JA Redacted 01042023.pdf

Control No.:

Vendor: Tatitlek Training Services Program: Support Base Services

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

1. Contracting Activity: U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command – Fort Sam Houston (MICC-FSH), 2205 Infantry Post Road, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234

2. Description of Action: Headquarters Installation Management Command (IMCOM) and the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security – Fort Bliss (DPTMS- FB) request a six (6) month extension of bridge contract W9124J-22-C-0018, a Cost- Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) contract with Tatitlek Training Services, 561 East 36th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99503. The Government projects award of this contract modification by 31 December 2022 and fiscal year 2023 Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds will be used for the extension.

This action is a modification to add FAR Clause 52.217-8 to the existing bridge contract awarded to provide continuity of services while agency implements corrective action due to a GAO pre award protest of The Request for Task Order Proposals (RTOP) W9124J-23-R-SBS1. The bridge contract W9124J-22-C-0018 was awarded to Tatitlek Training Services for six months of performance on 30 June 2022 and expires 31 December 2022.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: MICC-FSH has a requirement from IMCOM to extend the current performance-based bridge contract to augment DPTMS-FB support services for the execution of mobilization/demobilization and deployment/redeployment activities. This extension will provide continuity until a competitive task order can be awarded against the SBS MA-IDIQ. The contractor shall provide personnel, management, and any other items and services not government furnished, necessary to perform functions that exceed organic capabilities in supporting the Army Sustainable Readiness Model (SRM) (formerly ARFORGEN) process. The SRM process, in an era of persistent armed conflict in the world, is typified by surges related to Active Component (AC) deployment/redeployment and re-stationing, and Reserve Component (RC) post mobilization training, deployment, redeployment and demobilization. The preponderance of work will be performed on the Fort Bliss, TX installation but occasional TDY may be required for individual(s) in support of the SRM process. The contractor shall perform work in the following task areas:

Contract/Task Order Management Task 1: Plans Task 2: Training Task 3: Mobilization Support and Services Task 4: Reserved Task 5: Human Resources Task 6: Reserved Task 7: Material Management and Supply

Task 8: Subsistence and Warehouse Services Task 9: Reserved Task 10: Equipment Readiness and Maintenance Task 11: Billeting and Facilities Task 12: Information Management

Period of Performance:

FAR 52.217-8: 01 JAN 2023 to 30 JUN 2023 Value: $10,521,957,00

4. Authority Cited: 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(B) - Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. Unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements would result in serious injury, financial or other, to the Government.

5. Reason for Authority Cited:

a. FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(B) states “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 these services through competition given the current circumstances.

1) These are highly specialized services that provide augmentation support to the Army Garrison as they assist warfighters who are deploying or redeploying in support of defending the Constitution of the United States of America. For Fort Bliss, these services cover the 12 task areas previously listed above. The procurement lead time to compete a task order under the SBS MATOC MA-IDIQ is at least 120 days.

Additionally, to execute a task order for any of these task areas requires a 60-day phase-in to recruit, train, and reach initial operating capability due to the highly specialized nature of these task areas. Further, any awardee from such a competition will need 60 days to become fully operational at Fort Bliss.

2) The current bridge contract for these services expires on 31 December 2022.

The new SBS MATOC MA-IDIQ was awarded on 28 September 2020 but starting performance against this MATOC MA-IDIQ has been delayed due to multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) protests. Task Order W9124J-22-F-0053 was issued against W9124J-20-D-0021 on 1 April 2022. A post award protest was received at GAO on 19 April 2022 that included an automatic stay of performance. A stop work order was issued to the awardee of W9124J-22-F- 0053, Beshenich, Muir & Associates, LLC (BMA), on 21 April 2022. After further review and to better serve the procurement process, the Contracting Officer decided on 4 May 2022 that corrective action was warranted. This corrective action included an amendment to the Request for Task Order

Proposals (RTOP) to allow eleven (11) offerors who previously submitted Mission Capability proposals that were determined to be compliant with the RTOP’s requirements to submit revised cost proposal volumes. The Contracting Officer anticipated resolution of this corrective action and re-issuance of this competitive task order by 30 November 2022.

However, when the Contracting Officer issued an amendment to the RTOP, a GAO pre-award protest was received on 7 September 2022. As a result of the pre-award protest, the Contracting Officer decided to take corrective action to resolve the protest concerns and protect the integrity of the procurement process. As such, the Contracting Officer: (1) paused the submission of proposals for Request for Task Order Proposal W9124J-23-R-SBS1 on 4 October 2022; (2) is conducting an investigation of the protest grounds, to include allegations of improper disclosure of proposal information arising from the debriefing and allegations of procurement irregularities; (3) is reviewing the investigation and taking any action appropriate from the investigation to ensure fairness and integrity in the procurement process, to include issuance of additional amendments to the Solicitation as the Army determines to be necessary, subsequently allowing offerors to submit new proposals after the corrective action is fully implemented. This corrective action will require approximately 3-4 weeks to implement, which will result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the highly specialized services if the bridge contract is not extended. Given these circumstances, a competitive task order process would result in at least a 6 month break in services (120 days plus 60 days of transition) at Fort Bliss until the new vendor would become operational. A break in service would be an unacceptable delay in fulfilling the Army requirement at Fort Bliss. Therefore, in order to ensure continuation of these critical services, the Government can only procure these services by extending the existing sole-source bridge contract to the incumbent contractor Tatitlek Training Services. The incumbent contractor already has the necessary personnel, tools, and equipment to maintain the service from 1 January 2023 until the award of a competitive task order under the SBS MA-IDIQ can be completed by 30 June 2023.

b. Alternatives.

1) Status Quo. One alternative to this sole-source action is to let the services lapse until the competitive action can be competed and awarded. In this scenario, the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense, and the United States of America would be left vulnerable in the event a full-scale deployment situation arises during this period.

Without these services, the reserve and civilian component would be required to provide these services, and there are not enough personnel available to do this in a satisfactory manner. Deployment processing times would increase severely, and soldiers would not be getting the required services they need prior to deployment or when they re-deploy.

2) Competitive Procurement. Another alternative, which cannot be accomplished given the limited amount of time, would be to cancel the pending RTOP and attempt a new competitive action on this requirement using the MA-IDIQ before the current bridge contract expires on 31 December 2022. That would require: (a) a detailed review of the PWS/QASP/IGCE to ensure the requirement is communicated to the MA-IDIQ vendors appropriately (this takes approximately 4 days); (b) perform adequate market research through posting a sources sought synopsis for at least 2 weeks; (c) compiling the results of the sources sought, drafting a Market Research Report and submitting a DD2579 through the small business office (this takes approximately a week); (d) preparing a RTOP (this takes approximately a day or two); (e) soliciting the RTOP to the 16 MA- IDIQ vendors and giving them approximately 2 weeks to respond; (f) evaluating the responses (this takes approximately 3 weeks minimum); (g) documenting the prices as fair and reasonable and developing a Task Order Decision Document (TODD) (this takes approximately a week); (h) building an award document and submitting all documents to legal for review (this takes approximately 7 days); (i) making the award and distributing and then notifying the unsuccessful offerors and providing debriefings as required (this takes approximately 3 days). As demonstrated above, even in the absolute best case-scenario, a competitive action would take approximately 90 business days. The difference between this 90 day timeframe and the 120 day PALT mentioned in Section 5, Paragraph (1) is the competitive action could take as few as 90 days if there was one Contracting Officer and one contract specialist working solely this action with no other competing requirements and/or priorities, and assuming the customer is responsive in a rapid/timely fashion. It is the experience of the Contracting Officer that these conditions never happen and therefore are not reasonable to expect, hence the 120 day PALT. With the current bridge contract ending 31 December 2022, there is insufficient time remaining to support this alternative.

3) Modify the existing bridge contract. Include the FAR Clause 52.217-8 under the current contract W9124J-22-C-0018 to ensure continuation of services and to prevent a break in services. Currently, Tatitlek Training Services is performing SBS services at Fort Bliss, Texas. Tatitlek already has the personnel, tools, and equipment needed at the place of performance locations in which the services are necessitated, which eliminates any potential duplication of costs.

c. Impact if not approved. A break in service will negatively and severely impact the

Combatant Commander’s (COCOMs) mission in theater and United States national security interests. The U.S. Army, the Department of Defense, and the United States of America would be left vulnerable in the event that a full-scale deployment situation arises during this period. Without these support base services, the reserve and civilian component would attempt to provide these services, and there are not enough personnel available to do this in a satisfactory manner. Deployment processing times would increase sharply for Soldiers as the required services needed prior to deployment or upon re-deployment would be severely degraded. COCOMs would experience these delays in receiving new Soldiers in-theater to support the various missions, creating battle fatigue for those Soldiers on the front line. Additionally, once the new soldiers are ultimately sent into theater and the previous Soldiers are relieved, Soldiers would then incur unnecessary delays in the re-deployment process, creating even more strain, stress, and fatigue on Soldiers who are already weary and deserving of rest.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: The SBS MA-IDIQ contract was awarded on 28 September 2020 to 16 contractors who were found to be technically acceptable. These 16 contractors were selected from the 27 offerors who proposed. This data clearly indicates there are multiple contractors available who can perform these services.

However, as a result of the GAO pre award protest and the Contracting Officer’s decision to take corrective action an extension of the sole source bridge contract for this action will not allow properly competing this requirement before the current contract expires on 31 December 2022.

During the performance of bridge contract, efforts to obtain competition will be achieved through the internal investigation of the protest grounds. As a result of the investigation, action will be taken, as appropriate, to include additional amendments to the Solicitation as the Army determines to be necessary to allow offerors to submit a new proposal after the corrective action is fully implemented. The eleven (11) MA-IDIQ contract offerors who previously submitted Mission Capability proposals that were determined to be compliant with the RTOP’s requirements will be permitted to submit revised cost proposal volumes. It is highly probable that all 11 contractors will respond with a proposal for these services. The Army will then reevaluate the proposals and make a new award determination. If necessary, a new task order will be awarded.

Furthermore, the sources sought notice or Request for Information (RFI) required by DFARS PGI 206.302-1(d) have been waived by the MICC Deputy to the Commanding General (DCG), as the Head of the Contracting Activity’s (HCA’s) designee when as a result of a protest, a contract or task order/delivery order must be extended on a sole source basis pursuant to the authority of FAR 6.302-1.

a. Effective Competition: Because this is a sole source action, effective competition is not applicable.

b. Subcontracting Competition: The prime contractor is a small business and is therefore not required to provide a small business subcontracting plan. However, it will be encouraged to utilize small businesses for every subcontracting opportunity.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: During the performance of the bridge contract, it is the intention of the contracting office to pause the submission of proposals for W9124J-23-R-SBS1 to investigate the protest grounds, review the investigation and take any action appropriate. Upon the completion of the investigation, offerors will be encouraged to submit new proposals after the corrective action is fully implemented to promote competition.

8. Market Research: Market research indicates there are multiple companies that can perform these services. However, as indicated above, there is only one responsible source that is able to meet the needs of the program without serious injury, financial or other, to the Government. The Government can only procure these services by extending the sole-source bridge contract to the incumbent contractor, Tatitlek Training Services, who can adequately fulfill the Government’s requirement for these services.

While there are vendors who are interested in competing for this requirement, there isn’t sufficient time to conduct a competitive acquisition and allow for phase-in before the current contract expires. Further, the strategy is to compete the follow-on requirement as a task order against the MA-IDIQ for SBS services, but this process was delayed due to the corrective action taken by the Contracting Officer as a result of the GAO-level pre-award protest received against W9124J-23-R-SBS1.

9. Interested Sources: There are 16 vendors who were awarded a MA-IDIQ contract.

While any of these 16 contractors may be interested in being awarded this bridge contract, there is not enough time remaining before the current contract ends to process a new Request for Task Order Proposal and then make a competitive award.

10. Other Facts:

a. Procurement History:

Contract No. W9124J-22-C-0018 Period of Performance: 7/01/2022 – 12/31/2022 Vendor: Tatitlek Training Services, Inc.

Awarded Value: $10,714,324.19 Competitive Status: Other than Full and Open Competition Authority: FAR 6.302-2

Contract No. W911SG-21-C-0005 Period of Performance: 1/01/2022 – 6/30/2022 Vendor: Tatitlek Training Services, Inc.

Awarded Value: $13,077,003.96 Competitive Status: Other than Full and Open Competition Authority: FAR 6.302-2

Contract No. W911SG-21-C-0005 Period of Performance: 3/31/2021 – 12/31/2021 Vendor: Tatitlek Training Services, Inc.

Awarded Value: $22,866,208.32 Competitive Status: Other than Full and Open Competition Authority: FAR 6.302-1

Contract No. W9124J-12-D-0003 / W911S8-18-F-0294 Period of Performance: 9/30/2018 – 3/30/2021 Vendor: Tatitlek Training Services, Inc.

Awarded Value: $67,087,821.52 Competitive Status: Exception to Fair Opportunity Authority: FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B)

Contract No. W9124J-12-D-0003-0001 Period of Performance: 10/01/2012 – 9/29/2017 Vendor: Tatitlek Training Services, Inc.

Awarded Value: $125,369,933.56 Competitive Status: Fair Opportunity