JEFO Redacted Posted to SAM.gov.pdf

CUI/SP-PROCURE

JUSTIFICATION FOR EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

AT&T Task Order, Spiral 3

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity.

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) proposes to award a sole-source task order for Wireless Services in support of Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).

The Department of Defense, Chief Management Officer issued a memorandum, dated 28 September 2018, which directs all DoD Components to procure unclassified wireless devices and services within the 50 states using the Department of Navy's (DON) Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ), Spiral 3 Multiple Award Contract (MAC). In accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations outlined in Spiral 3, this acquisition is conducted under the authority of Exception to Fair Opportunity outlined in FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C).

2. The nature and/or de scription of the action being approved.

The proposed acquisition is for the purchase of wireless device services through issuance of a task order under Spiral 3, a Department of the Navy’s Category Management Program contracting vehicle, prior to expiration on 07 May 2024. The OCIO, requires a wireless device services task order to adhere to the Wireless Device Management reform efforts by utilizing AT&T Wireless as DCSA’s wireless provider.

AT&T Wireless has been the provider of a large portion of the DCSA wireless services as the incumbent for the last four years and possesses the necessary past performance to meet the specifications required by the agency.

3. A de scription of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs.

Local and international service plans are required for approximately 4000 phone lines, 100 service only lines (for MiFi, Tablets, etc.), and internet services are required for 48 routers owned by OCIO and provided by AT&T. These devices were purchased under a previous competitively awarded task order (_____________/_____________). This acquisition will replace the expiring order currently in place under task order number _____________, which covered a period of performance of 01 May 2023 to 30 April 2024. The DON Spiral 3 MAC is anticipated to be replaced by Spiral 4 in May 2024 and is not currently available for use, therefore, a new sole source award for a 12-month period of performance will be issued to ensure continuity of services while the new MAC’s is pending award.

The required period of performance for the anticipated task order is 01 May 2024 – 30 April 2025.

The total estimated cost of this procurement is $____________.

4. Identification of the exception to fair opportunity.

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of Exception to Fair Opportunity outlined in FAR

16.505 (b)(2)(i)(C). This task order is 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. Awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original task order. This action will be awarded as a follow-on to the original competed task order awarded to the incumbent, AT&T Mobility National Accounts, LLC, UEI number ____________. The placement of a firm-fixed-price task order is anticipated.

This requirement is a logical follow-on to the incumbent’s contract due to the scope, period of performance requirements, and overall value. The services being procured are identical to those previously procured under task order contract _____________ which was competed as a base plus two 12-month option periods. This requirement is for a 12-month period of performance, however, at this time the Spiral 4 MAC is pending award by May 8, 2024. Had the award of the Spiral 4 MAC been completed on schedule (May 2023), DCSA anticipated competing a subsequent award for base plus options amongst the new Spiral 4 awardees. Further, to ensure there is no lapse in continuity of services, a sole source award realizes value by not requiring a complete replacement of all devices in use and decreases transition time from new task order award to actual performance.

One of DCSA’s core missions is to provide Background Investigations (BI) support to other federal agencies. Presently, there are over 1,600 cases Outside the Continental United States (OCONUS) in the international workload inventory that require completion to satisfy the requirements of the agency’s customers and stakeholders. Initially, the global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and strict international travel advisories restricted any overseas travel for DCSA agents. As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, agencies have shifted many operations to remote capability, making services like phones and Wi-Fi devices crucial to continuing operations. Once the Spiral 4 MAC is awarded, DCSA anticipates that any subsequent task order award will be made on a competitive basis per the requirements of DON Ordering Procedures.

To ensure continuation of the current services, the following reasons apply:

Reason 1 - Incumbent Equipment

The incumbent, AT&T, was competitively awarded a task order with a base plus two option years of local and international phone services with associated no-cost equipment per line. OCIO is in possession of approximately 4000 phones, 3500 of which were currently issued to and in use by BI Field investigators and DCSA Federal Employees both state-side and internationally at 169 sites throughout the world. Award of this task order to another vendor other than the incumbent AT&T, would require the return, replacement, and reissue of all devices to all users across all locations. The process of collecting and reissuing equipment/devices must be completed with each award of a new task order to a different vendor. It is estimated that this process would take up to four months, putting the agency at risk for a significant disruption or work processes and delay to completion of BI support for internal and external stakeholders.

Further, the pending award of the DON Spiral 4 MAC makes it necessary to continue use of the current wireless services provider and equipment in use under the DON Spiral 3 MAC to prevent a lapse in critical services, and the cost of establishing a new competitive award could not be justified nor determined to be in the best interest of the Government at this time.

The estimated delays from return of incumbent equipment are approximately 31 hours per phone device as outlined by the Program Office, based on the following table:

Task Hours/Device

Receiving & Barcoding (per device) 1.8

Shipping (per device) 1.2

Porting (transfer #s to new carrier) (per device) 3

DISA Database Loading (per device) 1

TA PureBred Approval Process (per device) 24

TOTAL 31

For 4000 devices, 31 hours per device would result in a total loss of 124,000-man hours. There are 12 support personnel, including Government and Contractor staff, who would be responsible for migrating 267 devices each. The task of completing device migration for all 4000 devices would, under normal circumstances, take each staff member approximately 6 months, assuming this task was the only task being supported during that period.

In addition to wireless service coverage, OCIO requires support for 48 DCSA owned routers, purchased under the third modification of the incumbent contract, valued at __________. These routers are owned by DCSA, but are proprietary to AT&T. While other carriers may be capable of providing router support and coverage, awarding to a different carrier puts this support at risk for a lapse in service, resulting from shipment, delivery, setup and activation delays, and additional administrative costs, should the new carrier require router replacement for system/support compatibility.

Further, there are no other carriers fully capable of providing service to all 48 locations where the routers are currently in use. When market research was being conducted to add the routers under Modification P00002 of the incumbent contract, Verizon reported that they could not provide FIOS broadband service capabilities to most of the locations requested and did not provide a quote. Lumen conveyed that they could provide an alternate solution to what DCSA required; however, they were only able to provide broadband to 44 of the 48 sites. Only AT&T offered a viable solution to provide Cradlepoint AER2200 FIPS compliant broadband routers to all 48 sites, as well as an unlimited data plan for the routers.

Reason 2 – Timeline/Need for Uninterrupted Services

This justification is not a result of the agency’s failure to plan but is a result of unforeseen circumstances surrounding the award of the DoD mandated DON Spiral 4 IDIQ Contract. Spiral 4 templates for task order solicitation issuance, including an ELIN spreadsheet, were due to be released in November of 2022 on the Naval Supply Systems (NAVSUP) website. As of February 2024, Spiral 4 award information and templates were still pending release. Had the award been completed on time as originally anticipated, DCSA would have prepared the appropriate documentation to re-compete a new award amongst the Spiral 4 awardees in a timely manner and executed a new task order award under the new Spiral 4 contract without a break in service. Because of the delay in award of Spiral 4, NAVSUP initially extended Spiral 3 for six months using FAR clause 52. 217-8 to May 7, 2023, and again extended until May 7, 2024. In response, DCSA’s current year task order _____________ was extended for 3 months, from January 2024 through the end of April 2024, to ensure a continuation of services in line with the Spiral 3 extension. However, due to the delay of the Spiral 4 MAC award, the current requirement must be placed under Spiral 3 since the DON Spiral 4 MAC will not be in place before the current task order award expires on April 30, 2024.

Reason 3 – Service Access

The commercial map coverage for service areas provided by the contract awardees of Spiral 3 (Verizon, T- Mobile, Lumen, Med Tel) claim to have nearly identical coverage. AT&T Wireless has successfully provided the subject services for three years based upon the following: 3500 users confirmed that AT&T Wireless Service (Wireless Spiral 3 contract ________________________________) has provided satisfactory support services.

5. A de termination by the contracting officer that the anticipate d cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

Prices of products on DON Spiral 3 are determined to be fair and reasonable at the contract level. However, contracting officers are still required to make a determination of fair and reasonable price for individual orders. Prices under this task order will fall under the FAR clause 52.217-8 extended pricing of Spiral 3’s fourth Option year. Pricing for the primary ELINs is compared below:

Carrier AT&T AT&T AT&T T-Mobile Verizon Contract # _____________ _____________ _____________ ______________ _____________ Unlimited Data/Unlimited Voice & Text

Unlimited Data Only

Unlimited Data/Unlimited Voice & Text and Unlimited Data Only make up 91% ($5,525,178.00 of $6,060,657.54, calculated before bulk discounts were applied) of the incumbent contract cost. Of the remaining 10%, 3% is for taxes, 4% is allotted as an NTE amount for International Services, less than 1% is for the router Wi-Fi services, and less than 1% represents the one-time cost of 48 routers.

Taxes under are anticipated to be approximately 3% for AT&T under this requirement. Standard tax rates for all five service providers cannot exceed 6%.

Historical pricing for International Services for 4800 phone lines are as follows:

MetTel T-Mobile Sprint AT&T Verizon

Monthly Cost $_________ $_________ $_________ $_________ $_________

Note that Sprint and AT&T are the most comparable from the quotes provided for the previously competed task order HS002120F0003, with AT&T providing the lowest monthly rates. All prices listed in the table above are for the Period of Performance (PoP) of 01 Feb 2022 to 31 Jan 2023. FAR clause 52.217-8 was exercised under all Spiral 3 MAC contract awards and these prices have been extended until 7 May 2024.

The international services CLIN will be established as an NTE CLIN because exact need is unknown at the time of award and would be based on future ongoing investigations. The CLIN will require AT&T to notify DCSA when 75% of the International Services amount has been utilized.

Routers were not added until the first option year was exercised, and pricing was not provided on the original quotations. Market research was conducted to compare commercially available Wi-Fi costs provided by the companies that did originally claim to provide Cradlepoint AER2200 FIPS compliant broadband routers.

Verizon Lumen AT&T _____________

Monthly per Router $___ $___ $___ $___

*Verizon claimed that they were capable of fulfilling the service, but that the services would not fall under Spiral 3. They would require the Government to accept the commercial rates and sign their Master Services Agreement with Verizon terms and conditions. In addition, they could not support WAWF on the commercial side. This information was confirmed with the Verizon POC on 13 February 2023.

**Lumen could only provide service to 44 of 48 sites; confirmed with Lumen POC 14 Feb 23.

In the above table, the first three columns indicate service provider commercial pricing, and the final column indicates AT&T’s bulk-discount applied pricing under the incumbent task order. The Government will evaluate the pricing based on commercially offered rates as identified to determine price fair and reasonableness prior to award of the task order.

The Contracting Officer will utilize the anticipated pricing outlined above to determine price fair and reasonableness prior to award of the task order.

6. Any other facts supporting the justification.

The need for wireless supplies and services for work related communications is so crucial that providing fair opportunity at this time would result in unacceptable delays of BI’s ability to submit timely investigations and would create backlogs in workload, increase the security risk of internal and external customers and stakeholders, and result in unnecessary duplication of costs.

Because of the procedures that would be required to replace the current equipment and the delay of Spiral 4’s award timeline, a rewrite of the technical data package, specifications, or the statement of work would cause a disruption of service. Additionally, the Spiral 3 Update Notice issued in April 2023 by NAVSUP, recommends that customers with orders nearing expiration should placing orders with the current carrier for continuity of services. Competing this requirement and potentially switching to a new provider at this time increases the transition period timeline for turn-in and reissuance of devices, triggering an unjustifiable work stoppage for BI communications and throughout the agency.

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 are made.

The need for the required services is anticipated to continue beyond this proposed task order. DCSA intends to issue a competitive solicitation for any subsequent task order award, which will allow for fair opportunity amongst all awardees.

Certification

Program Official:

This is to certify that the data supporting this justification is the responsibility of the undersigned program office personnel (technical and/or requirements personnel), including verifying the Government's minimum needs or requirements or other rationale for an exception to fair opportunity (pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(9)), which form a basis for this justification, and that such data, evidence and rationale are accurate and complete.

Program Official

Contracting Office r:

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief to support the recommendations for approval. The contracting officer further certifies that an award of this contract action from this requirement will be made only if the price or cost to the Government is determined to be fair and reasonable.

Contracting Officer

Reviews and Approvals

Advocate for Competition (if over $750K):

This is a written determination by the approving official that one of the circumstances in paragraphs 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A) through (E) and (G) of this section applies to the order and the justification is therefore approved.

Activity Advocate for Competition