ID081500_JA_Final_8-14-20_Signed_Redacted.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Identification of Agency and Contracting Activity:

Agency:

Department of Defense (DoD), Defense Health Agency Air Force Medical Readiness Agency (AFMRA) 601 Davy Crockett, Bldg. 1534 San Antonio, TX 78226

Contracting Activity:

General Services Administration Federal Acquisition Service, Region 8 Denver Federal Center, Bldg 41 P.O, Box 25526 Lakewood, CO 80225

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

The General Services Administration (GSA) executed contract modifications to each of the six multiple award IDIQ contracts and their associated task orders to extend services beyond the current period of performance end date of September 28, 2020 by six months to March 28, 2021, in accordance with the clause 52.217-8 Extension of Services, which was included in the IDIQ contracts and is an option that allows GSA to extend performance of the services for up to six months. Approval of this justification is needed regarding the exercise of the option because the pricing related to the option was not evaluated at the time of award. These six IDIQ contracts were procured and awarded under the same solicitation for multiple award IDIQ contracts. They are listed below along with name of the contractor, and their associated task orders.

Contract No. GS08Q15BPD0003 (GSA Project ID08150069) with Valiant Government Services, LLC;

Associated Task Order Numbers:

GSQ0816BP0019

GSQ0816BP0024

GSQ0816BP0037

GSQ0816BP0039

GSQ0817BP0002

47QFRA19F0018

47QFRA19F0021

Contract No. GS08Q15BPD0004 (GSA Project ID08150070) with EMCOR Government Services, Inc.;

Associated Task Order Numbers:

GSQ0816BP0027

GSQ0816BP0029

Contract No. GS08Q15BPD0005 (GSA Project ID08150071) with Facility Services Management, Inc.;

Associated Task Order Numbers:

GSQ0816BP0008

GSQ0816BP0034

47QFRA18F0057

47QFRA19F0016

Contract No. GS08Q15BPD0006 (GSA Project ID08150072) with J&J Maintenance, Inc.;

Associated Task Order Numbers:

GSQ0816BP0001

GSQ0816BP0018

GSQ0816BP0022

GSQ0816BP0064

47QFRA19F0005

Contract No. GS08Q15BPD0007 (GSA Project ID08150073) with Jones Lang Lasalle Americas, Inc.;

GSQ0816BP0036

GSQ0817BP0004

Contract No. GS08Q15BPD0008 (GSA Project ID08150074) with Kroeschell Engineering Co, Inc.

GSQ0815BP0035

GSQ0816BP0003

GSQ0816BP0004

GSQ0816BP0025

GSQ0816BP0035

GSQ0816BP0038

GSQ0816BP0043

GSQ0816BP0061

GSQ0816BP0062

GSQ0817BP0003

GSQ0818BP0001

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

The subject IDIQ contracts and task orders provide Whole Medical Treatment Facilities Operations and Maintenance Support Services. These necessary facility maintenance services are in support of DoD, Defense Health Agency (DHA) Medical Treatment Facilities (MTF) and related medical support facilities located within the United States and US Territories. The medical facilities include medical centers, ambulatory surgical centers, hospitals, clinics that include research and veterinarian services. The government requires contractor support to perform preventative (scheduled) maintenance, unscheduled/unplanned maintenance, and emergency maintenance services on both the facility and the facility’s operational equipment. In addition, grounds maintenance services, entomology/pest control and Operations Maintenance Program Review on Real Property Installed Equipment (RPIE) are also necessary services. All of these services, except grounds maintenance, are vital in order to keep the MTFs operational.

The government does not have sufficient personnel of its own to perform these critical services and needs contractor support.

Prior to the extensions, the six IDIQ contractors had been providing services for 31 MTFs via task orders, i.e., 31 task orders, issued under the six IDIQ contracts. The total price to extend all of the task orders for the six month extension period is .

4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

These modifications were awarded pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(2), Unusual and Compelling Urgency, as implemented by FAR 6.302-2.

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

The nature of this action required the use of this authority because of unusual and compelling urgency. These sole source modifications to each of the six multiple award IDIQ contracts and their associated task orders to extend services by six months as described above were essential to satisfy an unusual and compelling urgency for these services to ensure continued operation of the MTFs necessary to provide medical services to roughly a million beneficiaries. Otherwise, serious injury would have resulted to the government in its mission to provide these essential medical services. Following full and open competition procedures to satisfy the need for these services for six months would have resulted in unacceptable delays, as discussed in section 6 below in more detail.

The necessary period of performance of these services under the sole source modifications is six months. This extension allows the Government to finalize the full and open competition follow on currently ongoing, prevent any lapse in service and allow for an appropriate and responsible transition period. The MTFs do not have the government staffing to provide the required services to maintain facility functions without contractor support. Building and equipment maintenance is an especially critical function, and without the technical support of the contract maintenance personnel, the MTFs would be inoperable because it would not be in compliance with applicable standards, and patients would be at risk of suffering injuries or death even if the MTFs were operable. Without these services from the contract personnel, there would have been serious harm to the government risking life safety, hospital operations, and AFMRA operational mission failure.

GSA has been working on the follow on acquisition to replace the IDIQ contracts since mid- 2018, which is well in advance of their expiration on September 28, 2020. Acquisition planning for the follow-on full and open competition acquisition, a multiple award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA), started in July 2018 (approximately twenty-six months before the IDIQ contracts end) when GSA and AFMRA began discussions about the requirement. GSA hosted an industry day conference August 9-10, 2018 and followed up with multiple requests for information in September 2019, November 2019 and February 2020 in addition to coordinating directly with the GSA Schedules office 03FAC, which manages the 03FAC schedule. After considering the results of the multiple RFI’s and information obtained at Industry Day, GSA determined competition would best be obtained by issuing a solicitation for a multiple award BPA through the GSA 03FAC schedule.

The solicitation for the BPA has been issued, has closed and is currently in the evaluation phase. Despite the prudent efforts to meet the anticipated award date, the government has experienced several unanticipated challenges delaying this procurement and had run out of time to responsibly complete the follow-on multiple BPA awards and the numerous task order competitions for each of the 31 separate MTF locations by the September 28, 2020, deadline.

These challenges include acquisition complexity and the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a direct result of the complexity and scope of the acquisition, the findings through market research, industry outreach, evaluation and internal coordination have taken a considerable amount of time and much more than anticipated. There was significant interest in the acquisition during market research. The findings captured during market research required considerable time to review and address. Additionally, the responsibility to conduct evaluations properly is requiring extensive effort and the evaluations have not been completed as of the date of this justification. The duty to conduct evaluations properly and uphold the integrity of the procurement system is paramount.

Secondly and in addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on workforce productivity as it relates to the execution of the new multiple BPA award and associated task order actions. Workforce priorities were required to shift dramatically to react to the COVID-19 pandemic. The immediate need to address COVID-19 issues directly impacted the anticipated evaluation and award schedules for the BPAs and their associated task orders. The award of the BPAs is now not expected until the end of FY2020 or early FY2021. Following the award of the BPAs, the government will then have to conduct task order competitions for each of the individual 31 MTF locations.

The use of the authority in 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(2), as implemented by FAR 6.302-2, is necessary because the government ran out of the time needed to award the multiple award BPAs and then to compete and award a task order for each of the 31 MTF locations prior to the expiration of the IDIQ contracts and their associated task orders on September 28, 2020. This is especially true considering the unavoidable end of fiscal year volume of work for agencies and their procurement personnel to award contract actions using funds before they expire at the end of the fiscal year. To complicate things even further, there has been extreme uncertainty with agency guidance related to the looming National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, Section 889 part B, implementation date on August 13th, 2020. As a matter of workload prioritization and in an effort to balance multiple competing priorities of fiscal year end actions, contract administration responsibilities and confusion regarding the Section 889 part B implementation, the modifications to extend the IDIQ contracts and their associated task orders could not wait and had to be done immediately. Because of the urgency with which the actions to extend the IDIQ contracts and the associated task orders had to occur, these actions were completed prior to the effective date of Section 889 part B. These extensions are for a very limited duration, i.e., no more than six months. Depending on the award dates for the BPAs and their associated task orders, many of these extensions are actually expected to be for less than six months. Further, the award of the BPAs and their associated task orders will ensure compliance with all Section 889 part B requirements. Therefore, this action effectively balanced the need to take this action immediately because of its unusual and compelling urgency with the security concerns associated with Section 889 part B.

The six IDIQ contractors were the only known sources that could perform these services without interruption as these firms possessed the manpower and skill levels to provide required services immediately without a learning curve or additional phase-in mobilization requirements.

Moreover, any firms other than these incumbent IDIQ contractors would very likely not be able to timely take on the work for the short periods of time needed in the modifications. If any new firms were willing to perform the short term (six-month) contracts for these services beginning on September 29, 2020, it would have been without any time for transition. If any of the firms were then awarded such contracts, there would have undoubtedly been an interruption of the performance of these necessary services because of the limited time available for any of these new contractors to prepare to perform these services properly on September 29, 2020. Award to any other source would have resulted in unacceptable risk and harm in fulfilling the government’s requirements and mission needs. Extending the services of the IDIQ contractors was the only option available to keep services in place until the follow-on BPAs and task orders are awarded.

As demonstrated, the government has been planning this full and open competition properly;

however, because of the unanticipated events, the government ran out of time to complete the full and open competition process, award the BPAs, and issue the associated task orders so that the need for the essential services would have been properly addressed when the IDIQ contracts and their associated task orders expire on September 28, 2020. The government executed the modifications for the IDIQ contracts and associated task orders immediately to avoid the unavoidable end of fiscal year volume of work and uncertainty regarding Section 889 part B implementation, discussed above. Immediate action had to be taken also to prevent a lapse in service because the current IDIQ contracts and task order expiration dates were rapidly approaching. Waiting any longer without immediate action did not improve the opportunity for full and open competition or competitive negotiations and only increased risk to the government of failing to extend the IDIQ contracts and associated task orders timely and provide the necessary services beginning September 29, 2020. This was an emergency that had to be acted upon immediately.

6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies.

As authorized by the exception listed at FAR 5.202, a notice under FAR 5.201 was not publicized. Publication of such a notice or otherwise requesting offers from as many potential sources as is practicable under the circumstances would have each unreasonably delayed execution of the modifications and commencement of the necessary services. The extensions of the IDIQ contracts and associated task orders needed to occur immediately as discussed above. Insufficient time existed to take advantage of the publication of the notice under FAR

5.201 or to take advantage of requesting offers without unreasonably delaying execution of contract actions and timely commencement of the necessary services, thereby resulting in serious harm to the government. The procurements (full and open competition or at least involving competitive negotiations) for the contract actions to provide the needed services for the six-month period of performance could not be conducted and resulting contract actions awarded to replace or extend the IDIQ contracts and associated task orders when they expire on September 28, 2020. This was especially true due to the unavoidable end of fiscal year volume of work and uncertainty regarding Section 889 part B implementation discussed above.

In addition, other firms could, generally speaking, possibly have done this work but not without the likelihood of an interruption in the performance of these services, as discussed above. The

This justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

C g Date Matthew Gomer

This justification is legally sufficient.

Deputy Regional Counsel Date Robert Schlattman

Approval:

Competition Advocate Date Sarah Hoffman