14-D-8003_J_and_A_for_ceiling_increase_Redacted.pdf

MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND

471 EAST C STREET

NORFOLK VA 23511-2419

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL (J&A)

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as Competition Advocate, hereby approve the use of other than full and open competition for the proposed contractual action described below pursuant to the authority cited herein:

1. Contracting Activity: Military Sealift Command (MSC), Services and Ship Support Division (N102).

2. Description of the Action Being Approved: Modification to Contract N00033-14-D-8003 to increase the maximum quantity of Option Period 2, with a period of performance of 1 April 2016 through 31 March 2017, in the amount of (CLIN 2001 (Labor) by CLIN 2002 (Travel) by ) increasing the current ceiling from to

. The increase in ceiling will raise total contract value by from to .

3. Description of the Supplies/Services: Contract N00033-14-D-8003 awarded to Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) provides Engineering Services for the Installation, Testing and Document Review of the T-AOE 6 (USNS SUPPLY) MCS Upgrade. At the time that Contract N00033- 14-D-8003 was awarded, the MCS Upgrade was estimated to be completely installed and all documentation submitted no later than Jan 2015. The installation was completed, but the testing and documentation reviews remain outstanding. The newly installed system is currently within its 1 year warranty period through 24 May 2017. Up until this point, the engineering/contractor subject matter experts (SMEs) have been reviewing system defects and discrepancies against contract specifications to determine items to be remedied under warranty. Since the majority of discrepancies are related to the actual software code of the newly installed system, the remedies under warranty cannot be implemented without developing and installing a completely new version of the software. Each time a new software version is installed, significant regression testing is performed on the system to ensure proper function and validate the fixes. Since the vessel is currently deployed and on mission tasking, there is not a window of opportunity long enough to install the fix and perform adequate testing. Additionally, since more discrepancies are found daily as the vessel operates, it is not efficient to develop a new version of software, only to have to update it later due to newly found defects. Part of the delays are attributable to the prime contractor, L3 (N00033-10-C-7501) not providing deliverables under its contract for the subject contract. The continuing delays, and not at the fault of the subject contractor, resulted in an increase in the scope of the subject contract requiring a new task order. The services of the subject support contract are still required to complete the testing and review of documentation.

The subject support contractor maintains the Share Point site where all the historical documentation and new CDRL submittals are posted to allow access to all personnel on the project to find and use the same documents. The contractor has been involved as part of the SME

N102A N102-14-D-8003A team from the inception of this project and has a thorough and unique knowledge of the outstanding issues, and documentation status that could not be performed by another contractor.

An increase in the maximum quantity of the current CLINs 2001 and 2002 is necessary for several reasons. First, due to ship scheduling changes enacted by the failure of the Prime contractor to complete the MCS System Installation and Testing on time, and the fact that there are still changes being made now, the final test procedures and final as built documentation are still being reviewed, and some have not yet been submitted. Second, based on the fact that the subject contractor is managing the Share Point site which houses all the historical information and documentation, MSC will need to continue to employ this contractor until that data can be transferred to an MSC controlled Data Site.

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other than Full and Open Competition: IAW 10 U.S.C.

2304(c) (1) as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii), when there is a reasonable basis to conclude that the agency’s minimum needs can only satisfied by – For DoD, NASA, and the Coast Guard, services may be deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of follow-on contracts for the continued provision of highly specialized services when it is likely that award to any other source would result in; (B) Unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements.

IAW NMCARS 5206.303-2a(iii) the intended fiscal year is fiscal year 17 (1 Oct 16 – 30 Sept 17) and the appropriations will be in accordance with appropriate and available funds issued through individual task orders.

5. Rationale Justifying Use of Cited Authority: MSC’s minimum needs can be satisfied only by LCE. The two primary tasks that make this ceiling increase necessary are both clearly included in the performance work statement (PWS) in section 2 for the subject contract, whose purpose is to assist MCS with documentation review and to bring this contract closure to an end ensuring that all documentation is turned over to MSC from the contractors Share Point site. As discussed above, the timing and quantity of MSC’s requirements is merely greater than expected and will take longer than expected due to the extension granted to the Prime contractor to complete the MCS installation, testing and document submittals.

In addition, MSC cannot delay ordering additional work for this project as we are coming close to closing the contract with the prime contractor on the MCS installation and there are a significant number of technical documents presently under review and many that will soon be delivered.

There would be a significant learning curve for any other contractor to come up to speed on the design of this system, and using the same contractor for completion of this contract is the only way to get this work done efficiently and within the time frames provided by the contract for review and submittal of comments. No other contractor could take responsibility for the data site provided by LCE and thus, only LCE could effectively provide the necessary data transfer as this contract closes out.

6. Description of Efforts Made to Solicit Offers from as Many Offerors as Practicable: The previous ceiling increase was synopsized on 13 September 2016, and no responses were received.

No additional market research was conducted because it is not practicable, for the reasons discussed in Paragraph 5 above, for any company other than LCE to provide the required services.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost: The Contracting Officer has determined the anticipated cost to the Government of the services covered by this J&A will be fair and reasonable due to the fact that the labor rates already determined to be fair and reasonable at time of award will not change with the additional increase in ceiling amounts.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Future Competition: For the reasons set forth in Paragraph 5, MSC has no plans at this time to compete future contract increases. This contract terminates on 31 March 2017, and will not need to be renewed or extended.