Cy Alba, a partner with the law firm PilieroMazza and who represented some of the companies that filed protests on July 2 which prompted NITAAC to take corrective action on all issues presented, said NITAAC’s amendment and change is causing two major problems.
“For small businesses, who cannot simply reform into joint ventures with large firms who are not their mentor because it would make the joint venture a large business, it is forcing them to ‘no-bid,’ wasting hundreds of thousands in bid and proposal dollars,” Alba said. “For large businesses though, it may have the same effect, in practice. This is because large businesses are also being prohibited from using subcontractors for numerous areas of the RFP. However, unlike small businesses, the large firms could create joint ventures, but the timing is the problem.”
Alba said the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is taking 20-to-30 days to issue CAGE codes to new entities, and NITAAC only gave firms an 11-day extension for the proposal due date.
“Even if they created a new JV immediately, they could not secure the CAGE code from DLA in time to bid,” he said. “So even large businesses are looking at major lost bid and proposal dollars. All-in-all, NITAAC’s last minute, capricious, change is costing companies millions of dollars at a time when dollars are stretched thin for so many, particularly the small business who likely had to forego other opportunities to take a shot at CIO-SP4. It is truly galling the total lack of understanding that NITAAC has as it seems they are not even aware of the time and expense companies put into these procurements or they just don’t care.”
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Excerpt taken from the article “The Story of How One Small Business Is Barely Hanging on to Its Hopes of Winning a Spot on NITAAC’s CIO-SP4” by Jason Miller for Federal News Network. Visit this link for the full article.
If you have questions about CIO-SP4, please contact Cy Alba or a member of PilieroMazza’s Government Contracts Group.
