DFA_JA.pdf

FDO/ MICC Control No. 15-0001

JUSTIFICATION DOCUMENT

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Dining Facility Attendants for Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield

1. CONTRACTING AGENCY: MICC-Fort Stewart

2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTION:

This action is requesting approval to issue a one (1) month purchase order with the potential of an additional month depending on circumstances, to extend the services currently being performed on an existing Firm-Fixed Price, single award, purchase order, W9124M-14-P-0150. The one (1) month purchase order with the potential for one additional month has an estimated amount of approximately $500,000.00. The current purchase order extended the now expired Dining Facility Attendants fixed priced requirements contract, W911SE-08-D-0010.

This purchase order is required to maintain continuity of services and will be used to allow the minimum amount of time to complete evaluations of the proposals submitted in response to solicitation W9124M-14-R-0001 and award the follow on contract with sufficient time for successful Offeror to begin providing dining facility attendant services.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

The work associated with this requirement shall provide all labor, personnel, equipment, materials, supplies, supervision, and other items and services necessary to provide Dining Facility Attendants (DFA) Service when applicable on Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield HAAF), Georgia in accordance with the Army Food Service Program, applicable regulations and the Performance Work Statement (PWS).

This purchase would extend the current services, maintaining the status quo of services currently provided, one (1) months through 30 Novmember 2014. This is the time anticipated to complete the procurement process for the on-going competitive follow-on requirement. The overall scope of the work to be provided will remain unchanged during this extension with the exception of any reductions in service required by new policy.

Fort Stewart’s mission is to serve as a force projection platform for the 3rd Infantry Division, tenant units, and associated units at Hunter Army Airfield (HAAF). The Logistics Readiness Center (LRC) has the mission to provide maintenance, supply and transportation services to the 3rd Infantry Division, tenant units, and DOD activities within their geographical area of responsibility. The LRC is required to maintain dining facilities across the installations on a permanent and temporary basis to support an array of units and agencies. This requirement stems from that need. The dining facility operations are a basic and vital necessity to support the constant flow of units’ training across the installation. The contractor services provided in this contract supports the infrastructure of the installation and provides the necessary augmentation to staff these facilities to ensure the proper level of operation and supports the overall Army readiness by increasing the quality of life for Soldiers and families.

Currently, Fort Stewart consistently operates an average of five (5) Dining Facilities, monthly, as a part of this contract. This includes one (1) being operated at HAAF.

These services are crucial to the mission of the 3rd Infantry Division and play a critical role in the success of the mission.

4. AUTHORITY CITED:

This action is authorized under provisions of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1) as implemented by Federal Acquistion Regulation (FA) 6.302-1, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.” For DoD, NASA, and the Coast Guard, services may be deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of follow-on contracts for the continued provision of highly specialized services when it is likely that award to any other source would result in –

(A) Substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition, or (B) Unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements. (See 10 U.S.C. 2304(d)(1)(B))

5. REASON FOR AUTHORITY CITED:

Pursuant to FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii), in the interest of cost savings and avoiding unacceptable delays, this follow-on requirement is available from the incumbent contractor for services described above and that the original contract award was completed using adequate competition. As the incumbent contractor, Wolf Management Services is currently in place and performing in an acceptable manner.

This is a follow-on contract as the incumbent has been providing the same services at this installation since the period of performance began on the current contract, 1 February 2008. Previously, the “Option to Extend Services” clause was used to extend the contract. Bridge purchase orders have been issued to continue services.

The process to issue the follow-on solicitation has faced continued delays due to the uncertainties created by sequestration which has led to potential, significant, policy changes in how Army Dining Facilities may operate in FY14. Fiscal year 2013 continued to be a difficult year due to budget uncertainties and frequent adjustments to contracts and requirements. This requirement is no exception. The requiring activity, the Fort Stewart LRC, was delayed in providing an initial requirements package to MICC-Fort Stewart as a result of their attempts to reduce costs by redefining the way the services are estimated and ordered. The uncertainty and ever-changing nature of the dining facility operations are directly impacted by troop deployments and troop usage. The constant changes in the usage of the dining facilities have made it increasingly difficult for the requiring activity to keep dining facilities open and define the requirement in a way that states the actual estimated usage. Specifically, when and how BMM will be utilized in order to alleviate some of the costs brought on by contracting for DFA services. The recent fiscal uncertainty appears to be continuing into the next fiscal year, creating difficulties with potential changes to the requirement.

Even as MICC Fort Stewart began to procure the follow-on services, there were several attempts to re-write the requirement to address potential changes being discussed regarding the possibility of decreasing some of the facility services and placing those responsibilities with military and civilians. After the first extension, an exception to policy was approved to allow military manpower to perform Dining Facility Attendant duties in FY13. While this ended in FY13, there was speculation that this may occur in FY14 as well. MICC – Fort Stewart has been actively working with the Fort Stewart LRC to adapt the requirement to these potential, significant changes. While not as significant, the re-procurement process was further delayed as the result of period of furlough days required by the Department of Defense due to the budget cuts related to sequestration.

Prior to receipt of proposals, the State Licensing Agency for Georgia requested an arbitration hearing through the Department of Education to determine if the Dining Facility Attendant services at Fort Stewart are subject to the Randolph-Shepherd Act. Preparation for the arbitration hearing required and continues to require significant resources from the pre-award team working on the follow-on procurement efforts for the Dining Facility Attendants.

The solicitation for the follow on contract was issued on 1 April 2014 with a response date of 1 May 2014. A large number of questions were received in response to the solicitation and required a longer than normal amount of time to respond with clarifications. During this time, the requiring activity debated whether to include additional services in the contract. As this debate continued, the procurement process moved forward. MICC – Fort Stewart was unable to issue an amendment that included clarifications and Government responses to industry questions while the Logistics Readiness Center debated the inclusion. Finally, a decision was made to remove the additional services from the contract and to move forward with solicitation.

An amendment was issued with these responses on 2 June 2014. At that point it required extending the offer due date and moving the period of performance start date to 1 August 2014. Several more questions followed this amendment. A final amendment was issued on 4 June 2014 with a 10 June 2014 response date. The source selection board was convened on 11 June 2014 and concluded on 20 June 2014. The reviews by the technical team took longer than expected, and in turn delayed the reviews by the contracting team. It was made apparent that an award would not be made in sufficient time to allow the successful Offeror sufficient time to begin the contract.

Trying to obtain a replacement contractor to cover this period would also incur operational challenges. Specifically, this requirement is under the purview of AR 30- 22, Army Food Program and as such has many requirements for health and safety.

Based on the results of Market Research, other contractors would be capable of providing similar services. However, the time available to compete the short-term extension period and the time necessary for a transition period, make it unrealistic to solicit services and make an award. The result would be substantial costs associated with the work that would not be recovered through competition for this short performance period. This effort has already taken place and been paid for by the Government in the performance of the current contract and would not be repeated as a result of this extension.

It is clear that both operational and administrative delays have continued to take place in the performance of this requirement. It is also clear that further delays must be minimized to insure continuation of this vital service to the soldiers of Fort Stewart and HAAF. However, there have been and still are external factors and litigations that may impact the award process of the follow-on contract. This service satisfies a mission critical need for Fort Stewart and HAAF and to lose the service will result in a mission failure for the Fort Stewart LRC. Missing even a single day of service would result in such severe mission degradation that soldier effectiveness in other mission essential areas would be affected.

Therefore, it is recommended that a one (1) month purchase order, with the potential for an additional month being added, at the current prices be approved and executed as this is categorized as a follow-on contract and mission failure would result if any other procurement method is used. The incumbent contractor, Wolf Management Services, continues to perform in an acceptable manner and the overall scope of the requirement remains unchanged at the moment. Substantial delays have occurred with the re-procurement; however, delaying the services until the follow-on procurement occurs would mean mission failure and would be unacceptable.

6. EFFORTS TO OBTAIN COMPETITION:

Digitally signed by

FRYE.JAMES.ROBERT.1283932148

DN: c=US, o=U.S. Government, ou=DoD, ou=PKI, ou=USA, cn=FRYE.JAMES.ROBERT.1283932 Date: 2014.10.31 10:27:06 -04'00'