The Nationwide Institutes of Well being’s resolution late final month to cancel the CIO-SP4 governmentwide acquisition contract shocked nearly nobody.
Protests of the IT providers contract tied up the procurement within the courts or with the Authorities Accountability Workplace for the higher a part of 4 years, forcing the NIH IT Acquisition and Evaluation Middle (NITAAC) to increase the present CIO-SP3 contract six occasions.
Whereas many in business believed the fixed stream of protests doomed the GWAC, Ricky Clark, the director of NITAAC, stated the choice to tug the plug on CIO-SP4 was based mostly on the administration’s objective to cut back contract duplication.
“Following a thorough strategic review aligned with Executive Order 14240, Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement, and OMB Memorandum M-25-31, acquisition leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health determined that the requirements envisioned under CIO-SP4 are now sufficiently addressed through existing governmentwide solutions, including those offered by General Services Administration. As a result, CIO-SP4 was determined to be duplicative and no longer mission-critical,” Clark stated in an electronic mail to Federal Information Community. “As the federal acquisition environment continues to evolve, the decision to cancel CIO-SP4 represents a responsible recalibration — focused on reducing duplication, improving efficiency, and ensuring disciplined stewardship of taxpayer dollars. We look forward to continuing discussions with our partners and stakeholders as we further outline the analysis supporting this decision and move forward with the transition of CIO-SP3 to the GSA portfolio.”
GSA and NITAAC have been negotiating for a lot of the final 9 months about the way forward for its GWACs. Equally, GSA has been working with NASA as nicely to switch its SEWP VI GWAC after it has been awarded.
Jeff Koses, GSA’s senior procurement govt, stated throughout an occasion on the Facilities for Strategic and Worldwide Research on Tuesday that these efforts are a part of the objective cut back the variety of a number of award, indefinite supply, indefinite amount (IDIQ) contracts throughout the federal authorities.
“We need competition and a variety of solutions for buying IT products and services, but we don’t need every agency to have a duplicative vehicle for that,” he stated. “GSA has to build contracts that other agencies can use to fulfill their needs.”
Extra particulars are anticipated to return within the subsequent few weeks about NITAAC’s transfer of CIO-SP3 to GSA, together with one other extension of the GWAC.
Trey Hodgkins, president of Hodgkins Consulting, stated he believes the extension shall be extra of a transitional interval for GSA to take over the administration of this system.
“NITAAC has struggled to have people in the office and take orders from customers. A practical effect of this to ween people off using that contract as customers went elsewhere to find what they needed,” Hodgkins stated. “I think all GWACs other than those already at GSA will have to go through some examination and see if they need to be consolidated.”
NITAAC misplaced about 35% of its employees to the deferred resignation program, early retirements and layoffs.
Over the past yr, companies have moved away from utilizing CIO-SP3 to a sure extent.
Information from Management Join reveals companies spent $1.3 billion in fiscal 2025, which is down from $1.8 billion in 2024 and $1.7 billion in 2023.
The Departments of Well being and Human Providers and Protection are the most important customers of the contract, in accordance Management Join.
With the recognition of CIO-SP3, NITAAC figured the following technology contract could be nicely obtained by its federal prospects and business.
And it was, as greater than 1,000 distributors submitted bids for the contract.
A loss of life by a thousand cuts
Robert Turner, the president of rTurner Consulting, which helps contractors bid on giant IDIQ sort contracts, stated CIO-SP4 was poorly managed from an acquisition perspective.
“Technical proposals are simply too subjective to evaluate in quantity and if the agency doesn’t award to all qualified bidders, inevitably the evaluations end at GAO or the Court of Federal Claims in protest, which just delays everything and in this case of CIO-SP4 ended up killing the contract vehicle,” he stated.
Hodgkins referred to as the lead as much as the choice to terminate CIO-SP4 “a death by a thousand cuts.”
“It started in a place that was unawardable because of the construct they created and challenges for vendors who wanted to be there. They went through multiple iterations of changes to try to address that and with each change, new challenges were created,” he stated. “I don’t think NITAAC ever got to a position where it was awardable and pass muster with vendors and the courts.”
Clark disputed that the protests and analysis points had been the principle purpose for NITAAC’s resolution.
“Throughout the process, the agency remained confident in the integrity of its acquisition approach and was prepared to defend its position, as needed, in the Court of Federal Claims,” he stated. “We are grateful for the time, effort, and high-quality proposals submitted by many dedicated offerors. Our decision to continue the procurement did reflect a commitment to continuity of IT services and respect for the significant resources industry invested in the process.”
Turner stated going ahead GSA or different companies operating giant a number of award IDIQ contracts should change their strategy in order to not fall into the identical lure as CIO-SP4.
“What I think we are all looking forward to is the day when large multi-agency multi-award vehicles focus on past performance and are targeted at awards for all qualified bidders, just like we saw or seeing with OASIS+ and partly what we saw with NASA SEWP 6,” he stated.
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