ADC_Bridge_JA_Final.pdf

Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity

1. Agency: Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

a. Federal agency and contracting activity:

HHS/FDA, Office of Acquisitions and Grants Services (OAGS)

b. Sponsoring organization:

HHS/FDA, Office of Information Management and Technology (OIMT)

c. Project Officer Information:

Marvin Gibson Senior Technical Advisor OAK 8 Room 254 2098 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850 Marvin.gibson@fda.hhs.gov

2. Nature of Action Being Proposed for Approval:

The subject acquisition is a new task order for Application Deployment support and extensions to existing contractor-provided hardware and software maintenance in FDA’s Ashburn Data Center (ADC). The ADC houses FDA’s pre-production and production environments. FDA relies upon Contractor support for the management of the data center, including application deployment support and the management of software licensing and related hardware and software maintenance. FDA received this support via a task order awarded under ID/IQ contract HHSF223200850014I with HP Enterprise Services, LLC (HPES), which expired on November 28, 2014. With the expiration of this task order, FDA was at risk of losing this support for the ADC.

FDA awarded a short-term bridge contract in order to maintain continuity of services and support, pending the award of follow-on contracts for application deployment support and hardware and software maintenance. The bridge contract consists of a two month period of performance for application deployment support and various hardware and software maintenance support with extension periods of performance ranging from two months to twelve months. This extension period will be sufficient to allow for continuity of operations, while other long-term measures are put in place, preventing a lapse in mission-critical support.

3. Title and Description of Supplies or Services and Estimated Value:

a. Project Title:

FDA ADC Application Deployment and Maintenance Support

b. Description of Requirement:

The scope of work includes activities necessary to maintain a basic level of support for the Ashburn Data Center, which includes providing Application Deployment services and extension of existing contractor-provided hardware and software maintenance.

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

The ceiling value of the task order is $1,188,325.00.

4. Statutory Authority and Supporting Rationale:

The statutory authorities justifying this exception to fair opportunity is FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A), the agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays.

a. Name and address of the proposed contractor

HP Enterprise Services, LLC

13600 EDS Drive

Herndon, VA 20171-3225

b. Nature of the acquisition and rational supporting the justification

The FDA’s Ashburn Data Center (ADC) is critical to agency operations, and FDA cannot fulfill its mission in the absence of these services. Providing for fair opportunity would cause an unacceptable delay and result in serious injury to the Government.

• A task order with a limited period of performance, (services for a two-month period of performance and majority of maintenance for a three-month period of performance), will permit FDA to provide for continuation of mission-critical services until performance may continue on the competitively awarded task or other actions may be taken on an competitive basis to obtain support.

• FDA does not have full time employees on staff that can provide the support in absence of contractor support services.

• A lapse in Application Deployment support services would prevent FDA from deploying a new software releases or patches to mission-critical systems.

• A lapse in hardware and software maintenance would prevent FDA from receiving vital software updates and gaining access to technical support, which FDA uses to monitor and maintain its IT infrastructure and environment.

• A lapse in support and maintenance appreciably increases the risk of failures in production systems, production servers and storage, access to electronic documents and data in production systems, and the HHS Trusted Internet Connection. Such failures may result in FDA network users losing access to the systems where they perform their work to review food, animal feed, drugs, blood, biologics, vaccines, and devices. Users may not be able to retrieve documentation and data related to previous reviews and in-progress reviews, and would not electronically track and document testing on food, animal feed, drugs, blood, biologics, vaccines, and devices.

5. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable.

The FDA will perform price analysis. FDA has access to competitively priced labor rates and projected levels of effort for identical work that it received under a previous task order. Additionally, FDA has historical data to support pricing for hardware and software maintenance. FDA will ensure that the proposed pricing for the bridge contract represents a fair and reasonable price.

6. Any other facts supporting the justification.

None.

7. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

The FDA is an advocate of competition. As mentioned in sections 2 and 4b, FDA intends to pursue competitive actions to fulfill its long-term needs for services and maintenance. The period of performance of this bridge is limited in duration to allow sufficient time to conduct these competitive procurements.

Certification and Signatures:

Program Office Certification:

This is to certify that the data supporting this justification is the responsibility of the undersigned program office personnel, including verifying the Government's minimum needs or schedule requirements or other rationale for limited sources (pursuant to 8.405- 6(e)(2)) or for other then full and open competition justification (pursuant to 6.303-2(b)) or for exception to fair opportunity (pursuant to 16.505(b)(2)(i)) which form a basis for this justification, and that such data and rationale are accurate and complete.

Marvin Gibson Date Contracting Officer’s Representative

Tracy Kennedy Date Contracting Officer Representative’s Supervisor

Angelique Hebert Date Deputy Chief Information Officer, FDA http://farsite.hill.af.mil/reghtml/regs/far2afmcfars/fardfars/far/16.htm#P464_78682

Contracting Officer Certification:

I certify, to the best of my knowledge and belief, that this submission is accurate and contains complete data necessary to support the recommendations for approval. The contracting officer further certifies that an award of this contract action from this requirement will be made only if the price or cost to the Government is determined to be fair and reasonable.

Brendan McCarthy Date Contracting Officer

Reviewed and Concur:

Sandra Bellinger Date Director – Division of IT Acquisitions

Glenda Barfell Date Head of Contracting Activity

Sandra.Bellinger Pencil

Approving Official Determination:

Having reviewed the justification for exemption to fair opportunity, I determine that the circumstance described in section 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A) applies to this order.

Approved:

Walter Harris Date Competition Advocate

The statutory authorities justifying this exception to fair opportunity is FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A), the agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays.