United States Department of the Interior NATIONAL PARK SERVICE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK PO Box 168 Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 82190 Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition Date: 21 May 2012 Project: Repair and replace necessary parts on GPS Radio Equipment 1. Identifications a. Agency: National Park Service b. Contracting Office: Yellowstone National Park 2. Description of the action being approved: The National Park Service (NPS) shall be soliciting for repair of Global Position System telemetry equipment designed to function on wild bison in the National Park (service needs to include replacement of necessary parts that are not functioning properly such as batteries and belting) . The documents included with the solicitation call for specific brand name products that are peculiar to one manufacturer. This written justification provides approval for limiting competition to the listed brand name products as authorized by the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). 3. Description of supplies and services: Product Estimated price TGW-4700-3 $1,150 device each for 12 devices = $13,800 4. Authority: a. 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1): Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. b. FAR Part 11.105: The Brand Name products are essential to the Government's requirements, and market research indicates other companies' similar products do not meet and cannot be modified to meet the agency's needs. c. FAR 6.302-1: The use of the name brand products are essential to the Government's requirements, thereby precluding consideration of a product manufactured by another company. 5. The description of the product's unique qualifications or the unique nature of the acquisition: Over the years Yellowstone National Park has purchased approximately 40 individual radio transmitting devices for use in monitoring Yellowstone bison activities and demographics. We would like to have some routine servicing of the equipment conducted to maintain the equipment in an efficient working order. At this time we need to conduct this work on 12 of our devices. The equipment was purchased from Telonics Inc, 932 E. Impala Ave. Mesa, AZ 85204. The servicing of this type of equipment is coordinated by Carol Reindel and her phone number is 480 892 4444 ext 113. Her email address is
[email protected] The equipment was purchased because of the durability of the product and the equipment has performed well on bison here at Yellowstone National Park. The repair and servicing is less costly than purchasing brand new equipment. The type of service work we need conducted is as follows a) Inspect the receiving and storage of data capabilities of the equipment. b) If necessary, replace the store on board data collection device c) Inspect and replace if necessary the Mortality Switch. Ensure the equipment will activate the mortality switch after 6 hours of inactivity at greater than 60 beats per minute (to be negotiated with company technicians to determine a compromise rate that does not unduly consume power from the battery) d) Inspect and replace if necessary the Activity Sensor and ensure that the refurbished equipment is programmed to collect data at 10 minute intervals throughout the data collection life of the equipment. Also, ensure the Tip Switch functions at +5 degrees, head to tail e) Repair or replace black webbing in order for the GPS antenna to function when webbing length is adjusted to 38-42". The black webbing material should be sufficient to stay on an adult female bison that can aggressively rub the collar material on trees. f) Ensure that the equipment emits a VHF pulse at 40 beats per minute and the signal emits at a strength to receive with commercial receivers at 2 to 5 miles distance. g) Ensure that the equipment will collect one GPS location every 2 hours for a period of 2 years h) Inspect and replace if necessary the Temperature Sensing device 6. Efforts to obtain competition: a. Efforts to ensure offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable: For acquisitions over $25,000 the solicitation will be issued on the Government's Point of Entry, FedBizOpps.gov. Advertise our servicing needs as noted above. Previous attempts to solicit this type of repair work has resulted in no bidders except the manufacturer that produced this equipment. Manufacturers of this type of electronic equipment do not do repair work on equipment they do not produce. b. Presolicitation notice per FAR 5.2: For acquisitions over $25,000 a presolicitation notice shall be posted on the Government's Point of Entry, FedBizOpps.gov unless the exception noted at FAR Part 5.202(a)(13) applies. 7. Determination that costs will be fair & reasonable: Wildlife telemetry equipment is a specialized field of electronics. The equipment when originally purchased cost about $2500 per telemetry device. The price to repair vs. purchase new equipment is less and the equipment will perform up to specifications for additional time period. 8. Description of the market research conducted: Several years ago Yellowstone National Park purchaced $53,000 worth of telemetry equipment from a bidder (Global Precision, Inc.) using the same specifications. The supplier provided equipment that failed to meet the specifications, Strapping material was bright white and did not camoflauge in with bison hair, the signal strength only allowed reception up to a few hundred meters, battery life was actually less than one year. NPS was required to conduct additional captures to retrieve failed equipment that stressed the animals and the capture crew. The second generation equipment also failed the specifications listed and the NPS had to sacrifice the funding because the time to help the manufacturer research and develop their equipment was not worth the cost to the NPS when the Telonics equipment rarely failed and never required additional capture work and costs to retrieve failed equipment. The NPS now has $53,000 worth of telemetry equipment that is not worth the cost to repair it because it has already cost much more that the original cost to purchase. 9. Other facts supporting other than full & open competition: a. Reason why documents suitable for full & open competition have not been developed: It is customary to return to a specific manufacturer to have proprietary equipment repaired. b. Data, estimated costs or other rationale as to the extent or harm to the Government: 10. Interested Sources: Previous attempts to solicit this type of repair work has resulted in no bidders except the manufacturer that produced this equipment. 11. Actions to remove barriers to competition in the future for similar acquisitions: When the government accumulates funding to purchase new equipment we will solicit for bids from all available suppliers of wildlife telemetry equipment as we did when we originally purchased this equipment. 12. Certifications: a. Technical / Requirements Certification: I do hereby recommend the use of the Brand Name products noted above for the procurement noted above. I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Name: Rick Wallen Title: Biologist Signature: /s/ Rick Wallen Date: May 21, 2012 b. Contracting Officer Certification: I have reviewed this justification and in accordance with the procedures noted by the National Park Service's Contracting Officer's Technical Instruction (COTI) 1443.6 - 01, do hereby approve acquisition by means of other than full and open competition. Approve: Signature: Stacy Vallie Date: June 11, 2012