JOFOC - Modification to Extend the Term - VNS (Signed).pdf

U.S. Department of Justice Washington, DC 20530

JOFOC to Extend the Term of Contract DJJ14-C-2515 Page 1

Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity.

This justification is prepared by the United States Department of Justice (Department or DOJ) in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.303. The requiring organization is the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA). The contracting activity is the Justice Management Division, Procurement Services Staff.

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

The Department intends to modify Contract DJJ14-C-2515 with Project Performance Company, LLC (PPC) for Victim Notification System (VNS) support services to extend the term of the contract for a period of up to six months. The modification will extend the contract expiration from December 31, 2019 to June 30, 2020. The extension will ensure continuity of the statutorily required mission critical services for notification to victims of federal crimes until a follow-on contract is awarded and the work is transitioned to the new contract.

Contract DJJ14-C-2515 was awarded in June 2014 using full and open competitive procedures. The original contract term covered the period July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2019, including all options. The Option to Extend Services clause (FAR 52.217-8) will carry performance through December 31, 2019. The extension is necessary due to unanticipated delays encountered in ongoing development work being done under the current contract to modernize the VNS. The existing VNS is over 18 years old and the modernization project is critical to the continued use of the VNS. The extension will allow the contractor to complete ongoing work for the VNS enhancement and resolve any defects from the completed projected. It is expected that the modernization of the VNS will lead to enhanced competition during the re-procurement because it will be running on current technologies. The re-procurement process is in the early stages as the Government is currently working with a third-party contractor to develop a new statement of work for the follow-on operations and maintenance support. It is expected that the modernization project and the new statement of work will be completed by January 2020. Additionally, the extension will provide the Government’s acquisition team the necessary time to conduct the follow-on procurement.

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3. Description of the supplies or services required, including the estimated value.

Under this contract, the contractor operates, maintains and provides enhancement to the VNS. The VNS fulfills a legislative mandate promulgated by the Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982, the Crime Control Act of 1990, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (2004) and the Attorney General's Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance.

The services obtained through this contract are intended to keep the VNS fully functional throughout the contract term and to allow for the completion of system enhancements to ensure efficient and effective notifications to crime victims at various stages of the criminal justice process. The Contractor operates and maintains the VNS as currently designed, which includes, but is not limited to, the following functional responsibilities: system development, maintenance and implementation; system startup procedures; system shutdown procedures; system reconfiguration; system backups; system restoration; user account setup, operations and maintenance; system monitoring operations; database/data repository compacting, indexing and cleanup; system report generation; preventative maintenance procedures; system performance optimization; reporting of opportunities for system improvement; maintenance of system network interface diagrams; and system security compliance with DOJ/Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA) policy. The Contractor is also responsible for problem analyses and resolution, evaluations and recommendations for new technologies as they emerge in the marketplace, user training and system enhancement.

The current contract ceiling amount and actual expenditures from the contract start date through December 31, 2019 are expected to be $26 million. Expenditures for the extension period of January 1, 2020 through June 30, 2020 are anticipated to be an additional $2 million bringing the total ceiling amount to $28 million.

4. Identification of the Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open

Competition.

Negotiations will be conducted with PPC under the statutory authority of 41 U.S.C 3304(a)(1) as described in subsection 6.302-1 of the FAR.

5. Demonstration That the Proposed Contractor’s Unique Qualifications or the Nature of the Acquisition Requires Use of the Authority Cited.

PPC has been performing more than satisfactorily and is currently engaged in providing extensive system architectural changes to enhance the VNS. This project has been delayed (through no fault of the contractor) and is now anticipated to be completed by December 2019. The enhancements, which are within the scope of the current contract, will incorporate current technologies specifically developed to meet federal victim notification statutorily mandated requirements as well as the business processes of the many federal agencies that use VNS.

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The extension from January 1, 2020 through June 30, 2020 is necessary for the contractor to continue to provide post implementation services while the Government conducts the re-procurement. Failure to extend the contract will have a negative impact on the ability of EOUSA and the other federal agencies using VNS to provide notification to victims.

Sufficient time does not exist to award a follow-on contract prior to the expiration date of the contract. Government resources are currently devoted to the ongoing system architectural changes and implementation scheduled for December 2019. The extension will allow the government time to complete the follow-on acquisition and transition to a new contract. For these reasons, it is necessary to extend the contract for six months.

6. Description of efforts made to solicit offers from as many sources as practicable, including publication per FAR Subpart 5.2.

As noted in Section 2, the delays encountered in the VNS enhancement project have also delayed the necessary planning for the follow-on competition. The follow-on contract will provide for operations and maintenance of the enhanced VNS. In order to ensure a meaningful and thorough competition, the Department’s requirements for the follow-on contract will need to incorporate the configuration and features of the enhanced VNS as implemented in December 2019.

The only alternative to extending the current contract with PPC would be to conduct a competition for a short-term bridge contract to cover the period January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020. However, as noted above, the Department will not be in a position to define its requirements until the enhanced VNS is implemented in December 2019. Therefore, the competition for a short-term bridge contract would overlap the recompetition for the follow-on contract. In the best case scenario, the limited competition for a bridge contract would take at least several months. Additionally, the Department would be required to shift resources from the competition for the follow-on procurement to the competition for the bridge contract procurement, thus further delaying award of the follow-on contract.

Accordingly, the Department determined that conducting a limited competition for a bridge contract was neither feasible nor practicable nor in the best interest of the Government. For these reasons, the Department concluded that it was not practical to solicit offers from sources other than its incumbent, PPC.

7. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

As noted above in Section 2, the current contract PPC was awarded using full and open competitive procedures. Contract prices for the base period and all option periods were determined to be fair and reasonable based on adequate competition among the proposals received. Prices offered for the extension period will be compared with commercial prices for similar services and historical prices under the contract. Furthermore, the Contracting Officer will work with PPC to maintain the current contract pricing, ensuring that the prices for the extension are fair and reasonable.

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8. Description of the market research conducted and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

As explained in Paragraph 6 above, the Department considered the possibility of a competitively awarded bridge contract but determined that this was neither feasible nor practicable nor in the best interest of the Government. The Department has determined that further market research in support of the extension period would not yield meaningful additional information.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition.

None.

10. List of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

No sources have expressed interest in the extension period.

11. Statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required.

As discussed above, actions are underway to complete a competitive follow-on procurement for this requirement.

12. Certifications, Concurrences and Approval.

Technical/Requirements Personnel Certification:

I certify that the information contained in this document for which I am responsible is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Kurt Shernuk, Assistant U.S. Attorney VNS Project Manager Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys Office of Legal Programs

Date

Contracting Officer Certification:

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

Pamela F. Pilz, Contracting Officer Justice Management Division Procurement Services Staff

JOFOC to Extend the Term of Contract DJJ14-C-2515 Page 5

Concurrence:

Subsection 2806.304 of the Justice Acquisition Regulation requires concurrence by the Bureau Procurement Chief.

Mark Selweski, Director

Procurement Services Staff

Approval:

Subsection 6.304 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation requires approval by the Advocate for Competition for the procuring activity.

Tara Jamison, Competition Advocate

Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition