International Forest Research, Development, Technical & Support Services for the Office of International Programs

This award is cost reimbursement contract for research and development services. Cost reimbursement are currently utilized by most agencies with international missions where there is a prominence of change in the mission-related areas and in contracts that provide a risk to cost and schedule. Pursuant to the requirements of FAR 16.301-2, the Contracting Officer hereby finds: Uncertainties involved in contract performance do not permit costs to be estimated with sufficient accuracy to use any type of fixed-price contract. Consequently, A Cost-Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) contract type shall be used for this requirement to meet agency needs, and no other contract type is suitable due to the complexity of the requirement. It is not possible to estimate accurately the extent, duration, or costs of the specific tasks described in the Performance Work Statement (PWS). As a result, these costs cannot be anticipated with any reasonable degree of confidence. A CPFF contract type will provide more flexibility when the scope of the PWS since the requirement cannot be precisely defined, therefore applying more risk to the Government. There is likely to be inherent risk in the schedule and cost for the majority of task orders under this requirement, such as, 1) continuous overseas office support, 2) disaster assistance, 3) subject matter experts, and 4) emergency services as the need arises. The inherent risk to the contractor in providing support for offices in remote locations and under occasionally adverse conditions would require the contractor to price an enormous amount of risk into a fixed price order thereby making mandatory fixed-price task orders unduly expensive for the government. Therefore, cost plus fixed fee orders will be used when there is an expectation that currency fluctuation, schedule changes requiring travel modifications, labor market disruptions, or other political and economic risks are inherent to the requirement. In determining the type of contract for these requirements, we also examined the types of orders used by the funding agency when they contract for similar requirements. Contracting Officer's Determination: In accordance with 16.301-2(2), that the nature of this requirement presents uncertainties involved in contract performance and therefore does not permit costs to be estimated with sufficient accuracy to use any type of fixed-price contract. Further, in accordance with 235.006, the level of program risk does not permit realistic pricing and it is not possible to provide an equitable and sensible allocation of program risk between the Government and the contractor. With this type of contract, the Government receives value because the fixed fee is aligned with the vendor's performance. Based upon the findings set forth above, and as authorized by FAR 16.306(b), a Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee contract with Cost-Reimbursable line items for travel and other direct costs contract is most appropriate for this acquisition.