NIH CPS - Contractor Comments?

[MrProliferation]

Does anyone remember or know of whether or how the NIH Contractor Performance System (CPS) allowed contractors to comment? It has been a very long time since I've used this system as our agency switched to CPARS, but we are looking over some reports in PPIRS that were filed via CPS in later FY 2009 about a contractor that are very troubling. The only issue is that there are no comments recorded by the contractor. This seems highly unusual given how negative the assessment is, as usually contractors manage some kind of rebuttal. We are wondering if the contractor was ever given an opportunity to really respond to the record because none of us can recall exactly how NIH CPS worked in that regard or whether CPS had any mechanism for a contractor to dispute a rating.

I've tried to find old manuals to the NIH CPS to see if they could help, but I haven't been able to locate anything more than an old NIH policy that describes how CPS works in general without addressing that question.

Anyone out there have any idea about this? I would ignore the record, but it is within the three year window and potentially relevant.

[C Culham]

Why not just call the contractor about the report rather than researching how NIH-CPS works?

[pmh]

Yes, contractors are given a chance to respond. The CPARS systems sends them an e-mail notification that a review has been done. They need to log into the CPARS system and respond if they choose, or they can choose not to respond. They have 30 days to from the day they receive the e-mail notification to respond.

[woops85]

^{I used CPS as a vendor. I was given a chance to respond but the notification went to an email address that someone had put in the system. My company used a group email, along the lines of contracts@abc.com, to avoid missing notifications in case someone was out of the office. If the address entered belonged to someone who had left the company, there's a chance the vendor never saw the negative rating. I'm not sure if anyone on the Govt side (other than a CPS admin) would have seen an undeliverable email notice, let alone acted on it}

[GOVCO]

^{I do not believe the CO received an email if the contractor rep email was invalid. However, CPARS does issue a notification.}