Notice of Intent to Sole Source Maintenance for Belsorp-BG and Belsorp-VC

The United States Department of Commerce (DOC), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division (AMD) intends to negotiate a firm-fixed-price purchase order, on a sole source basis, with Microtrac, Inc. for maintenance of the Government owned Belsorp-BG and Belsorp-VC. This will support research and development as well enable the NIST Facility for Adsorbent Characterization and Testing (FACT Lab) to establish measurement protocols. The statutory authority for this sole source acquisition is FAR 13.106-1(b) by the authority of FAR Part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures.

The scope of work for this order is a service/maintenance contract for NIST-owned Belsorp-BG (Model: MSB, Serial Number: 142) and Belsorp-VC (Model: BELSORP-VC, Serial Number: 9) test instruments at the NIST facility in Gaithersburg, MD. Maintenance and repair work are intended to keep the instruments operating to the original manufacturer's specifications and to allow them to operate without extended interruption and achieve their optimal performance. Inquiries to the manufacturer about a potential servicer of their equipment revealed that Microtrac, Inc. is the only company authorized to complete maintenance on the equipment. If this maintenance was to be conducted by another third part vendor the warranty on the product would be void and thus potentially cost a duplication of cost for the Government. In addition, the equipment that needs to be maintained is proprietary to the original OEM. Due to the proprietary nature the vendor does not authorize third-party vendors.

Performance shall occur at the NIST Gaithersburg, MD campus within twelve (12) months after receipt of order with four (4) twelve (12)-month option periods of performance.

Research has found that only one (1) company can meet the requirements as it requires maintenance professionals with particular credentials and training, which can ONLY be obtained directly from Microtac.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 334516, and the size standard is 1,000 employees.

No solicitation package will be issued. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, all responsible sources interested may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement. The Government will consider responses received by 12:00 p.m. Eastern on September 4, 2017. Inquiries will only be accepted via email to january.magyar@nist.gov . No telephone requests will be honored.

A determination by the Government not to compete the proposed acquisition based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement in the future.