2020 ISO Sole Source Justification - redacted.pdf

Office of the Senior Procurement Executive (OSPE)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL & OPEN COMPETITION

1. IDENTIFICATION OF THE AGENCY AND CONTRACTING AGENCY:

Contracting Activity: OSPE Customer Agency: BLS Department of Labor Department of Labor

DOL/OPS BLS/OPLC

200 Constitution Ave. NW 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20210 Washington, DC 20212

2. NATURE AND/OR DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION BEING APPROVED:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) intends to issue a one year purchase order with Insurance Services Office (ISO) for Automobile Insurance Data for requirement 1625-OPL-20-NAT-0081.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES REQUIRED TO MEET THE AGENCY’S

NEEDS (Including the Estimated Value):

BLS staff needs data to quality adjust changes in premiums due to changes in the symbol group for autos included in BLS indexes. The Contractor must collect 2 billion detailed records of insurance premiums collected and losses paid. The Contractor must have 9.3 billion records for commercial lines, that data represents 70 to 75 percent of the entire industry's premium volume. Similar data was purchased from ISO last year and is an on-going requirement for index calculations. The Fiscal Year 2019 Order #1625DC-19-P- 0048 was awarded to ISO for $14,400.00 with a period of performance start date of 9/01/2019. The data must be delivered within 90 days from date of award.

4. AN IDENTIFICATION OF THE STATUTORY AUTHORITY PERMITTING

OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION:

FAR 6.302-1 Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

For the reasons cited below in Section 5 and Section 6, Insurance Services Office is uniquely positioned to provide insurance data to BLS.

5. A DEMONSTRATION THAT THE PROPOSED CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE

QUALIFICATIONS OR THE NATURE OF THE ACQUSITION REQUIRES USE OF THE

AUTHORITY CITED:

ISO generates symbol group data for the use of auto insurance companies. No other organizations produce this data. Although insurance companies in our sample purchase this same data, they cannot determine the change in risk as automobiles move from one symbol group to another, which is the information that we need for quality adjustment. Without this data, PPI and CPI cannot accurately reflect price change for the Automobile Insurance and Motor Vehicle Insurance indexes, respectively.

The data that ISO produces includes:

• Advisory Prospective Loss Costs — accurate projections of average future claim payments and loss-adjustment expenses

• Detailed Class Information

• Data Compilations by Line of Insurance

• Personal Lines Customized Reports and Analyses

• Commercial Lines Customized Reports and Analyses

• Customized Loss Reserving Tool — information for loss reserving, benchmarking, and analysis

• Statistical Information for Claim Professionals — data for benchmarking against aggregate industry performance

PPI staff have met with the ISO as well individual insurance companies. Based on those meetings it was determined that the symbol ratings, used to quality adjust both the PPI and CPI indexes, are only available from ISO as it is proprietary information.

6. A DESCRIPTION OF EFFORTS TO OBTAIN COMPETITION 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:

In accordance with FAR 5.203, synopses must be published 15 days before the issuance of a solicitation or negotiations with a sole source. Exception – for commercial items acquisitions, the Contracting Officer (CO) may (1) establish a shorter period for issuance of the solicitation; or (2) use the combined synopsis and solicitation procedure (see 12.603). Since this requirement is a reoccurring BLS purchase and since we have not received interest from other interested companies, the CO has decided to post a synopsis to FBO for 15 days before entering into negotiations for sole source.

7. A DETERMINATION BY THE CONTRACTING OFFICER THAT THE ANTICIPATED COST

TO THE GOVERNEMENT WILL BE FAIR AND REASONABLE:

Price is reasonable based on prices paid for similar purchases from previous years. It is anticipated that the cost will be similar to previous purchases from ISO that were found to be fair and reasonable.

8. A DESCRIPTION OF MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED (PART 10) AND THE RESULTS

OR A STATEMENT OF THE REASON MARKET RESEARCH WAS NOT CONDUCTED:

Despite FedBizOpps (FBO) postings in previous years and market research conducted by the BLS industry analyst and team leader for this industry, we were unable to locate any other sources for this data requirement.

For this reason and the reasons stated in this justification, this contract will be sole sourced to ISO Services.

9. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS SUPPORTING THE USE OF OTHER

THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION:

N/A

10. A LISTING OF SOURCES, IF ANY, THAT EXPRESSED, IN WRITING, AN INTEREST IN

THE ACQUISITION:

Insurance Services Office, Inc.

545 Washington Blvd Floor 12 Jersey City, NJ 07310

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:

DOL will continue to monitor the market to determine if BLS can receive similar services and create more competition for this requirement.

12. SIGNATURE BLOCKS:

The program/technical official further certifies that no conflict of interest exists in awarding a sole source contract to the contractor identified herein.

TECHNICAL CERTIFICATION:

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.