On July 19, the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) IT Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) issued an addendum to the CIO-SP4 contract. TCX (Technology Company X) has operated in the federal market for over 30 years and intends to bid on the contract. Because the actual firm is still intending to bid and doesn’t want to jeopardize its connection with NITAAC, it agreed to tell its tale on the condition of anonymity.

TCX, a small contractor in the, says changes to its self-scoring system have hurt its chances of making it into the second round of NITAAC. Pat said TCX pulled two large businesses onto their team of small firms to help increase its total points. “It’s unclear where the cut is, so you’d be stupid not to compose your team of large and small contractors to maximize your points,” Pat stated.

The Small Business Administration’s CIO-SP4 procurement is assisted by TCX, a small-business teaming organization. Pat, of TCX, stated they need to locate new colleagues in the little period of time they have until bids are due, which NITAAC has given them. The

changes also have an impact on their relationships with major companies, as they must now ask them to leave their CIO SP4 team. Pat stated that the proposal expenses and staff hours spent on this procurement were more than $50B.

Pluribus Digital has filed a second bid complaint regarding the agency’s decision to include only small company experience in its CIO-SP4 contract. Amendment seven, according to the business, alters the method NITAAC’s 14-day response is used to determine whether or not offerors can revise their recommended teams. Two additional companies have filed protests with the GAO over the same issue.

“It’s driving small businesses to ‘no-bid’ since they can’t reorganize into joint ventures with giant corporations.” NITAAC’s haphazard, last-minute adjustment is costing businesses millions of dollars at a time when everyone is strapped for cash. Former General Services Administration acting administrator and IRS executive believes the agency should be debating reforms.

The Professional Services Council is calling on NITAAC to go back to the drawing board on CIO-SP4 procurement. “The latest amendment has frustrated many companies of all sizes,” said Stephanie Kostro, PSC’s executive vice president for policy. Pat McCall, managing partner of Koprince Law, said he has rarely, possibly never, seen a procurement run so poorly. He said when an agency runs a procurement this significant, the most important facet is transparency and consistency.

Author: Mariatu Alale

Edited By: Nakira Whitehead

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2021/07/the-story-of-how-one-small-business-is-barely-hanging-on-to-its-hopes-of-winning-a-spot-on-nitaacs-cio-sp4/

Executive Order 14036, Promoting Competition in the American Economy, was signed by President Joe Biden. Under Executive Order 14036, the Secretary of Defense is responsible for increasing competition in the defense industrial base in federal procurements. President Barack Obama has called for a study of how competition is used in the United States, as well as a push to foster competition throughout the economy. For numerous years, the number of businesses conducting business with the federal government has decreased. According to a new Chamber of Commerce survey, small firms suffer from a lack of competition.

The federal procurement procedure follows a Ronco-like “set it and forget it” mantra, which has resulted in a decrease in the number of enterprises contracting with the government. The federal government issues a request, waits for responses from companies that have figured out how to handle the multiple barriers to doing business with the government, and then awards contracts based on the offers submitted. Even when it is aware of alternative capable companies,

the government does not usually contact them or take them into account when making an award choice.

Better electronic tools and training for federal government contracting officers are needed to search the marketplace for companies that can meet government needs. The contracting officer’s market research, the firms considered for award, the company’s prices, and other special terms and conditions should all be tracked and recorded in the tools. According to Ed Rollins, President Obama will not be successful in improving competitiveness with American companies unless he changes the way government contracts are handled. He proposes new technologies to make government contracting more transparent and accessible to the public. According to him, the move will also boost government outreach during the contracting process.

With President Obama’s emphasis on boosting contracting with diverse companies and purchasing more American-made goods, now is the moment to bring about significant reform and promote competition in federal contracts. Senator John Thune believes that the government’s definition of competition and the mechanisms by which it acquires competition need to be updated.

By: Mariatu Alale

Edited by: Nakira Whitehead

Source: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2021/07/is-competition-in-federal-contracting-dead/

The National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) has posted the long-awaited solicitation for the Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 4 (CIO-SP4) Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). The new vehicle appears to be a not-so-subtle endorsement of the SBA’s Mentor-Protege Program’s joint venture teaming arrangement, which is one of the program’s focus points. Contractors of all sizes in practically every industry will be affected by the RFP. The goal of the SBA’s Mentor-Protege Program is to boost involvement among small business contractors, according to the RFP. Large firms have their own awards, but if they have a protégé, they can participate on a small business CTA team. 

Small Business CTAs: To be considered a small business, the CTA’s other members must all be small businesses, some other socioeconomic category of a small business, or a non-small business with an SBA-approved mentor-protégé agreement with the eligible socioeconomic business whose status the CTA is relying on to compete for award. A FAR 9.601(1) CTA that is not a joint venture must show that at least half of the human costs incurred for contract performance will be spent on employees of the prime contractor/team lead. 

The SBA Mentor Protege Program (MPP) is a business development agreement under which one business provides another business with developmental assistance, with the approval of the SBA. The benefits for the mentor are the ability to bid on contracts that have different set asides, greater work share (up to 60% in the joint venture), and exclusion from affiliation. 

The protege gains from being able to pursue and win larger initiatives that it would not otherwise be able to pursue and win on its own by leveraging the mentor’s past performance and capacity. It can also accelerate a smaller company’s success in the federal market by allowing them to collaborate closely with a larger, more experienced federal firm. 

Small businesses can now inherit the capabilities and resources of the larger partner, making them significantly more competitive. The program is also growing more popular as more companies recognize the significant advantage that it can offer both the mentor and the protege. Last month, Ogilvy had its MPP relationship with the woman-owned small business EFK Group highlighted in MSN 

By: Mariatu Alale  

Source: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2021/07/cio-sp4-just-gave-contractors-50-billion-reasons-to-consider-the-sba-mentor-protege-program/ 

Last year, business on the Multiple Award Schedule contract was at an all-time high. Allen Federal Business Partners is led by Larry Allen. He explains why schedule contracts might not be receiving the consideration they deserve in an interview. Allen explains that GSA Schedules do a lot of work, but they don’t always get the recognition they deserve from contractors or the media. Other programs, such as GSA Polaris and GSA’s Astro, as well as the NIH CIO-SP4 contract, are all new contracts with specific start dates, and you must submit your bid by a certain deadline to be considered. But it’s still there in the schedules, and you can make a bid at any time. And while that might not make headlines, it does make for good business, according to him, and statistics show that scheduled contracts are more common than ever with federal buyers.

According to Jared Smith, “interest in being on track” could have waned a year ago. “My phone has been ringing a lot more” about people who are trying to get back on track, Smith says. “I believe we’re starting to see some improvement. For a moment, there may have been a lull. However, now is the time for industry to resurface” Smith explains. To get on any IDIQ deal, such as the GSA Schedule, you only need one set of skills: the ability to write a good proposal. Selling in those contracts requires a different set of skills, since they’re all like fishing licenses, and you have to go out and catch the fish. The third part is that you must ensure that you remain compliant, Smith clarifies.

The federal company in Huntsville, Alabama, is growing. In Huntsville, the FBI is taking the lead and extending its operations. For the next few years, Huntsville will have over 20,000 government workers. According to Smith, federal business is conducted in San Diego, San Antonio, and Denver. If you work for the government, you may want to consider any of these locations outside of the Beltway. Jared explains that business is expanding so things are getting more and more clear now. There are places where there are huge concentrations of federal employees like San Diego. But they tend to be company towns for one particular department. Martins-burg, West Virginia, has a large diversity of different federal agencies.

Author: Mariatu Alale

Article source: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contracting/2021/04/why-gsas-schedule-program-might-not-be-getting-as-much-attention-from-vendors-as-it-deserves/

As the world prepares to return back to normality, so is the business world. However, in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, or even different viruses, measures and regulations need to be put in order. The Equal Employment Opportunity commission has updated its guidance on coronavirus vaccines late last week as the business world prepares to go back to normal, and employee prepare to physically be at the workplace. Consequently, the Equal Employment Opportunity commission has reported, “Federal EEO laws do not prevent an employer from requiring all employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated for COVID-19, so long as employers comply with the reasonable accommodation provisions of the [Americans with Disabilities Act] and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other EEO considerations.” Equally important, The National Institutes of Health said on Tuesday it has started clinical trials to study mixed vaccine schedules. Though vaccines were already authorized and administered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health wants to arrange for the possibility of needing booster shots to counter waning immunity and to keep pace with an evolving virus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases proclaimed, “The results of this trial are intended to inform public health policy decisions on the potential use of mixed vaccine schedules should booster doses be indicated.” Dr. Francis Collines, the director of the National Institutes of Health, has stated, “This whole issue about whether something happened at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, nobody knows.” The director has called for a “thorough investigation” into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak because the World Health Organization, as he claims the, “effort did not meet that standard.” However, such thorough investigation cannot occur if the Chinese government is willing to provide answers. Apart from this, Moderna has announced it is seeking full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. So far, the company’s vaccine is currently only available to individuals 18 years of age and older. Morderna is also providing data to the agency on a rolling basis. Besides Morderna Pfizer and BioNTech applied for full approval of their vaccine for individuals 16 and older last month.

Author: Ameer Ford

Source: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2021/06/coronavirus-roundup-full-fda-approval-sought-second-vaccine-nih-study-mixed-vaccine-schedules/174440/