Fort Bliss JA 2025_39_Redacted.pdf

JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT

FAR 6 JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN

FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Program/Equipment: The Directorate of Public Works (DPW) at Fort Bliss, Texas has a requirement to provide custodial services to installation facilities in accordance with IMCOM Directorate – Readiness (ID-R) Common Levels of Support (CLS) 402. This effort will procure custodial services using a Firm-Fixed-Priced modification to the existing custodial contract to extend the period of performance for six months.

Authority: 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1) as implemented by FAR Part 6.302-1 - Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

Amount: $2,791,422.15

Reviews: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support other than full and open competition.

FAR Part 6 Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition

1. Contracting Activity: U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command (MICC) – Fort Bliss, Bldg.111 Pershing Rd, Fort Bliss, Texas, 79916.

2. Description of Action: The Directorate of Public Works (DPW) at Fort Bliss, Texas requests a Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) modification to extend the current Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, W911S8-19-D-0005, for Custodial Services with NuGate Group LLC for a performance period not to exceed six months. The Government projects award for a follow-on contract on 30 June 2025 and fiscal year 2025 Operations and Maintenance 131 funds will be used. This contract is required to avoid a break in service of essential custodial services at Fort Bliss.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: The Directorate of Public Works (DPW) at Fort Bliss, Texas is required to provide custodial services for facilities located at Fort Bliss, to include Biggs Army Airfield (East Biggs), William Beaumont Army Medical Center (WBAMC), and the contiguous training ranges in El Paso, Texas and parts of Otero County, New Mexico. Custodial services are performed under three levels of cleaning frequency to sustain a clean, healthy environment for occupants of approximately 342 buildings. The table below shows the (various) services and frequency.

Period of Performance.

Option Period 7: 23 FEB 2025 to 22 AUG 2025 Value: $2,791,422.15

4. Authority Cited: 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

5. Reason for Authority Cited: As described at FAR 6.302-1(a)(2), when the supplies or services required by the agency are available only from one responsible source, or for DoD, NASA and the Coast Guard, from only one or a limited number of responsible sources, and no other types of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided for.

a. The NuGate Group is (currently) performing custodial services under the current contract, W911S8-19-D-0005, which expires on 22 February 2025. The follow-on contract is expected to be awarded on 30 June 2025 with a phase-in start date of 23 July 2025. NuGate Group has the capability to maintain full performance immediately upon contract extension without the need for a phase in. This ensures uninterrupted custodial services critical to the operation of Fort Bliss facilities. Awarding this sole source extension to NuGate Group under the authority of FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii) is the only alternative available as NuGate Group is the only responsible source capable of meeting the governments need during this limited time frame without incurring unacceptable delays.

The MICC-Fort Carson contracting office was initially designated as the procuring contracting office and participated in the requirements review process. Shortly after approval of the requirements documentation, the procurement was transferred to MICC- Fort Bliss to prepare the requirement for solicitation and finish the procurement process through contract award. Upon review of the requirements documentation that MICC-Fort Bliss received, it was determined that further coordination and revisions to key requirements documentation was necessary before proceeding with the solicitation.

This activity contributed to a delay in processing the follow-on procurement and precipitated the need for a five-month extension to the existing contract W911S8-19-D- 0005 P00024 which was executed 23 September 2024.

Following the accomplishment of the additional coordination with the Small Business

Administration and finalizing revisions to the requirements documentation, additional delays have been encountered resulting from the request for industry to comment on a draft Request for Proposal (RFP). Eighty-one responses to the draft RFP were submitted from interested vendors. This large volume of input had to be reconciled, and requirements documentation revised to provide the clarity needed for vendors to provide competitive proposals. The procurement milestones have subsequently slipped again as a result of these additional efforts, necessitating the request to extend the ordering period on the existing contract for six more months to ensure continuity of custodial services while allowing sufficient time to finalize and execute the follow-on procurement and provide for sufficient phase-in/phase-out time.

b. Alternatives.

1) Suspension of services: Fort Bliss has approximately 342 buildings (3.6 million square feet) that require routine cleaning and custodial services to maintain sanitary levels of cleanliness. Contracted services ensure restrooms are clean, and stocked and ensures Soldiers, employees and visitors of Fort Bliss live and operate in a healthy environment. Temporarily suspending contracting services, an alternative that does not ensure sanitary and healthy living conditions, is not a viable alternative.

2) Use in-house resources: The Government has historically relied on contract support to provide custodial functions. DPW does not have the personnel authorizations to perform the work and military personnel are dedicated to Army Mission directives and are not available to perform custodial duties.

3) Competitively award a separate contract: Attempting to award a competitive short-term requirement is not a viable alternative. The mobilization process for custodial services would involve significant effort, including recruiting and onboarding staff, obtaining background checks and clearances, procuring and setting up equipment, and ensuring compliance with installation specific policies. These startup activities would constitute a substantial portion of the overall contract value for such a brief term, it would be neither cost effective nor realistic to expect another contractor to perform during the brief interim period. Fort Bliss has approximately 342 buildings spanning 3.6 million square feet that require routine cleaning and custodial services to maintain.

Familiarizing a new contractor with the facility locations and cleaning requirements is a complex and time-intensive process. Extending the current contractor ensures continuity of services without the significant delays and disruptions that a new contractor would face during the familiarization process.

c. Impact if justification is not approved. If the subject contract requirement is not approved to award the 6-month extension, the consequences of service disruptions will be detrimental to the mission and operations of the Installation, and the safety and welfare of our civilians, military, and families.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: The Contracting Officer will publish the notices required by FAR 5.201 and any bids or proposals received shall be considered.

a. Effective competition. This is a sole source action to extend an existing contract, effective competition is not applicable.

b. Subcontracting competition. The incumbent contractor, NuGate Group, LLC is currently a small business for the assigned contract and therefore, is not required to have a small business subcontracting plan. The incumbent contractor will be required to obtain as much competition as possible for any part of the requirement that is subcontracted and give maximum opportunity to small businesses.

c. The incumbent contractor will be required to meet the requirements in Class deviations 2021-O0008, Revision 1 for FAR Clause 52.219-14 Limitations on Subcontracting for this six-month extension.

d. In accordance with Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 205.205-71, DFARS 206.302-1(d), and DFARS Procedures, Guidance and Information (PGI) 206.302-1(d), a sources sought notice was posted to SAM.gov on 20 August 2024 for 15 days seeking SBA Certified 8(a) program participants and produced 33 responses from interested vendors. None of the vendors provided any information or demonstrated experience that showed they had the capabilities to achieve full performance within a short time frame as required for this extension requirement.

NuGate Group entered the 8(a) program March 26, 2020, and is expected to graduate March 25, 2029, in accordance with the Small Business Administration’s nine-year participation period. Given the time constraints and the need to reach full performance by 23 February 2025, awarding this six-month extension to a different vendor would jeopardize the Fort Bliss mission.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government intends to issue the follow-on contract on 30 June 2025 as a competitive small business procurement as expeditiously as possible and fair competition is expected.

8. Market Research: Market Research for this requirement using NAICS code 561720 (Janitorial Services) was completed for the follow-on contract to determine the interest and capability of small business firms with the knowledge, experience and business acumen commensurate with the level of effort required. In accordance with DFARS PGI 206.302-4(d), previously conducted market research, including the sources sought notice posted on 15 August 2024, remains valid as no significant changes to the requirement or the market environment have occurred. As per the sources sought posted, there are potential vendors, however, none of the vendors demonstrated the ability to meet the short timeline, which begins on 23 February 2025.

9. Interested Sources: In accordance with DFARS 205.205-71, DFARS 206.302-1(d), and PGI 206.302-1(d), MICC-Fort Bliss previously posted a source sought notice (see paragraph 6 for the sources sought notice information). The responses received to the sources sought notice remain unchanged since the previous contract extension. These submissions were determined not to meet the requirements outlined in the notice, which specifically asks for proven experience in providing similar services. No new respondents or additional information has been submitted to demonstrate the capability to meet the requirements. Based on this, the contracting officer has reaffirmed that awarding the extension to the incumbent contractor continues to be the lowest risk to mission failure and the only viable option to avoid a break in service.

10. Other Facts:

Procurement History. The Fort Bliss custodial requirement has been under the Small Business Association (SBA) 8(a) program since 2003. Contract numbers and dates of the known contracts for this requirement are indicated on the table below. There are no unusual patterns that may be revealed by the procurement history.

* Contract Terminated for Convenience

Contract Number Contractor Set-aside Contract Type

Contract Award Amount

Period of Performance

Business Size

W911S8-19-D-0005 Nugate Group LLC

8(a) Direct Award

FFP IDIQ $17,727,108.50 08APR2019 -

Present

SB/8(a)

W911S8-19-C-0005* Charitar Realty

8(a) Direct Award FFP IDIQ $3,179,618.53

23JAN2019 -

23FEB2019 SB/8(a)

W911SG-17- P-0031

K-Clean Sweep Rite

8(a) Direct Award

FFP IDIQ $7,122,296.00

23APR2017 -

22JAN2019

SB/8(a)

W911SG-16-P-0106 K-Clean Sweep Rite

8(a) Direct Award

FFP IDIQ $3,561,148.00 23JUN2016 -

22APR2017

SB/8(a)

W911SG-15-C-0014 K-Clean Sweep Rite

8(a) Direct Award

FFP IDIQ $5,784,859.7 1 23MAR2015 -

22DEC2015

SB/8(a)

W911SG-15-C-0003 Eclipse Business

8(a) Direct Award

FFP IDIQ $1,170,922.12 10DEC2014 -

09MAR2015

SB/8(a)

W911SG-14-C-0005 Eclipse Business

8(a) Direct Award

FFP IDIQ $4,097,487.84 04FEB2014 -

03DEC2014

SB/8(a)

W911SG-14-P-0052 Eclipse 8(a) Direct FFP IDIQ $707,151.20 4DEC2013 -

3FEB2014

SB/8(a)

DABK05-03- D-0007 Ace Janitorial 8(a) FFP IDIQ $27,083,649.03 13JUN2003 -

31JUL2013

SB/8(a)

11. Technical Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

12. Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

13. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated cost or price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. This determination is based on the use of a certified cost or pricing data exemption in accordance with FAR 15.403-1(c)(1), which allows for this exemption when adequate price competition exists, or comparable market-based pricing is available. The basis of this determination includes comparing proposed prices to historical prices paid by the Government or other than the Government, for the same or similar items in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(b)(2)(ii).

14. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.