CBCA 7165

GRANTED IN PART: December 15, 2021 CBCA 7165 NUES INC., Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, Respondent. Seun Oyewo, Chief Executive Officer of NUES Inc., Silver Spring, MD, appearing for Appellant. Robert E. Nerthling, II and Elise Harris, Office of the General Counsel, Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA, counsel for Respondent. BEARDSLEY, Board Judge (Chair). Appellant, NUES Inc. (Nues), has elected expedited, nonprecedential disposition of this appeal by a single Board judge under the small claims procedure in Board Rule 52 (48 CFR 6101.52 (2020)). This decision is “final and conclusive, shall not be set aside except for fraud, and is not precedential.” Id. Background On September 19, 2019, Nues entered into a fixed-price purchase order for $110,170, which included a cost reimbursable travel contract line item number (CLIN) in the amount of $9740, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct on-site monitoring of clinical research sites, pharmacies, and laboratories participating in the Tuberculosis Trial Consortium (TBTC) Study 35 in South Africa. Appeal File, Exhibit D.1 1 All exhibits are in the appeal file, unless otherwise indicated. CBCA 7165 2 TBTC Study 35 was to be conducted at a minimum of three clinical research sites in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, and total enrollment was expected to be seventy-two children Id. Nues was required to furnish all necessary services, qualified personnel, material, equipment, and facilities to conduct on-site monitoring for the TBTC Study 35, to include on-site initiation visits, on-site periodic monitoring visits, on-site close-out visits, tracking of monitoring activities and deficiencies, and reports of monitoring findings. Id. at 5. The contract scope of work (SOW) described the monitoring plan, the three types of visits that would be made, the visit preparation, the visit activities, the pharmacy visit, and the documentation of findings, reports, and communication. Id. The contract consisted of a base year (September 30, 2019–September 29, 2020) and one option year (September 30, 2020–September 29, 2021). Exhibit D. The contract contemplated eleven site visits. Id. There was no provision for remote visits. There were five contract-required deliverables associated with each site visit. Id. at 11. The milestone payment schedule (not including travel costs) for the base year stated: Deliverable Task *Amount Draft Monitoring C.4.a $18,361.67 Plan **Monitoring visit C.4.b $18,361.67 notification Preliminary C.4.f.2 $18,361.67 structured summary of monitoring visit Findings Provide a separate report per site Draft site C.4.f.3 $18,361.67 monitoring report Provide a separate report per site Final Site C.4.f.4 $18,361.67 monitoring report Provide a separate report per site Site monitoring C.4.f.5 $18,361.65 follow-up report Provide a separate report per site CBCA 7165 3 ***Total $110,170.00 * Amount is based on delivery of the tasks to be performed as outlined in Section C.4 in the solicitation. ** The billing Amount for this deliverable is divided by the number of visit types to each site as outlined in Section C.4 in the solicitation. ***Total Cost billed cannot exceed base year amount of $110,170.00. Id.