A02.14 SSJ Under the SAT IMPLAN Economic Data for SAM.gov.docx

Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) – Acquisition Sensitive

SOLE SOURCE MEMORANDUM FOR ACTIONS UNDER THE SAT

IAW RFO 12.102(a)

1. Contracting Activity: The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Mission Support Battalion (UMSB).

2. Description of Action: Approval is requested for a new firm-fixed price contract using Civil Works Funding (96 x 4902) in the amount of $xxx,xxx.xx.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: The subject requirement is for “IMPLAN Economic Data and Multipliers for USACE Regional Economic Development Analysis,” which will be used as part of the Regional Economic System (RECONS) Program at the Institute for Water Resources (IWR) in aiding the field to conduct Regional Economic Development (RED) analyses, one of four accounts that must documented for all projects. This is a critical resource used by planners across the enterprise. This will support the RECONS Program to provide accurate and defensible regional economic impact estimates associated with USACE projects, programs, and infrastructure across all Civil Works (CW) business lines using the most up-to-date, industry standard economic data and multipliers.

Currently, USACE RECONS in support of RED analysis uses IMPLAN economic multipliers as the underlying analytical structure for estimating the ripple effects of economic changes across industries from Corps activities. This action would allow USACE to acquire the latest economic data and multiplier data. USACE currently possesses the 2021 dataset, which is outdated. Regular updates of economic data and multipliers are critical to maintain accurate and defensible economic impact analysis, ensuring decisions are based on most current and reliable information available.

4. Authority Cited: 10 U.S.C. 2304(C)(1) or 41 U.S.C. 253(C)(1) as implemented in RFO 12.102(a), Restricting competition.

5. Reasons for Authority Cited: The identified contractor, IMPLAN LLC, is a small business and the sole developer and vendor of the proprietary IMPLAN input-output and regional economic impact modeling and dataset, and has the unique qualification and experience related to providing national scale economic datasets for government and academia use.

IMPLAN is an input-output modeling system that was originally developed by the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, as a tool to assist the Forest Service in land and resources management planning in the early 1970s. IMPLAN was later privatized in the 1980s and has evolved into the most widely used input-output modeling tool. It has become the standard for assessing region- and industry-specific impact analysis. IMPLAN provides comprehensive data that is compiled from sources from both Government published data, such as US Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as private industries with granular geographic coverage.

The RECONS Program utilizes a methodology/framework that’s been certified via a rigorous review process by USACE, and this methodology/framework is designed to use the proprietary IMPLAN data. Alternative data sources have been explored, including REMI (Regional Economic Models, Inc., and RIMS II (Regional Input-Output Modeling System) to work with RECONS; however, these other models did not meet the rigorous USACE standards, and their associated costs are also less competitive. IMPLAN is the only vendor that currently provides the level of detailed information at a reasonable cost that meets USACE Regional Economic Development certified methodology.

Additionally, transitioning to any other source at this juncture would result in a substantial duplication of cost to the Government and unacceptable administrative delays that are not expected to be recovered through competition. Because the current USACE-certified RECONS architecture and backend database are specifically engineered to match IMPLAN’s setup, migrating to an alternative vendor would require a complete re-engineering of the model’s data-bridge. Such foundational modification to the structure may risk triggering a recertification review process and invalidating its current model certification. The significant technical labor hours, extensive administrative overhead, and duplicative development costs required to rebuild the data-bridge and potentially recertify the RECONS backend to align with a different multiplier dataset represent operationally and economically prohibitive expenditure that directly contradicts the Government’s interest in near-term fiscal efficiency.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Other alternatives have been considered: (1) REMI (Regional Economic Models, Inc.) and RIMS II (Regional Input-Output Modeling System). These alternatives are considered not viable at this time for three reasons: (1) relatively inadequate granularity and lack of customization; (2) adopting a new model system would require extensive technical labor hours, extensive administrative overhead, and duplicative development costs required to rebuild and modify the back-end data-bridges and algorithms, which may trigger the need for recertification of the RECONS methodology/framework; and (3) much higher costs on a per region and per industry basis. Based on extensive market research effort, no other vendors or contractors have the same level of professional skills, reputation, and unique need/use-case for the RECONS Program.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: As a means of increasing competition, IWR/RECONS Program team routinely performs market research for possible alternatives. Due to the highly unique qualifications of IMPLAN and for reasons mentioned above, the team determined that it would be far more expensive and inefficient to pursue another entity.

8. Market Research: Market research has not identified a comparable entity to fulfill the requirements. Based on market research (and for reasons mentioned above in Section 6 and throughout), it is recommended that a sole source contract with IMPLAN is required.

9. Interested Sources: To date, no other sources have written to express an interest. The notices required by FAR 5.201 will be published, and any bids for proposals received will be considered.

10. Other Facts: None.

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable, based on RFO 15.404-1(b)(5) “Comparison to an independent Government Cost Estimate.” Per RFO 15.403-3, Certified cost or pricing data, because this contract well under the $2.5M threshold, certified cost and pricing data is not required.

David A. Kaplan Procuring Contracting Officer Email: David.A.Kaplan@usace.army.mil

12. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

David A. Kaplan Procuring Contracting Officer Email: David.A.Kaplan@usace.army.mil

Approval Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve IMPLAN Economic Data and Multipliers for USACE Regional Economic Development Analysis in the amount of $xxx,xxx.xx on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of RFO 12.102(a), Restricting competition, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services and property herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

David A. Kaplan Procuring Contracting Officer Email: David.A.Kaplan@usace.army.mil

Prepared by:

Quan Nguyen Contract Specialist Email: Quan.Nguyen@usace.army.mil

CUI

(Source Selection information - See RFO 2.101 and 3.104-4)