A16- Sole Source signedVF Sept20CM_1.pdf

A. Description

B. Justification

a. Circumstances

United States Department of the Interior

US FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

Sole Source Justification

b. Other Capable Sources

a. Circumstances (continued)

C. Recommendation and Certification by Program Office

Based on the above justification, I recommend this acquisition to be conducted using sole source acquisition procedures as specified in FAR Part 13. I hereby certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Program / Project Officer

Date

D. Contracting Officer Certification and Approval

Based on the above justification, I hereby certify that the circumstances of this contract action deem only one source reasonably available and approve the use of sole source acquisition procedures for this purchase.

Contracting Officer Date

F. Concurrence by Competition Advocate (only required for awards exceeding $700K)

I hereby concur that the circumstances of this contract action deem only one source reasonably available.

Competition Advocate

Date

E. Concurrence by Chief of Contracting Office (only required for awards exceeding $25K)

I hereby concur that the circumstances of this contract action deem only one source reasonably available.

Chief of Contracting Office

Date

c. Barriers to Competition

c. Barriers to Competition

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Continuation of contracted GIS Support services by the same long-term contractor, and structured as a base-year plus option-years contract will provide for continuity, and significantly reduce potential cost to the FWS and our partners because of associated delays with procuring services by someone new.

The proposed SOW carries forward and builds from a complex body of work with a variety of partners. We have worked with the same contractor, SWCA, during this time for GIS support. The previous contract was openly and successfully bid by SWCA in 2019.

Success for this project is dependent upon knowledge, skills and relationships with partners that have been fostered over this time. The co-production of the science outlined in the SOW with internal and external partners is dependent upon shared knowledge about a complex variety of species, habitats and data sources. It would be extremely time consuming and difficult to replicate this.

The knowledge in data analysis, methods and approaches are very unique to this particular project. There are few contractors that could continue with this work without at least several months of training and relationship building, and thus causing further delays to not only the work outlined in this SOW, but also several interrelated projects and associated contracts.

This contract is primarily in support of the Cascades to Coast Landscape Collaborative (CCLC) that involves many external conservation partners across Oregon and Washington – state and federal agencies, private timber companies and land owners, tribes, and NGOs. USFWS LR1 Science Applications (SA) is the lead agency for the CCLC and has several other contracts interrelated because of their dependence on the FWS to provide GIS support from this contract for their successful completion. A detailed description of how the contracted GIS services supports these contracts can be provided upon request.

Continued on next page.

Text6: List of interrelated contracts depend on continuation of FWS contract with SWCA for GIS support:

140F0120P0069, Mankowski Environmental, Facilitation and Communication of Pacific Northwest Landscape Conservation 140F0119P0257, Mankowski Environmental, Private Lands Coordination Strategy 140F0119P0278, Mankowski Environmental, Landscape Conservation and Science Symposium 140F0119P0196, SAH Ecologia LLC, Connectivity Mapping Reports and Communication 140F0118P0286, Washington Conservation Science Institute, Wildlife Corridor Mapping 140F19AC00009, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Habitat Connectivity Modeling

Covid-19 caused complications to the flow of collaboration including canceled meetings and delays in progress on this CCLC project work and all associated interrelated contracts above. It will take months to years to recoup lost productivity thus far and expectation is for continued disruptions to the ability for partners to complete their work in timelines originally intended because of Covid-19.

Compounding these delays, FWS-SA employee Tom Miewald left the Service on July 9. Tom was the lead FWS project manager for the CCLC and all of these contracts. With Tom’s departure we are even more dependent on the SWCA contracted GIS support to maintain and carry forward working knowledge of projects and continue to provide ongoing geospatial data, database, and information resource development work in order to maintain our commitment to our partners and contractors for this long-term Collaborative.