A02 - JA_STALSS Bridge_24C0028-REDACTED.pdf

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Control Number: JA-24-02-1499

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Source Selection Information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104-4

Justification and Approval For Other than Full and Open Competition – FAR Part 6

1. Contracting Activity: The Contracting activity responsible for this action is the United States Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA), Contracts Branch 10, Fort Detrick, MD 21702.

2. Description of Action: This action is to establish a short-term sole source contract to continue critical services. The request is to bridge services and will be executed as a Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) contract and awarded to SNA International, LLC. (Incumbent Contractor) for a Six (6) Month Base Period (From 01 May 2024 – 31 October 2024), and a Six (6) Month Option Period (01 November 2024 – 30 April 2025). The current Task Order Award is Contract #W81XWH-17-D-0034 Task Order #HT9425-23-F-0010.

The award provides for Non-Personal Scientific, Technical, Administrative and Logistical Support Services (STALSS) to the Defense Health Agency – Armed Forces Medical Examiner Systems (DHA – AFMES). This Justification and Approval (J&A) for Other than Full and Open Competition does NOT provide for new work or a change in scope from the previous award. Funding for this Bridge Contract is provided by Defense Health Program (DHP), Operation and Maintenance Army (OMA) and Counter Narcotics (CNP) FY’24 Funding.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: Continuity of critical services is required to support the Department of Defense Drug Detection Quality Assurance Laboratory (DoD-QAL), the Department of Toxicology (DFT), and the Special Forensic Toxicology Drug Testing Laboratory (SFTDTL) Sections of AFMES. These sections support blind and open proficiency testing program; produce and certify proficiency materials for distribution to all labs and evaluate collected results. The U.S. Federal Government would also lose the ability to Coordinate the inspection and certification of DDRP laboratories.

in order to meet the AFMES Mission.

4. Authority Cited: 10 United States Code (U.S.C.) 3204(b)(B) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 (a)(2)(iii)(B) For DoD, NASA, and the Coast Guard, services may be deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of follow-on contracts for the continued provision of highly specialized services when it is likely that award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirements

Controlled by: Defense Health Agency (DHA) Controlled by: USAMRAA

CUI Category(ies): Source Selection Limited Dissemination Control: FED Only POC: Christopher Cook, #301-619-2640

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5. Reason for Authority Cited: The original order was placed In Accordance With (IAW) the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505, Ordering Procedures under Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity Contracts. This request is for a logical follow-on bridge of Task Order #HT9425-23-F-0010.

AFMES is the Department of Defense’s (DoD) leader in providing medicolegal services and emerging technologies essential for the readiness, sustainability, and survivability of our service members. As the only death investigation system for the United States (U.S.) Federal Government, AFMES is the only medical examiner system authorized to support the DoD with comprehensive forensic investigative services, to include forensic pathology, DNA Forensics, Forensic Toxicology, and Medical Mortality Surveillance.

In the event a bridge for the Task Order #HT9425-23-F-0010 is not approved, the U.S.

Federal Government would lose the ability to provide external Quality Assurance (QA) for the Drug Detection Reduction Program (DDRP) drug testing laboratories, provide a blind and open proficiency testing program; produce and certify proficiency materials for distribution to all labs and evaluate collected results. The U.S. Federal Government would also lose the ability to Coordinate the inspection and certification of DDRP laboratories.

The Department of Defense Drug Detection Quality Assurance Laboratory (DoD-QAL), the Department of Toxicology (DFT), and the Special Forensic Toxicology Drug Testing Laboratory (SFTDTL) Sections are also urgently needed to provide support to the blind and open proficiency testing program; produce and certify proficiency materials for distribution to all Federal Labs, evaluate collected results, and coordinate the inspection and certification of DDRP laboratories.

Without a continuation of services that this bridge will provide, both the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (AFMES) and Department of Defense Drug Detection Quality Assurance Laboratory (DoD-QA) would lose the necessary personnel and services required to satisfy the required level of capability with no degradation to mission and/or accreditation and comply with the personnel requirements of DoD Instruction 1010.16.

The entire mission at AFMES would come to a full stop, thereby threatening the Department of Defense (DoD) as a whole.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: The notices required by FAR 5.201 shall be published and any bids or proposals received shall be considered. As the incumbent, the Government understands that SNA International is capable of successfully performing this work. Given the time constraints, and the complexity of these unique services, it would present high risk to award to a vendor other than SNA for the continuation of this requirement. Any responses received will be taken into consideration during the recompete action in FY'24.

Due to the nature of this Bridge Action, no other actions were taken to obtain competition.

(a) Effective Competition. No competition is expected for the bridge extension. The intention of this request is to extend the current contract with the incumbent contractor to allow for a full and open competitive award of the contract, which

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will be awarded prior to the end of this bridge award.

(b) Subcontracting Competition. There are no current subcontracting opportunities under this action. However, if applicable, the completion of subcontracting requirements will be addressed in the full and open award, which is anticipated to be awarded as a Small Business Set-Aside Open Market Award under SAM.Gov.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: Implementation of this Bridge will provide the Defense Health Agency – Armed Forces Medical Examiner Systems (DHA – AFMES) with the critical support required until the new competitive contract can be awarded in the 3rd Quarter of Fiscal Year 2024. The new contract will be a Small Business Set- Aside, Single-Award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (SA – IDIQ) with an anticipated award date of 01 November 2024.

8. Market Research: Market Research was conducted within the past Twelve (12) Months as a routine course of action related to the preparation of the requirements package for the new competitive contract and in preparation of this bridge request to extend these services until the new IDIQ Contract can be awarded.

The recompete for the SA-IDIQ Contract has shown that there are interested Small Businesses capable of performing this work and meeting the Government’s requirement. The Market Research was conducted by contacting Contracting Officers, Contract Specialists, and Project Officers in other federal agencies and Private Industry, conducting market surveys to obtain information from potential sources, querying Government Databases, issuing formal requests for information and sources sought synopses in SAM.Gov, and by using internet tools and performing web searches.

None of the sources identified possess the knowledge, infrastructure, experience, or expertise readily available to provide the STALSS Support Services in the time period needed without significant delays, lead-time before full support is provided, duplication of efforts and substantial investments of time and resources by the Government. This extension will allow continuation of support services until a new contract can be awarded.

9. Interested Sources: In accordance with DFARS 206.302-1(d), and DFARS PGI 206.302-1(d), a Request For Information / Sources Sought Notice will be posted to the “Contract Opportunities” Section in SAM.Gov to solicit any interested parties. However, to date, no other sources have written to express an interest.

10. Other Facts:

As noted in #7 above, a new competitive re-compete is currently with USAMRAA and the anticipated award date is 01 November 2024.

A. Procurement history.

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Source Selection Information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104-4

Contract #W81XWH-17-D-0034 was awarded on a competitive basis as a Single-Award Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (SA-IDIQ) Contract to the Offeror that represented the Best Value to the Government.

(1) From the Base IDIQ Contract, the following Task Orders were awarded:

HT9425-23-F-0010 was awarded to SNA International, LLC. on 01 November 2022 – 31 October 2023. Services extended to 30 April 2024.

W81XWH-22-F-0013 was awarded to SNA International, LLC. on 01 November 2021 – 31 October 2022.

W81XWH-21-F-0010 was awarded to SNA International, LLC on 1 Nov 2020 – 31 Oct 2021.

W81XWH-20-F-0005 was awarded to SNA International, LLC on 1 Nov 2019 – 31 Oct 2020.

W81XWH-19-F-0247 was awarded to SNA International, LLC on 1 April 2019 – 31 Oct 2019.

W81XWH-19-F-0058 was awarded to SNA International, LLC on 30 November 2018 – 31 March 2019.

(2) The above actions were awarded in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505, Ordering Procedures under Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity Contracts.

(3) Authority previously cited if less than full and open competition was used – Not Applicable.

(4) If a justification was prepared to support the procurement made before this one, a summary of the contents of paragraph 7 of the justification for that procurement and an explanation of the results – Not Applicable.

(5) The prior contract for this requirement was accomplished using full and open competition. The changed circumstances causing this action to now limit the sources is the need for a maximum of twelve (12) Months, and the pending recompete which will be full and open. In addition, the extended services will allow for the time required to award a full and open competition award with no break in service for the government.

(6) There are no known unusual patterns in the procurement history of this action.

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Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the continuation of Scientific, Technical, Administrative, and Logistical Support Services (STALSS) at the Armed Forces Medical Examiner Systems (AFMES) for the estimated amount of $818,308.80 on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of 10 United States Code (U.S.C.) 3204(b)(B) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 (a)(2)(iii)(B), subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services and property herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.