FAR 8.405 Limited Sources Justification Redacted.pdf

LIMITED-SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

ORDERS OR BPAS EXCEEDING THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

1. Agency and Contracting Activity

The National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Acquisition and Cooperative Support (DACS) on behalf of NSF’s Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) proposes to award an order pursuant to FAR 8.405-6(b), Limiting Sources.

2. Nature and/or Description of Action Being Approved

a) Type of action: Firm Fixed Price Order against National Academy of Public Administration’s (NAPA) General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract 47QRAA24D002L.

b) Anticipated award amount: $1,200,000.00

c) Brief Description: DACS intends to procure, on a sole source basis from NAPA, services to carry out a study regarding the organizational structure of GEO’s Office of Polar Programs (OPP) and evaluate how the existing structure aligns with the program’s mission and goals of GEO.

National Academy of Public Administration

1600 K ST NW, STE 400

Washington, DC 20006-2828

3. Description of Supplies/Services

The contractor will review OPP’s organizational structure and evaluate how the existing structure aligns with the program’s mission and goals. This effort will conclude with the development of a comprehensive report that details findings and recommendations related to OPP’s organizational structure and governance models. Specific activities to be conducted as part of this task include:

Evaluating Internal Program Structures. The contractor will evaluate the effectiveness of the program’s current internal organizational structure, including roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines.

Enhancing Leadership Capabilities. The contractor will work to identify the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) necessary for OPP’s senior leadership team to effectively manage the program. The contractor will place particular emphasis on examining the KSAs of the Director of OPP, as they play critical roles in ensuring effective management and overall success of the program.

Exploring Organizational Culture and Employee Engagement. The contractor will analyze OPP's existing organizational culture, closely examining its dynamics and values. The contractor will also evaluate OPP employee engagement, including an exploration of incident report lines to identify opportunities for enhancing their effectiveness and reinforcing transparency.

Examining Alignment within NSF, GEO, and with externally facing stakeholders. The contractor will examine OPP’s placement within NSF and evaluate how OPP's position within NSF impacts its ability to deliver its mission effectively. At the same time, the contractor will analyze OPP’s interagency stakeholder engagement strategies that leverage relationships with leaders in other federal agencies and international programs. This analysis will also explore opportunities to improve collaboration and strengthen key partnerships.

Developing Recommendations. The contractor will develop a set of recommendations to optimize OPP’s organizational structure. The recommendations will include consideration for changes to roles, reporting lines, and team configurations to improve OPP’s performance.

The estimated price is $1,200,000. This estimated price includes all expenses associated with the organizational assessment and other activities required to achieve the project's objectives successfully.

4. Authority and supporting rationale and a demonstration of the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service

This acquisition is in the government’s best interest based on FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) as only one source is capable of providing the services required at the level of quality required because the services are unique. NAPA, with its unique capabilities and mission to assist agencies with public management challenges, is the only source capable of providing NSF’s required services at the level of quality, expertise, and experience required. Further, NAPA’s Congressional charter (Public Law 98-257, Sec. 3) specifically authorizes the acquisition of NAPA’s congressionally authorized services without competition whenever called upon by Congress or the federal government.

The NAPA is an independent, non-partisan institution chartered by the Congress with the mission of assisting agencies with significant public management challenges and recommending timely actions. NAPA’s Congressional charter specifically allows Congress and federal departments and agencies to call upon the organization to provide service to the government of the United States. Specifically, the charter mandates that the Academy “shall, whenever called upon by Congress, or the Federal Government, investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of government, the actual expense of such investigations, examinations, and reports to be paid by the Federal Government from appropriations available for such purpose.” (Public Law 98-257, Sec. 3).

NSF is specifically requesting and procuring a service that is part of NAPA’s Congressionally authorized responsibilities: the evaluation of the structure, administration, operation, and program performance of NSF’s OPP. As the NAPA’s mission is to help government leaders solve their most critical management challenges by providing expert advice in building and managing more effective, efficient, equitable, accountable, and transparent organizations, a Federal department, bureau, agency or other authorized entity may request of the Academy an external assessment, evaluation or study.

The NAPA has previously conducted many assessments, studies, and evaluations for the Federal Government and is more familiar with the complexity of the Federal system than contractors in the private sector. The NAPA is the only known source qualified to satisfy the requirement within the needed timeframe and again a Federal Agency may procure its services without competition as long as the services are within NAPA’s Congressionally authorized mission.

The OPP has changed significantly since its inception in the early 1960s, transforming to meet the evolving needs of research and operations in both the Arctic and Antarctic. As NSF looks to the future of OPP’s operations, questions have arisen about the optimal organizational structure of the program and where OPP should be placed within NSF to be able to deliver its mission in the most effective and efficient way possible. It is essential to utilize the NAPA for this requirement; market research indicated that no other companies offers services at the level of expertise and experience that NAPA possesses needed to meet the agency’s needs.

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

The Contracting Officer has determined that issuing a task order to National Academy of Public Administration represents the best value and will result in the lowest overall cost, considering price and administrative costs, to meet the Government’s needs. The resultant task order is being placed against GSA Schedules which have negotiated rates, and the Contracting Officer will request an additional discount to the existing rates.

6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results, or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted

NSF issued a Request for Information (RFI) on SAM.gov on October 6, 2023. NSF received 45 responses to the RFI. GEO reviewed all responses to include several small businesses whose qualifications and responses to the RFI most closely aligned with the associated Statement of Work. A sub-set of the vendors interviewed demonstrated experience in conducted organizational assessments, but did not demonstrate the scope, expertise, experience, or scale of Federal interaction indicated by the NAPA, or the understanding of the complexities of the Federal landscape within which OPP operates (interagency, international, etc).

7. Any other facts supporting the limited-sources justification. Additional facts may be stated in this section. If there are no additional facts, you must state that here.

There are no other facts supporting this justification to be listed under this item. All supporting facts are stated in the preceding and following paragraphs.

8. A statement of actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to restricted consideration (i.e., limited-sources) before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

N/A

9. Certifications/Coordinations/Approval

REQUESTING OFFICE CERTIFICATION

Program Officer (GEO): I hereby certify that the supporting technical data presented in this Limited Source Justification are complete and accurate.

Name: Shelby Walker Date: February 23, 2024

Director, (GEO): I hereby concur with this Limited Source Justification.

Name Timothy Patten Date February 23, 2024

PROCURING OFFICE CERTIFICATION

Contracting Officer (DACS): Pursuant to FAR 8.405-6(c)(2)(ix), I assure that a detailed analysis will be performed on all proposed prices to assure that they are fair and reasonable. I also certify that this Limited Source Justification is complete and accurate.

Name

Branch Chief (DACS): I hereby concur with this Limited Source Justification.

Name

ANGELA N JOHNSON Digitally signed by ANGELA N JOHNSON Date: 2024.03.14 12:02:18 -04'00'

BETHANY A STUTLER

Digitally signed by BETHANY A

STUTLER

Date: 2024.03.14 14:49:19 -04'00'

Competition Advocate

(OIRM):

I hereby approve this Limited Source Justification.

Name

Office of the General Counsel

(OGC):

I hereby concur with this Limited Source Justification.

Name

JASON R BOSSIE

Digitally signed by JASON R

BOSSIE

Date: 2024.03.20 08:12:20 -04'00'

JOHN J CHO Digitally signed by JOHN J CHO Date: 2024.03.20 10:13:42 -04'00'