JEFO 21-005 DR4559LA P00001.pdf

Justification for Exception to Fair Opportunity (JEFO) Exceeding the SAT pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)

JEFO No.: 21-005

Date: October 15, 2020 PR Number: TN00193Y2021T

1. Agency and Contracting Activity. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity and specific identification of the document as a “Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO), prepared this justification for an exception to fair opportunity.

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved. FEMA has an urgent need to procure an additional 25,000 Housing Inspections in response to the Governor’s request for Public Assistance (PA) and Individual Assistance (IA) in the state of Louisiana. On August 27, 2020 1 AM EST, Hurricane Laura made landfall in southern Louisiana causing catastrophic damages to multiple states and counties with more than 1.5 million people being displaced. A Major Disaster Declaration was declared August 28, 2020 due to Hurricane Laura’s impact. FEMA competed the initial task order for housing inspections in response to the Major Disaster Declaration DR-4559-LA resulting in WSP USA Services, Inc., receiving task order #70FB8020D00000002 70FBR620F00000075 for 75,000 inspections on 8/31/2020 in the amount of $9,281,207.72.

On 10/07/2020, the HIS program office notified OCPO of its urgent need for an additional 25,000 housing inspections. As of the date of the request for additional inspections, 70,602 of the 75,000 awarded inspections had been issued, averaging 1,908/day during the period of 08/31/2020 through 10/07/2020. Therefore, the contractor has completed 5.864% of total funded inspections. The rate of issue is continuing to exceed initial expectations, and existing funds will be depleted within the next 2 days. As a result, OCPO intends to execute a logical follow-on modification, Modification P00001, to increase the total number of inspections on Task Order #70FBR620F00000075 from 75,000 inspections by 25,000 inspections to 100,000 inspections. The modification will increase the total obligated amount from $8,970,855.90 by $3,038,140.51 to $12,008,996.41, without considering other awardees under contract number 70FBR6200F00000075 pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B). The task order value will increase from $9,281,207.72 by $2,848,411.85 to $12,129,619.57.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s need (including the estimated value). The HIS program office needs 25,000 additional housing inspections of applicant homes in response to damage caused by Hurricane Laura. The number of inspections required has increased from 75,000 by 25,000 to 100,000. The total award value is increased from $9,281,207.72 to $12,129,619.57. The estimated value of these inspections is $2,627,000.00, which includes 25,000 inspections at a rate of $105.08, and cost reimbursable CLINs 0003AD-0003AP totaling $221,411.85 FEMA also intends to fund increment 1 of this task order in the logical follow-on modification in the amount of $189,728.66. Therefore, the total estimated value of these inspections is $3,038,140.51.

4. Identify the exception to fair opportunity and supporting rationale, including a demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the exception cited. [If the contracting officer uses the logical follow-on exception, the rationale shall describe why the relationship between the initial order and the follow-on is logical (e.g., in terms of scope, period of performance, or value)]. The exception to fair opportunity that is applicable to this modification is:

X FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C). The modification must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order.

This modification is a logical follow on to order 70FBR620F00000075 issued under contract 70FB8020D00000002. All awardees were given fair opportunity to be considered for order 70FBR620F00000075. The demand for additional housing inspections is urgent, and a modification is required in a timely manner. The modification will not increase the period of performance for Task Order 70FBR620F00000075.

The Governor of the State of Louisiana requested that the president of the United States declare a state of emergency in response to Hurricane Laura, which affected several parishes in Louisiana. Since the declaration and award of the task order, there still is a need to provide aid to the state, and an additional 25,000 housing inspections are of great need for support of DR-4559-LA.

If this requirement for these inspections was competed amongst the HIS IDIQ contract holders, FEMA would be charged for the TOPR responses from both contractors under the recurring operations task orders as the TOPR requires the submission of multiple documents that are created by contractor staff not assigned to a specific disaster. In contrast, an increase via modification would only require one vendor to submit revised pricing for additional inspections. Additionally, as there is a contractor currently conducting inspections, the price to add additional inspections would be lower because the contractor already has inspectors with the appropriate equipment and additional costs to ship equipment would not be proposed.

As the amount of awarded inspections available for assignment to the contractor is expected to be depleted by 10/17/2020, a modification must be completed by this date to prevent a delay in assigning additional inspections. If this requirement for these inspections was competed amongst the HIS IDIQ contract holders, FEMA would need at least 3-4 days to solicit, evaluate, and review all documents. If another contractor were to start conducting inspections for the same disaster, there could be delays in starting the inspections, due to the assigned and already proposed inspectors who is familiar with the same location. If another

Contract is awarded, it will take time for those inspectors to get acclimated and background information would have to be provided to the new inspectors. This could take an approximate 7 days. Additionally, FEMA would have to manually stop the flow of inspections to shift inspections between contractors, which could further delay the start of inspections. A modification can be completed within 1-2 days and reduce the risk that assignment of inspections would be delayed.

WSP is more than capable of providing the additional 25,000 inspections, due to past history of satisfactory performance in completing inspections of similar size. This Task order was originally awarded for 75,000 inspections which are being completed in a satisfactory manner. The logical follow-on is value added to FEMA due to these inspections being at the same location, same services, similar costs, and the period of performance remains the same.

Based on the evidence and research available to FEMA, we conclude that WSP, the current IDIQ contract holder providing the services as the initial awardee of the Task order is capable to provide the additional 75,000 housing inspection services that the requiring program office needs. FEMA intends to award the modification to WSP in order to avoid any delays of providing the additional Housing Inspection services under the Housing Inspection Services (HIS) IDIQ Multiple award contract. Therefore, it would be in the Governments best interest for FEMA to award to WSP, as WSP is already providing these services in the place of performance and can support the entirety of the requested quantity of these inspections based on their successful performance of current inspections and the amount of reserve inspectors available. The only way to meet this immediate need in the required timeframe is to directly procure these services from the IDIQ contract holder currently performing the service in the state of Louisiana. WSP was competitively awarded the initial award and is capable and is determined responsible to continue providing these services.

Therefore, FEMA intends to execute this Task Order modification that will supply the additional 25,000 quantity to meet the urgent need for the duration of the period of performance for this contract until February 27, 2021.

5. Determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. WSP proposed a total amount of $2,848,411.85 for an additional 25,000 inspections. For inspections contract line item number, the inspector rate remains the same as initially awarded on the base task order, which totals $2,627,000.00 for 25,000 inspections. Moreover, no exception is taken for the additional $221,411.85 increase in existing cost reimbursable line items which is considered reasonable based on the number of additional inspections being added. The price is determined to be fair and reasonable in accordance with the previously accepted rates.

6. Any other facts supporting the justification. An award is already in place, and it would cost the government more to recompete a new task order. Additionally, a competition would cause an unreasonable delay in performing the additional inspections, as there is an urgent need to provide additional inspections in Louisiana. The additional housing inspections are urgent because FEMA cannot assist disaster survivors with returning to and repairing their homes until after the inspections are complete. If the rate of issue continues to exceed initial expectations, existing funds will be depleted today based on the average inspection rate for the past 37 days (avg 1,908 inspections/day). If FEMA cannot continue to issue inspections to the contractor due to deletion of existing funds, it will delay FEMA’s ability to provide the needed support to complete the additional inspections needed for survivors under this disaster declaration.

7. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made. The HIS program office has difficulty predicting the number of required inspections at time of initial award because initial readiness is required often prior to the completion of preliminary damage assessments (PDAs) provided by the Region. As additional information is obtained, the number of inspections required may increase. If additional inspections are required for this task order, FEMA will consider whether competing a new task order will cause impermissible delays or whether another justification for exception to fair opportunity will be completed in the interest of economy and efficiency or due to FEMA’s urgent need. FEMA may utilize the Option to Increase Quantity Clause or other option clauses in future TOPRs to permit the two contract holders to compete potential inspection increases at the time of initial TOPR and to lessen the potential need to add additional inspections to task orders through an exception to fair opportunity.

8. DHS intends to post this requirement on www.beta.SAM.gov pursuant to FAR

16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D).

9. Technical/Requirements Personnel Certification.

Pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(9), I certify that this requirement meets the Government’s minimum need and that the supporting data, which form a basis for the justification, are accurate and complete.

Technical Representative/COR Date http://www.beta.sam.gov/

10. Contracting Officer Certification and Approval

Pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(8), I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief and hereby determine that the circumstances for an exception to fair opportunity exist:

Contracting Officer Date