MGRA JOFOC Raise Ceiling.pdf

Source Selection Information – see FAR 2.101 and 3.104

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

OVER THE MICRO-PURCHASE THRESHOLD

EXCLUDING FAR 13 (SAP) AND SOLE-SOURCE 8(A) AWARDS OVER $22 MILLION

(AUTHORITY: FAR 6.302)

12010919D0012 MGRA LA Services

Assertion of Accuracy.

I certify that the above information is factual and complete based upon my knowledge of the supply and/or service at hand.

Cathy Tighe Date End User/Technical and Requirements Staff Officer

1. Agency and contracting activity. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Region 10 Acquisition Management (AQM) and Tongass National Forest Planning Office.

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved. This justification is written for approval of a sole source procurement.

3. Description of supplies or services required to meet agency needs (including the estimated value). The referenced contract is an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for professional architect-engineering services related to development of the Mendenhall Glacier Master Plan.

The contract specifically includes NEPA for the associated design work as the two are inextricably linked together. The initial contract value was based on an intent to utilize an Environmental Assessment (EA). Due to the process involved with Environmental Analysis and Decision Making (EADM), initiatives have shown that impacts are likely to be significant, requiring the use of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) instead of an EA. Under authority of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Regulations 40 C.F.R. 1501.4(c), the Government needs to switch the ongoing process from an EA to an EIS, which results in an increase to the timeline, the amount of work involved and an increase in the cost of that work.

This non-competitive action will increase the ceiling on the base IDIQ contract to account for the more expensive EIS vs. the less expensive originally planned EA. The additional work associated with the EIS is not expected to exceed $700,000. As such, the IDIQ contract ceiling will be increased by $700,000.

Identification of the awardee to be solicited. ECI/Hyer Inc.

3909 Arctic Blvd. Ste. 103 Anchorage, AK 99503

4. Statutory Authority. The contracting officer has determined the circumstances of the contract action to meet the following statutory authority under FAR 6.302 below, and supported by FAR 6.303 and 6.304 (if applicable):

Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements - FAR 6.302-1 – The agency need for the supplies or services is so specific that they are only available from one responsible source, or that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays.

5. Supporting Rationale for use of Statutory Authority FAR 6.302-1 – This JOFOC is required due to the logical follow-on nature of highly specialized NEPA services under the referenced contract (12010919D0012). The expected economy and efficiency anticipated to be achieved under this action are explained here.

A task order was awarded against the IDIQ contract on 11/19/2019 for the Contractor to provide NEPA analysis at the EA level. The ongoing nature of the work does not have a finalized or concise deliverable to transfer EA work over to another entity to start the EIS work.

Due to this reality, any change to the contractor performing these services would require substantial duplication of effort for a new contractor to familiarize themselves with the processes, relationships, non-NEPA related work products, and perform already in-progress EA efforts rendered by the current contractor. Under authority of 41 U.S.C. 3304 (a)(1), the Government does not expect to recover the value of the duplicated effort through the results of a competition. Further, due to upcoming changes to the CEQ regulations, the amount of time required to compete this action would run into conflicts with the time required to implement the changes at the Department level, followed by the Bureau level. Since changing rules is a time-consuming effort, and the scope of rules requiring eventual changes is currently unknown, competing this as a separate action would not only result in a substantial duplication of effort, it would result in unacceptable delays to the NEPA process.

6. Efforts to Expand Competitive Field. The referenced IDIQ contract was awarded through a publicized competition on FBO.gov in FY2019. The intent to increase the ceiling price of the IDIQ by $700,000 in order to accommodate the action forming the subject of this JOFOC was publicized on beta.SAM.gov as required by FAR 6.305 (d) and posted on 8/12/2020. The notice was active on beta.sam.gov for 15 days.

7. Fair and Reasonable Price. The contracting officer has determined that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable, based upon both prior competition under a recent programmatic EIS and through comparison to the government estimate.

The contract ceiling will be raised by $700,000 from $4,200,000 to $4,900,000 to cover increased costs associated with the change from an EA to an EIS within scope of the NEPA work described in the IDIQ contract.

8. Market Research.

NEPA services are available from over 1000 vendors, as verified through bot SIN 899-1 on GSA schedules and through use of the Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) tool provided by the Small Business Administration under NAICS codes 541320 (Landscape Architectural Services) and 541620 (Environmental Consulting Services). None of these other companies similar products include the ongoing development of NEPA services at the MGRA, which cannot be modified into their products in order meet agency needs in a timely manner, which is a particular feature that is unique to the desired vendor (ECI/Hyer Inc.). Because of this, there are plenty of vendors that can perform NEPA and landscape architecture services, but only one that can perform this NEPA action in a timely and cost-effective manner.

9. Any Other Facts In Support of Other Than Full and Open Competition. The statement of work and data packages necessary to allow for full and open competition of this requirement have not been developed, as the current ongoing NEPA work does not result in a complete document until the end of the EA process, which will not be completed due to the regulatory shift to an EIS.

The estimated cost that would be duplicated if not procuring the EIS-related services from the EA-providing vendor is $744,686.90, which includes all actions to-date that feed into the EA that have no finalized deliverable until the EA is delivered in March 2021. That estimated value is derived from current NEPA services valued at $537,159.00 under 12010920F0002 and supplemented by additional NEPA-related studies valued at $207,527.90 for Steep Creek under 12010919F0058. All these processes are ongoing and required for both the EA and any related EIS.

List of Interested Sources. The government received no questions, comments or statements of interest in response to the 15 day notice posted to bets.sam.gov.

10. Future Actions to Foster Competition.

All future acquisitions for NEPA services unrelated to this particular requirement for MGRA NEPA (ongoing Master Planning process) will be available for competition, either through full and open competition, or through full and open competition after exclusion of sources (e.g. as a small business set-aside).

11. Contracting Officer Certification. The contracting officer certifies that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of the contracting officer’s knowledge and belief.

12. Approval.

I certify that I have reviewed the justification provided above, and it appears to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. As such, I recommend Contracting Officer approval.

Jonathan Gellings Date Contract Specialist

I certify that I have reviewed the justification provided above, and it appears to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. As such, this justification is approved.

Mari Meiners Date Contracting Officer