Description
The General Services Administration (GSA), Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), Acquisition Operations Division (hereinafter referred to as "AOD") intends to award a bridge contract with a 6-month base period and one 3-month option period to Qwest, dba CenturyLink, Inc (hereinafter referred to as Qwest) to provide essential continuity of services during transition for Network Services Division's (NSD) Region 9 FAS telecommunications operations. This bridge contract is for Qwest's Arizona / Nevada (AZ / NV) Local Services Agreement (LSA) I contract and it will provide local telephone service in Arizona and Nevada. Region 9 AOD is doing this contract action in order to allow for the continuation of transitioning services under the existing AZ / NV LSA to the AZ / NV LSA II contracts. The current Bridge which was established in order to transition Qwest's telephone inventory will expire on January 31, 2015. Of the 7,529 lines needed to be transitioned, 675 lines remain. This contract action will allow for NSD to complete their transition of the remaining 4,101 lines. As Qwest's AZ / NV LSA I current Bridge contract expires on January 31, 2015, and there is no way to extend the contract, a second bridge contract is needed to provide continuity of service, at the negotiated rates established in the AZ/NV LSA I contract until all lines are fully transitioned to the AZ / NV LSA II contracts, which were awarded on September 30, 2013. Approval is sought to award this bridge contract on a sole source basis because Qwest is the current service provider for these telephone services and in accordance with 41 U.S.C 253 (c) 1, no other services will satisfy the agency's requirements during the transition period at the negotiated rate. The transition process of this requirement is imperative to ensure that GSA's client agencies that use Qwest's 4,101 telephone lines, do not lose the negotiated rates of service and incur additional costs with the expiration of the current contract, while GSA is in the process of moving these lines to the AZ / NV LSA II contract. The period of performance for this proposed contract is a six month base period and one three month option period. Base period: February 1, 2015 - August 31, 2015. Option Period 1: September 1, 2015 - November 30, 2015. The resultant contract will include all applicable provisions and clauses in effect through the Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-79 (effective December 26, 2014). This notice of intent to award a sole source bridge contract is not a request for competitive proposals. However, in accordance with FAR 5.207(c)(15)(ii), all responsible sources that feel they can meet the Government's requirements may submit a capability statement which shall be considered by the agency. Responses to this notice shall contain sufficient information to establish the interested parties' bona-fide capabilities for fulfilling the requirements within the statement of objectives (SOO), and include: the Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS), and the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award management (SAM) www.sam.gov. A determination by the Government not compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The information received will be retained as market research. This is not a formal solicitation. This notice is for informational purposes only.