C01 J_A - Signed_Redacted.pdf

VA-24-00082519

JUSTIFICATION

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

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 with American Samoa Telecommunications Authority (ASTCA) for continued Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) Voice services in the American Samoa Area.

3. Description of Supplies or Services:

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Information Technology (OIT), Development Security Operations, Solution Delivery, Telecommunications Provisioning Office Local Exchange Carrier has the overall business and management responsibilities for all the telecommunication voice services. The Contractor shall provide continued telecommunication voice services at VA facilities located in the American Samoa Area. The services include Plain Old Telephone Service Line Flat Rate for each line at the Service Delivery Points. This includes the requirement for a qualified technician responding within one hour of a service request 99.9% of the time.

Voice services availability (uptime) shall be 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 99.9% of the time. Voice service restoration shall be completed within 24 hours, 100% of the time. The contractor shall also respond to a major system failure within one hour of notification, 100% of the time. The VA must be listed and retained as the customer of record and the contractor must own the services/infrastructure being provided. This action is for services only. No hardware or software will be procured because of this action. The period of performance for this contract shall be a twelve (12) month base period with four (4) 12-month option periods. The total estimated value of this proposed action is inclusive of all options.

4. Authority Cited:

In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (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. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above:

The proposed source for this action is ASTCA, a Government Entity located at Tafuna Road, AS 96799. Based on Market Research, as documented in Sections 6 and 8 of this Justification, it has been determined that only ASTCA can provide the continuous LEC telecommunication voice services. ASTCA currently provides uninterrupted and seamless voice services where Veterans receive treatment and care. There is only one responsible source for this item.

There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition.

ASTCA already has an established voice service infrastructure in place that allows for provisioning of voice services to the VA. These voice services are based on ASTCA proprietary voice. Any other source would need access to ASTCA proprietary voice to develop and deliver the voice services and to ensure all services provided are properly configured. No other source other than ASTCA or its authorized resellers have access to this proprietary voice.

Further, the use of authorized ASTCA resellers for this effort would not meet VA’s requirements. Authorized resellers can only provide these services as an intermediary;

meaning that they will contract with the direct provider, then invoice VA for the services and potentially add in a handling fee for their billing services. Resellers will not actually provide any service other than billing. Using resellers would result in the Government losing the designation of “Customer of Record” with ASTCA and the required priority status that comes with that designation. Specifically, only by using the direct service provider, will VA be able to contact the provider directly for service, repairs, or billing related issues. If VA used a reseller, VA would have to contact the reseller for assistance and wait for them to contact the actual provider and then wait for the provider to provide them an answer then respond to the VA. Contracting with the actual service provider is imperative to VA operations during outages when service needs to be restored. Outage response times include a qualified technician responding within one hour of a service request 99.9% of the time. Voice availability (uptime) shall be 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 99.9% of the time. Voice service restoration shall be completed within 24 hours, 100% of the time. The contractor shall also respond to a major system failure within one hour of notification, 100% of the time. These are critical VA functional requirements that can only be met by contracting with a direct provider, in this case ASTCA. Resellers cannot meet these performance metrics as they are not the primary service provider, nor can they provide services which allow the Government to retain its “Customer of Record” designation, a critical requirement. Failure to award a new contract to ASTCA would result in a loss of voice services to VA facilities in American Samoa Area. The voice services are used to connect to the VA network and retrieve patient records that are used to provide services to Veterans in the local area.

Without the ability to connect to the VA network, the facilities would have no capabilities to serve the local Veteran population resulting in mission failure and potential life impacts to the Veterans being served.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition:

Market research was conducted, details of which are in section eight (8) of this justification. Neither the Sources Sought Notice posted to SAM.gov on June 11, 2024 or the Request for Information (RFI) issued to the six (6) prime contract holders on the National Local Exchange Carrier – Next Generation (NLEC-NG) Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC), resulted in responses from alternative sources expressing the capability to meet the VA’s requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. Procurement voice does not include any unnecessary requirements that may inhibit competition. Additionally, the proposed action will be synopsized on SAM.gov Contract Opportunities website in accordance with FAR 5.201. Any proposals that are received shall be evaluated.

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 solutions can be considered.

8. Market Research:

Market research efforts were conducted by the VA subject matter experts in May 2024, by contacting all six (6) NLEC-NG prime contract holders to ascertain their capability of providing LEC services to the VA locations in American Samoa Area. All six (6) responded stating that they cannot provide either some or all services, therefore this requirement is not within the scope of the NLEC-NG suite of contracts. In addition, the Contract Specialist conducted market research by issuing a Request for Information (RFI) /Sources Sought on Contract Opportunities to seek vendors capable of satisfying the requirement in accordance with the Performance Work Statement and Market Research Workbook. The RFI was posted on June 11, 2024, and closed on June 20, 2024 with one (1) response received from RV Global Solutions, Inc. However, the technical experts have deemed them not technically capable of meeting the Government’s need for failure to provide the requested documentation to support their capabilities for the requested services. Given all the available information, it was determined that only ASTCA is capable of providing the services contemplated in this requirement.

9. Other Facts: None