SEWP V awards delayed, start date unchanged

Awards for the fifth iteration of NASA's Government Wide Acquisition Contract for IT have been put off a month to wade through a slew of proposals, but the November start date remains, according to the contract's program manager.

Joanne Woytek, program manager for NASA's Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP), told FCW in an Aug. 20 email that contracts for SEWP V would be awarded sometime in September, not August, as had been previously planned. Notice of the apparent 30-day delay was issued via FedBizOps the week of Aug. 7, she said.

Woytek noted however, that there has been no announced change to the start date of Nov. 1 for SEWP V contracts. SEWP IV contracts have been extended previously, but effective ordering period is slated to end Oct. 31.

The October deadline is itself the result of an extension of SEWP IV's original end date. On March 14, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center posted a pre-solicitation notice to FedBizOps, announcing that the agency would continue to allow purchases via the current Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement program through Oct. 31.

NASA spokeswoman Sonja Alexander also said the contract award delay was "primarily due to the large volume of proposals and subsequent lengthy review and selection process." She added that a recently resolved protest -- decided in the government’s favor -- also contributed to the delay. The Government Accountability Office on Aug. 7 denied the protests from IMPRES Technology Solutions Inc.; Metis Intellisystems LLC; Futron Inc.; Patriot Comm; Ideal Systems Solutions Inc. According to an Aug. 7 report in FCW sister publication Washington Technology, NASA nixed the proposals on the $20 billion SEWP V contract because they exceeded the page limit set in the solicitation.

Both SEWP IV and V contracts are awarded based on a competitive source selection process. SEWP V contracts will be awarded for a period of 10 years with a 5-year base and a 5-year option period.