Determination for Consolidation - VHA Caregiver Support Program Services.pdf

DETERMINATION THAT CONSOLIDATION,

BUNDLING OR SUBSTANTIAL BUNDLING IS NECESSARY AND JUSTIFIED

VA Optional Form – M807 (Rev 11/21)

Prescribed by FAR 7.107

NETWORK CONTRACTING OFFICE 5

VHA CAREGIVER SUPPORT PROGRAM SERVICES – 36C245-22-AP-2313

FINDINGS

I. INTRODUCTION.

Network Contracting Office (NCO) 5 plans to solicit offers for the VA National Caregiver Sup-port Program services and has conducted market research that demonstrates consolidation of the requirement—issuing a solicitation for a single contract to satisfy two or more requirements of the Federal agency for services that have been performed for the Federal agency under two or more separate contracts, each of which was lower in cost than the total cost of the contract for which offers are solicited—is both necessary and justified. To be clear, neither bundling nor substantial bundling is necessary or justified because the consolidation of the requirement does not make it unsuitable for award to a small business concern—see Section III Paragraph F below.

II. BACKGROUND.

A. Requirement.

The VHA Caregivers Support Program (CSP) is responsible for the development and imple-mentation of training and support programs for caregivers of Veterans. The Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family caregivers (PCAFC) provides certain medical, travel, training, and financial benefits to primary family caregivers of veterans, and the Program of General Support Services (PGCSS) provides peer support mentoring, skills training, coach-ing, telephone support, online programs, and referrals to available resources to caregivers of Veterans. The aim of the VHA CSP is to provide necessary training for caregivers that are supporting Veterans—the services required encompass educational training, caregiver devel-opment, language translation, and customer service support.

This acquisition is a follow-on effort to three existing contracts for the provision of the care-giver support program services that are expiring later this fiscal year. Each of these three ex-isting contracts has separate caregiver training and support services requirements that are be-ing performed by one Contractor, TechWerks LLC (a VIP-verified SDVOSB), through three separate contracts: (1) a contract for the Core Curriculum services (web-based instruction and referral portal), (2) a contract for the Caregiver Self-Care services (bi-lingual delivery and instructor led training), and (3) a contract for the Curriculum Enhancement services (curricu-lum revisions and progress reports). Consolidating the requirements of these three individual contracts into one single contract will fulfill the agency’s requirement for the training needs of the caregivers who support Veterans through the PCAFC and the PGCSS programs and will provide substantial benefits to the Government, while still providing maximum oppor-tunity for small business concerns owned and controlled by Veterans to participate in this ac-quisition. Consolidating the requirement will support VHA CSP’s mission by streamlining the requirements to prevent redundancies of service while also providing a single conduit for training for the caregivers enrolled in the caregiver programs. This effort seeks to enable a single-entry point for the caregivers and VA staff to streamline access into a single website, referral system, training site, customer support service center, and one resource platform.

VA Optional Form – M807 (Rev 11/21)

Prescribed by FAR 7.107

This acquisition will be set aside for competition among VIP-verified SDVOSBs, in accord-ance with 38 U.S.C. 8127. Offers will be solicited using North American Industry Classifi-cation System (NAICS) code 611710 “Educational Support Services” which has a small business size standard of $15 million dollars. The proposed consolidated contract will be a five-year indefinite-delivery requirements contract. The Independent Government Cost Esti-mate for this procurement is $16,141,276.

B. Applicable Statutes/Regulations.

This Determination and Finding is based on FAR Part 7.107-2 Consolidation.

C. Market Research.

Market research has been conducted in accordance with FAR 10.001(a)(2)(iv) (e.g., Market Research Summary Report or other supporting documentation) and has demonstrated that—

☒ Consolidation is necessary and justified (see FAR 10.001(a)(3)(vi)) ☐ Bundling is necessary and justified (see FAR 10.001(a)(3)(vii)) ☐ Consolidation and Bundling is necessary and justified (see FAR 7.107-1(a)) ☐ Substantial bundling is necessary and justified (see FAR 7.107-4)

Results of Market Research (FAR 7.107-2(a)(1)). The VA Office of Small and Disad-vantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) provided market research assistance by publish-ing a sources sought notice on the SAM.gov Contract Opportunities website. OSDBU identified four VIP-verified SDVOSB firms and one VIP-verified VOSB firm whom are registered as small businesses under NAICS code 611710 in the SAM that are fully capa-ble of performing the consolidated requirement at a fair & reasonable price. As a result, OSDBU recommended the acquisition be set aside for competition among SDVOSBs;

that procurement strategy provides for maximum practicable participation by small busi-nesses and represents the most practical procurement strategy for fulfilling the agency’s requirements.

III. CONSOLIDATION.

Consolidation is necessary and justified in accordance with FAR 7.107-2(b).

A. Benefits.

The benefits of the consolidated acquisition would substantially exceed the benefits that would be derived from the alternative contracting approach. For example, consolidating the requirement would reduce costs by eliminating duplicative services—the anticipated cost savings are quantifiable and substantial (i.e., they exceed ten percent of the estimated contract value). The combined cost to the agency for services currently being performed under the three existing contacts this year is $4,967,748 (Core Curriculum contract VA245-17-C-0099 is $3,417,322; Mission Enhancement contract 36C24520F0386 is $1,495,238; Self-Care contract 36C24518F0026 is $58,511). By comparison, the IGCE for the first year of a consolidated contract is $3,291,314. This is a quantifiable total sav-ings of about $1,775,388—or an estimated savings of about 36%—for the first year, and the cost savings for subsequent years of a consolidated contract is expected to be about

VA Optional Form – M807 (Rev 11/21)

Prescribed by FAR 7.107 the same percentage. Additionally, consolidating the requirement would yield quality improvements that will save time or improve or enhance performance or efficiency. For example, it would provide streamlined access for the training by having one single site virtual platform; it would simplify the management and implementation efforts through one single contact, resource, online tool. CSP has recently experienced tremendous growth which has led to an increased demand for caregiver training. Continued use of multiple contracts to provide training for Veteran caregivers is an inefficient way of ena-bling provisions of streamlined training resources—having a single caregiver support program services contract vs. multiple contracts will increase ease of access and familiar-ity for both the caregiver and the CSP staff. Consolidating the requirement would also yield significant reductions in PALT. For example, the typical PALT for services acqui-sitions over SAT to $5.5M is about 150 days each; by consolidating the procurement of three separate contracts into one, the PALT time could be reduced to about 210 days.

B. Procurement strategy.

This acquisition will be set aside for competition among VIP-verified SDVOSBs, in ac-cordance with VA policy. Per VAAR 819.201, it is the Department of Veteran Affairs policy that small business concerns owned and controlled by Veterans shall have maxi-mum practicable opportunity to participate in VA acquisitions, consistent with efficient contract performance and the priorities and preferences established under 38 U.S.C. 8127 and 8128. Additionally, within the VA hierarchy of small business program preferences established by VAAR subpart 819.70, VA must consider preferences for verified SDVOSB firms first.

C. Alternative approaches.

Alternative to consolidating the requirement, the services could be procured like they were in the past—through three separate contracts with the same SDVOSB contractor or other SDVOSB contractors. This would necessitate conducting three separate acquisi-tions, each requiring its own acquisition planning, soliciting, evaluating and award pro-cesses to be completed. Aside from a longer PALT, the alternative approach would result in a loss of improved or enhanced performance or efficiency, higher cost due to dupli-cated services for each contract, additional confusion and stress having caregivers navi-gating through multiple training sites and added administrative duties for the VHA CSP staff.

D. Negative impact.

The procurement strategy does not pose any negative impact to small businesses or SDVOSB firms in particular.

E. Inclusion of small business concerns.

By setting this acquisition aside for competition among VIP-verified SDVOSBs, it en-sures that only VIP-verified SDVOSBs will be permitted to submit proposals to satisfy the requirement.

VA Optional Form – M807 (Rev 11/21)

Prescribed by FAR 7.107

F. Bundling.

Requirements applicable to bundling at VAAR 807.105-70(c), FAR 7.107-1, FAR 7.107- 3, FAR 7.107-4 and FAR 7.107-5(c) have all been considered in this review. Regarding VAAR 807.105-70(c) (“acquisition plan approvals”), a written acquisition plan will be prepared, and plan approvals will be obtained in accordance with HCA procedures. Re-garding FAR 7.107-1 (“general”), since this requirement is not both consolidated and bun-dled, only the guidance at FAR 7.107-2 must be followed—i.e., the guidance at FAR 7.107-3 (“bundling”) and FAR 7.107-4 (“substantial bundling”) is not applicable because the consolidation of requirements does not make it unsuitable for award to a small busi-ness concern—see Part II Paragraph C above. Regarding FAR 7.107-5(c) (“notification to the public of consolidation of contract requirements”), a notice shall be published in the GPE that the agency has determined a consolidation of contract requirements is necessary and justified no later than 7 days after making the determination. Additionally, the solici-tation may not be publicized prior to 7 days after publication of the notice of the agency determination and the determination that consolidation is necessary and justified will be included with the publication of the solicitation.

DETERMINATION

Based on the above, I hereby determine that in accordance with FAR 7.107-2, that consolidation is necessary and justified.

PREPARED BY: I hereby certify that the supporting information and data used to complete this determination is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

James Whisner Date Contracting Officer Network Contracting Office 5

REVIEWED BY: I have reviewed this determination and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Amy Ritchey Date Branch Chief, Services Team 3 Network Contracting Office 5

Concur:

Donyale Smith Date Director of Contracting Network Contracting Office 5 vhamwvritcha Highlight

VA Optional Form – M807 (Rev 11/21)

Prescribed by FAR 7.107

Kenneth M. Dougherty Date Small Business Liaison Network Contracting Office 5

Joseph P. Maletta Date Executive Director Regional Procurement Office East

Approved:

(As prescribed in FAR 7.107-2(b))

Angela Billups, Ph.D. Date Executive Director and Senior Procurement Executive Department of Veterans Affairs