Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memo

Yes. NITAAC GWACs are structured in accordance with the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) principles for government-wide acquisitions of information technology. This ensures structuring of orders that promote the use of performance-based acquisition where practicable, maximum utilization of small and small disadvantaged business, fair opportunity and transparency, and provide the management controls necessary for responsible contract and financial management. NIH provides the OMB with an annual Executive Agent Designation Contract Activity Report highlighting operational and usage information of its GWACs including contract activities, customer satisfaction and small business participation.

Best in Class (BIC) means that something has been designated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a preferred governmentwide solution that:

1. Allows acquisition experts to take advantage of pre-vetted, governmentwide contract solutions;
2. Supports a governmentwide migration to solutions that are mature and market-proven;
3. Assists in the optimization of spend, within the governmentwide category management framework; and
4. Increases the transactional data available for agency level and governmentwide analysis of buying behavior.

To see the five rigorous criteria for Best in Class solutions as outlined by OMB, please visit the Acquisition Gateway and Best in Class (BIC) Resource page.

FAR Part 16.505 discusses the procedures for ordering against Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contracts. Since CIO-CS is an IDIQ contract, contracting officers must provide fair opportunity for orders.

When placing orders under the SAT, the contracting officer need not contact each of the multiple awardees under the contract before selecting an order awardee if the contracting officer has information available to ensure that each awardee is provided a fair opportunity to be considered for each order. Contracting officers may always issue a request for quote (RFQ) in the Electronic Government Ordering System (e-GOS), but NITAAC provides two options for contracting officers to obtain information to make order decisions without issuing an RFQ to all contract awardees:

1. Under the Government Strategic Sourcing (GSS) initiative, NITAAC has competed laptops, desktops, and tablets to make them available on a “click and pick” basis to its customers. Contracting officers may use this information to meet the fair opportunity requirement.
2. When orders are over the SAT, contracting officers only need to provide fair opportunity to those that are included in GSS products. All contract holders were given an opportunity to provide products during the GSS ramp on.

CIO-CS contract holders must submit all items for sale to NITAAC for approval. Items are then placed in the CIO-CS catalog. Contracting officers may use the CIO-CS catalog to obtain information to meet the fair opportunity requirement. It is recommended that contracting officers reach out to contract holders to obtain additional discounts.