CBS-2018-270_CL_Bridge_JOFOC_SIGNED_Redacted.pdf

Reference No.

CBS-2018-270

April , 2018

OPM-NBIB-CBS

P.O. Box 618 1137 Branchton Road Boyers, PA 16018-0618

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (JOFOC)

PROJECT TITLE: NBIB Consolidated Leads Bridge Contract

DOLLAR VALUE: $12,178,912

INITIATING OFFICE: National Background Investigations Bureau

CONTRACTING OFFICER: Clint Hartle CONTRACTING SPECIALIST: Zachery Bernard

CONTRACTING OFFICER'S REPRESENTATIVE: Jennifer Phillips

1. Contracting activity:

This justification for “Other than Full and Open Competition” is being executed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) - National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) Contracting and Business Solutions (CBS) team.

2. Nature/Action being approved:

This justification is for “Other than Full and Open Competition”, under the authority of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-2 “Unusual and compelling urgency” for Background Investigations Consolidated Leads services principally performed in Boyers, PA and St. Louis, MO. FAR t6.302-2 applies when the agency’s need for the supplies or services is of such an unusual and compelling urgency that the Government would be seriously injured unless the agency is permitted to limit the number of sources from which it solicits bids or proposals, full and open competition need not be provided for.

NBIB recently attempted to re-compete a new contract in order to replace the current Consolidated Leads contract under Request for Proposal (RFP) OPM15-16-R-0003 that was publicly posted to Federal Business Opportunities website (FedBizOpps.gov).

On December 12, 2017, H.R. 2810 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2018 became Public Law No. 115-91. This law authorizes the Department of Defense (DOD) to conduct its own background investigations, those of which are currently conducted by NBIB. As a result, NBIB anticipates a reduction in mission over the next three years to include, but not limited to, workload reductions, as well as a fervor of process and requirements changes. The specific timing, scope and impact of this reduction in mission is unknown, but NBIB expects it to be swift in nature (upon DOD assuming their own background investigation casework), and extreme in the level of reduction in case volume. As a point of reference, it is estimated that DOD will take approximately 56%-70% of the current NBIB workload, which is currently planned to be transitioned from NBIB to DOD over the next three years. This reduction in case volume is expected to decrease the work to such a degree that the solicitation as previously defined was no longer viable. To maintain continuity of service, and prevent this mission critical to national security process from lapsing, NBIB is awarding a sole-source bridge contract to Next Tier Concepts Inc.

for 12 months beginning May 1, 2018 through April 30, 2019.

3. Supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs (including the estimated value):

NBIB currently conducts background investigations for over 95% of the Federal Government. Under Legal statute 50 U.S.C. 3341 and associated executive orders, OPM-NBIB is responsible for conducting security clearance investigations for civilian and contractor employees of the Government “to the maximum extent practicable.” Under

Consolidated Leads Requirement Justification & Approval

5 U.S.C. 1103 and 3301, and Executive Orders 10450 and 10577, as amended, NBIB is responsible for conducting background investigations for competitive service employees.

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, NBIB has processed over 2.3 million investigative products supporting security, suitability, fitness, and credentialing decisions by agencies across the Executive Branch. Continuity of operations of the NBIB background investigation mission for all Federal Agencies, to include the Department of Defense, is essential and cannot be interrupted for any length of time. With passage of the “Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004”, Congress emphasized that the timely delivery of investigative products is a national security priority and mandated strict timeliness standards for initial investigations. Additionally, the Director of National Intelligence, as Security Executive Agent, has directed timeliness standards for initial investigations and has placed a renewed emphasis on the timely completion of periodic reinvestigations. This requires that agencies prioritize the submission of out of scope reinvestigations according to specific criteria. The majority of these cases will be directed to NBIB, and NBIB has no control regarding the volume or phasing and timing of these submissions.

Next Tier Concepts will continue to provide the services that are directly related to the Federal background investigation processes under NAICS 561611. The Contractor will continue to be required to provide all assigned services needed to process and ensure the quality of all products provided by NBIB to its customers. These services require varying levels of experience across numerous position categories. The Consolidated Leads components primarily include the following:

Military Record (MILR) (DPRIS and NARA) Bureau of Vital Statistics (BVS) Defense Central Index of Investigations (DCII/SDCI) Immigration Check (IMM/SIMM) State BAR membership (BAR) Periodical Search (PERI) Military Discharge (MILD)

The estimated total value of this contracting action is anticipated to be $12,178,912. This estimate is entirely dependent on customer demand and the completion of actions by other contracted entities.

4. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

FAR 6.302-2: “Unusual and compelling urgency”

Authority- Citations: 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(2)

5. Demonstration that the contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires the use of the authority cited:

The ability for NBIB to produce timely investigations and reinvestigations that meet the cited legal statutes and mandates above depends heavily on the NBIB contractors’ ability to provide sufficiently trained staff and throughput in accomplishing the mission critical background investigations work. NBIB’s inventory of work to be performed is currently significantly larger than normal, and due to the mandated changes to the background investigation types, a backlog of casework has been created. For the time being, NBIB must focus primarily on increasing completion of investigations, without degradation of quality, in order to meet its National Security mission.

NBIB is looking to put in place this temporary sole-source contract for if the Governmentwas to participate in full re-compete activities, for such a limited Period of Performance, it would result in a massive use of resources and costs that the Government cannot afford at this juncture. Attempting to manage a contract transition at this juncture would destabilize NBIB’s efforts to increase throughput and represent an unreasonable risk to the integrity of the background investigations program for such a limited Period of Performance. There are currently no contractors that have the knowledge and capabilities to process this work other than Next Tier Concepts. Any other contractor would have the large task of onboarding new management and transitioning workloads, and would have the need for an appropriate phase-in period that would run the length of the entire base period of the contract (six months).

Next Tier Concepts has a fundamental understanding of the requirement, and the processes related to the requirement at which their application of is also extremely unique. There is no other contractor that could reasonably be expected to perform at the level necessary to meet the requirements in such a limited Period of Performance.

These factors affect this decision to award a bridge contract for Consolidated Leads services of one year until a long term solution can be implemented.

6. Efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by FAR Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under FAR5.202 applies:

For contracts awarded using FAR 6.302-2, the notices required by FAR 5.201 will be used.

7. Determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:

In competing the original requirement (that has since been canceled: OPM15-16-R-0003), NBIB conducted extensive price analysis. The NBIB has also conducted extensive market research and has available recent contractor price per CLIN data. NBIB evaluated the price driving elements of this requirement and conducted extensive time studies of all the processes used to successfully perform the full scope of work. Based on this analysis and the prior information, the Contracting Officer is confident that a fair and reasonable price to the Government will be achieved.

8. Description of the market research conducted (see Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted:

In April 2014, NBIB (then Federal Investigative Services (FIS)) conducted a comprehensive market research effort to identify potential offerors with the capacity and ability to meet NBIB’s Background Investigation-Consolidated Leads requirement. The results of this research provided improved knowledge of the marketplace to support any potential imminent or future procurement action for these services. NBIB developed a list of potential sources based on contractors’ expressed interest in doing business with NBIB, and their experience with contracting for other complex requirements on a similar scale. To determine business type, size, responsibility and debarment status, NBIB reviewed each contractor’s certifications and representations, as well as other information in the Government’s System for Award Management (SAM). To get a sense of each contractor’s past performance on other Federal contracts. NBIB also reviewed available records in the Government’s Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) to determine each contractor’s relative capacity and history with similarly sized requirements, NBIB reviewed Government obligation reports on USA Spending. Finally, NBIB conducted an extensive media search using resources available on the contractors’ websites sites as well as conducting Google and other searches to see if there were any obvious issues that might indicate that the potential contractor would not be a good fit for NBIB’s requirements.

The results of this market research led to the development of the acquisition strategy for the follow-on competitive procurement, and the issuance of RFP OPM15-16-R-0003. This source selection process was taken to award, and although the solicitation has since been canceled, the information has provided fair and reasonable prices for

(b) (5)

(b) (5)

(b) (5) analysis. NBIB also has access to Next Tier Concepts last price proposal for the previous sole-source contract for these requirements.

While NBIB’s market research does indicate that there are other potential sources that may be able to meet the base contract requirements, no contractor other than Next Tier Concepts, can meet the immediate requirements without an extensive transition. As mentioned above, a phase in period covering the entire base period of the contract (six months) would render any advantage from competition nearly useless considering the amount of time and energy the Bureau would need to evaluate proposals for this extensive requirement for such a limited period of performance.

Any new vendor would require at minimum a sufficient inventory for immediate start-up, access to OPM-NBIB Government Furnished Resources, potentially hire a new management team and associated staff to work the service, train new personnel, and overcome an inherent learning curve that is inevitable for any Contractor brought on board for this limited Bridge Contract.

9. Other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition:

As stated throughout, this requirement is essential to the United States National Security mission. In order for OPM- NBIB to continue to fulfill its National Security mission, OPM-NBIB has determined that it is necessary to Bridge the current background investigative Consolidated Leads Contract with Next Tier Concepts for no more than a year.

The current incumbent, Next Tier Concepts, is the only vendor able to provide these services to OPM without necessitating a disruptive transition, in the very limited time allowed. To bring a new contractor on will limit the ability of a sufficient phase-in period allowing for successful completion of this service. A new contractor would need the ability to have a sufficient inventory, access to OPM-NBIB Government Furnished Resources, potentially hire a new management team and associated staff to work the service, train new personnel, and overcome an inherent learning curve that is inevitable for any contractor that were brought on board for this limited Bridge Contract.

Competitive procurement procedures are currently in process for a new contract action. OPM-NBIB will issue a synopsis via www.FBO.gov, and through FAR 15 procedures, the Government will determine which offeror can best meet the needs of OPM-NBIB, and provide the best value to the Government.

10. Sources that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition:

From the market research conducted, numerous sources have expressed an interest in providing these services.

However, no potential offerors other than the incumbent are able to perform this work immediately with no impact on continuity of operations for such a limited period of performance.

11. Actions the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required:

Upon cancellation of the previous solicitations due to H.R.2810 – “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018” becoming law, NBIB has reconvened an Integrated Acquisition Team to develop a new solicitation strategy that will afford NBIB the ability to adapt to the imminent changes as well as appropriately respond to the evolution of the requirements over the past year and a half, and use FAR Part 15 solicitation procedures to allow for competition.

12. Certifications:

I hereby certify that the information provided herein to support this Justification is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signature: _____________________________________ Date: ________________________

Typed Name: Jennifer Phillips, Contracting Officer Representative

Program Office: NBIB-FIRE

Typed Name: James D. Shope, Executive Program Manager

Program Office: NBIB-FIRE

Typed Name: Todd Anthony, Executive Program Manager

Contracting Office: NBIB Contracting and Business Solutions

Typed Name: Ronald C. Hartle, Director

Contracting Office: NBIB Contracting and Business Solutions

Typed Name: Dean Hunter, Competition Advocate

Contracting Office: OPM

JENNIFER

PHILLIPS

Digitally signed by JENNIFER PHILLIPS DN: c=US, o=U.S. Government, ou=Office of Personnel Management, cn=JENNIFER PHILLIPS, 0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1=24001000006977 Date: 2018.04.10 17:17:33 -04'00' 4/10/2018

Digitally signed by JAMES SHOPE DN: c=US, o=U.S. Government, ou=Office of Personnel Management, cn=JAMES SHOPE, 0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1=24001000015064 Date: 2018.04.10 16:06:09 -04'00' 4/10/2018

Digitally signed by NICOLE EVANS DN: c=us, o=U.S. Government, ou=Office of Personnel Management, cn=NICOLE EVANS, 0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1=24001003417521 Date: 2018.04.11 10:22:27 -04'00'

NICOLE EVANS, HCA

RONALD

HARTLE

Digitally signed by RONALD HARTLE DN: c=US, o=U.S. Government, ou=Office of Personnel Management, cn=RONALD HARTLE, 0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1=24001000007691 Date: 2018.04.10 16:26:30 -04'00' 4/10/2018

DEAN HUNTER

Digitally signed by DEAN

HUNTER

Date: 2018.04.11 17:03:11 -04'00'