GAO Upholds 98 Bid Protests for CIO-SP4 GWAC

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has upheld 98 protests from companies that were eliminated in Phase 1 of the competition for the $50 billion CIO-SP4 governmentwide acquisition contract. GAO found that the National Institutes of Health's IT Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) did not reasonably evaluate the phase 1 offers and did not determine which proposals would advance to the next stages of competition. This decision is likely to force NITAAC to backtrack from its initial awards or reopen evaluations for the 98 companies. The GAO decision serves as a reminder to agencies to follow evaluation criteria and not rush the selection process for large-scale contracts.