Intent to Award Bars of D2 Bars of Steel

CONTRACT TEPA13-29898 has been awarded based on the authority below: AUTHORITY: FAR Subpart 13.106-1(b)(1) REQUIREMENT: The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) Office of Engraving, Plate Manufacturing Division has a requirement to purchase the following item - Steel Material: Federal Reserve Seal and Treasury Seal of various sizes (see requisition) from Redding Steel. The BEP requires these parts within four (4) weeks from award. The independent government cost estimate (IGCE) is estimated at $18,000.00. BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: BEP is a component of the Department of the Treasury that designs, engraves, and prints U.S. banknote currency and other U.S. security products. Banknote currency manufacturing occurs at BEP's Eastern Currency Facility (ECF) located in Washington, DC and WCF located in Fort Worth, TX. BEP's primary customer is the Federal Reserve Board (FRB). The BEP purpose of the purchase of steel material used in plate making on the Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) process for the manufacture of Treasury and Federal Reserve seals for currency production. This sole source acquisition will provide continuity of supplies for the manufacture of U.S. currency. JUSTIFICATION: In this instance, the nature of the acquisition and/or circumstances surrounding this acquisition requires the use of the authority cited above as follows: 1. Nature of the Acquisition a. BEP is currently in the process of renewing the Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPA) for the supply of steel material. It is anticipated that a new competed BPA (including testing) will be in place in the second quarter of FY 14. This single purchase is for the continuity of steel material until such a time that the competitive contract vehicle is in place. i. The current BPA has reached its ceiling and therefore cannot be used for this purchase. Therefore, a single purchase is required to allow of continuity of supply while a new BPA is put in place. b. The steel material is required to have a high level of purity and be heat treated (the process of heating steel to gain the necessary hardness). The steel material used during the manufacturing process for plate making cannot contain any impurities or the EDM process will fail resulting in the steel material being completely replaced and lengthy process fully repeated as a cost of material, time and effort for the BEP. 2. Unique Qualifications a. Redding Steel's steel material was previously found technically acceptable as it meets the stringent purity and heat treatment requirements. Currently, Redding Steel is the only manufacturer which is an approved source of supply for steel material. b. Other steel manufacturers as alternate sources of supplies for steel material have been previously tested and to date none have been found to meet the required purity and heat treatment requirements. c. Any alternate source which is identified that could meet the purity and heat treatment requirements will require an amount of time and effort as well as costs expended to submit material samples for testing and evaluation. It is anticipated that these efforts will be completed within six (6) months under the competitive BPA acquisition. i. However, in order to meet the demands of the currency manufacturing, the continuity of supplies is needed during the testing and evaluation effort. Overall, based on the above only the proposed source can meet BEP's need. OTHER: This requirement does not result from a lack of planning or expiration of funds. This requirement is the result of a defined need to purchase steel materials used in the manufacturing of U.S. currency. BEP anticipates that the price will be fair and reasonable based on comparison of the proposed price with prices found reasonable on previous purchases and comparison to an independent Government estimate. DETERMINATION: In summary, based on the above the establishment of a Purchase Order with the proposed source is in the best interest of the Government.