A04 TAB D RDA TF bridge JA LS.pdf

Control No. WHS-2023-893

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION UNDER SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES

FOR CERTAIN COMMERICIAL ITEMS

UNDER FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) SUBPART 13.5

1. AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY:

Contracting Activity:

Washington Headquarters Services, Acquisition Directorate Enterprise Research & Engineering Division, Technology Analysis & Services Branch

(ERED/TASB)

4800 Mark Center Drive, Suite 09F09 Alexandria, VA 22350-3400

Agency:

Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD/R&E) Office of Strategic Intelligence & Analysis (OSI&A) Pentagon, Room 3C855A Washington D.C.

2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTION:

This action requests the approval to issue a 10-month bridge contract for Research, Development, Analysis Task Force Support. This action will be a firm-fixed price contract with a total estimated value of $7,023,000.00 utilizing Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Research and Development (R&D) funding. The period of performance will be for 10 months, from April 1, 2023 through January 31, 2024.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

The Office of Strategic Intelligence & Analysis (OSI&A) requires a bridge contract for Research, Development, Analysis Task Force Support to maintain continuity of support for the existing contract (HQ0034-17-F-0425), which is currently being performed by incumbent contractor Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc., while a competitive acquisition is being pursued in 1st Quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2024.

ACQUISITION

DIRECTORATE

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS SERVICES

4800 MARK CENTER DRIVE

ALEXANDRIA, VA 22350-2900

For these services, the current contract is set to expire on March 31, 2023. The Government intends to award a bridge contract for 10 months for these services since OSI&A depends on Research, Development, Analysis Task Force Support for mission critical activity detailed below.

This effort provides OSI&A technical, analytic, and specialized support in the execution of technical comparative analysis tasks, future operating environment assessments, technical capability assessments, and technology Wargaming. OUSD(R&E) requires highly specialized program and technical support services to achieve its mission. The PWS addresses the following support areas:

(1) Comparative Analysis

(2) Future Operating Environment Assessment

(3) General Analytic Support

(4) Special Studies Support

Performance Periods

Performance Period Dates Amount

Base Period (10 Months) April 1, 2023 – January 31, 2024 $7,023,000.00

4. AUTHORITY CITED:

This action is authorized under provisions of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

5. REASON FOR AUTHORITY CITED:

This bridge contract is required to support the continued execution of the OUSD(R&E) mission and OSI&A directive. The USD(R&E) is tasked with providing oversight of science and technology (S&T) and advanced component development and prototypes – i.e. research and engineering (R&E) – to solve current and future technological challenges for DoD. The USD(R&E), as the DoD’s Chief Technology Officer, is to provide S&T leadership throughout DoD, shape strategic direction, and strengthen the research and R&E coordination efforts to meet tomorrow's challenges. OSI&A enables intelligence- and threat-informed decision advantage across the OUSD(R&E) S&T enterprise portfolios and provides net technical assessments of U.S. and global capabilities in critical technology areas. As a result, OUSD(R&E)/OSI&A requires highly specialized program and technical support services to achieve this mission.

Due to the highly specialized nature of the services and current defense environment a gap in services could result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements. Specifically, several lines of effort to support the OSI&A directives are consecutively running and a work stoppage would result in mission failure that would disable intelligence-and-threat-informed decision advantage for the OUSD(R&E). The 10-month bridge contract would mitigate the risks of losing program continuity and experienced/trained contractor personnel during a time of historic labor market shortages and reducing the mission impact/failure.

The 10-month bridge contract will provide the government substantial benefits as it ensures that support to the OSI&A Mission is able to continue with no gap in service.

Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc., is uniquely qualified to support the Research, Development, Analysis Task Force Support as it is currently in place with current support knowledge, access, and proper security clearances and has the capability to support this contract with no interruption or schedule impact.

Due to significant changes in the acquisition strategy, the contracting officer has determined that there was insufficient time to fully execute the competitive procurement for award by 31 March 2023. Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc., provides capabilities and resources that are not available from any other contractor in the timeframe needed.

Therefore, a bridge contract to Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc. is needed to continue providing Research, Development, Analysis Task Force Support while the Government is working a competitive acquisition. A work stoppage in OSI&A, mission support is unacceptable. In order to maintain continuity of services, a bridge contract is the most logical and cost-effective solution to the Government.

Additionally, the reason for authority cited is that the timeframe between the current contract and the time it would require to re-solicit the work to a new vendor is truncated and would cause severe damages to the government resulting in a number of insufficiencies. These insufficiencies could potentially result in inadequate source selection, unsound pricing and technical approach for the new vendor to be brought-up to speed from an operational standpoint. The negative impacts would further result in the duplication of costs such as, but not limited to, additional labor hours, premium pricing, additional costs associated for onboarding, badging and personnel becoming vetted through the security process – which would not be recovered through competition.

Furthermore, OSI&A does not have qualified government personnel to perform the required workload without disruption of services. This action would be an interim resolution to the technical and operational risks to OSI&A to maintain operational readiness. A 10-month bridge contract would be in the best interest of all stakeholders involved. This would provide additional time to allow for the OSI&A program office to make the significant changes to the requirement, and mission priorities to take shape.

6. EFFORTS TO OBTAIN COMPETITION:

It is WHS/AD’s intention to have a competitively solicited contract using the GSA OASIS IDIQ in place by the end the 1st quarter of fiscal year 2024. The schedule is as follows: Draft PWS / IGCE package due 30 April 2023; Solicitation 15 Jul 2023 with proposals due 15 August 2023; estimated award mid-October 2023 with a start date of 1 January 2024 that includes a one-month transition.

7. FAIR AND REASONABLE COST DETERMINATION:

The Government will make a determination of fair and reasonable pricing, using the procedures in FAR 15.404-1- Proposal Analysis Techniques; specifically, FAR 15.404- 1(b) (2) (ii) “Comparison of proposed prices with independent Government cost estimates.” Since this requirement will be solicited to the incumbent vendor, historical prices paid from the current contract were used to develop the Government estimate and will be utilized to determine fair and reasonable pricing.

8. MARKET RESEARCH:

WHS/AD will solicit this effort as a follow-on bridge contract with current incumbent contractor: Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc., 2001 N Beauregard Street, Suite 100, Alexandria, Virginia 22311-1724, Unique Entity ID TRE8LWVNNXL3 and CAGE Code: 7L563, Expiration Date March 31,2023, to maintain continuity of uninterrupted support for the existing Research, Development, Analysis Task Force Support requirement. The bridge contract will be issued as the most logical and cost-effective strategy and solution to the Government, which will avoid duplicative costs and unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirement and a potential gap in performance of critical services while a competitive acquisition is taken place.

9. OTHER FACTS:

None

10. INTERESTED SOURCES:

None

11. ACTIONS TO INCREASE COMPETITION:

It is WHS/AD’s intention to have a competitively solicited contract in place for this requirement by the end of the first quarter of 2024.

12. Is this acquisition for a non-competitive follow-on acquisition previously awarded on a non-competitive basis?

☐Yes. A copy of the previous justification is attached. The actions to remove any barriers to competition cited on the previous justification ☐ were ☐ were not completed

☒No. The original acquisition was conducted on a competitive basis.

☐Not Applicable. This is a new requirement.

CERTIFICATION

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

Carrie Quinn, Contracting Officer’s Representative Date

Sharon A. Hilton, Contracting Officer Date

APPROVAL

This justification is, approved.

David H. Kao, Competition Advocate Date

27 March 2023