No. There is a combination of small businesses and other than small businesses. The small businesses come from a variety of socio-economic statuses. You may visit the contract holder information page on the NITAAC website for the business size of each contract holder.
CIO-SP3 FAQs
An SOW/PWS/SOO scope review is available at any stage if you will be using a NITAAC vehicle for your requirement.
All CIO-SP3 contract holder on-and off-site rates can be obtained by visiting the contract holder information page, choosing the contract holder whose rates you want to see, and clicking the link to their individual websites. Click here to go to the Contract Holder page now. Rates will also soon be available in e-GOS. Log in as you normally do when placing an order.
Yes. Modifications can be issued as long as they are within scope of the initial order. In general, if the modification does not change the nature of the work and was within the contemplation of the parties when the order was formed, the modification falls within scope of the initial order. Factors to consider that indicate in-scope changes:
•The order’s basic purpose/intent has not been changed
•The dollar magnitude of the change is proportionate to the price of the original order (disproportionate additions of work are in effect a new order)
•Competitive factors of the original solicitation are the same; hence, no additional offerors would have proposed on the original order had the change been included in the original solicitation.
Yes. The ten (10) task areas which make up the scope of the CIO-SP3 contract is intended to be a guide only. You can select as many task areas needed to firmly define your requirement.
Yes. You can use your own questionnaire. NITAAC also has tolls and templates for use as well.
No. Consistent with FAR Subpart 16.505, the contracting officer for the procuring agency has broad discretion in developing ordering procedures, including the award evaluation criteria. As such, the procuring agency contracting officer would be the best suited to determine the adequacy of an evaluation scoring sheet based on the evaluation criteria established.
Use of subcontractors is at the discretion of the CIO-SP3 prime contractors, subject to advance consent to subcontract provisions as provided in the FAR. If there were specialized requirements, they should be included in the SOW and if those requirements required the support of a specific subcontractor, it would be incumbent on the prime to make the necessary business arrangement with that party in order to improve their chances for obtaining an award.
You don’t. As with any other contracts, the contractor is bound to the prices and rates bid for your requirement. So, it is the incumbent on the contractor to factor in anticipated wage increases for the personnel bid. There are also pre-negotiated rate schedules for a wide variety of labor categories under the CIO-SP3i contracts, and contractors have also factored in escalation to cover the same.
Use of options is covered under FAR Subpart 17.2 - Options, which governs orders under CIO-SP3. It is fairly common to see orders with 5 year periods of performance, structured with a 1 year base plus four 1 year options
The processing fee is paid on each obligated amount based on the funding document. If a labor hour order is incrementally funded, the corresponding fee is based on the incremental funding and not the ceiling. The contractor includes the entire fee (based on the funding of the order) on the 1st invoice.
There are 54 contract holders on the CIO-SP3 contract. A complete listing of these firms can be found on the NITAAC website at nitaac.nih.gov/nitaac/.
Like any federal contract action, federal appropriation law and FAR guidelines govern funding of options. Primary considerations are contract type used, the Bona Fide Needs Rule, and whether the services are severable or non-severable.
NITAAC subcontracting plans are established on the master contract (i.e. CIO-SP3 or CIO-SP3 Small Business) level. These plans flow down to the individual task order level and are not required to complete your order.
NITAAC does not issue approval letters. Contractors can accept task orders as long as the task order award references the Prime Contractor’s NITAAC contract number (ex. HHSN2639999000###I).
FAR clause 52.217-8 allows a task order to be extended for up to 6 months. A justification for an exception to fair opportunity must be prepared if the period of performance is extended beyond 6 months (refer to FAR Subpart 16.505(b)(2) for more information on exceptions to the fair opportunity process).
NITAAC does not charge an additional fee for SOW or PWS scope reviews.
NITAAC only sends your RFP package to contract holders who were awarded contracts in ALL the task areas defined in your requirement. NITAAC automatically excludes those contract holders who are not qualified to submit proposals for your requirement.
NITAAC encourages, but does not mandate, the use of Performance Based Contracting (PBC). In order to do PBC, the requirement must be defined in a manner that is able to identify clearly measureable outcomes and applying incentives and/or disincentives. There is a question in e-GOS that will ask whether or not your requirement is PBC, and you can simply checks “yes” or “no”. No justification is required.
NITAAC operates as a “Fee for Service” agency, and is required to cover its operating expenses while implementing technologies and solutions to better serve its government customers. The current Contract Access Fee (CAF) for the CIO-SP3 GWAC is 1% with a cap of $150,000 for any task order base or optional period (not to exceed 12 months) with funding in excess of $15 Million. The NITAAC strategy for recalculating the CAF is described in its Annual Executive Agent Contract Activity Report submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The fees charged by NITAAC must be sufficient to recover the costs of managing the program over the long term, including initiatives to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its ordering, financial management and internal control systems.
NITAAC does not have a maximum order limit. The CIO-SP3 contract as a whole has a $20 Billion ceiling.
The NITAAC team will review the SOW looking at scope, contract type, periods of performance, evaluation criteria, specificity of tasking and deliverables and the deliverable schedule. We will also note whether the SOW is performance based. Of these areas of review, scope and evaluation criteria are the only areas that could stop the requirement from going out for competition: all requirements must be in scope consistent with the CIO-SP3 task areas where the support falls, and the requirement should contain the award evaluation criteria, particularly if the anticipated value is expected to exceed $5M as outlined in FAR Subpart 16.5.
NITAAC will provide suggestions for improving the SOW/PWS/SOO for all review areas as necessary, but the final decision on implementing any suggestions rests with the requiring agency.
The NITAAC Contract Access Fee (CAF) for the CIO-SP3 contract is 1% with a cap of $150,000 for any task order base or optional period (not to exceed 12 months) with funding in excess of $15 Million.
The CIO-SP3 E-Ordering System, e-GOS, is designed so that the end user and the contracting officer are both involved through the entire process. It is important to note that the contracting officer has the final selection authority for all procurements and is verified prior to any RFP or solicitation being released to the eligible contract holders.
The ordering contracting officer manages the task order after award. However, NITAAC is available to assist with any questions or issues the customer may have during the task order period of performance.
