CVE Support LSJ FINAL - CA CO wam.pdf

LIMITED SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN ORDER / BPA EXCEEDING

THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

(AUTHORITY: FAR 8.405-6)

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program.

1. Agency and contracting activity. Small Business Administration (SBA), Office of Performance, Planning and the Chief Financial Officer, Office of Financial Operations & Acquisition Management, Acquisition Operations Division and Office of Veterans Business Development (OVBD) and the Office of Government Contracting Business Development (GCBD).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

In the 2021 NDAA, Congress mandated the transfer of the Veteran Owned Small Business /Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB/SDVOSB) certification program from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to SBA with an effective date of January 1, 2023. The SBA has negotiated with the VA to maintain several support services contracts in anticipation of the program transfer. One of the contracts that will be maintained for SBA’s benefit is for Verification Transformation Support Program (VTSP) Case Processing and Program and Portfolio Management Services. Currently, the VA obtains these services through Contract No.

VA119A17D0024, 36C10X21N0021, which is awarded to GCC Technologies LLC and expires on December 31, 2022. Originally, a new small business set-aside multiple-award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) was planned to be used to competitively award a new task order for these services. The BPA planning process started in March 2022 and continued through calendar year 2022. However, the procurement process of the BPA has been delayed. Additionally, the requirement development process for this task order was slowed until funding was secured, which was granted through a funding anomaly process on October 1, 2022. The Congressionally mandated program start date is January 1, 2023. This did not leave enough time to develop and award a BPA or other acquisition vehicle to be ready for use at the program start date other than the requested limited source award. This is a limited source justification for a new, short-term task order under GSA MAS GS10F0404R for continued Verification Transformation Support Program (VTSP) Case Processing and Program and Portfolio Management Services support until the long-term, competitive, multiple award BPA and task order are finalized. This task order will be awarded to:

GCC Technologies LLC 65 Enterprise Drive Oakland, MD 21550-6372

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

6- month Base 6 Month Option (FAR 52.217-9) Total

$3,889,180.80 $3,889,180.80 $7,778,361.60

4. Authority and supporting rationale. The following circumstance justifies limiting the source as supported below:

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(A) - An urgent and compelling need exists and following the procedures would result in unacceptable delays.

Supporting Rationale - The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA 2021) statutorily mandates the transfer of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Center for Verification and Evaluation (CVE) program from VA to SBA. The statute requires that the transfer be effective as of January 1, 2023. Additionally, the statute includes provisions that grant SBA explicit authority to continue using VA contracts. Specifically, sections 862(g)(4) and 862(g)(5)(A) of NDAA 2021 read, as follows:

(4) Transfer of assets. --So much of the property (including contracts for the procurement of property or services) and records used, held, available, or to be made available in connection with a function transferred under this subsection shall be available to the Small Business Administration at such time or times as the President directs for use in connection with the functions transferred.

(5) SAVINGS PROVISIONS. —

(A) CONTINUING EFFECT OF LEGAL DOCUMENTS. —All orders, determinations, rules, regulations, permits, agreements, grants, contracts, certificates, licenses, registrations, privileges, and other administrative actions—

(i) which have been issued, made, granted, or allowed to become effective by the President, any Federal agency or official thereof, or by a court of competent jurisdiction, in the performance of functions which are transferred under this subsection; and

(ii) which are in effect on the transfer date or were final before the transfer date and are to become effective on or after the transfer date, shall continue in effect according to their terms until modified, terminated, superseded, set aside, or revoked in accordance with law by the President, the Administrator of the Small Business Administration or other authorized official, a court of competent jurisdiction, or by operation of law.

As noted in section 2, it is necessary for SBA to continue to acquire VTSP case processing and other program support services once the program is transferred to SBA. The required services must commence before the SBA assumes the certification program on January 1, 2023, so that the roughly 14,000 currently certified veteran owned small businesses do not experience de-certification and new veteran owned small businesses do not experience any delay in processing veteran-owned small business certifications. It is estimated that there are potentially 21,000 small businesses that will access SBA’s new certification program during 2023 and could be impacted by any delay in processing support. Onboarding, to include background checks, PIV badging, equipment orders and delivery, all require weeks to accomplish. Without contractor support that is immediately available to assist SBA with processing veteran owned small business applications, SBA will not be able to meet the Congressionally mandated deadline for a successful and effective program transfer.

SBA had intended to use a competitively awarded BPA to provide the services needed, however, it was recently determined that the BPA will not be available within the timeframe necessary to procure these services because the requirements are undergoing review and refinement. The inability to use the competitive BPA to procure these services along with the statutory deadline to transfer this program by January 1, 2023, has created an urgent and compelling need for SBA to limit the sources for this short-term order, while SBA finalizes the competitive, long-term BPA and order.

It would cause an unacceptable break and delay in services if SBA were to wait for the competitive BPA and subsequent competitive task order to be awarded. Additionally, a new vendor, without fully trained personnel would require an additional 3 – 4 months of training and security clearances to work at full capacity. Without contractors immediately available to process applications and provide SBA with recommendations regarding these applicants, SBA may not be able to comply with the mandate to establish this program by January 1, 2023. In addition to the harm suffered by SBA, the VA and other procuring agencies across the Government will suffer harm, as the pool of veteran-owned small businesses would be static until SBA is able to put a competitive order in place. This could lead to less competition and potentially less value to be achieved through procurements that are set aside for competitive or sole source contracts to veteran-owned small businesses. Any delay in processing new veteran-owned small business certifications could have a lasting impact on the Federal Government’s procurement system and the VOSB entrepreneurial community for years to come. The delay inherent in the competitive process is unacceptable, given the harm that would be caused to the Government and the veteran small business community. As a result, issuing an order under a limited source justification is necessary due to the urgent and compelling circumstances at hand and because the competitive process entails an unacceptable delay in services.

5. Determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d).

This task order will be priced using the incumbent’s GSA pricing which has already been found fair and reasonable. The task order will be fixed price which limits the government’s risk of overrun.

Further, the incumbent has successfully performed this requirement with excellent performance history. The Contracting Officer has determined that award of this task order under the incumbent’s GSA MAS schedule provides the best value to the Government.

6. Market research conducted among schedule holders (or reason market research was not conducted).

For this urgent action, no additional market research was conducted due to the reasons stated in Section 4. GCC Technologies is an SDVOSB and has the requisite skills and experience to perform the required services.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification.

There are no other facts.

8. Actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for supplies and services is made.

As mentioned in Section 2, this action is a short-term solution to provide (VTSP) Case Processing and Program and Portfolio Management Services support until the new BPA and subsequent task order can be awarded. The BPA will be solicited using competitive procedures to award multiple BPAs. Specific task orders will be issued in accordance with FAR 8.405-3.

CERTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

9. Technical / Requirements Representative Certification. I certify that this requirement constitutes the Government’s minimum needs and the supporting data provided herein is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

William Macken, Program Office/COR

10. Contracting Officer’s Certification and Approval. I certify this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief, and hereby provide approval.

Tracie Gutierrez Contracting Officer

11. Approval

Sara Soeka Competition Advocate