Justification_and_Approval.pdf

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JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION (J&A)

TO: Artaveya J. Carter, Contracting Officer, M/OAA/DCHA/AFP

FROM: Peter Morris, Division Director, DCHA/OFDA/PSPM /s/

SUBJECT: JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHERTHAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION (J&A) ON AWARD AID-OFDA-S-16-00077

1. This document sets forth the facts and rationale justifying the use of other than full and open competition, in accordance with AIDAR 706.302-70(b)(5), for an award under Section 636(a)(3) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended. This document was prepared by the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The technical office will be the Preparedness, Strategic Planning and Mitigation (PSPM) Division.

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved:

This is a request to approve the extension of the current U.S. Personal Services Contract (USPSC) award (AID-OFDA-S-16-00077) of Dr. Meta Mobula for nine months as a Public Health Advisor for the PSPM Division, based in Washington, D.C. The current period of performance (PoP) is 05/01/2016 to 04/30/2017. The new PoP is 05/01/2016 to 01/31/2018. The original Total Estimated Cost (TEC) of the award was $151,452. The nine month extension at $95,184 increases the TEC to $246,636.

Following the review of lessons learned during the Ebola crisis in West Africa, OFDA has recognized the need to prepare for and respond to future epidemic outbreaks, in order to effectively fulfill its role of coordinating U.S. Government’s response to epidemic disasters. This created the need for services of a Public Health Advisor with specific epidemiological skills, a strong background in monitoring and evaluation of public health programs, and extensive experience in managing an outbreak response. Dr. Mobula possessed these highly specialized skills and was awarded a one-year noncompetitive contract in April 2016. Her contract expires on May 1, 2017.

Due to the unanticipated impending famine in the Horn of Africa (Somalia and Kenya), the conflicts in Nigeria and Sudan, and increased focus on infectious disease due to the H7N9 outbreak in China, OFDA has determined that it will be in its best interest to retain the services of Dr.

Mobula for an additional nine months. This will allow OFDA sufficient time to recruit for a permanent full-time advisor to lead its efforts in managing an infectious disease outbreak, and avoid a break in service that will jeopardize OFDA’s humanitarian assistance objectives in the public health sector.

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

The PSPM Division Public Health Advisor position provides expert analytical and advisory support for the planning, development, and execution of USAID policy and programs relating to Infectious Disease preparedness and response. The PSPM Public Health Advisor will provide expert advice and guidance to the decisions and actions of senior policy officials as well as quickly, accurately,

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The PSPM Public Health Advisor’s duties and responsibilities are as follows:

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide support on public health interventions during an infectious disaster response to USAID and OFDA staff based in Washington, DC or in field offices. Following reports of outbreaks or epidemic events, assisting in providing recommendations to OFDA staff regarding potential responses in the public health related sectors.

• Assist in making recommendations on the formulation of USAID/OFDA’s public health technical and policy position on OFDA’s role in epidemic outbreaks and communicating the outcome through interactions with USG Inter-Agency partners, other donor agencies, the international humanitarian community, and other USAID staff.

• In collaboration with the Team, conducting public health assessments of affected populations and recommending appropriate activities, while facilitating and coordinating USG emergency technical response activities with USAID Missions, other donor agencies, and the US Embassy.

• Attend pertinent meetings and other events, as appropriate such as participating in working groups with Global Health Emerging Pandemic Threats team.

• Participate in assessment teams, Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DARTs), Response Management Teams, and other office duties as requested.

• In collaboration with the Team providing “in-service” brownbag presentations to USAID and OFDA staff on current public health related topics.

• In collaboration with USAID/Washington and regional field office staff, supporting the team on the development of regional and country programmatic strategies and guidance related to humanitarian programming in the public health sector.

• Participate in appropriate OFDA general or sector specific training either as a participant and/or possibly trainer.

• Monitor OFDA funded activities and assisting in making recommendations on the proper use of OFDA program funds.

• Identify emergency public health mitigation and prevention measures that could be linked to disaster response activities. Reviewing mitigation principals and with collaboration with the Team Lead, recommending course(s) of action to OFDA/Washington staff.

International and domestic travel approximately 30%.

• Keep abreast of literature and latest developments in the fields of public health interventions during a disaster response – specifically infectious disease outbreaks epidemiology.

• Deepening knowledge of regional and country programmatic strategies and guidance related to humanitarian programming in the public health sector.

• Participate in inter-agency and intra-agency working groups as appropriate to SOW.

The estimated value of this nine-month extension is $90,000 at the GS-14 equivalent level.

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4. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

Pursuant to AIDAR 706.302-70(b)(5), full and open competition need not be obtained when it would impair or otherwise have an adverse effect on programs conducted for the purposes of foreign aid, relief, and rehabilitation. The extension of this contract is for the continued provision of highly specialized services when award to another resource would result in substantial additional costs to the government or would result in unacceptable delays.

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

Prior to joining USAID/OFDA, Dr.Mobula has held several positions where she managed and provided technical input into humanitarian programming and policy. She has served as the Medical Director for Samaritan’s Purse Medical program in Cite Soleil Maternal Child Health in Haiti. In addition, she was Chief Medical Officer for Samaritan’s Purse Relief Programs during the Typhoon Haiyan Emergency in the Philippines. Dr. Mobula was also the physician who treated Dr. Kent Brantley and Nancy Writbol with the experimental drug, Z-MAPP, for Ebola Disease in Monrovia, Liberia just prior to their med-evacuation to Emory University Medical Center in Atlanta in 2014.

Dr. Mobula is also affiliated with Johns Hopkins Center for Refugee and Disaster Response, and designed a cholera response simulation and training for Catholic Relief Services. She has numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and assisted Johns Hopkins University as a Co-Principal Investigator for a study on health access in Ghana.

Dr. Mobula has served OFDA for two years as a Medical and Health Specialist, focusing primarily on Infectious Disease and global health issues for OFDA’s Health team’s portfolio. She leads the Infectious Disease Sector’s strategic and operational planning process and assists in the identification of implementing partners for each relevant subsector. In addition to the Health team portfolio, she has also served on the West African Ebola DART in both Guinea and Liberia. For the past two years, Dr. Mobula has been instrumental to the PSPM division in streamlining its health programming planning and obligation process, strengthening the division’s oversight of awards, and improved the monitoring of partner performance.

While serving as a Public Health Advisor, under her current award, Dr. Mobula has worked on establishing an Infectious Disease and Pandemic Unit, whose main goal is to enhance OFDA’s ability to respond to an Infectious Disease event that reaches humanitarian scale, by leveraging existing operational and technical capacities as well as interagency and intra-agency partnerships, logistics, sectoral expertise, and coordination. She worked with OPS and HPGE divisions in inter-agency and intra-agency engagement to determine roles responsibilities for future public health emergencies. As part of this effort, she contributed to the National Security Council playbook for early response to infectious disease threats, whose goal is to assist the White House leadership with coordinating a complex US government response to a high consequence pathogen anywhere in the world.

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6. Description of the efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 5.202 [AIDAR 705.002]

A Notice of Intent to extend the Personal Services Contract (PSC) without competition for a period of nine months to the incumbent contractor was publicized in FedBizOpps from April 14, 2017 to April 28, 2017, in accordance with FAR 5.201 and FAR 5.203. No comments, questions or expressions of interest were received during the Notice of Intent time period.

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

The cost to the government for the services to be provided will be at a salary at the GS-14 rate as currently specified in the contract. Therefore, the Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated costs to the Government will be fair and reasonable. The Contracting Officer shall certify this statement under Paragraph 13.

8. Description of the market research conducted, and the results or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted:

There was insufficient time to conduct extensive market research on this contract action due to OFDA’s ongoing emergency responses in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and Nigeria which required active participation of PSPM’s specialists in the health sector. However, we publicized a Notice of Intent as our market research tool and no additional people came forward interested in the position and offering a better option to the government.

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

All facts have been stated in previous sections.

10. Sources, if any, that expressed an interest, in writing, in the acquisition:

No other sources expressed an interest in this activity.

11. The actions the Agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required:

Further need for these services will be filled through a full and open competition.

International and domestic travel approximately 30%.