07 SSJ (redacted) F.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

USING SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR THE ACQUISITION OF COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS

AND SERVICES EXCEEDING THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

(AUTHORITY: Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation Overhaul (RFO) 12.102(b), 41

U.S.C. 1901)

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO), Eastern Acquisition Division (EAD), proposes to enter into a contract on the basis of other than full and open competition using simplified procedures for the acquisition of commercial services in support of the National Ocean Service (NOS) Office of Coast Survey (OCS).

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved.

The NOAA, AGO, EAD intends to award a Sole Source contract to the University of New Hampshire (UNH) to provide Information Technology (IT) support for NOAA personnel working in accordance with a memorandum of understanding signed by the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere/NOAA Administrator and the Senior Director for Research at UNH in May, 2022. This memorandum was enacted under the authorities pursuant to the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, the Ocean Exploration Act, the Clean Water Act (as amended by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990), and NOAA’s policy on Cooperative Institutes issued by NOAA Administrative Order 216-107A. The memorandum remains in effect until June 30, 2027 and may be amended or renewed at any time by the mutual written consent of the parties. A firm-fixed-price (FFP) contract is expected for award.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

NOAA, NOS, OCS has a need for IT support for NOAA personnel and/or NOAA contractors working in facilities provided by UNH Joint Hydrographic Center. These personnel require IT services and support that is integrated with the UNH IT infrastructure. This requirement reflects three components of IT support: computers and services, basic IT services, and data storage for high-resilience data. This requirement is intended to support the IT needs of 15 NOAA users throughout the base period of performance and up to four additional NOAA users in the option periods. This will allow the NOS/OCS to accomplish its mission of promoting the education, research, and technology of hydrographic services, working toward an improvement of national and international capabilities for dealing with and evaluating the use of new and emerging technologies pursuant to the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 1998 and the Coast and Geodetic Survey Act.

The period of performance for this FFP contract will be five years, specifically for a 12-month base period with four 12-month option periods, starting October 1, 2026, and continuing through September 30, 2031, should all options be exercised. Further, the estimated value of this action is

, if all options are exercised. This includes an estimated for the base period and four option periods valued at . This estimate is based on historical prices paid for the same service in previous years.

4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

41 U.S.C. 1901, using simplified procedures up to $9M, in accordance with RFO 12.201-1. In accordance with RFO 12.102, and accordingly RFO 6.103-1, only one responsible source is available to meet the government’s needs, as further described herein.

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires using the authority cited.

Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements - Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized. The IT support required for the NOAA employees and contractors working at UNH facilities can only be provided by UNH. The workstations are within the UNH IT network in the Chase Ocean Engineering Building where the employees must work interactively with UNH researchers; the UNH is the only source that can provide these services within the secure confines of the UNH's facilities and IT system. Due to the combination of physical and IT security concerns, it is not possible to provide IT support through a third-party contractor.

Additionally, due to UNH’s restrictive IT policies for providing IT support services to the NOAA personnel and contractors working onsite at UNH, no other sources are allowable for integration with the security and confines established for UNH’s secured IT system. The work products that have been developed and are being developed are based on the UNH-owned IT infrastructure. Contracting with a third party would require UNH to agree to allowing the 3rd party to access the UNH-owned systems and facilities, thereby opening up the UNH to potential vulnerabilities, especially if the third party’s systems are not compatible or compliant with UNH’s internal IT security policies. In the event that a third party is not compatible or compliant, it would also impose a cost-prohibitive burden on the government to establish services based on NOAA’s IT network and infrastructure, N-Wave, for staff working on projects with UNH collaborators at those locations. This work is tightly integrated with the systems that are physically located at the UNH, of which third parties do not have access to.

The only way to allow for open competition would be to move all personnel from the UNH facilities. The lost opportunities of collaboration would be detrimental to the quality of products and services produced under this cooperative agreement and incur significant unnecessary cost to make that change substantial. Further, the presence of NOAA staff at the UNH is in connection with the substantial federal scientific involvement for the mutual benefit of both NOAA and the UNH in a Memorandum of Understanding signed on May 20, 2022. This memorandum states “NOAA will reimburse UNH for office supplies; copying; and charges assessed by UNH Telecommunications for internet access, and other similar services to the extent these are appropriate and identified in separately issued facilities use agreements or service contracts which applies to this contemplated action.” If the requirement is not solicited to the UNH, all IT help desk support and infrastructure maintenance for both OCS and the Office of Ocean Exploration (OE) personnel currently in coordination with the UNH campus and remotely located staff will be eliminated. This will severely impact the OCS's depth database maintenance and functionality, leading to less accurate and slower electronic navigational chart updates, thus increasing navigational safety risks to lives and property for those that rely on these resources. Concurrently, it would completely halt the OE's deep oceanographic data mapping and processing capabilities, thereby impeding national efforts to understand the deep-ocean environment and hindering the provision of critical data,

11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required.

The Government will conduct market research annually to gauge any changes to the marketplace regarding capabilities for future requirements. This requirement is for ongoing services and is expected to be recompeted in five years. If additional sources become available during that time, the Government will seek competition for future acquisitions for these services; however, it is unlikely that any subsequent acquisitions for the same requirement will be competitive procurements because of the highly specialized and unique nature of this requirement.