C01 J_A LEC Services - South Carolina_Redacted.pdf

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way

Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a new sole-source Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) Purchase Order for Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) Services with Horry Telephone Cooperative, Inc, 3480 Highway 701 N Conway, SC 29526.

3. Description of Supplies or Services.

The VA Office of Information Technology (OIT), Development Security Operations, Solution Delivery, Telecommunications Provisioning Office Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) has the overall business and management responsibilities for all telephone services. The Contractor shall provide LEC voice communication services at the locations in Myrtle Beach, SC in accordance with Section 5.2 of the Performance Work Statement (PWS). Voice services include but are not limited to: Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) lines, Primary Rate Interfaces (PRI)s and Direct Inward Dialings (DID)s, as well as various features of caller Identification (ID) on both POTS and PRI. The VA must be listed and retained as the customer of record and the contractor must own the services/infrastructure being provided.

Estimated total cost (including option(s)):

4. Authority Cited.

FAR 13.106-1(b)(1): For purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold.

Contracting officers may solicit from one source if the contracting officer determines that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available.

5. Reason for Authority Cited.

The proposed source for this action is Horry Telephone Cooperative (HTC) 3480 Highway 701 N, Conway, SC, a Not For Profit Organization. The VA location will be without voice and data communication services and this presents a life safety issue for staff and the Veterans that are being seen at this facility. This is a follow-on contract.

Awarding this contract to any other vendor will require the new vendor to install the necessary infrastructure to the facility if that vendor does not already have a service agreement with the last mile provider. This could take approximately six (6) months if not longer to get completed. The VA has a need to maintain phone numbers currently issued and not all vendors will be able to assume the current phone numbers. There would be a budget issue to maintain two (2) different contracts, the facility would need

Contract – LEC Services South Carolina to publish new numbers and as such leave both sets of services active for a minimum of 3-6 months. New business cards would need to be made for staff, advertising costs, etc.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition.

There is only one responsible source for this item. Efforts made to locate additional sources are described under the “Market Research” paragraph of this document. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. Procurement data does not include any unnecessary requirements that may inhibit competition.

7. Actions to Increase Competition.

In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, VA will continue to conduct additional market research so that other software solutions can be considered.

8. Market Research.

Market research was conducted by OIT in July 2022. The market research consisted of contacting all six (6) prime contract holders on the National Local Exchange Carrier (NLEC) – Next Generation (NG) Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC) via email to ascertain their capability of providing LEC service to the VA locations in South Carolina. All six (6) responded stating that they cannot provide either some or all of the required services. Additionally, researched the internet to see if any other providers exist for this location and results showed Horry Telephone Cooperative as the only provider. A previous contract was awarded on October 1, 2017 to Horry Telephone Cooperative to perform the abovementioned services.

In addition, the Contract Specialist (CS) conducted market research by issuing a Request for Information (RFI) /Sources Sought on Contract Opportunities on July 19, 2022. The announcement closed on July 26, 2022 with one response received from Granite Government Solutions. However, they were unable to provide the services as they do not have a service agreement with the local exchange carrier. The CS also queried the six (6) prime contract holders on the National Local Exchange Carrier (NLEC) – Next Generation (NG) Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC). Received negative responses from five (5) of the six (6) prime contract holders.

9. Interested Sources.

No other source has expressed written interest in supplying this item.