Public Affairs Support Service

1. Nature and/or Description of Action The Defense Threat Reduction Agency contracting activity proposes to procure without using full and open competition the extension of the period of performance on an existing contract and increase of the contract ceiling. 2. Description of the Supplies/Services Required The proposed action will extend the period of performance from July 31, 2009 to October 31, 2009 under Contract HDTRA1-05-F-0975 for Public Affairs Support Service with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). The Public Affairs Support Service consists of support in providing a wide-range of professional support to include creating internal and external communication products, supporting public affairs operations, and deliverying information and public affairs products and services. This support includes creating and maintaining web-based products (applications and internal, external and secure websites), communication products such as To the Point, a daily news and information summary; and writing and maintaining information products, and participating in weapons of mass destruction incident exercise activities. This requirement is a time and materials contract expiring on July 31, 2009. The contract was awarded with a base year and two options as follows: Base Year from 10/1/2005 to 9/30/2006, Option Year One from 10/1/2006 to 10/31/2007 and Option Year Two from 11/1/2007 to 10/31/2008. The six month extension in accordance with FAR 52.217-8 was invoked along with extensions to this effort for the period from 11/1/2008 through 7/31/2009 for services to continue through July 31, 2009. The extensions were needed due to the changes in procurement strategy and inability to award the follow-on effort in a timely manner. It was anticipated that the follow-on procurement would be in place on or before 7/31/2009. In an effort to sustain support until a follow-on acquisition is in place, an additional 3 months is needed to ensure the public affairs support receives continuous service. The additional time and ceiling is requested in order to allow for the continuation of DTRA's mission needs. The contract ceiling will increase by $162,254.07. 3. Statutory Authority The statutory authority for this non-competitive action is 10 United States Code (U.S.C.) 2304(c)(1) or 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source. 4. Applicability of Authority The effort for Public Affairs Support Services is currently being performed by CSC. Public Affairs has the responsibility to provide internal and external communication for the agency, and to serve as the official agency spokesperson. In support of the corporate communication function, the contractor provides a wide range of services to the Public Affairs office, including the development and presentation of significant news updates in the daily operations briefing to senior leadership, the publication of a newly-designed print and electronic newsletter, the tracking of materials submitted for policy review, Freedom of Information Act requests and other materials; audio-visual and photographic support, news tracking and other electronic media support. The current contractor has a well-defined knowledge of the functions and responsibilities of public affairs with the agency, a level of expertise which would be difficult to replicate over the short term. It is a complex process, and a learning curve would be unavoidable with any other contractor. Obtaining a short term contract would cost more than the extension and would put this program at risk for failure with the steep learning curve that would be created with any other contractor. CSC has the requisite qualified staff to continue performance without any impact or delay. It is expected that the use of any other source for this modification would result in duplication of costs and time to develop the capability within another contractor's workforce that is not expected to be recovered through competition. For another contractor to progress efficiently without impact to current efforts, it would depend in part on having working level knowledge of the public affairs program and sufficiently performing on-going day to day services without disruption. The knowledge and procedures gained within this office takes a considerable amount of time to acquire. If these services are not continued, the results will impact critical responses required by the DTRA Director, Chief of Staff, Directorates and Staff Offices. In addition, the loss of critical staff continuity at this time would mean that the mission critical support to DTRA would have numerous serious impacts to include: - Loss of skilled briefers to cover media activities during daily operations briefs - Loss of coordination and tracking skills required to expeditiously process Policy Reviews, Freedom of Information Act Requests - Loss of knowledge of requirements and procedures to support DTRA's Outreach program - Loss of knowledge of new publication requirements for full-color print and electronic news magazine - Significant degredation in ability to provide audio/visual and photographic support to DTRA - Loss of current knowledgable support of administrative functions within public affairs - Loss of knowledge among contract team of operations within DTRA only replicable after significant experience within the organization. Accordingly, CSC is the only contractor capable of providing the public affairs support at the necessary skill level without an unacceptable delay. 5. Effort to Solicit Potential Sources This effort was synopsized on July 16, 2009 in accordance with the provisions of FAR Part 5. To date, two responses have been received and are addressed below in paragraph 9. 6. Fair and Reasonable Costs The anticipated cost/price of this contract action to the Government will be determined to be fair and reasonable based on historic cost information currently available. The contracting officer has adequate information to ensure that the cost to the government for this acquisition will be fair and reasonable. 7. Market Research Market research, in accordance with FAR Part 10, was conducted by synopsis of the proposed acquisition, advising industry of the pending acquisition and soliciting inquiries from interested parties. 8. Other Facts The additional effort required of CSC to continue to perform services is estimated at $162,254.07. A new contractor would require substantially more cost to perform the services as well as result in significant delays and duplication of effort to initiate a new procurement. Establishing another source without the requisition experience and a combination of corporate resources with a fundamental understanding of the current public affairs program would require a substantial amount of time and investment of financial resources. It would be cost prohibitive to amortize this substantial investment in the period of time for this action and duplication of costs. Also the learning curve and ramp-up time for an additional 3 month effort required for another contractor to satisfactorily provide the required services would negatively impact the ability of the public affairs office to provide the critical level of support to the DTRA leadership, employees, customers and other related constituencies. 9. Interested Sources Two companies inquired about this acquisition. Zoyas Hendrick Mediaworks LLC, an 8(a) certified woman owned small business responded they would be interested in assisting with this requirement should there be a Hispanic outreach component. This requirement does not require a Hispanic outreach component and no other information was provided. Leonie Industries, LLC also responded indicating they recently received a GSA AIMS contract and would like to participate in the solicitation if is not too late, no further information was provided by this company. This company was referring to the follow-on solicitation which closed on June 9, 2009. No other sources responded to this announcement. 10. Subsequent Actions A competitive solicitation was solicited as an unrestricted full and open competition under the General Schedule Administration's Federal Supply Schedule. The solicitation COS090012445, Public Affairs Support Services was issued on April 30, 2009. By extending and increasing the ceiling of this contract, we will continue to provide the continuity of services that are necessary to meet current critical mission requirements until the follow-on acquisition is awarded. The resulting proposals on the follow-on acquisition are in evaluation with an anticipated award by October 31, 2009. Contracting Officer Certification I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Linda Mulligan, Contracting Officer