Pursuant to the requirements of the Competition in Contracting Act as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.3 and in accordance with the requirements of FAR 6.303-1, the justification for the use of the statutory authority under FAR Subpart 6.3 is justified by the following facts and rationale required under FAR 6.302-5 as follows: The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Office of Contract Operations (CG-912), Washington, D.C., proposes to enter into a contract on the basis of other than full and open competition. The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) will be required to work collaboratively with the US Coast Guard, including the Ship Design Team (SDT) and Surface Forces Logistics Center (SFLC), to review, evaluate, and collaborate on various fronts in the planning, design and procurement Surface Assets. ABS shall provide classification notation and recommend applicable rules sets, in order to inform procurement acquisition technical data packages; identify Contractor(s) deliverable requirements list (CDRL) submissions; and address conflicts between the USCG SOW(s) and Surface Asset specifications and requirements. In addition, the USCG requires engineering analyses to support design planning and development technical program documentation to ensure that it contains the necessary information to support ABS classification data requirements. ABS provides marine and offshore classification as well as safety, quality and environmental services to marine, energy and government sectors. The U.S. Coast Guard is required by statute (41 U.S. Code 537) to have ABS classify all surface assets in line with ABS classification standards. As Classification agent, ABS reviews contractor data submissions for Surface Asset Classification. ABS assists the USCG in evaluating information provided to the shipyards/designers on CDRLs and technical requirements. The Coast Guard is in the midst of a sustained recapitalization effort. The planned period of performance includes ten (10) contract periods of twelve (12) months each period. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition for this procurement is 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(5) implemented in FAR Subpart 6.302-5(a)(2)(i), Authorized or Required by Statute. This section states that full and open competition need not be provided for when a statute expressly authorizes or requires that the acquisition be made through another agency or from a specified source. The governing statute permitting the required use of ABS is the Coast Guard Chapter 15, Subchapter II, Section 573(c)(3)(A) (codified at 14 US Code - 537) (Reference a). The award of this requirement to any other source for the same or similar services would result in direct violation of the cited statute and therefore is not permitted. This statute requires that - the Commandant shall cause each cutter, other than a National Security Cutter, acquired by the Coast Guard and delivered after the date of enactment of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 to be classed by the American Bureau of Shipping before final acceptance. The Coast Guard Authorization Act can be found here: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-111publ281/pdf/PLAW-111publ281.pdf. As previously noted, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010, 14 US Code 537 requires all USCG cutters (other than National Security Cutters) to be classed by ABS. As only ABS itself can provide ABS certification, there are no other available sources that can perform the ship certification requirements until the U.S. statute is modified to allow for ship classification by organizations or sources other than ABS. Therefore, the Government has no plans to conduct a competitive procurement to identify alternative sources capable of providing the same or similar ABS classification services in support CG-932 Cutters and Boats. The USCG will continue to monitor future congressional legislation for changes to the requirement in the event additional sources should become authorized. To obtain the statutorily required ABS classification of the CG-932 Cutters and Boats, ABS will provide a multitude of separate services during the multiple CG-932 contracts. One of the first service will be engineering and design review, during which ABS will review the contractor's blueprints and drawings to ensure that the proposed vessel will meet the appropriate ABS classification standards. Additional services will be a ship survey conducted by ABS during ship production to ensure that all Cutters and Boats meet the required ABS classification standards. To establish the basis for determining that the ABS prices will be fair and reasonable, the USCG will obtain the most currently available 2021/2022 ABS fee schedule from the ABS Manager of Government Programs. These fee schedules included the labor category rates which will be used by ABS during the OPC Stage 2 classification process. Per the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition Guide" (Reference b). Section 3.5.1 states that "A J&A is not required for contracts awarded...[w]here the statute expressly requires that the procurement be made from a specified source...". FAR 6.302-5(c) also states that the "Authorized or Required by Statute" authority shall not be used when a provision of law requires an agency to award a new contract to a specified non-Federal Government entity. The statue that requires the USCG to use ABS is at 14 USC 1133 (c)(3).
