5.1.1-JEFO-DR4663-KY-P00003 - Redacted.pdf

Justification for Exception to Fair Opportunity Exceeding the micro-purchase threshold and up to the SAT pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(A)

JEFO SAT

JEFO No. 22-154

JEFO No.: 22-154

Date: August 25, 2022 PR Number: TBD

1. Nature and/or description of the item/service being procured and anticipated cost: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO), prepared this justification for an exception to fair opportunity. FEMA has an urgent need to procure an additional 4,500 Housing Inspections in response to the Governor’s request for Individual Assistance (IA) in the state of Kentucky. A Major Disaster Declaration was declared July 29, 2022 due to severe storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides. FEMA competed the initial task order for housing inspections in response to the Major Disaster Declaration DR-4663-KY resulting in Vanguard Inspection Services (VIS), receiving task order # 70FB8020D00000003 70FBR422F00000107 for 3,000 inspections on 08/03/2022 in the amount of $445,353.42. On 07/29/2022, the Chief Procurement Officer approved an Increased Thresholds for Procurements Supporting Local Recovery Efforts in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The simplified acquisition threshold was increased to $800,000.

On 08/06/2022, the HIS program office requested an additional 3,000 housing inspections and modification P00001 was awarded on 08/08/2022, in the amount of $475,163.12.

On 08/17/2022, the HIS program office requested an additional 2,000 housing inspections and modification P00002 was awarded on 08/18/2022, in the amount of $377,061.86.

On 08/24/2022, the HIS program office notified OCPO of its urgent need for an additional 4,500 housing inspections. As of the date of the request for additional inspections, 7,295 of the 8,000 awarded inspections. The rate of issue is continuing to exceed initial expectations, and existing funds will be depleted within the next 2 days. Also, there is a possibility of a stop work order if the additional requested inspections are not authorized. As a result, OCPO intends to execute a logical follow-on modification, Modification P00003, to increase the total number of inspections on Task Order #70FBR422F00000107 from 8,000 inspections by 4,500 inspections to 12,500 inspections. The modification will increase the total obligated amount from $1,279,287.38 by an estimated $767,583.46 to an estimated $2,046,870.84, without considering other awardees under contract number 70FB8020D00000002 pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B). The task order value will increase from $1,297,578.40 by an estimated $767,583.46 to an estimated $2,046,870.84. The estimated cost of this modification action falls within the increased threshold for simplified acquisition.

2. Statutory Exception and rationale for its use:

___X_____FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C). The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order.

This modification is a logical follow on to order 70FBR422F00000107 issued under contract 70FB8020D00000003. All awardees were given fair opportunity to be considered for order 70FBR422F00000107. The demand for additional housing inspections is urgent, and a modification is required in a timely manner. The modification will not increase the period of performance for Task Order 70FBR422F00000107.

The Governor of the State of Kentucky requested that the president of the United States declare a state of emergency in response to continued severe storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides, which affected several counties in Kentucky. Since the declaration and award of the task order, there still is a need to provide aid to the state, and an additional 4,500 housing inspections are of great need for support of DR-4663-KY.

If this requirement for these inspections was competed amongst the HIS IDIQ contract holders, FEMA would be charged for the TOPR responses from both contractors under the recurring operations task orders as the TOPR requires the submission of multiple documents that are created by contractor staff not assigned to a specific disaster. In contrast, an increase via modification would only require one vendor to submit revised pricing for additional inspections.

Additionally, as there is a contractor currently conducting inspections, the price to add additional inspections would be lower because the contractor already has inspectors with the appropriate equipment and additional costs to ship equipment would not be proposed.

As the amount of awarded inspections available for assignment to the contractor is expected to be depleted by 08/28/2022, a modification must be completed by this date to prevent a delay in assigning additional inspections. If this requirement for these inspections was competed amongst the HIS IDIQ contract holders, FEMA would need at least 3-4 days to solicit, evaluate, and review all documents. If another contractor were to start conducting inspections for the same disaster, there could be delays in starting the inspections, due to the assigned and already proposed inspectors who is familiar with the same location. If another Contract is awarded, it will take time for those inspectors to get acclimated and background information would have to be provided to the new inspectors. This could take an approximate 7 days. Additionally, FEMA would have to manually stop the flow of inspections to shift inspections between contractors, which could further delay the start of inspections. A modification can be completed within 1-2 days and reduce the risk that assignment of inspections would be delayed.

VIS is more than capable of providing the additional 4,500 inspections, due to past history of satisfactory performance in completing inspections of similar size. This Task order was originally awarded for 3,000 inspections which were completed in a satisfactory manner. The logical follow-on is value added to FEMA due to these inspections being at the same location, same services, similar costs, and the period of performance remains the same.

Based on the evidence and research available to FEMA, we conclude that VIS, the current IDIQ contract holder providing the services as the initial awardee of the Task order is capable to provide the additional 4,500 housing inspection services that the requiring program office needs.

FEMA intends to award the modification to VIS in order to avoid any delays of providing the additional Housing Inspection services under the Housing Inspection Services (HIS) IDIQ Multiple award contract. Therefore, it would be in the Governments best interest for FEMA to award to VIS, as VIS is already providing these services in the place of performance and can support the entirety of the requested quantity of these inspections based on their successful performance of current inspections and the amount of reserve inspectors available. The only way to meet this immediate need in the required timeframe is to directly procure these services from the IDIQ contract holder currently performing the service in the state of Kentucky. VIS was competitively awarded the initial award and is capable and is determined responsible to continue providing these services. Therefore, FEMA intends to execute this Task Order modification that will supply the additional 4,500 quantity to meet the urgent need for the duration of the period of performance for this contract until January 30, 2023.

Contracting Officer Date gbrownj3 Typewritten Text 8/25/2022