Enterprise Operations and Maintenance

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY (FAR Section 16.505)

Conditions for exception to the fair opportunity requirement for Delivery or Task Order issuance under ID/IQ contracts

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity:
Contracting Activity:
Joseph Pishioneri, Contracting Officer
USDA, FSIS, Office of Administrative Services
Procurement Management Branch
5601 Sunnyside Avenue, Maildrop 5230
Beltsville, MD 20705-5230

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved:
This is a limited source procurement for FSIS Operations and Maintenance (O&M) services. A firm fixed price task order is anticipated being issued to Sotera Defense Solutions (Sotera).

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs (including estimated value):
The FSIS Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) requires continuation of contractor support for Information Technology O&M of its portfolio of deployed applications, business systems, tools, web services, and data to maximize efficiency, effectiveness, and quality in satisfaction of its food safety mission. Briefly, this FSIS Enterprise Operations and Maintenance (O&M) effort is a large, complex, multi-faceted effort which includes project management, consolidated service desk support, IT application support, database administration, configuration and change management, configuration and depot maintenance, as well as networking and telecommunications support. The scope of FSIS Enterprise O&M includes IT support for approximately 10,000 FSIS employees, 12,000 Industry users of the Public Health Information System, plus about 1,200 State employees across the country. The bulk of FSIS users are inspectors working in meat and poultry plants across the country. Enterprise O&M places of performance include metro Washington, D.C., as well as in FSIS laboratories, and USDA data centers. The estimated value is $8,016,416.79.

4. Identification of the exception to fair opportunity (see 16.505(b)(2)) and the supporting rationale, including a demonstration that the proposed contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the exception cited:
FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C), "The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency as a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order".
Given the complexity, scope, and geographic dispersal of the FSIS Enterprise O&M contractor support requirements, and the dramatic impact these services have on the FSIS mission and the agencies ability to ensure food safety, it is determined that a lapse in service of O&M would be of high risk.

Fair Opportunity was originally obtained via solicitation no. AG-3A94-S-14-0160, which was competed on NIH-NITAAC CIO-SP3, Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC).

As a result of solicitation no. AG-3A94-S-14-0160, task order no. AG-3A94-D-15-0031 was issued to Sotera. The period of performance of task order no. AG-3A94-D-15-0031 is set to expire June 9, 2016. This task order will be issued as a logical follow on to task order no. AG-3A94-D-15-0031, to provide uninterrupted USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Enterprise Operations and Maintenance (O&M) service coverage while completing corrective action to resolve protests filed on the new FSIS Enterprise O&M contract.

Utilizing this methodology will efficiently and economically allow FSIS the most flexibility without jeopardizing a lapse in service of mission critical O&M functions.

5. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:
Prices will be determined to be fair and reasonable by the Contracting Officer before award. The Contracting Officer will consider existing NIH-NITAAC CIO-SP3 rates, in addition to historic pricing paid by the agency in determining prices fair and reasonable for these services.

6. Any other facts supporting the justification:
None.

7. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made:
The next FSIS O&M task order is anticipated being issued utilizing Fair Opportunity via the NIH-NITAAC CIO-SP3 GWAC.