The National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) released Amendment 5 for CIO-SP4 on July 2nd. The amendment extended the proposal due date to July 23rd, fixed minor inconsistencies, added submission file naming conventions, and reiterated the changes to Contractor Team Arrangements (CTA) in Section L.3.7.
According to Amendment 5, Small businesses in a mentor-protegee relationship with a large business and bidding as a Joint Venture (JV) are now excluded from competing on small business set-asides. JVs may only compete on small business set-aside contracts if all companies of the JV are small, which is another massive change to bidding instructions.
Amendment 4, released on June 24th, reintroduced the ability for primes to use first-tier subcontractor past performance/experience to count for points on the self-scoring sheet. This will significantly raise the cut-off score. The constant changing of CTA requirements is causing whiplash and lots of proposal rework.
Offerors must provide documentation and proof to justify their claimed points, a requirement that is trickier than it might seem. Many offerors are realizing that their standard past performance narratives do not focus specifically on health IT or provide sufficient detail of their experience. NITAAC has left the burden of proof to the offeror, and many Statements of Work (SOWs) are not detailed enough to justify the points claimed on the self-scoring sheet.
There is no room for error in this proposal, so it is critical to ensure you receive all of the points you claim. Our experts can provide compliance reviews of your proposal to ensure the documentation is adequate. We can also provide proposal writing support for areas where a narrative is required due to limited information within your SOWs.
Contact us to learn more.
