JOFOC_Redacted.pdf

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JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVALS FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Federal Employment Law Resource Database

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity.

The United States (US) Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) Contracting and Procurement Office (CPO) proposes to enter a contract on a basis of other than full and open competition for the Office of General Counsel (OGC).

Agency/Program Office:

Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) Office of General Counsel (OGC) 27130 Telegraph Road Quantico, VA 22134

DCSA – Contracting and Procurement Office (CPO) 27130 Telegraph Road Quantico, VA 22314

Contracting Activity:

DCSA – Contracting and Procurement Office (CPO) 27130 Telegraph Road Quantico, VA 22314

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved. (i.e., sole source, limited competition, establishment of a new source, etc.)

The purpose of this document is to obtain the necessary approvals for a sole source acquisition in accordance with FAR 13.5.

The proposed contract action is a Firm Fixed price (FFP) contract for a Westlaw subscription through Westlaw Publications via vendor Thomson Reuters Company. The estimated total contract value is (see section 3 for details).

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

The DCSA Office of General Counsel (DCSA-OGC) and the DCSA Contracting and Procurement Office (CPO) has a requirement for readily available and reliable access to current, authoritative and accurate legal reference materials, including statutes, public laws, federal and state judicial and administrative case law, and legal treatises, with annotations and status notes for all of these materials in both online and physical reference materials.

Specifically, the reference materials must include access to the following:

a. Physical access to current copies of the U.S. Code, Merit Systems Board Reporter, Corpus Juris Secondum, legal forms compendium, federal rules of civil and criminal procedure, federal acquisition regulation, as well as commentaries, annotations, and updates to these references;

b. Extensive online access to legal databases including federal and state case law, statutes, regulations, administrative codes, legal encyclopedias, treaties, law reviews, and journals;

c. Citation service, which allows users to check the validity of their research;

d. Document analysis tools to help identify relevant legal authorities and insights.

Thomson Reuters is the only vendor with an online database that provides access to all of the federal legal reference materials and resources needed by DCSA-OGC and CPO offices to support their respective mission support areas of DCSA. In addition, the Westlaw Reference Materials and online access is only available through Thomson Reuters.

The estimated total value of this requirement is posted in the table below:

Base Period Option Period I Option Period II Option Period III Option Period IV

TOTAL ESTIMATED VALUE:

The previous contract for this requirement for Westlaw subscription was awarded by DCSA to Thomson Reuters Company in 2019 for a total value of

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4. Identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C.

3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.5, Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Products and Commercial Services.

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

IAW the procedures in FAR Subpart 13.5, Westlaw, a Thomson Reuters Company, is a unique sole source vendor that is the sole developer, manufacturer and distributor of Westlaw Online Access and Publishing. The sole source jusitfication will follow the format at FAR 6.303-2, and will be modified to reflect that the procedures in FAR subpart were used per FAR 13.501(a)(ii). The vendor provides a complete database of readily available and reliable access to current, authoritative and accurate legal reference materials, including statutes, public laws, federal and state judicial and administrative case law, and legal treatises, with annotations and status notes for all of these materials in both online and physical reference materials.

Furthermore, while there are other companies that provide similar access to the primary legal sources OGC requires, this Westlaw subscription provides additional secondary sources that include practice guides, treatises, legal encyclopedias, form books, and on-point news written for legal professionals. While Westlaw’s competitor also has secondary sources, the options are not as thoroughly researched or directly applicable to several types of Federal Government legal issues that arise at DCSA.

Moreover, this subscription includes both online access as well as physical copies of updated codes, statutes, and regulations which are utilized in the DCSA law library for reference.

6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers were solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable.

A Notice of Intent to Sole Source was posted on SAM.gov on 01 August 2024 to seek additional sources who may be interested and to provide notice of the Government’s intent to sole source this action. The Notice of Intent was posted for 15 days and did not yield any responses from sources with the capability to provide the subject requirement.

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

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The Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated price(s) will be fair and reasonable based on a comparison of historical prices paid, GSA pricing, and the vendor’s proposed quote based on open market pricing.

8. A description of the market research conducted (FAR Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

Market research was conducted by DCSA-OGC to identify federal legal reference materials and resources providers. While access to databases for caselaw and statutes can often be obtained online from other sources such as Bloomberg Law and LexisNexis, these sources are often not updated and are not cross-referenced.

whether online or in physical form. In addition, these other sources are more costly and only offer a fraction of what is needed to satisfy agency needs. In addition to having more features and current up-to-date information required by OGC, Westlaw is more cost efficient. Westlaw Publishing a Thomson Reuters company is the sole manufacturer and provider of these licenses.

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

N/A.

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

There are no sources identified at this time.

11. A 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, if subsequent acquisitions are anticipated.

DCSA-OGC and CPO will continue to engage in strategic market research to determine if any other vendors are able to meet its requirement in the future.

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Certification

[Technical and requirements personnel are required to certify that the supporting data that is their responsibility to provide (which form a basis for the justification), is complete and accurate.

The Contracting Officer is required to certify that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the Contracting Officer’s knowledge and belief.]

Program Official:

I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this justification and which form a basis for this justification, are complete and accurate.

X

Program Official

Contracting Officer:

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. [Add the following and delete the Review and Approvals section below if this certification is also serving as approval: “Since this effort exceeds the simplified acquisition threshold, but does not exceed $750K, this certification serves as Approval.”]

X

Contracting Officer

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Reviews and Approvals

(See FAR 6.2, 6.3 and 6.5; DFARS 206.304; and PGI 206.304 for review and approval requirements under specific circumstances)

Program Senior Official (or designee):

I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this justification and which form a basis for this justification, are complete and accurate.

X

Program Senior Official (or designee):

Advocate for Competition (if over $750K):

I have reviewed this justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Since this JOFOC does not exceed $15M, this review serves as approval [Delete approval sentence if over $15M].

X

Activity Advocate for Competition

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Head of the Contracting Activity (if over $15M):

I have reviewed this justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Since this JOFOC does not exceed $100M, this review and signature serves as approval [Delete approval sentence if over $100M].

X

Head of the Contracting Activity

Senior Procurement Executive (if over $100M):

I have reviewed this justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Since this JOFOC exceeds $100M, this review and signature serves as approval.

X

Senior Procurement Executive

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