Decision in CIO-SP4 protest from Precise Consulting expected by Aug. 10

The Government Accountability Office is expected to issue a decision over a bid protest filed in relation to the CIO-SP4 IT services solicitation by Aug. 10, FedScoop understands.

Federal contractor Precise Consulting in May submitted to the watchdog a complaint, which is understood to focus on an emailed statement sent by the NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center to offerors clarifying certain terms of the solicitation.

The complaint was the third such bid protest submitted by federal contractors in response to the CIO-SP4 award process. IT and cybersecurity services companies Hendall and Octo previously submitted bid protests that subsequently became moot.

A copy of the emailed statement at the center of Precise’s challenge says that all experience examples submitted by offerors must be from the last three years prior to May 25, 2021, which was the initial solicitation release date. A copy of the emailed statement was obtained by FedScoop in May.

CIO-SP4 is one of several major governmentwide contracts where the question of how offerers’ prior experience is assessed by contracting award authorities remains a point of contention. On Friday, the General Services Administration unpaused the long-awaited Polaris solicitation process and clarified how experience is measured for mentor-protégé joint ventures seeking to participate.

CIO-SP4, like other recent governmentwide acquisition contract vehicles, has been hit with multiple bid disputes over how mentor-protégé joint ventures are assessed by acquisition officials.

In November, GAO partially ruled in favor of Computer World Services Corporation and CWS FMTI JV, after the parties argued that the procurement unfairly disadvantaged large companies in mentor-protégé arrangements.

The 10-year, $50 billion Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 4 (CIO-SP4) contract is the fourth iteration of one of a handful of governmentwide vehicles for acquiring commoditized IT products and services to meet biomedical research and health care needs.