The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) intends to noncompetitively increase the maximum value of Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity Contract No. NRC-33-11-325 with NTT DATA Services Federal Government, Inc. (DUNS 175344753) ("NTT DATA") for Information Technology Infrastructure Support Services ("ITISS:") and extend the period of performance of that contract beyond its current expiration date of April 30, 2018 to allow time for the remaining replacement contract vehicle to be competitively awarded and to provide sufficient time for all remaining transition activities from the ITISS contract to occur. Background: In January 2017, the NRC announced its intent to award several GSA Federal Supply Schedule Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) for the NRC's GLobal Infrastructure and Development Acquisition (GLINDA) multiple award acquisition. However, before the NRC could award those BPAs, several unsuccessful offerors protested the award decisions to the General Accountability Office (GAO). In accordance with the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 (CICA), award and subsequent utilization of the new BPAs were subject to a mandatory suspension until the GAO resolved the protests on May 19, 2017. The multiple-month protest period caused a significant delay in the NRC's ability to compete replacement BPA Calls and transition those requirements from the ITISS contract to the awarded BPA calls and to other related acquisitions. To date, the Security Operations Center (SOC) BPA Call, the GLINDA Mobility Services BPA Call and the End-User Computing BPA Call have been competitively awarded. The SOC and Mobility Services BPA Calls have been fully transitioned, and while the End-User BPA Call has been recently awarded, the transition process is expected to take approximately 60 days. In addition, the sole remaining BPA Call acquisition that must be awarded and transitioned before transition from the ITISS contract can fully occur is the Systems, Network, and Related Cross-Cutting Services (SNCC) BPA Call. The NRC is currently evaluating quotations for SNCC and, if discussions are required, award is anticipated for late June 2018. Accordingly, the NRC requires an extension and corresponding increase to the maximum value of the ITISS contract to ensure continuity of services until the services can be completely transitioned from NTT DAA to successor Contractors (which may themselves be protested and cause further delays in the NRC's transition). The period of performance of this extension potentially includes the following four option periods (which will only be exercised if absolutely necessary): a. May 1, 2018 to September 30, 2018 b. October 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018 c. January 1, 2019 to January 31, 2019 d. February 1, 2019 to February 28, 2019 The maximum value being added to the ITISS contract for those potential option periods is $23,750,000. This modification to the ITISS contract is necessary because only NTT DATA has the necessary knowledge, experience, and personnel with required access authorizations and NRC security clearances to maintain continuity of the NRC's critical IT services until remaining transition activities can be completed for the End-User BPA Call and so that remaining evaluation, discussions (if necessary), award and transition activities can occur for the SNCC BPA Call. Additionally, NTT DATA is the only responsible source that can satisfy this short-term transitional requirement. Awarding a short-term contract to any other Contractor is not feasible for the following reasons: - It would take many, many months to conduct a competitive acquisition, and that acquisition process would require a transition from NTT DATA to a party that may or may not be among the awardees of the GLINDA BPA competitions and other planned awards. - Transition of the existing services to another Contractor would take a minimum of three months. Because the ITISS contract will soon expire, the window allowing for competitively awarding a new contract and transitioning to a new source is extremely short. Transition activities will include the procurement of physical assets that are currently leased from the incumbent Contractor, the migration of support for those assets and infrastructure services from NTT DATA, and establishment of a smooth migration of support services from the incumbent Contractor. - Contractor personnel are required to comply with NRC security standards. All Contractor personnel with access to sensitive data must be granted IT access authorization by the NRC Division of Facilities and Security. This process typically takes two to four months to obtain the necessary authorizations and clearances, and not extending the incumbent contract would cause an unacceptable lapse in IT services. - The competitive acquisitions for the GLINDA BPA calls and other vehicles could be protested by unsuccessful offerors, and that could require the NRC to stay the performance on the new contract(s) and jeopardize the NRC from meeting its mission requirements. - Competing a new short-term contract would not be cost effective. The cost of conducting a competitive acquisition and then transitioning to a short-term Contractor just for the period of the requested extension would cost the NRC millions of dollars. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition for this acquisition is 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, which provides for limiting competition in those situations where only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. No source other than NTT DATA can satisfy this short-term need given the transition period that would be required, and conducting a competitive acquisition for this short-term need would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirements and substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition.
