J A_Redacted.pdf

Control Number:

JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT

FOR A LIMITED SOURCE AWARD

1. Contracting Activity: 410th Contracting Support Brigade, Regional Contracting Center, Bldg 1026, Joint Base San Antonio, Fort Sam Houston, Texas 78234-6102.

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is to provide for an award of a short term six-month (Bridge) contract which is currently being performed under Task Order (TO) W15P7T-06-D-E407/Task Order BD03 with Viatech, Inc. for Information Technology (IT) Operations and Maintenance support services for United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) Joint Task Forces - Guantanamo Bay (JTF-GTMO), Cuba. Viatech, Inc. is currently a wholly-owned subsidiary/affiliate of D&S Consultants, Inc., doing business as DSCI. DSCI, as the offeror for the bridge contract, will be the contract awardee. The Period of Performance (PoP) of the current TO is from 7 September 2013 through 6 March 2014. The Government has a need for continued contract support for IT support functions at Guantanamo Naval Base while it re-competes a follow-on contract. The Bridge is for a six-month Period of Performance (PoP) from 7 March 2014 through 6 September 2014. The contract will include FAR Clause 52.217-9, Option to Extend the Term of the Contract, for a three (3) month option term. The total estimated cost of the proposed action is approximately which will be funded using Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Operations and Maintenance Army (OMA) funds.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: United States Southern Command sustains Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) at US Naval Base (USNB) Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). The contractor will be required to continue to support operations, including migrant operations for Non-DoD agencies and Non-Governmental Agencies, detainee operations, humanitarian assistance/disaster relief operations requiring network and other IT support functions at Guantanamo Naval Base, and military support operations requiring use of the contractor installed, operated, and maintained facilities at Guantanamo Naval Base. The services currently being provided require the contractor to operate and maintain historical and production Enterprise Vault solutions that comprise the collateral and Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS) networks. In addition, the contractor will continue to provide Information Technology operations and maintenance support services for the JTF-GTMO Secure Internet Protocol Network, Non-Secure Internet Protocol Network, Joint Deployable Intelligence Support System/JWICS networks, including video teleconferencing operations, Global Command and Control Systems, Defense Red Switch Network, Detainee Information Management System, and Land Mobile Radio Network. The contractor will continue to support other Government and non-Government/organizations/agencies as required by the JTF-GTMO Commander during contingency and emergency operations, e.g., Migrant Operations.

4. Authority Cited: 10 U.S.C. § 2304(c) (1) and FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(B), Only One Responsible Source.

5. Reasons for Authority Cited: Between June 2013 and December 2013, the re-procurement for follow-on support was being handled by the Regional Contracting Office (RCO) Miami.

The RCO was actively pursuing the re-procurement and expected to issue a solicitation in December 2013. In December 2013, the RCO experienced office manning issues, which necessitated the transfer of the procurement to the Regional Contracting Center (RCC), Fort Sam Houston, TX. The RCC Contracting Officer (KO) reviewed the acquisition strategy and questioned whether it would result in the best value to the Government. With the concurrence of the Principle Assistant Responsible for Contracting (PARC), the KO revised the procurement strategy and new timeframes were incorporated in the contract award process.

The Government is currently preparing a Request for Proposal for these services; however, the following must be considered:

It is important that the evaluation criteria clearly reflect the Government’s need and facilitate preparation of proposals that best satisfy that need, provide for an accurate evaluation of an Offeror’s proposal, allow sufficient time for a successful transition to maintain full continuity of operations, and perform a Source Selection Board that will effectively identify, assess, select, and award the IT contract that offers the best value to the Government.

Allow sufficient time for a 45 day response time from date of issuance of solicitation, to include a question and answer period.

Allow sufficient time for a 15 day evaluation period and discussions, if any.

Allow sufficient time for a 30 day review and award of the contract by the Contracting

Officer.

Allow sufficient time for a 60 day transition period for the awardee.

There is a no-fail mandate for JTF-GTMO, which requires the Government to apply deliberate effort towards complying with the Office of Military Commission (OMC) ordered data, which must be accessible and maintained. It is imperative that the Government decrease the risk of IT support failure at JTF-GTMO in order to ensure the OMC is able to continue performing their mission requirements that directly relate to the JTF-GTMO detainees. OMC assists the attorneys with detainees’ concerns -- a high profile mission.

Historical experience (lessons learned) has clearly demonstrated that a new JTF-GTMO IT contractor must be allowed 60 days to effectively transition to the JTF-GTMO overseas location in order to prevent an interruption of IT services.

It is not expected that a replacement competitive contract can be awarded prior to the current end of the PoP of 6 March 2014 to allow for continued uninterrupted services. There is an immediate need for the continuation of the unique and highly specialized services provided by Viatech, subsidiary of DSCI, which will ensure seamless support to JTF-GTMO. A Request for Proposal (RFP) for a follow-on contract is projected to be issued during the last two weeks of March 2014 and awarded on or about 1 July 2014. The anticipated award date will allow for a 60 day transition period, thereby, providing overlap with the bridge contract. Additional revisions to mission requirements for the effort have resulted in the need to develop the evaluation criteria to allow for an evaluation process to determine which offers submitted in response to the solicitation best meet the Governments’ stated needs; rewrite the Performance Work Statement (PWS) for clarity, eliminate confusion, and allow industry time for a question and answer period; and coordinate a site visit to GTMO, which requires time and security background checks for base entrance. In order to satisfy this requirement, the Government requires a Bridge Contract to ensure continued uninterrupted JTF-GTMO IT support until a new contract can be competitively awarded. Although there may be other sources with the capability to provide the required support in the future, DSCI is the only source that can currently provide these services without interruption. Any other approach will introduce high risk in the effort of preventing uninterrupted, critical IT support services to JTF-GTMO’s Detainee Detention Operations. It is expected that any other contractor would require at least 60 days to fully staff and prepare for the effort. The effort would require the contractor to first obtain security approvals, obtain CAC cards, complete nondisclosure agreements, obtain AKO/JKO accounts, attend required USSOUTHCOM/JTF-GTMO’s initial annual training, receive Synchronized Pre-deployment and Operational Tracker (SPOT) Letters of Approval (LOA), receive clearances to enter the Naval Station, receive approvals via the Aircraft and Personnel Automated Clearance System (APACS) for travel requirements, and obtain available base housing. Furthermore, the contractor would need an estimated three additional months to become fully acclimated to the unique systems utilized at JTF-GTMO, which require proper training to ensure mission accomplishment.

A break in C4S services at JTF-GTMO would have the following impact:

- Help Desk client services would decrease by 80% and required network services by

90%.

- Inability to comply with the JTF-GTMO’s data preservation mandate as a result of not performing the O&M for the enterprise vault, in which critical data is stored.

- Staffing to provide immediate data required by the OMC attorneys will decrease by

80%.

- Risk to equipment increasing 75% as a result of potential power losses due to a lack of

C4S monitoring, recovering, and maintenance of the systems; the proposed period of performance occurs during the hurricane season.

- Support for intelligence-gathering for various authorized agencies decreases by 98%.

- At least a 70% reduction in the ability to directly support contingency operations.

Lastly, per the DoD Office of General Counsel Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, subject “Preservation of Detainee Records” dated 19 December 2007, a discontinuation of services is unacceptable as the Army has been directed to preserve and maintain all documents and recorded information relating to all DoD detainees currently at Guantanamo Bay.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market Research was first performed by the RCO Miami office during the period of 3 July through 6 September 2013. The Contract Specialist surveyed Computer Hardware Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) Information Technology Enterprise Solutions - 2 Services (ITES-2S) and Information Technology Services - Small Business (ITES-SB), General Services Administration (GSA), and a Small Business Administration (SBA) market research which yielded a multitude of possible businesses that can satisfy this requirement. Research into the CHESS program for services indicated that CHESS may have been a good source for the fulfillment of this contract. A Request for Information was issued on 3 September 2013 to all 15 CHESS ITES-2S schedule holders and two schedule holders responded indicating interest. However, contact with one schedule holder initiated contact with the CHESS Contracting Office in Rock Island, IL. During this conversation, the KO who manages the IDIQs under ITES-2S indicated that there were modifications to all IDIQ contracts which makes all the IDIQs expire 13 April 2015. These modifications further indicate that no contractor can perform on any contract more than one year after the 13 April 2015 date. This knowledge would force this office to execute a base and one single option year contract, which is not cost effective. Therefore, CHESS contracts will not be solicited to meet this requirement.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: Further market research into the GSA schedules concluded that this requirement could be met by using the GSA schedule 70 (General Purpose Commercial Information Technology Equipment, Software, and Services), SIN 132-51 (Information Technology Professional Services). A Request for Information under this SIN was sent to GSA under RFQ815895, which closed on 6 September 2013, with 11 responses received. All 11 companies responded to the questions about capabilities and provided a capabilities statement as requested. However, due to a change in the contracting office responsible for processing this procurement, a determination was made to change the acquisition strategy to allow non-GSA holders to compete for this effort, as non-GSA holders may come in with better pricing.

8. Market Research: To further increase competition, a synopsis was posted on 19 November 2013 notifying industry of the Governments’ intent to award a sole source short term contract.

The Government received responses from two sources describing their ability to satisfy the Governments’ requirements. The Government considered their capability statements in accordance with FAR Part 5.207(c)(16)(ii). Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned factors, the Government informed the interested parties that due to its short time constraints, its revised strategies and requirements for the follow-on solicitation, the Government did not have adequate time to compete this procurement.

9. Interested Sources: To ensure offers are solicited from as many potential sources, this effort will be solicited full and open, and in accordance with FAR 5.201. This action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunity Webpage.

10. Other Facts:

a. Procurement History:

Contract Number Contractor Award Date

Type of Contract

Extent Competed/Authority

DAA07-03-D-B010/0223

Lear Siegler

Services, Inc. 29 July 2008 Time & Material Competitive

W15P7T-06-D-E405/BD05

Lockheed Martin

Integrated Systems 27 July 2010

Cost plus Fixed Fee

Competitive

W91QUZ-06-D-0012/BD02

General Dynamics

Information Technology

01 September

Cost plus Fixed Fee

Sole Source

Authority: 10 U.S.C. 2304c and FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)

W15P7T-06-D-E407/BD03 Viatech, Inc. 08 April 2011 Cost plus Fixed Fee Competitive

W15P7T-06-D-E407/BD03 Viatech, Inc. 4 April 2013

Cost plus Fixed Fee

Sole Source

Authority 10 U.S.C. 2304c and FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)

W15P7T-06-D-E407/BD03 Viatech, Inc.

5 September

Cost plus Fixed Fee

Sole Source

Authority 10 U.S.C. 2304c and FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii

b. Acquisition Data Availability: The Government possesses a performance-based

Performance Work Statement for this effort.

c. Subcontracting Competition: Although there are no FAR subcontracting provisions that require competition among potential subcontractors for commercial contracts, the Government will seek to maximize subcontracting competition with a focus on subcontracting to small and small disadvantaged businesses.