JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION This document constitutes justification and approval for other than full and open competition for the acquisition described herein, under the authority of MMAR 6.302-1, 41 U.S.C. 5(3). - 1. Contracting Organization: The contracting organization responsible for this action is the Acquisition Services of the Government Printing Office, 732 North Capital Street NW Washington DC 20401. - 2. Description of Action: Security and Intelligent Documents for the procurement of: Modification to reinforce nine (9) existing Die Knife assemblies for existing Passport manufacturing UNO equipment. - 3. Description of Services: The GPO manufactures electronic passports for the U.S. Department of State (DOS) on highly specialized UNO bindery equipment outfitted with specific, unique, and critical Die Knives with precision made assemblies to hold the Die during the final cutting process. With specific and unique capabilities, these particular pieces of bindery equipment are crucial elements in the production of the electronic passports. These assemblies are currently in use. However, for the Next Generation Passport these modifications are crucial to the performance and accuracy to maintain the tolerances necessary for our customer DOS. These modifications will be an upgrade in our die knife assemblies presently on our UNO equipment. These are more robust and will maintain the level of final cutting accuracy the current assemblies are not capable of performing. These modifications to the current assemblies must be 100% exactly the same make and model as the existing ones across all our UNO bindery lines at both secure production facilities at Stennis, MS and Washington, DC in order to assure that the products (passports) are manufactured, into finished passport books in the exact same manner at all production locations. Authority: The statutory authority permitting the sole sourcing of services is MMAR 6.302-1, 41 U.S.C. 5(3), "Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. . Applicability of Authority: This equipment is critical to our ability to meet additional DOS projected passport volumes. UNO is intimately familiar with our current passport machinery and manufacturing processes and have custom built our existing lines. The current processes and manufacturing techniques are not available in the realm of public knowledge and it would be in the best interests of national security to restrict the dissemination of this proprietary information. UNO and the prescribed modifications to the die knife assemblies, have established a solid track record for over twenty years with the GPO in terms of their quality, reliability and responsiveness to our needs. The training required for our operators and the time needed to become proficient with this equipment and the proper approved reinforced modified die sets for UNO DP-1, UNO DP-2, and UNO DP-3, will be significantly reduced by utilizing the same UNO machines and approved die sets as is currently being employed on our manufacturing floor. It is essential that the passports manufactured at each of these locations Washington, DC and Stennis, MS (DC and SPF) are identical in form, quality, raw materials, durability, performance and function. To achieve this end, the two facilities must employ the same machinery, equipment and processes to the maximum extent possible. This includes the reinforced modified die sets. All changes, modifications and improvements to the equipment, processes, and procedures must be carefully coordinated, tested and evaluated and documented for consistency. It is necessary that the equipment in both the DC location and the SPF location be identical in make, model and capability to ensure that the passports made from the machines are exactly the same in appearance and performance. During the past ten years of research and development, a highly specialized system of ink, paper and printing process based security features has been developed to ensure against tampering, counterfeiting and forgery efforts. The resulting security system has been tested and evaluated, studied and certified by government laboratories. The reinforced modified die sets approved by UNO will consistently and reliably allow the machines to run at full rated speed without unnecessary jams, work stoppages and lost work hours. - 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: The reinforced modified assemblies for the die sets mounted on the UNO equipment at both of our secure production facilities (Washington DC and Stennis MS) must be the exact same make. This exact make and model are presently mounted on all of our UNO equipment and therefore ALL of our equipment must be outfitted with these same modified reinforced die sets. - 7. Fair and Reasonable: The costs of these UNO Bindery replacement parts are reasonable costs that the GPO has been buying for the past 30 years. These replacement parts have been steady over the years and are a normal operating cost that is accounted for (and recovered) from the revenues generated by passport sales. - 8. Market Survey: These reinforced modified die set assemblies are required to exactly match the existing die assemblies found on all of our UNO equipment in order to ensure exact interoperability and compatibility across all locations of passport manufacturing. The market research for new die assemblies of different makes and models cannot be supported by the passport program - we cannot utilize various makes and models of die assemblies across the locations where our passport bindery equipment is located. - 9. Other Facts: These reinforced modified die set assembly bindery parts are an important part of the UNO bindery equipment that tracks and accounts for the passport chips at every step of the manufacturing process. These parts are removed and replaced when worn out due to normal wear and tear. When a replacement action is initiated - every part at every location on every machine must be the identical make and model to ensure compatibility, interoperability, performance and reliability. If these parts are not removed and replaced as required, the production of passports are threatened as the equipment will not operate without these reinforced modified dies set assembly parts. - 10. Interested Sources: None apply. - 11. Further Competition: No actions at this time - these specific reinforced modified die set assemblies are required to be mounted on the UNO equipment to completely match the die knives installed DP # 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 located at Washington, DC and Stennis, MS. - 12. Technical Requirements/Personnel Certification: We hereby certify that the technical requirements and certifications are accurate.
