JA for Expiring CSA RXCO000099EBM.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND

OPEN COMPETITION (OTFAOC)

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 6 Justification & Approval (J&A), Supporting Procurements under FAR Part 12, and FAR Part 15

Purchase Request Number: Expiring Communications Service Authorizations (CSA) Contract Number: RXCO000099EBM Task/Delivery Order Numbers: Not Applicable Procurement Title: J&A for Expired/Expiring CSAs Estimated Value: $50,712.00 Statutory Authority: FAR 6.302-1 and 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTFAOC

Justification for OTFAOC

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as Chief of Individual Quote and Order section, hereby approve the use of OTFAOC of the proposed contractual action pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C. §2304(c)(1).

1. REQUIRING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING OFFICE:

1. Requesting Agency:

Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)/Procurement Services Directorate (PSD) 2300 East Drive, Building 3600 Scott AFB, IL 62225-5406 Contracting Activity:

DISA/Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO) Telecommunications Division (PL82) 2300 East Drive, Building 3600 Scott AFB, IL 62225

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTION(S): The DITCO contracts for long haul telecommunications services with United States (US) regulated/non-regulated and foreign contractors on behalf of various military departments (MILDEPS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) at locations within the 48 Contiguous United States (CONUS), Hawaii, Alaska, US Territories and Possessions, and International locations.

DITCO acquires these telecommunications services using the streamlined Inquiry/Quote/Order (IQO) process. The IQO process is a method for acquiring telecommunication services not available or unobtainable under an existing Indefinite Delivery contract. The IQO process is for the acquisition of telecommunication services, which may include associated equipment and special construction. All IQO CSAs must be firm-fixed-price or tariffed as authorized by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) or other regulatory bodies such as a state Public Utility Commission. Under the IQO process, DITCO receives mission partner’s Telecommunications Service Requests (TSRs) and Telecommunications Service Orders (TSOs) from DISA via a Web service.

DITCO’s responsibility is to establish CSAs with contractors to satisfy the requirements of its mission partners. A CSA is an order for a telecommunications service incorporating a Basic Agreement (BA) that constitutes a binding contractual obligation upon acceptance by the contractor. Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) Subpart 239.7407 authorizes the use of the CSA. A BA is a written instrument of understanding established in accordance with FAR 16.7, which contains terms and conditions to be incorporated into future contracts between DITCO contracting offices and a contractor.

Prior to the expiration of a CSA, mission partners are supposed to notify DITCO if the service is still required by taking steps to submit their new follow-on procurement requirements. If the mission partner still requires the service, an action is processed. If the mission partner no longer requires the service, a discontinue action is accomplished, the CSA expires, and the telecommunications service ends.

Through the years, DITCO has improved the IQO process to communicate with its mission partners more effectively prior to CSAs expiring to determine if the service is still required or should be discontinued. There have been instances where a CSA has expired yet services continue on a month-to-month basis. This J&A addresses the extension of the expiring CSA RXCO000099EBM for period of February 4, 2023 through March 13, 2024. This CSA must be extended to allow DITCO/Customer time to complete actions to reaward circuit.

The total ceiling of this J&A is $50,712.00 based on the current monthly recurring charges of CSA RXCO000099EBM. Operations and maintenance funding will be provided for these extensions. The applicable North American Industry Classification Code is 517, Telecommunications.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES: CSAs involved consist of a wide spectrum of long-haul telecommunications services such as: business lines and dial tone services for government administrative operations, local area access, Intrastate and Interstate point-to-point services, switched services, domestic and international long distance services, 800 Services, Frame Relay Services, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) services, Packet Switched Data Services, video services, Integrated Switched Digital Network (ISDN) services, etc. Analog services are typically 3-kilohertz voice grade circuits, while digital services range from 9.6 kilobytes (narrowband) to Optical Carrier -N (wideband) circuits.

4. IDENTIFICATION OF STATUTORY AUTHORITY: Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, 10 U.S.C. §2304(c)(1), FAR 6.302-1, and DFARS 206.302-1.

5. DEMONSTRATION OF CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS: The contractor’s unique qualification is the ability to continue the existing services and extend the continuity of services to avoid a break in service. The mission partners of each applicable MILDEP and DoD Agency to CSAs on a competitive basis or discontinue services will make a final determination. Service must remain operational until this determination is made.

Continuity of service through the existing CSA is essential to support DoD operations. DITCO does not have insight on the criticality of many of the individual circuits and are unable to advise contractors to disconnect CSA’s without proper authorization from our mission partners. Some of these lease services knowingly range from providing commercial business lines in support of government administrative operations to critical operations related to the national security (e.g., Direct Communication Links (i.e. Moscow Hotline); defense network missile silos, and military and humanitarian operations in the middle-east, Wheelhouse and SEATS II programs). Any break or gaps in service would have a significant impact on the mission of the following MILDEPS and DoD agencies: Office of Secretary of Defense.

This contract action is to extend expiring CSA RXCO000099EBM, enabling DITCO and Customer time to complete the reaward of circuit. DITCO has taken additional steps, to include fielding of an automated tool, to coordinate with mission partners to determine if services are still required or should be discontinued. Initial fielding of the automated tool was accomplished in June 2018; an enhanced fielding of this tool took place in January 2020, however, there are currently data integrity issues with the enhanced version of the tool that require correction before becoming useful in effectively monitoring existing CSAs. Correction of the deployed enhancements is ongoing, but due to complex system interfacing issues, the availability of full capabilities has been delayed. Upon correction of the enhanced automated tool, mission partners will be able to more efficiently, and within a manageable scale, track the upcoming expiration of active CSAs, allowing for timely submissions of and/or disconnect requests. In the interim, manual efforts are required to track and monitor CSAs and their associated /discontinue actions continue. Although significant progress is being made in discontinuing services within their current expiration date, additional CSAs with approaching expiration dates are added, resulting in a constantly changing inventory. Given the data integrity issues in the newly deployed enhanced automated tool and the dynamics associated with managing a large volume of CSAs, it is expected that some may not be discontinued until FY23. Once reawarded CSA RXCO000099EBM will be discontinued.

6. FEDBIZOPPS ANNOUNCEMENT/POTENTIAL SOURCES: No solicitation(s) will be posted to FEDBIZOPPS to support the modifications to extend the PoP on this CSA; however, actions to replace this CSA will be synopsized in SAM.gov if required by FAR Part 5.

7. DETERMINATION OF FAIR AND REASONABLE COST: CSA was initially competitively awarded with firm fixed prices of which the prices were determined fair and reasonable. Should any contractor pursue a non-tariff rate increase as a result of the extension of the PoP on a CSA, the Contracting Officer will determine whether the proposed price is fair and reasonable.

8. MARKET RESEARCH: This is an extension of CSA RXCO000099EBM to ensure continued support until DITCO and Customer can deliver the reawarded circuit. DITCO competitively reawards services to either small or large businesses as required pursuant to a current market research report submitted concurrently with the DD2579 to the small business office in accordance with DISA Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DARS) Part 10.

9. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS: To prevent this situation from reoccurring, DITCO has taken steps to ensure mission partners are notified, via multiple mediums, of when CSAs will be expiring: Continuation of a dedicated agency point of contact and regular coordination between the appointee and DITCO; Status of Acquisition Messages (SAMs) reflect contract expiration dates upon initial award of CSAs; the Telecommunication Services Enterprise Acquisition Services (TSEAS) Inventory and Billing Information (TIBI) system reflects contract expiration dates for individual CSAs; Bulk Inventory Reports are available on demand within TIBI for mission partners to track expiration dates; DITCO sends periodic reports of expiring CSAs to mission partners; and up to six Expiration Notice SAMS are now issued on IDEAS CSAs beginning 12 months prior to expiration date. The continuous coordination with Mission Partners and other methods listed above has led to the discontinuance of 214 CSA’s in the last year alone. Further, of the original 1077 CSA’s identified in an audit published in 2017, 87% of the CSA’s have been discontinued. For the majority of the remaining CSA’s awaiting discontinue, the awarded follow-on circuit is either in contractor engineering or installation;

upon cut-over to the follow-on solution(s), those CSA’s will be discontinued. Age and value of the CSA is considered when prioritizing the focus of discontinue efforts. In addition, DISA has fielded an automated tool within DISA StoreFront to aide mission partners in monitoring expiring CSAs and document performance of required review and revalidation on all telecommunication services in accordance with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction 6211.02D. Corrections to a refined version of this tool is in the late stages of development and will enhance proactive monitoring of expiring CSAs through the use of stop lights reports, and the association of current CSAs with the status of follow-on actions, to include dates of requirements submittal and flagging of CSAs approaching expiration without follow-on actions in place. The tool provides a paradigm shift from “pushing” information to mission partners to 24/7/365 availability of information.

10. LISTING OF INTERESTED SOURCES: CSAs are associated with RX3 Communications INC; the telephone company symbol of RXCO within the CSA numbers. Any interested sources will be identified during market research and the competitive acquisition process for the reawards replacing this CSA.

11. ACTIONS THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME BARRIERS

THAT LED TO THE EXCEPTION TO FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION: CSA identified by mission partner confirming there is a valid continuing need for continued service will be reawarded competitively as discussed above. The necessity for this action is also set forth above.

SIGNATURE:

REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the J&A are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: BENJAMIN R. DELLAVEDOVA SIGNATURE:

TITLE/ORGANIZATION: NAVSEA 03S/Digital Industrial Operations

PHONE: 202-781-1085

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: MICHAEL LEONARD

TITLE/ORGANZATION: Chief, IQO Branch

PHONE: 618-418-6473