Intent to Award Sole Source - Best Technology, Inc.

The National Archives and Records Administration is intent on awarding a sole-source contract to Best Technology, Inc. for the procurement of one 55-gallon drum of BestSolv 7200 Engineered Fluid under solicitation NARA-883103-26-Q-00021, with a response deadline of June 5, 2026 and an anticipated award date of June 19, 2026. The acquisition is justified under FAR 13.106-1(b) due to the unique technical requirements of the Lipsner-Smith film cleaning machine at NARA’s Motion Picture Laboratory in College Park, Maryland, which requires this specific fluid as an exact molecular replacement for the discontinued 3M Novec™ 7200. Market research confirmed no commercially available substitutes exist, making Best Technology, Inc. the exclusive supplier. The contract is a firm fixed-price purchase under FAR Part 13, with no set-aside, and no competitive evaluation or evaluation factors apply. Delivery is required at NARA’s facility at 3301 Metzerott Road, College Park, MD 20740, with inspection and acceptance based on chemical equivalence verified by NARA scientists and successful operation of the film cleaning equipment. No specific packaging, preservation, marking, or labeling requirements are detailed beyond the drum container specification, and no formal clauses under FAR 52.2xx-xx are referenced. The contracting officer is Yolanda Bean, with Cynthia Jones serving as the primary point of contact; no COR or COTR is designated. The estimated value is not disclosed, and no certifications, representations, UEI, CAGE codes, or socioeconomic status data from the offeror are provided. The procurement relies entirely on the government’s sole-source justification and technical necessity for preserving archival motion picture records.