JA ROCON Bridge N103-15-C-5301_Redacted.pdf

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL (J&A)

FOR USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity.

Department of the Navy, Military Sealift Command (MSC), Surge Program Contracting Support Branch, N105B/PM5.

2. Description of the Action Being Approved.

Award of a sole-source bridge contract for the operation and maintenance (O&M) of four Government-owned, Roll-On/Roll-Off (ROCON) vessels to incumbent contractor, Crowley Government Services, Inc. (CGS). The period of performance (PoP) will consist of a nine-month firm period from 01 October 2020 through 30 June 2021 and one three-month option period covering 01 July 2021 up to 30 September 2021. The requested bridge PoP is to cover the minimum time needed to award the follow-on contract.

3. Description of the Supplies/Services.

Operation and maintenance (O&M) of the four Government-owned, Roll-On/Roll-Off (ROCON) vessels (USNS OBREGON, USNS PLESS, USNS KOCAK, and USNS WHEAT). The vessels operated under this contract perform a mission that is critical to national security. The primary mission of the ROCON ships is to provide lift capacity for the rapid worldwide delivery of U.S. military forces and equipment at the outset of conflict or crisis. Once activated, cargo will be loaded aboard these Navy-owned, contractor-operated ships for transportation in support of contingency operations worldwide. The ships under this contract are tasked with being ready to deploy anywhere in the world within five days of notification at all times. The ROCON ships are part of the larger MSC Surge Sealift fleet, a component of the DoD/USTRANSCOM sealift force.

The total estimated dollar value for the fixed-price daily operating hire of this extension is

. FY21 funds will be used for this requirement.

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition.

This justification is prepared under the provisions of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), One source or limited sources, as implemented by FAR 6.302-1 (Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements).

FAR 6.302-1(iii)(B) states:

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-

J&A N103-15-C-5301

(B) Unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements. (See 10 U.S.C.2304(d)(1)(B).)

5. Rationale Justifying Use of Cited Statutory Authority.

Contract N62387-15-C-5301 is currently in the final contract period (option period four), which ends on 30 September 2020. The ROCON re-procurement will use the MSC cross-functional team (CFT) developed PWS, the current standard for O&M procurements. The CFT was developed due to the DoD Inspector General Direction mandating MSC immediately revise its contracts for procuring operation and maintenance of MSC vessels.

MSC is finalizing a highly refined and updated solicitation package that should provide a more accurate representation of the Government’s requirements and allow for more precise proposals and pricing from a wide range of competitors other than the incumbent. However, this procurement package has taken significant time for its approvals, resulting in the need for a bridge contract. The performance work statement was finalized on 08 July 2020.

The CFT document resulted in a request for proposals (RFP), posted on 28 May 2019 for the WATSON-Class vessel operation re-procurement. This solicitation was to form the basis for follow-on contracts for similar services. MSC received and answered 250 questions in response to the WATSON procurement. The contracting team, the two affected program offices, the legal advisor, and when necessary other codes, collaborated to review and provide input to ensure industry received meaningful answers. Often, the questions from industry resulted in further revisions to the RFP. These revisions led to twelve amendments to the RFP, which delayed the close date from 01 July 2019 to 09 September 2019. The time required to review questions and provide meaningful feedback to industry, along with the amendments and additional time granted to industry to make changes to their proposals, contributed to the unanticipated delay in RFP closing.

Additionally, MSC received two pre-award protests after the RFP was posted. MSC received the first protest on 16 August 2019. Upon receipt, MSC suspended the closing date and time of the RFP until the Government Accountability Office (GAO) made a determination on the protest. GAO dismissed the first protest on 22 August 2019 after receiving notification MSC would take corrective action. Amendment 0008, posted 28 August 2019, implemented MSC’s corrective action in response to the first protest. Potential Offerors received another opportunity to ask questions when MSC extended the final RFP close date to 09 September 2019. MSC received a second pre-award protest the day the RFP closed. MSC took partial corrective action via an RFP amendment then submitted its agency report to GAO. On 14 October 2019, the protestor withdrew the protest on its outstanding allegations. GAO dismissed the protest on 15 October 2019. The WATSON re-procurement has yet to be awarded and is currently in final evaluations.

Most recently, MSC has been required to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has required unanticipated resources to administer contracts from program and contracting perspectives. Additional resources are required for funding actions, restriction of movement of mariners while aboard ship and during mariner crew changes, quarantines, fielding requests for personal protective gear, adapting to continuously changing COVID http://uscode.house.gov/browse.xhtml;jsessionid=114A3287C7B3359E597506A31FC855B3 http://uscode.house.gov/browse.xhtml;jsessionid=114A3287C7B3359E597506A31FC855B3 related rules of the U.S., states and corporate rules for ships in shipyards. Adding to the challenge is the fact that MSC is working with a distributed workforce with IT systems that are not designed for this situation. This additional COVID related workload has hindered the progression of the follow-on contract.

MSC must award a bridge contract to ensure the continuity of service necessary for the critical national security mission. As detailed in Section 3, the vessels operated under this contract perform critical national security missions and any break in service presents an unacceptable risk to mission readiness, increases operational risk and poses an increased danger to the safety and security of the vessel and crew.

Awarding a contract to another company to provide these services during this interim period prior between the end of the current period and the award of the follow-on contract is not feasible. The time needed to synopsize, issue the solicitation, receive and evaluate proposals, and make award far exceeds what is available; and as discussed above, any attempt to pursue that course of action would result in unacceptable delays,

6. Description of Efforts Made to Solicit Offers from as Many Offerors as Practicable.

For the reasons outlined in Section 5, CGS is the only source capable of providing the required service without unacceptable delays in fulfilling the Government’s requirements for this extension period. MSC is developing a follow-on procurement to allow for increased competition.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost.

The Contracting Officer has determined the anticipated cost to the Government of the services covered by this J&A will be fair and reasonable.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Future Competition.

For the reasons set forth in paragraph five, MSC has no plans at this time to compete a future bridge for the services covered by this document. MSC is developing a follow-on procurement to allow for increased competition.