be wrapping up proposal content this week and preparing for submission next week. Best of luck!
