CUI_Lee JA 2021_90_Redacted.pdf

CUI

Control No: Lee-2021-90

Contractor: Cantu Services Program/Equipment: Full Food Services, Fort Lee, VA.

(Source Selection information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104-4) Apr 2021

Amendment 02 was issued on 25 January 2021 to extend the offer due date from 29 January 2021 to 12 February 2021 to allow the Government more time to respond to the questions received. Amendment 03, was issued on 05 February 2021 to provide a response to questions received, update the PWS, CBA, Attachment B and Attachment F. Amendment 03 also extended the offer due date from 12 February 2021 to 19 February 2021. Amendment 04 was issued on 11 February 2021 to provide the answer to an additional question (no. 72). Amendment 05 was issued on 09 March 2021 to update the solicitation, provide updated documents: PWS, updated Attachment F Workload Data Capabilities, updated Attachment H Staffing Matrix, and updated Attachment G Pricing Matrix. The amendment stated that all Technical Questions were due No Later Than (NLT) 17 March 2021. Amendment 06 was issued on 30 March 2021 to extend the offer due date from 05 April 2021 to 09 April 2021. Amendment 07 was issued on 01 April 2021 to update the solicitation and Attachment H Staffing Matrix, and provide responses to the 16 questions received from industry dated 1 April 2021.

Amendment 07 also extended the offer due date 09 April 2021 to 12 April 2021. A Source Selection Evaluation Board has reviewed the proposals, and pre-award documents have been drafted and approved with an estimated award by 10 September 2021.

Due to updates to the Performance Work Statement (PWS) and various attachments as well as a significant number of questions received from Industry the offer due date continued to be extended thus affecting the estimated award date. The solicitation closed on 9 April 2021 with a new estimated award date of 30 June 2021. Due to the IDIQ's exhausted ceiling and the need to continue uninterrupted services, the only viable option at this time is to increase the ceiling in order to modify a task order for the phase-in period or to issue task orders to maintain services in case a protest is received.

b. Alternatives.

(1) Suspension of Operations. Suspension of operations is not a viable option.

The services provided by the current contract (paragraph 3) are directly tied to Fort Lee's training mission. Regardless of the force posture changes, training will continue to occur and the Soldier trainees will need the Full Food Services provided through the five Dining Facilities.

(2) Allow the contract to expire. Like suspending operations, any alternative that does not provide meals to the Soldiers is not a viable option. Failure to provide these services would have a major impact on the health and welfare of the Soldiers on the installation, many of whom are young trainees who depend on meal card provisions.

The failure to provide meals would jeopardize the Army's mission to train students and fulfill basic and specialized training.

Apr 2021

(3) Use of Catered Meals to Feed Soldiers. Army Regulation (AR) 30-22 paragraph 3-44(b) authorizes commercially prepared catered meals when food service personnel or equipment are not authorized or available and support cannot be obtained from another Reserve Component or Active Army unit with food service capability. The use of catered meals in such a large scale as required at Fort Lee would overwhelm the local market and the cost of delivery and logistics would be unreasonable. Therefore, while the Deputy, Chief of Staff, G-4 for the Department of the Army has authority for granting such a waiver as a cost saving initiative, in this case, costs would likely go up.

The catered meals would have to be procured under one or various contracts and since there is no time to issue a solicitation to compete this type of meals, such requirement(s) would also involve a process that would also not provide for full and open competition. In addition, as a training installation, the DFACS on Fort Lee serve trainees who are in the initial stage of their Army career and the meals consumed in the Dining Facilities are a vital part of a Soldier’s orientation into the Army. Soldiers would lose a vital part of their training experience if the Army resorts to providing them catered meals during these training phases. Finally, as the USC Title 10, Section 2533a (Berry Amendment) provides mandated use of domestic food items, using catered meals from a commercial venue would be problematic as the source of production is difficult to monitor and thus a waiver from G-4 more difficult to obtain.

c. Additional Supporting Information.

(1) Due to the magnitude and complexity of the requirement and the time available before the current Task Order expires on 30 September 2021, the incumbent contractor, Cantu Services, is the only available source that can provide services until a new competitively awarded contract can be executed. For complex acquisitions such as full food services, a minimum of thirty (30) days phase-in period is required for a new contractor; this start-up period will not be possible due to the Task Order expiring on 30 September 2021. On average, a 30 day phase in period costs for this type of services.

(2) Other contractors would possibly be capable of providing similar services if there was adequate time available to compete a bridge contract and sufficient time for a reasonable transition and phase-in period. However, it is unrealistic to solicit for services of this magnitude, award, and transition to a new contract prior to 30 September 2021. At Fort Lee, each job specialty has its own training requirement and class schedule. These circumstances create fluctuations in the number of meals served per day/month at each dining facility. Fort Lee's mission is to provide base operations support, quality of life, and services essential to the entire Fort Lee community and the nation's warfighting mission. Accomplishing this mission means ensuring Fort Lee's food service program supports a large population of soldiers that fluctuates frequently every year. Primary customers are Initial Entry Training (lET), Advanced Individual Training (AIT) and Initial Military Training (IMT) soldiers. The installation instructs an

Apr 2021 average of 34,089 lET and AIT soldiers each year. Annual recruiting goals, training schedules, and Army requirements in theater cause significant fluctuations in customers using the five (5) FFS facilities. Additional customers include Fort Lee's 4,987 permanent party soldiers. The installation also provides support to Army Reserve and National Guard forces during mobilization and annual training. Due to the frequent training cycles and influxes in troops, facilities are frequently opened or closed on a moment's notice. Fort Lee will not be able to accomplish its mission without the continuity of Full Food Service operations.

(3) Finally, award to any other source would result in an additional cost to the

Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition. Specifically, a 30 day phase-in period is required for a new contractor in order to assume full food service responsibilities and to be considered fully operational. Those costs will be avoided with a Task Order to the incumbent. A competitive (Bridge) contract cannot be considered to cover the short time period of this J&A due to the fact it could result in the award to other than the incumbent. If this was the case, there would be two (30-day) transition periods within the next 90 days, taking into consideration that the follow-on could be awarded by 10 September 2021 to a different contractor. While the benefits of competition warrant the initial investment for transition expenses, the potential of paying for and supporting two complete transitions within this short time period is unreasonable and creates potentially substantial duplication of Government costs not recoverable through competition under FAR 6.302-1(a)(2). Contracts with short Periods of Performance such as the (3 month base and 1 month option period) tend to be more expensive for various reasons since they may not incentivize the contractor to make investments in reducing costs. The advantage of competing the short time period covered by this J&A doesn’t outweigh the inefficiencies of multiple transitions.

d. Impact if justification is not approved. Failure to approve this action will result in a break of services of full food service operation across all (five) 5 dining facilities at Fort Lee, VA thus creating mission failure for the Fort Lee installation’s training mission. The training mission of Fort Lee cannot be accomplished without being able to feed the approximately 39,000 of EIT, AIT, and permanent party soldiers. As described in section 5(b) above, if this justification is not approved then any alternative course of action would create unacceptable delays to the provision of full food services and thus force the Government to either pursue unwieldy and inefficient alternatives such as catered meals, also damaging the Fort Lee training mission due to the lack of DFAC training exposure, or for there to be no meals provided at all, thereby creating critical failure for the ability to sustain in an orderly way the Fort Lee training and permanent party population. It is critical to the Fort Lee training mission to be able to sustain DFAC feeding.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: An Intent to Increase the Ceiling of Contract No.

W91QF5-17-D-0003 was posted to SAM.GOV as a Special Notice on 20 August 2021

Apr 2021 with a closing date of 30 August 2021. No sources responded to the special notice to express interest in this acquisition.

a. Effective Competition: Because this is a sole source action, effective competition is not applicable, see para. 5(c) above.

b. Subcontracting Competition: Cantu Services is a Small Business, subcontracting efforts are not required.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: Competition is being sought to the fullest extent practicable by soliciting the follow-on contract as 100% SB set aside, see para 5(a). The extensions to the offer due date as indicated in Amendments 01-07 were required in order to benefit potential offerors and provide for the best competition effort for the follow-on contract.

No other actions were taken to attempt to obtain competition for this Task Order. The incumbent contractor has the personnel on hand that can perform the required full food services without the need for a phase-in period. Formal Market research was conducted as part of the follow-on contract effort.

8. Market Research: MICC-FSH has been leading the efforts to procure the follow-on for MICC-Lee contract no. W91QF5-17-D-0003 in order to maintain continuity for future FFS requirements. The follow-on contract is being procured as a 100% Small Business set-aside. Solicitation no. W9124J-20-R-0019 was posted on beta.SAM.gov on 15 December 2020 with an original closing date of 19 January 2021; since then, a total of seven (7) Amendments have been posted delaying the receipt of proposals to 12 April 2021 and consequently affecting the award date from 31 March 2021 to 10 September 2021.

In accordance with Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 205.205-71, DFARS 206.302-1(d), and DFARS Procedures, Guidance and Information (PGI) 206.302-1(d), a Notice of Intent to increase the ceiling was posted to beta.SAM.gov on 2 April 2021 for 7 calendar days with zero (0) sources responding to the notice.

9. Interested Sources: See Paragraph 6 for the synopsis information. To date, no other sources have written to express interest in the acquisition.