JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION TO INCREASE THE CONTRACT VALUE OF FLORIDA GENERAL CONSTRUCTION IDIQ CONTRACTS
JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL & OPEN COMPETITION IN ACCORDANCE WITH FAR 6.3
1. Identification of the Contracting Activity and specific identification of this document as a “Justification for other than full and open competition”:
The contracting activity is the General Services Administration (GSA), Public Buildings Service (PBS), Acquisition Management Division, Program Support Branch (4P1QF), 77 Forsyth Street, Atlanta, GA 30303
This document serves as the Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition.
2. Nature and/or description of action being approved:
This is a justification for other than full and open competition to increase the Maximum Order Limitation (MOL) to the existing Florida General Construction Indefinite DeliveryIndefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts in the Florida Zone under the authority of FAR 6.302-2, Unusual and Compelling Urgency.
3. Description of supplies or services required to meet the Agency’s needs:
The Strategic Support Branch provides procurement support to the GSA PBS, Region 4 Acquisition Management Division (AMD) with supplemental construction services. AMD requires General Construction IDIQs in various zones within Region 4 to support shorter acquisition procurement cycles and to facilitate GSA’s mission in supporting federal agencies including, but not limited to Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services and other Department of Homeland Security components, U.S. Justice Department, Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. District Courts.
The action authorized by this Class JOFOC is to increase the Florida zone General Construction IDIQ MOL by $10M from $10M to a total MOL of $20M per IDIQ contract, in accordance with FAR 6.302-2. While the MOL is being increased, the overall period of performance is not extended beyond the original expiration date of June 2028. During this period, the Florida General Construction IDIQ MOL increase will meet the minimum needs of the Government pending the procurement of the follow-on contract by avoiding any interruption of service.
PBS Region 4 uses the existing contract to fulfill requirements significantly faster than through any other solution. Through this vehicle, GSA completes mission essential work to maintain and repair federally owned buildings and leased space, respond to national emergencies, and provide critical support to help agencies meet their mission. GSA considered the actual ordering history of the Florida General Construction IDIQ to date and the minimal time necessary to procure a follow-on contract when it calculated the amount of MOL increase required. By increasing the MOL by $10M with this JOFOC, the Florida General Construction IDIQ will remain available and fully functional to meet the minimum but critical needs of the Federal Government while GSA continues to move forward with the planning, development, and procurement of a follow-on contract.
The Florida Zone General Construction IDIQ contract MOL is required to be increased by $10M from $10M to $20M pending the procurement of a follow-on contract vehicle. This increase is the minimum amount necessary to assure that the zonal General Construction services will be available to meet the continuing needs of the Government. The requirement is to continue to provide access to the existing General Construction IDIQ and its contractor base by increasing the contract MOL which will facilitate access to General Construction services required for the Federal Government to meet ongoing and upcoming urgent requirements.
4. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:
The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(2), Unusual and Compelling Urgency. Pursuant to FAR 6.305(b), a synopsis will be posted within 30 days after contract action.
5. Rationale justifying use of the cited authority:
Consistent with FAR 6.302-2, an award of this contract action to any other source would result in unacceptable delays.
Based on the current situation, the following options were considered:
a) Award an open market acquisition to a (potentially) different General Construction Firm (Sam.gov).
In accordance with 6.302-2 (b)(1) & (2), full and open competition would not represent the best value to the government. Awarding an open market acquisition would result in significant delays in designing project requirements, which will ultimately delay construction downstream. If the requirements are awarded to contractors other than the existing IDIQ contractors, the new General Construction firms would need to acclimate to the project requirements, which would negatively impact both schedule and costs. The PALT for a task order against an IDIQ contract is 45-60 days depending on the estimated value of the requirement, whereas the PALT for an unrestricted contract is either 180 or 250 days depending on the estimated value. The additional procurement time would result in an increased cost to the government and administrative burden.
b) Award requirements of the FL zone to incumbent General Construction IDIQ contractors from another zone.
This option still presents the risk of significant delays in awarding project requirements. An increase in cost is certain when a requirement is being performed outside of a contractor’s primary zone. Even in the case of an award being made to a Region 4 General Construction IDIQ contractor from a different zone, effort and mobilization costs would be significantly impacted.
c) Award requirements on a Sole-Source or 8(a) bases.
Like the other options considered, the time to procure a sole -source or 8(a) requirement is longer than the time to issue a task order against an existing award. Additionally, this option restricts competition and is not an ideal option as a primary source for fulfilling agency requirements.
d) Utilize GSA National vehicles.
There is a GSA National General Construction IDIQ awarded by R7. The R7 Large Construction Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts were awarded primarily to serve the customers of GSA PBS Region 7. Although the R7 IDIQs are capable of serving other GSA regions, the discretion to allow usage to the regions is left solely to Region 7 Acquisition Management Division (R7 AMD). Any request to utilize the R7 IDIQs for a proposed project must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis; R7 AMD will take into consideration available MOL as well as current and future Region 7 work. Only after R7 AMD determines that the proposed
project will not impact the mission of the customers of Region 7 will the IDIQs be allowed to be utilized by other Regions. Because of this, Regions 7 strongly recommends that GSA regions should not depend on the Region 7 IDIQs as a primary contract vehicle for proposed regional projects.
Based on the above considerations, there are no other contract vehicles that could be used to meet the immediate, ongoing and future requirements for the required services. The existing IDIQ holders are uniquely qualified and capable of performing the ongoing and future requirements as they have experience performing the design work to renovate the zonal buildings and possess proprietary and expert knowledge of ongoing projects. In addition, an unusual and compelling urgency precludes full and open competition. Soliciting requirements using any alternative to the existing Florida General Construction IDIQs would cause certain delays that would result in further deterioration of federally owned buildings in this zone, and other serious injury including but not limited to duplicative costs, additional administrative costs as well as additional design and repair costs. In extreme cases of disrepair, the potential for personnel injuries or loss of life are possible.
The Government acknowledges that the existing CG IDIQ contractors have proprietary and expert knowledge of the preliminary construction elements of ongoing projects. Pursuit of stand-alone contracts as an alternative for requirements in this zone will result in a year or more delay to being able to start construction requirements which will significantly delay project completion.
The current General Construction MOL is not sufficient to meet the government’s current and anticipated needs for construction services for the remaining period of performance of the existing IDIQ contract. To decrease the Government’s negative impacts to both schedule and cost of General Construction services projects within the Florida zone, it is prudent to increase the MOL for the existing General Construction IDIQ contractors.
6. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies:
A notice will not be publicized pursuant to FAR 5.202(a)(14).
The Florida zone General Construction IDIQ was awarded through full and open competition (FAR 6.1) utilizing source selection procedures (IAW FAR 15.3), publicized to the general public (FAR 5.102) as an unrestricted contract for all vendors (e.g., small business and other than small businesses) to submit a proposal. The overall contract period of performance will not be extended by
virtue of this MOL increase.
7. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost will be fair and reasonable:
The pre-negotiated rates were determined to be fair and reasonable at the time of award for the base contract and are not subject to change due to the increased contract maximum order limitation.
8. Description of market research conducted (see part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.:
Based upon prior awarded task orders, market research was not conducted for this request to increase the maximum order limitation. GSA is familiar with the quality of the FL General Construction IDIQ contractors’ work.
9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition (see FAR 6.303-2(b)(9) for examples; however this list is not inclusive).:
Not having the FL General Construction IDIQ as a viable contract vehicle option will have a detrimental effect on our support to both current and future Federal customers. Current and potential Federal customers rely on the FL General Construction IDIQ as part of their acquisition strategy to acquire General Construction services support for their missions, which will be placed in the difficult situation of trying to quickly find alternative contract options. Failure to provide a MOL increase will have a profound impact on solutions for customer agencies and business for our IDIQ contractors.
Increasing the MOL for an MA-IDIQ allows for the continuation of the contract within the specified period of performance, with the intent to avoid a disruption in service and efficiently transition customers from the existing IDIQ to the follow-on procurement.
Additional contract capacity will sustain strategic and tactical acquisition planning and allow for continuous solutions to be available for GSA’s Federal customers.
Increasing the MOL is not a firm obligation or expenditure of appropriated funds as is the case when Federal Agencies issue task orders. As such, the FL General Construction IDIQ is only responsible for ensuring the minimum guarantee (i.e., $1,500) as delineated in the base contract.
The FL General Construction IDIQ contract is a critical contract relied upon by GSA and GSA’s Federal customers throughout the state of Florida. A disruption in General Construction services would significantly impact the Government’s ability to respond to national emergencies and secure critical infrastructure, which would result in serious injury, financial, or other.
10. A listing of sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition:
N/A. The MOL increase action is to support the existing IDIQ as well as to ensure there is an adequate amount of time for performance for an uninterrupted transition to a follow-on contract once awarded. Based on historical interest in this requirement, we expect there will be a large interest from industry to compete for a follow-on General Construction services IDIQ contract for the
Florida zone.
11. A statement of actions, if any, that agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required:
The Florida General Construction IDIQ is a performance-based contract at the base contract level, which promotes competition and contractor engagement through the issuance of task orderrequirements to be awarded against the base.
GSA is moving forward to define the requirements and procure a follow-on contract using fair and open competition. The Maximum Order Limitation increase is merely a stop gap measure to provide GSA the necessary minimal time to procure a follow-on contract. Awarded contract 47PE0421D0002 to unknown vendor for unknown amount on 2023-04-28.
47PE0421D0002_PS0008 General Services Administration Public Buildings Service Region 4
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