NTPR_-_J A_Redacted.pdf

Defense Threat Reduction Agency and

United States Strategic Command Center For Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction

8725 John J. Kingman Road, Stop 6201 Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6201

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Nature and/or Description of Action

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) contracting activity proposes to procure, without using full and open competition, a support contract for the Nuclear Test Personnel Review (NTPR) Program.

2. Description of the Supplies/Services Required

The NTPR Program serves 500,000 atomic veterans and DoD civilian employees (and/or their spouses, children, and elected representatives) who participated in U.S. atmospheric nuclear testing (1945-1962), with the occupation forces of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, or were prisoners of war in Japan at the conclusion of World War II. The program similarly supports an analogous 50,000 DoD personnel associated with U.S. underground nuclear weapon testing (1951-1992), and 6,000 DoD personnel associated with the radiological clean-up of the Pacific Proving Ground. It interacts directly with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Department of Labor to provide DoD’s input for veteran radiogenic disease medical assistance and financial compensation.

NTPR also serves as DoD's subject matter expert for personnel radiation dose assessment, and provides this support at the request of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), Combatant Commanders, and the military services. Recent examples include dose assessment requests for service member's exposure to x-rays emanating from LORAN high voltage vacuum tube transmitter units, service member's exposure to radiological releases from the McMurdo Station, Antarctica nuclear power plant, and DoD-affiliated individuals' exposure to radiological releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.

The scope of this work requires the contractor to perform veteran participation verification, dose assessment, information management, veteran assistance/outreach, support independent scientific studies concerning the health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation, and program management tasks.

The current acquisition strategy for this requirement is to award a sole-source contract to L-3 National Security Solutions, Inc., 11955 Freedom Drive, Suite 12000, Reston, VA 20190-5687, hereafter referred to as L-3. The period of performance will commence upon contract award and continue for eight years thereafter. The contract ceiling will be $32,100,000. It is anticipated that the contract will contain both Research and Development (R&D) and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs) for support.

3. Statutory Authority

The statutory authority for this non-competitive action is 10 United States Code (U.S.C.)

2304(c)(1) or 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source.

4. Applicability of Authority

L-3 is the only responsible source capable of providing this service without unacceptable interruption and degradation of service resulting in a significant backlog in pending cases and a significant increase in Congressional inquiries. Due to unique NTPR Program requirements, a new contractor would be required to duplicate L-3’s capabilities, knowledge and expertise, which would take at least six months and cost approximately $2.2M in labor and records transfer costs which are not expected to be recovered through competition. The following items detail the basis for this statement

Delay in Service (Accreditation, Cost, Downtime)

(1) NTPR IT System Accreditation: L-3 staff obtained and maintain the “Authorization to Operate (ATO)” for the DTRA furnished, contractor operated NTPR IT system. As specified in DoDI 8501.01 “DoD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process” an ATO is granted by a DoD designated approval authority for full operation approval with a duration of three years. It took 100’s of L-3 staff hours, and two years to achieve this ATO accreditation. The NTPR IT system servers, and associated security systems currently reside in L-3’s Reston, VA facility. Loss of this facility, its security systems, and its accredited information assurance staff, would result in the suspension of the NTPR IT system ATO. Upon transfer of the NTPR IT system to another contractor, it is estimated that it would take six months to reestablish the ATO, which would result in NTPR case processing to cease during this period of time.

(2) Transfer of Assets (Cost and Downtime): Award to a contractor other than L-3 will impact processing of VA claims, leading to unacceptable program downtimes:

a. The NTPR hardcopy library consists of 1,250 linear feet of records, and resides in a space of 64.5' X 22'. This library is shelved predominately on an aged mobile shelving system, which is mounted on a level track way. Due to the age of this government furnished equipment (GFE) mobile shelving, it cannot be moved, and a new shelving system will be required if this library is moved (Estimated cost (purchase, installation, transfer): $50,000). Due to weight of the material, it would be very difficult to relocate this library to a non-ground floor. Projected program downtime due to move - minimum two weeks to a month.

b. The NTPR hardcopy veteran case files consist of 1,000 linear feet of records, and reside in a space of 33.5' X 31.5'. The case files are shelved predominately on an aged mobile shelving system, that is mounted on a level track way. Due to the age of this GFE mobile shelving, it cannot be moved, and a new shelving system will be required if this library is moved (Estimated cost (purchase, installation, transfer): $50,000). Due to weight of the material, it would be very difficult to relocate this library to a non-ground floor. Projected program downtime due to move - minimum two weeks to a month.

(3) Procedure Revision (Downtime): Although extensive documentation (many 100’s of pages) exists for processing NTPR cases, this documentation is focused on the L-3 facility and personnel. A new contractor would be required to revise this documentation before service case processing can resume. Projected downtime for drafting of revised documentation, and approval by DTRA Program Manager is at least two weeks.

Learning Curve Impact on Productivity and Quality:

The knowledge, experience, training, and individual accreditation for NTPR Program information assurance, as required by DoD 8570.01-M, takes time to acquire, due to the unique design of NTPR’s one-of-a-kind database software (NuTRIS). There is a similar learning curve for contract staff performing veteran participation verification, dose assessment, quality assurance, process improvement, and program management. Experience is gained by processing cases, and a drop in quality of the NTPR work-product would occur for non-incumbents during this learning period. At present, contract historical analysts have many years of experience, and a number have become the subject matter expert (SME) for individual military services (e.g. an Army SME for veteran participation verification, a Navy SME for veteran participation verification, …). The projected period for gaining appropriate experience by processing cases is approximately six months.

Impact on Veterans, VA and DOJ

Transfer of GFE and Government documents residing at the L-3 Reston facility would require an excessive investment in time and funds to move and to reestablish functionality (accreditation) – as noted above. DTRA’s principal concern is the impact on NTPR handled veteran compensation claims. NTPR’s average monthly output in FY13 was 175 cases. Assuming the six month delay stated above and a similar monthly output, this would directly impact 1,050 veteran cases. Delay such as this is unacceptable to veterans who are elderly and sick, since they may pass-on while action on their compensation claims is delayed. In addition, the VA and the Congressional Veterans Affairs Committees would find these delays also unacceptable. VA Secretary Shinseki has stated that by 2015, VA will process all claims within 125 days, with a 98% accuracy (Ref: VA Strategic Plan FY2011-2015). Both President Obama and Secretary Hagel have been publicly supportive of Secretary Shinseki’s goal. The NTPR caseload backlog and associated case processing time is a concern of House Veterans Affairs Committee (HVAC) [Ref: OSD and VA meeting with HVAC concerning DoD’s VA radiogenic disease compensation case backlog on 29 May 2013], due to its impact on VA pending compensation claims. Processing VA veteran radiogenic disease compensation claims has two distinct components: a DoD component and a VA component. If the processing time of DoD’s component is not timely, VA cannot achieve its stated goals.

Assuring the uninterrupted and timely processing of veterans claims under the NTPR Program is of paramount importance to the DoD and Congress. It is not cost effective or efficient for DoD to sponsor competitive service providers for this program.

5. Effort to Solicit Potential Sources

A Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) notice of the proposed contract action will be published as required by FAR 5.2. As a part of this notice, all responsible sources will be invited to submit a capability statement which shall be considered by the Government.

6. Fair and Reasonable Costs

The anticipated cost/price of this contract will be determined to be fair and reasonable based on inputs and evaluations from the DTRA Program Office, analysis of cost and pricing data, field pricing support from the Defense Contract Audit Agency and/or Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), and historical data.

7. Market Research

Market Research concluded that L-3 is the only responsible source that can meet the requirements of this effort. The DTRA NTPR Program Manager used the following techniques to conduct Market Research:

• Reviewed historical acquisition information

• Reviewed government databases for relevant information

• Performed internet searches for relevant information

• Reviewed professional publications and newsletters for relevant information

• Published a Sources Sought Announcement in FedBizOps and received responses from the incumbent (L-3), and three other interested commercial parties.

• Contacted knowledgeable individuals in industry regarding the commercial nature of this requirement and discussed standard industry practices in this services area.

• Personal knowledge of the senior DoD health physicist and NTPR Program Manager, who has been associated with this effort for over the last eight years.

The market research concluded that the requirement can only be met by L-3. Only L-3 has a staff trained and qualified to provide accurate and credible veteran participation verification and NTPR information management. To a lesser extent, this also applies to radiation dose assessment, quality assurance, and process improvements requirements. With regard to information management requirements, only L-3 has a DoD issued Authority to Operate accreditation for the NTPR IT system. This is a non-transferable accreditation.

Due to unique NTPR Program requirements, a new contractor would be required to duplicate L-3’s capabilities, knowledge, and expertise, which would take at least six months and cost approximately $2.2M in labor and records transfer costs which are not expected to be recovered through competition. The time required for this process would be an extreme disruption to the NTPR Program, resulting in a significant backlog in pending cases and a significant increase in Congressional inquiries.

8. Other Facts

• Other than the Statement of Work and Contract Data Requirement Listing (CDRL) for the follow-on effort, no technical data packages, specifications, statements of work or purchase descriptions suitable for full and open competition have been developed. For another contractor to perform the work, they would be required to duplicate L-3’s capabilities, knowledge and expertise, which would take at least six months and cost approximately $2.2M in labor and records transfer costs. This would not be a feasible or acceptable approach to meet this requirement nor is such funding available.

• Potential Loss of Control of Privacy Act Material: DTRA’s largest repository of privacy act material (over 500,000 individuals) is maintained by L-3. Transferring these records to another contract site introduces a risk of loss of control of this material.

9. Interested Sources

On 11 December 2012, DTRA issued a Sources Sought Announcement for Nuclear Test Personnel Review Program Support. The purpose of the announcement was to identify firms capable of providing the required services. Four responses were received:

• L-3 Services, Inc., with subs: SAIC, ORAU, SENES, PTFS, & Oak Grove.

• SC&A Inc. partnered with SRA International, Inc.

• Advanced Technologies & Laboratories International, Inc.

• Progressive Technology Federal Systems, Inc. (PTFS)

Analyses of these responses indicate that L-3 is the only responsible source that can adequately fulfill the DTRA requirements. The other interested parties are not considered qualified due to the fact that SC&A and their partner, AT&L International, and PTFS do not have veteran participation verification experience. The learning curve required to acquire and train appropriate historian staff would be at least six months, and quality of results would be a major risk during the training period. Incorrect verifications would be irresponsible, and could lead to dire consequences for veterans, DTRA, VA, and DOJ. Furthermore, SC&A, AT&L, and PTFS do not have the accreditation to operate the NTPR computer network and veteran tracking database. To achieve this accreditation would take six months, an unacceptable delay to our elderly veterans and the supporting federal agencies. In addition, PTFS has no radiation dose assessment experience.

10. Subsequent Actions

The NTPR Program is winding down. The average age of an atomic veteran (as of June 2013) is 84 years. Although many inquiries now originate from spouses, since most veterans are deceased, the need for a follow-on contract to support post-Nov 2022 may not exist, and hence DTRA may not need to take action to remove or overcome any barriers to future competition.