Redacted Sole Source Justification.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Maintenance of CFTC’s Legislative History Database System

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity.

This justification for other than full and open competition has been prepared by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or “Commission”), Financial Management Branch, 1155 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC 20581.

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

The action being approved is the award of a firm-fixed-price performance based contract to RELX (dba LexisNexis) for the Maintenance of the CFTC’s Legislative History Database System. The contract is for one (1) base year and includes four (4) one-year options.

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

The purpose of this contract is to acquire continued hosting and maintenance services for the Commission’s legislative history database system. The legislative history database is a web-enabled, web-accessible, fully-searchable information system for the storage and retrieval of all the CFTC’s historic legislative documents (please see section 5 below for background information on the CFTC Legislative History Database). The contractor shall provide all support required to operate and maintain the legislative history database system. Some of the maintenance services included in this award are hosting the database, incorporating new legislative documents into the database, maintaining and updating cited links and correcting any errors that are identified in the database.

The total estimated value of this contract is which includes the base year and all four (4) option years.

4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition for this requirement is FAR 6.302-1(a). There is only one responsible source and no other services will satisfy CFTC’s requirements.

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

In 2004 CFTC completed a competitive solicitation process and awarded a contract to convert and index its paper-based legislative history into an online database. This initial conversion was completed in 2006. Since then, the database has been in maintenance mode, whereby the contractor hosts the database and incorporates additional improvements and updates. LexisNexis was awarded the contract resulting from the 2004 solicitation. The resulting database was developed and has been hosted and maintained by LexisNexis since that time. One of the primary uses of the database is by the agency lawyers who utilize the database to determine the legislative intent of wording in the statutes. A significant and vital feature of the database is that the documents in the agency history include links to cited information that is contained in LexisNexis’s proprietary database, and the agency is able to access those documents via the provided links.

6. A description of the efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies.

Pursuant to the requirements of FAR 6.302-1(d) (2) and 5.201(b) (1) (i), CFTC posted a presolicitation notice of its intent to procure the services of LexisNexis on a sole source basis. The notice described CFTC’s requirements, and stated that it would consider responses from all responsible sources received. The announcement was posted on November 20, 2020 with a response date of December 7, 2020. No responses to the announcement were received. Therefore, negotiations were conducted with LexisNexis on a non-competitive basis.

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

The Contracting Officer has determined the anticipated cost to the Government of the services covered by this J&A will be fair and reasonable. Prior to award, the annual costs were compared to historical costs for this requirement as well as historical escalation for each successive period. Based on the analysis, the pricing was consistent and there are no known factors that would change the rationale.

Therefore, based on the above information, the price is fair and reasonable.

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

Based on the procurement history of this requirement, CFTC believes that award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government for development of the database by a new contractor that would not be offset through competition. However, as described in section 6 of this justification, per the requirements of FAR 6.302-1(d) (2) and 5.201(b) (1) (i) CFTC posted a notice in FedBizOpps of the Commission’s intent to negotiate a contract for the services of LexisNexis on a sole source basis. The announcement stated that all responses would be considered, but none were received.

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

N/A

10. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

As stated in sections 6 and 8 of this justification, no sources expressed an interest in this requirement. No responses were received to the November 20, 2020 FedBizOpps notice.

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.

The maintenance services provided under this contract will be limited to LexisNexis because of the proprietary data that is associated with the linking aspect of the services (see section 5) and because of the substantial duplication of cost that would accrue to the Government for development of the database by a new contractor (see section 8). However, the CFTC will continue to monitor the market when contemplating future acquisitions for this requirement, the agency will follow all mandated procedures for competition requirements in the future.

All supporting data that is the responsibility of technical or requirements personnel (e.g., verifying the Government’s minimum needs or requirements or other rationale for limited sources) and which form a basis for the justification have been certified as complete and accurate by the technical or requirements personnel.

Technical/Requirements Certification

This justification is accurate and complete to the best of the Contracting Officer’s knowledge and belief.

Jerald H. Neveleff Date Contracting Officer

JERALD NEVELEFF Digitally signed by JERALD NEVELEFF Date: 2020.12.15 13:41:21 -05'00'