FBO_Post_JA_Exception_Attachment.pdf

TMPLT 2016.06-028

OAGS Template and Instruction for a General Services Administration Federal Supply Schedule Limited Source Justification

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity:

a. Federal agency and contracting activity.

HHS / Office of Commissioner / Office of Operations / Office of Finance, Budget, and Acquisitions

b. Sponsoring organization.

Office of Finance, Budget, and Acquisitions (OFBA)

c. Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR)/Requiring Activity Point of Contact (POC) information.

i. Name: Kichelle Joseph

ii. Mailing address: 4041 Powder Mill Road, Beltsville, MD 20705

iii. E-mail address: Kichelle.Joseph@fda.hhs.gov

iv. Telephone number: 301-796-7251

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

a. Acquisition purpose and objectives.

This effort within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began with the implementation of the Unified Financial Management System (UFMS) in 2005. The implementation of UFMS met HHS’s mission of a centralized accounting system; however, the Operating Divisions (OPDIVS) were faced with major transformation issues around the broader financial business processes, in the areas of business process reengineering, training, and workforce planning, among other areas. To meet these challenges, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required support services to perform the various tasks associated with leveraging full financial system functionality and managing the transformation from a silo-based business process (legacy systems) into an integrated business process. Consequently, the impact has been a catalyst for the realignment of HHS’s operations while managing and delivering its mission-based services and the improvement of the overall operational performance, quality, and efficiency of the support services provided across HHS’s OPDIVS.

Template

HHS and its OPDIVS have clearly aligned with government-wide management trends demonstrated through an array of specific initiatives – most of which are transformational rather than traditional incremental improvements. Building on the government reform efforts of the past few decades aimed at improving efficiency, streamlining program operations, and outsourcing, the transformation reflects the more profound changes that address growing fiscal pressure and rising public expectations for more effective results. This Business Transformation Team (BTT) BPAs position the FDA to be adequately prepared in implementing these government-wide initiatives while being more responsive and effective in its support of mission-based services.

During the past five years, the BTT, in conjunction with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), has transitioned stove-piped financial business processes into a streamlined end-to-end process.

The current “as is” business processes associated with payment functions have been documented. Financial management courses were transitioned into an end-to-end curriculum.

The previously fragmented policy, training, and systems processes were integrated providing a holistic view of doing business. This included key aspects such as change management, organizational assessment, employee performance evaluations, and executive coaching.

The objective of this action issues a sole source to the current contractor, Deloitte Consulting, to ensure no lapse in services as the BPA award is being protested.

b. Project background.

FDA requires support to improve performance for the strategic planning, business process, organizational alignment, performance measurement, communication, and training activities across all financial management tools and systems. The FDA awarded the BTT BPAs in 2015 and it expired on September 30, 2020 with the task order set to expire on December 31, 2020. The acquisition competition is complete for the new BPA. However, a protest was issued, and the stop work order was sent to the 5 awarded vendors. Therefore, OFBA must issue a sole source award to continue services during this time so as not to have a lapse in service

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

a. Project title.

Business Process Improvement, Workforce Management, Training and Communication Services for the Office of Finance, Budget and Acquisitions

b. Project Description.

The scope of this effort will be on transitioning into a consumption-based way of conducting business, based upon service-line activities, which includes developing programs and linking together all aspects of financial management business processes, policies, and procedures.

Additionally, it will support FDA’s need to systematically plan, implement, and monitor FDA’s shared administrative operations through strategic assessment and analysis, information dissemination, data driven decision, and the application of technical expertise. To continue improving process efficiency, there is a business need to identify and explore robust connections between people, innovation, and services, resulting in collaborative communities of practice and improved business models. FDA’s goal is to enable organizations and individuals to achieve more flexibility in day-to-day business requirements, by leveraging and enabling systems and innovation (i.e., artificial intelligence, automation, social media, video, microlearning, etc.). FDA requires support to develop evaluation capacity; improve decision making and risk management through systematic inquiry; strategic alignment to ensure mission effectiveness; and facilitate change across FDA’s centrally provided administrative functions.

Requirement type.

Support services (non-R&D)

Supplies/equipment

Information Technology (IT)

Other:

Type of action.

New requirement

Follow-on

Other: New requirement to existing BPAs

Proposed contract/order type.

Firm-fixed-price

Time and materials

Indefinite delivery:

Other: Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs)

Completion Form

Term Form

Acquisition identification number.

This item is not applicable.

c. Total estimated dollar value and performance/delivery period.

The OFBA requirement is approximately valued at $6,500,000. The period of performance will be January 1, 2021 through June 30, 2021 with a 6-month optional extension.

4. The authority and supporting rationale (see FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i); (b)(1)) and, if applicable, a demonstration of the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service.

a. Acquisition authority.

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.405-6(a), consideration of schedule contractors will be restricted to fewer than the number required at FAR 8.405-1, FAR 8.405-2, FAR 8.405-3 (i.e., fewer than three FSS contractors). FAR 8.405-6 (a)(1)(i), for a proposed order or BPA with an estimated value exceeding the micro-purchase threshold not placed or established in accordance with the procedures in FAR 8.405-1, FAR 8.405-2, or FAR 8.405-3, the only circumstances that may justify the actions are-

(A) An urgent and compelling need exists, and following the procedures would result in unacceptable delays;

(B) Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized;

(C) In the interest of economy and efficiency, the new work is a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule order provided that the original order was placed in accordance with the applicable Federal Supply Schedule ordering procedures. The original order or BPA must not have been previously issued under sole-source or limited-sources procedures.

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program. In accordance with FAR 8.405-6(b), consideration of schedule contractors will be restricted only to the item peculiar to one manufacturer. An item peculiar to one manufacturer can be a particular brand name, product, or a feature of a product, peculiar to one manufacturer. A brand name item, whether available on one or more schedule contracts, is an item peculiar to one manufacturer.

b. Demonstration of the proposed contractor(s) unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service.

• Name and address of the proposed contractor(s).

Deloitte Consulting LLP

DUNS# 019121586

Cage# 1TTG5

POP: 11/21/2017 – 11/20/2022

Address: 1725 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

• Nature of the acquisition and proposed contractor(s) unique qualifications.

This previous requirement was solicited and competed amongst the three multiple-award Business Transformation Team (BTT) BPAs HHSF223201510010B (Deloitte Consulting), HHSF223201510011B (KPMG) and HHSF223201510012B (Guidehouse) which has now expired. This new requirement is not being competed amongst the newly awarded BTT BPA five holders as a protest was issued. The task order incumbent (Deloitte) under the BPA is the most economical and efficient vendor with the requisite technical knowledge and unique expertise to support the immediate need for continued OFBA services for the following reasons. This issue of the task order provides for the continued business transformation services until the BPA protest is resolved. The OFBA BTT is critical to Agency operations and FDA cannot fulfill its mission in absence of these support services.

The incumbent has developed efficient tools for the enhanced Managerial Accounting Project and Monthly Budget Status Report Initiative. These tools will automate and provide trend analysis and analytics for the financial community. Utilizing the existing model created by the incumbent proves to be most efficient solution for the required work. If another vendor were to provide the services, there would be a duplication of work processes, including re-deploying of data sets, and would result in a duplication of the review and validation of multiple systems, which are already currently in use by the incumbent.

The incumbent has supported OFBA with facilitating 10 working group sessions (July 1, 2020

– present) with point of contacts from each Center/Office to increase compliance, improve efficiency, effectiveness, communication and understanding of the FDA vendor invoice and payments process. The deliverables produced as a result of this initiative has led to an estimated annual savings of 612 hours. Additionally, Deloitte supported the review of over 1,200 helpdesk tickets on vendor invoice and payments to determine reasons for helpdesk tickets and where the tickets should be routed for fastest processing. Using Natural Language Processing and Topic Modeling to analyze these tickets, FDA savings of performing this analysis was 280 hours. The incumbent expertise in the implementation of Robotic Process Automation to automate the invoice review for Prompt Pay Act compliance and accuracy in math between invoice line amounts and invoice total amounts, as well as reconciling invoice on holds and developing Center specific and dashboards has resulted in over 6,000 hours of annual savings. There would be significant delay in the project, response times for deliverables, and additional federal staff hours would be required to re-develop the knowledge base to a new vendor as we await the results of the BPA protest.

Without the execution of this sole source task order to the incumbent, a disruption (i.e. a lapse) in essential services would result in decreased operational efficiency of the Agency, which would be an unacceptable outcome; since it would adversely affect the FDA’s mission.

Awarding a task order would mitigate the noted operational risks. The incumbent is best positioned to provide the required continued services and accomplish the immediate work activities in the most schedule and cost-efficient manner until the protest newly awarded BPA stop work order can be lifted.

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

FDA will evaluate the level of effort and skill mix required to support the work in scope of individual orders and will determine the price of the orders to be fair and reasonable prior to issuance by performing a price analysis of the quote.

6. Description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted.

Given that the BTT BPA awards were already existing, no additional market research was conducted.

The BTT BPA was awarded to five vendors. Moreover, given the immediate continued need of the BTT requirements; to include this requirement’s prior use of the BTT BPA (in FY2016); it is not in the best interests of the Government to solicit new vendors via formal market research actions (e.g. sources sought and requests for information). The resultant time lapse of any related market research efforts, would cause a disruption in the required OFBA BTT support services

7. Any other facts supporting the justification.

If the sole source sole task order is not awarded to Deloitte (given the BPA protest which will take a minimum of 100 days and the current task order will expire on December 30, 2020), FDA would need to obtain support services from one or more vendors. This would entail OFBA restarting the acquisition planning process; developing a robust and actionable acquisition package; and completing a source selection before the task order expiration. Per the duplicate OAGS draft milestone plans, the following timeframes for new acquisition actions do not appear reasonable:

o New Competitive Acquisition: 180 calendar days o New Non-Competitive Acquisition: 167 calendar days o New Directed 8(a): 120 calendar days o New GSA/GWAC: 150 calendar days

From a timing perspective, these timeframes are not feasible with a task order that will expire on December 30, 2020 and a pending protest on the BPA. Moreover, a new acquisition action entails the incoming vendor to complete a transition-in period, which would include recruiting the necessary staff; completing the FDA badging process; learning FDA systems and procedures and understanding the current needs of the Agency. These activities would lead to a greater unnecessary timing delay.

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

a) Removal of barriers to competition. The newly awarded BTT BPA has received a protest and as such a stop work order has been place on the BPA awards until the protest is resolved. This could take up to 100 days to resolve. Therefore, a sole source task order must be issued to avoid any lapse in service.

b) Listing of sources, if any, that expressed an interest, in writing, in the acquisition.

Deloitte Consulting LLP

DUNS# 019121586

Cage# 1TTG5

POP: 11/21/2017 – 11/20/2022

Address: 1725 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

9. Program office certification.

Evidence that any supporting data that is the responsibility of technical or requirements personnel (e.g., verifying the Government’s minimum needs or requirements or other rationale for limited sources) and which form a basis for the justification have been certified as complete and accurate by the technical or requirements personnel.

Signature:

COR/Requiring Activity POC

COR/POC Immediate Supervisor

Head of the Sponsoring Program Office

10. Contracting Officer Certification.

This is to certify that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the contracting officer’s knowledge and belief.

Contracting Officer

11. Division Director and Head of the Contracting Activity signature(s).

Division Director

Head of the Contracting Activity

12. Competition Advocate signature.

Competition Advocate