LSJ_GSA_FSS_Over_SAT_FAR_8.405_Signed_Redacted.pdf

United States Department of the Interior

INTERIOR BUSINESS CENTER

Washington, DC 20240

LIMITED-SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

AUTHORITY: FAR 8.405-6 and 40 U.S.C 501

TASK ORDER# 140D0418F0118

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program.

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Limited-Sources Justification.”

This is a Limited Source Justification executed by the Department of the Interior (DOI), Interior Business Center (IBC), Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD), on behalf of the International Trade Administration (ITA) under the Department of Commerce (DoC).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

The purpose of this Limited Sources Justification is to document the rationale for modifying task order 140D0418F0118 to include the clause at FAR 52.217-8 - Option to Extend Services. This Limited Source Justification also justifies the exercise of FAR clause 52.217-8, for up to an additional six months of performance even though the pricing for it was not evaluated at time of task order award. Task order 140D0418F0118 is a sole source award held by the MIL Corporation (MIL) that provides support services for the ITA while the protest of the follow-on award is resolved at the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

This document contains a limited sources justification in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) - 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.

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

The requirement is for support services for the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of the ITA’s network and cloud infrastructures. Future implementation of major ITA initiatives may include the design, project plan, and testing and implementation of additional capabilities in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Office365, Microsoft Azure, Software Defined Networks (SDN), and the cloud implementation of future initiatives identified by the organization. The Systems Operations (SO) group requires a Contractor team that can continue to sustain and enhance the current level of service provided to the ITA, and be responsive to ITA business and organizational needs. The Contractor team shall provide SO with expert knowledge of ITA Information Management (IM)/Information Technology (IT) enterprise infrastructure and technologies. IT support will also be required for the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) to maintain the continuous operation of network and desktop operations including Tier 2 and 3 help desk support to CONUS and OCONUS facilities for the International Trade Administration.

The Period of Performance (PoP) for the six-month extension under FAR 52.217-8 will begin on August 8, 2018, and will be structured as one three-month option and three one-month options to be exercised as needed. The estimated total value for the six-month extension is , with the value for each 1-month at

. This increases the total value of the entire task order from to .

4. The authority and supporting rationale (see 8.405-6(a)(1)(i) and (b)(1)) and, if applicable, a demonstration of the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service.

MIL held a previous task order (D16PD00825) awarded by AQD to provide ITA with IT Infrastructure services that expired on January 25, 2018. AQD awarded a competitive task order for IT Infrastructure Services to DV United, LLC on January 19, 2018. A bid protest was filed to GAO on January 30, 2018 by Ekagra Software Technologies, Ltd. and the Contracting Officer (CO) issued a stop work notice. In order to provide critical ITA network and cloud infrastructure support, task order 140D0418F0118 was issued as a sole source award to MIL on February 08, 2018 in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) with a PoP from February 08, 2018 to August 07, 2018. On March 6, 2018 the protest was dismissed by GAO as academic due to AQD taking corrective action. The award was re-issued to DV United on July 12, 2018. On July 23, 2018 Ekagra filed a second protest at the GAO. In order to ensure that a gap in service will not occur, task order 140D0418F0118 will be modified to add FAR clause 52.217-8 and exercise the first 3-month increment in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B).

This modification provides the Government substantial benefits as it ensures that support to the ITA is able to continue with no gap in service. MIL is uniquely qualified to support the ITA as it is currently in place with current system knowledge, access, and proper security clearances and has the capability to support this task with minimal interruption or schedule impact. According to ITA MIL has worked very closely with the vendors of the equipment and cloud services in the ITA infrastructure and are intimately involved in the configurations and settings that are unique to the ITA. Their knowledge and expertise on the infrastructure configuration and architecture are critical in troubleshooting system issues. MIL has gained expertise over the performance of the previous and current task order and is the only contractor that is able to provide expertise and service to ensure uninterrupted service or without delay. A new contractor would need time to hire incumbent staff and familiarize themselves with the requirement. In addition, since this task order is only required during the protest (and prior to the successful award of a competitive award), there is insufficient time to onboard a new contractor. MIL can avoid the unacceptable delays that bringing in a new contractor would require and is the only vendor with the capability and experience needed to meet the government requirements on this tight schedule.

5. A determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d).

MIL’s Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) price of for a six-month period of performance is identical to the current PoP. MIL’s price was compared against historical prices paid for the same service. This comparison was made against the following competitively awarded task orders:

1. MIL’s six-month extension price for the previous competitive task order

D16PD00825 and

2. The option period 1 price for the protested competitive task order 140D0418F0081. Though option period 1 has 1-year PoP, it was selected for comparison as the period of performance most similar in date. The total 1-year price was divided for comparison purposes to obtain a six-month price. Optional Time and Materials (T&M) and contract vehicle access fees were not included in this comparison.

Table 1: Price per Performance Period displays a pricing breakout arranged according to the period of performance for this sole source award. The total price for the six-month extension for task order D16PD00825 was and the total price for a six-month period FFP portion under task order 140D0418F0081 is

. MIL’s current total quote of is lower by when compared to D16PD00825 and lower by when compared to 140D0418F0081.

Table 1: Price for a 6-Month Period of Performance Task Order

D16PD00825

Task Order 140D0418F0081

(Protested Award) Current Quote Base Period – One (1) Month

FFP Labor Travel/ODC

Total Option Period 1 – One (1) Month

FFP Labor Travel/ODC

Total Option Period 2 – One (1) Month

FFP Labor Travel/ODC

Total Option Period 3 – One (1) Month

FFP Labor Travel/ODC

Total Option Period 4 – One (1) Month

FFP Labor Travel/ODC

Total Option Period 5 – One (1) Month

FFP Labor Travel/ODC

Total Grand Total

Additionally, per FAR 8.404(d), the General Services Administration (GSA) has previously determined that the prices of supplies and services under GSA’s Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts to be fair and reasonable. MIL also provided an average % discount from its established labor rates. Finally, MIL’s labor rates were compared against average labor rates obtained from the GSA Contract- Awarded Labor Category (CALC) tool as shown in Table 2: Labor Rate Comparisons. GSA CALC provides an average for each labor category across all GSA Schedule contracts. MIL’s rates were $ to $ lower than the GSA CALC average rate. Based on this, it was determined that MIL’s total price of $ over six months is fair and reasonable.

Table 2: Labor Rate Comparisons

MIL GSA CALC

GSA Schedule 70 Labor Category Discounted Rate Labor Category Average Rate Technical Manager/Leader I Technical Manager $122.00

Programmer/Analyst II Programmer II $93.00 Programmer/Analyst III Programmer III $100.00 Programmer/Analyst IV Programmer IV $109.00 Programmer/Analyst V Programmer V $135.00

6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

AQD conducted extensive market research for the protested competed requirement.

Several other capable firms were identified through the market research process, however, given the need for the incumbent to maintain the current critical effort underway until the new task order is awarded, no other vendor is capable of being able to fulfill the requirement immediately and MIL provides capabilities and resources that are not available from any other contractor in the timeframe needed.

Therefore, re-competing this requirement at this time is not in the best interest of the Government. Moreover, it would not be appropriate to compete this requirement since this would be circumventing the protest process. No other vendor is capable of being able to fulfill the requirement immediately, and MIL provides capabilities and resources that are not available from any other contractor in the timeframe needed.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification.

This support is critical, according to the ITA, as the cessation of contract support services would have a deeply detrimental effect upon the functioning of IT services at the ITA, affecting both business functions and the safety and welfare of ITA staff operating in many places throughout the world. ITA is a worldwide organization operating in over 200 domestic and international sites that require the network, systems and resources be up and running on a 24-hour basis. The vast majority of ITA’s IT operations are conducted by contractor staff, so the cessation of contract support places all of these functions in jeopardy. Some of the areas of functionality the ITA identified would be harmed by a break in service are outlined below:

Mobile Device Management: ITA is a highly mobile distributed workforce and, as such, is heavily invested in mobile communications technology. In the international field the Senior Commercial Office is required to maintain communications with the State Department Regional Security Office for any emergency alerts and/or Terrorist activity. This system must be maintained for the health and safety of ITA’s overseas personnel. The mobile device support systems are also critical to ITA’s Continuity of Operations (COOP) plan and provides critical information in the event ITA must activate the COOP.

Firewalls: The edge firewalls that protect ITA’s virtualized datacenter in Amazon Web Services (AWS) is operated and maintained by the contractor’s Infrastructure team. These systems are constantly upgraded and maintained to guard against cyber threats. The failure to operate and maintain the edge firewall devices could lead to a loss of data integrity or confidentiality which could be catastrophic for ITA operations.

Office 365: ITA uses Microsoft Office 365 for directory, e-mail, and file services.

This SaaS environment is managed by the contractor’s Infrastructure staff. An outage would result in ITA effectively losing its entire network infrastructure. The result being users would be unable to log into any resources requiring Active Directory authentication, unable to use e-mail services, and unable to access file services. This loss of service would result in complete work stoppage for the entire agency at all locations.

Date Contracting Officer

Date Program Office/COR Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) The International Trade Administration (ITA) The Department of Commerce (DOC)

7-24-2018

Date Chief, Acquisition Management Branch 3, Division 1 (Acting)

Date Chief, Acquisition Management Division 1 (Acting)

Date Chief, Acquisition Policy and Oversight Division Bureau Competition Advocate

Digitally signed by Date: 2018.07.24 13:09:56 -04'00'

Digitally signed by Date: 2018.07.24 15:14:51 -04'00'

Digitally signed by Date: 2018.07.25 07:05:33 -04'00'