58 -- Retrofitting of Vehicles

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Mt. Weather Emergency Operations Center (MWEOC), Mt. Weather (Bluemont), VA intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, with On Call Communications, Lake Forest, CA for the purchase of equipment and services to retrofit Mobile Disaster Recovery Centers (MDRCs) and the Mobile Emergency Response System (MERS) with satellite equipment to provide voice and data communications in the field. FEMA intends on issuing a purchase order to On Call Communications utilizing Simplified Acquisition/Commercial Items/Services procedures. The vendor will be required to retrofit twelve MDRCs that were originally outfitted by a separate vendor. FEMA requires that all of the MDRC's operate on a common platform for compatibility purposes. FEMA also requires small enhancements to the ten oldest MDRCs to bring them up to the standard of the later vehicles. FEMA also requires upgrade of the MERS vehicles, many of which are operating with equipment purchased in the 1980s, so that the MERS communications will be compatible with the MDRC communications, and all FEMA mobile units will ultimately operate on the same platform. It is imperative that the MDRCs and the MERS have compatible equipment. FEMA's response and recovery mission will be jeopardized if FEMA has multiple vendors, each supporting small numbers of vehicles. The satellite equipment is at risk of failure if FEMA must procure equipment from a different vendor for different vehicles, and if equipment from one vehicle is not interchangeable with equipment from another vehicle. On Call has performed previous retrofits under separate awards made during Fiscal Year 2004 and 2005 and this current project is a continuation of FEMA's retrofit requirement in support of the response and recovery mission. Responses shall be sent via email to Sandra.nixon@dhs.gov and must be received no later than 12:00 NOON/EST on May 12, 2006. This is not a request for competitive proposals. However, all responses received by the date identified above will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed requirement based upon the responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. This is a small business set-aside requirement, NAICS Code is 517310 , Small Business Size is 1500.