LSJ.FLE.updated 8.28.23_SIGNED.pdf

) Source Selection Information – see FAR 2.101 and 3.104

Limited Source Justification (LSJ)

Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) FAR subpart 8.4

Request For Quote (RFQ): 75ACF123Q00078

Entitled: Responsible Fatherhood Local Evaluation Technical Assistance Project

The Office of Government Contract Services (GCS) makes this LSJ pursuant to Federal

Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.405-6 (a)(1)(C).

1. Identification of Agency and Contracting Activity:

Requesting Agency:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Acting in support of: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE)

Contracting Activity:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Office of Government Contract Services (GCS)

2. Nature and/or Description of Action Being Approved:

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple-Award Schedule

Program. This will be a sole source Task Order in accordance with FAR 8.405-6 with the procedures of 8.405-2.

3. A Description of Supplies/Services Required to Meet Agency’s Need:

The purpose of this contract is to continue to provide local (i.e., program-specific) evaluation support to Responsible Fatherhood (RF) grant recipients who are approved and are in the process of conducting local evaluations approved by ACF. Since 2006, Congress has authorized dedicated funding for programs to promote responsible fatherhood. As outlined in Title IV, Section 403 of the Social Security Act, responsible fatherhood promotion activities include those that promote or sustain healthy marriage, responsible parenting, and economic stability. The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) within ACF administers multi-year grants that are awarded competitively to organizations across the country. The most recent round of five-year RF grants was awarded in September 2020 to support RF services for fathers in the general population (i.e., community fathers) and/or fathers who are or were recently incarcerated. A subset of these grant recipients is conducting robust and rigorous descriptive or impact local evaluations through the grant period, which includes data collection, analysis, and developing and sharing reports.

The proposed follow-on contract will continue providing local evaluation support to the

2020-2025 cohort of RF grant recipients. The current contract was awarded under an existing task order (HHSP233201500059I-75P00119F37012), awarded in September 2019

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children Families

GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING SERVICES

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Facfhhs&psig=AOvVaw1Jz2-tXVnv9k3aByWGWq-G&ust=1590597766967000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCOCW8MP80ekCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD and ending in December 2023. Key project tasks include project management and team communication; external communication; Office of Management and Budget (OMB) clearance for data collection; privacy and data security activities and monitoring; planning for local evaluation support; local evaluation monitoring, management, support, and reporting; overseeing a local evaluation cross-grant recipient collaboration community;

guiding appropriate analysis and reporting; assessing and reporting on local evaluation support; and data archiving. The anticipated period of performance for this requirement is thirty (30) months for one (1) base period (September 30, 2023 – March 31, 2026) and twenty-four (24) months for one (1) option period (April 1, 2024 – March 31, 2026), procured as a sole source award to the incumbent of the current contract

(HHSP233201500059I-75P00119F37012).

4. The Authority and Supporting Rationale and, if applicable, a demonstration of the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service:

The authority under which this Limited Source Justification is made is pursuant to FAR

8.405-6 Limiting Sources, “Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized”, See FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(C).

The incumbent is the only responsible source who can provide consistent and uninterrupted local evaluation support to the 2020 cohort of RF grant recipients. The incumbent has unique and specialized knowledge of the grant recipients and their descriptive and impact evaluations currently in progress. Therefore, they are the only responsible source who can provide uninterrupted support to maintain critical continuity.

The incumbent has been supporting the grant recipients since the grants were awarded in

2020 and thus has a singular deep, nuanced, and detailed understanding of the grant requirements and expectations as well as the circumstances, needs, and critical issues of each grant recipient and local evaluation. To date, the incumbent has guided the evaluation development. The incumbent has developed and received OMB approval of an evaluation plan template (OMB #0970-0356); worked closely with grant recipients to develop their local evaluation plans; reviewed and solicited ACF feedback on grant recipients’ local evaluation plans; and held cross-grant recipient collaborative community meetings with grant recipients’ local evaluators, project directors, and program staff. Importantly, the incumbent has provided regular and ongoing specialized support to each grant recipient and evaluator as they initiated their evaluations and began collecting data. In addition to being the entity that conducted the work to this point, the incumbent’s existing, trusted relationships with the RF grant recipients, local evaluators, and other ongoing contracts working with the grant recipients will provide the best value to the Government. They are the only firm uniquely positioned to effectively provide the critical and necessary support and assistance to the grant recipients as they complete their local evaluations studies.

Contractors other than the incumbent could not adequately meet ACF’s need because they do not have the specialized knowledge of RF grant requirements and information about the

RF grant recipients’ local evaluation activities to date, such as their evaluation designs, stage of evaluation implementation, challenges and roadblocks, and needs to successfully conduct complete analysis, reporting, or dissemination. They would also require substantial start up time to get up to speed and develop their approaches and processes, whereas the incumbent is already carrying out an effective approach that the current grant recipients and evaluators are familiar with and have been utilizing successfully. The government has already spent substantial resources building knowledge about and relationships with the 2020 cohort of RF grant recipients and their local evaluators. The incumbent has carried out all the requirements of this work thus far with due diligence and has developed a trusted working relationship with each RF local evaluation team. A change to another contractor would break the trust that currently supports the RF local evaluation teams, and it would take an alternative contractor a significant prohibitive amount of time and resources to get to the same place. Moreover, the RF grant recipients will be in the middle of data collection and evaluation when this contract is awarded, and they will be dealing with challenging, real-time issues that require immediate and well-informed support. Only the incumbent has the knowledge and capacity to provide uninterrupted assistance during this critical moment in the evaluations. Without this assistance, the evaluations are at risk of failing because they need consistent and uninterrupted support for successful completion. The ACF program office is invested in rigorous evaluations and learning from each grant cohort; if the evaluations fail, this will interrupt the program office’s ability to learn from the current cohort.

5. A Determination by the Ordering Activity Contracting Officer that the Order

Represents the Best Value Consistent with 8.404(d)

An analysis of the Contractor’s proposal will be performed by the ACF, Office of

Government Contract Services (GCS), Contracting Officer to determine the price fair and reasonable pursuant to 8.405-2. The Contracting Officer will ensure the Contractor’s fixed rates do not exceed the schedule and will seek additional discounts prior to placing an order. The CO will also compare the Independent Government Cost estimate to the proposed cost once the quote is received to further determine fair and reasonable costs.

6. A Description of the Market Research Conducted Among Schedule Holders and the

Results or a Statement of the Reason Market Research was not Conducted.

This procurement will continue work occurring on ongoing contract/order

HHSP233201500059I-75P00119F37012 awarded in September 2019 to provide local evaluation technical assistance to the 2020 cohort of RF grant recipients. The initial award was competed through the Program Support Center (PSC) IDIQ (Task Order) list. Work under the existing contract will conclude in December 2023. Market research for the current contract was conducted in 2019 based on a review of the literature, review of other sources sought for task orders of a similar scope, contact of project officers who had projects focused on providing evaluation technical assistance, and queries of the PSC IDIQ list looking for contractors with required expertise. Based on this historical data, and the rationale provided above in #4, only the incumbent can provide this service of supplemental actions to the ongoing contract.

The previously utilized PSC IDIQ is no longer a viable vehicle to pursue the services of this requirement. In order to continue services, in March 2023, the government researched other options by which to fulfill the needs of this requirement. The current contractor was confirmed to be on the GSA Multiple Award Schedule, Contract #:47QRAA18D00BQ;

the government seeks to sole source award to the current contract incumbent by way of this

GSA MAS.

7. Any Other Facts Supporting the Justification:

N/A

8. 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:

The original contract was awarded on the PSC IDIQ, and all potential bidders were given an opportunity to be considered (see details in #6). As the PSC IDIQ is no longer a viable vehicle to continue services, this is being proposed as a sole source to the current Contractor via GSA MAS. The incumbent is the only responsible source who can continue providing local evaluation support to the 2020 cohort of RF grant recipients (see details in #1).

9. Contracting Officer Certification that the Justification is Accurate and Complete to the Best of the Contracting Officer’s Knowledge and Belief:

I certify that this LSJ is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief, and

I determine on the basis of the findings above that the current limited source approach is in accordance with the requirements and is in the best interest of the Government.

Erneisha Bailey

Contracting Officer

Research and Knowledge-Based Services

Concurred

Kenneth Brumfiel

Division Director

Research and Knowledge-Based Services

10. Technical or Requirements Personnel and which Form a Basis for the Justification have been Certified as Complete and Accurate by the Technical or Requirements

Personnel:

I hereby certify that the supporting data is accurate and complete.

Harmanpreet Bhatti

Technical Point of Contact/ Contracting Officer Representative (COR)

HHS, ACF, OPRE

Patrick Joy

Competition Advocate

HHS, ACF, GCS