Description
1. Identification of the Agency and the Contracting Activity. The RTP Procurement Operations Division, Office of Acquisition Management, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is requesting the approval of a limited source justification for increasing the labor ceiling of Option Period IV on Task Order EP-G11D-00081, GSA Schedule 70 Contract GS-35F-4550G, awarded under the Multiple-Award ITS-EPA II Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). This labor ceiling increase does not include any change to the labor categories or labor rates in the Task Order; the scope and nature of work remain unchanged. 2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved. The ITS-EPA II BPAs were competed via GSA Schedule 70 to support EPA?s IT infrastructure requirements. Seven vendors were selected and awarded BPAs which allows each to compete for task orders to support EPA?s IT requirements. Lockheed-Martin Management Systems Designers, Inc. (hereafter referred to simply as Lockheed-Martin) provides High-end Scientific Computing Support Services (HSCSS) under the aforementioned Task Order (EP-G11D-00081). This Task Order was competed among the seven ITS-EPA-II BPA holders and was awarded on April 26, 2011. This task order has a Base Period (May1 through September 30, 2011) and five Option Periods corresponding to Fiscal Years 2012 through 2016. This Task Order is currently on Option Period IV. It is managed by EPA?s Office of Environmental Information (OEI)/Office of Technology Operations & Planning (OTOP)/National Computer Center (NCC). Two distinct sets of services are provided under this Task Order ? High Performance Computing (HPC) and Environmental Modeling & Visualization Laboratory (EMVL) Support. HPC services are operational in nature and are provided under EPA?s Working Capital Fund (WCF) Service SC (Supercomputing). EMVL services include modeling application and visualization support; these are provided under the WCF Service TZ (Technical Consulting). TZ workload is entirely dependent on the volume of orders received by EPA?s Office of Environmental Information (OEI) from EPA organizations. OEI/OTOP/NCC requests this ceiling increase during Option Period IV (FY 2015) to meet a higher volume of customer-funded cost-plus-fixed-fee (CPFF) Technical Consulting (TZ) orders than anticipated at time of Task Order award. The EMVL TZ services provided under this Task Order include expertise in scientific computing, visualization and a wide range of disciplines such as atmospheric modeling, computational fluid dynamics, computational toxicology and bioinformatics. They are critical to EPA/ORD scientists in the various Labs/Centers/Offices (L/C/Os) to achieve their research goals. Many of their research projects are associated with the Research Action Plans (RAPs) formulated by ORD?s National Program Directors (NPDs) and are critical to ORD?s and the Agency?s mission. ORD?s Office of Science Information Management (OSIM) centrally funds the bulk of these projects each fiscal year via a single TZ order in WCF Service Agreement (DP26SC0001). ORD has set up a rigorous go vernance process to ensure that only research projects that are critical to its mission goals qualify for OSIM funding. ORD?s Information Management Governance Board (IMGB) makes the final determination as to which projects qualify for this funding and the hours of support each qualifying project will receive during any fiscal year. Additionally, researchers can also order these TZ services ad hoc using funding from their own L/C/Os. Twelve OSIM-funded TZ projects and four ad hoc TZ projects are supported under this Task Order currently in FY15. This requested task order ceiling increase is essential to ensure that OTOP/NCC can provide the ordered TZ services. Without an increase in the ceiling, all work on this Task Order (both TZ and SC) will cease around June 16, 2015 as the task order will reach its ceiling. Such cessation of work will disrupt supported projects, negatively impact ORD research and activities, and jeopardize the successful implementation of mission-critical ORD RAPs. 3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs: The Agency requires a labor ceiling increase for Task Order GS-35F-4550G/EP-G11D-00081, because the labor ceiling for this task order was based on historic Working Capital Fund (WCF) Technical Consulting (TZ) service levels. For fiscal year 2015, however, TZ orders for scientific computing consulting on the task order have significantly exceeded the anticipated level. In fact, TZ projected orders have exceeded any historic level for the Environmental Modeling and Visualization Laboratory (EMVL) as the Office of Research and Development (ORD) continues to actively promote the use of EMVL?s services to its scientists. This ceiling increase does not include any change to the labor categories or labor rates in the Task Order. The scope and nature of work remain unchanged, and only the volume of work is affected. 4. Identification of the authority and supporting rationale. In accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(C); it is the Government's position that the additional level of effort called for in this proposed labor hour ceiling increase action is a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule order that was placed in accordance with applicable Federal Supply Schedule ordering procedures. The Task Order was awarded competitively under EPA?s Multiple-Award ITS-EPA II BPA and GSA Schedule 70. This labor ceiling increase action does not involve any changes to the labor categories or the labor rates in the original Task Order. Additionally, the scope and nature of work remain unchanged. Any change from the existing contractor (Lockheed-Martin) to another contractor in the ITS-EPA II BPA to support this additional level of labor effort would cause unacceptable delays; result in damaging disruption to mission-critical projects currently supported; add procurement, transition and contractor Program Management Office (PMO) costs; and increase complexity and cost by introducing the need to manage two Task Orders (instead of one, as at present) for the EMVL TZ support effort. 5. A determination by the contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d). The task orders issued under EPA?s ITS-EPA II BPAs (including Task Order EP-G11D-00081) are all under the vendor?s GSA Schedule 70 contract. Price evaluations were conducted on each task order to determine if the proposed price, level of effort and the mix of labor were fair and reasonable. Each task order resulted in the best value to meet the Government?s needs. For the ceiling increase, it is EPA?s intention to utilize the prices already set forth in the current Task Order EP-G11D-00081 which have already been competed and determined fair and reasonable. 6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results. The existing Task Order (GS-35F-4550G/EP-G11D-00081) was awarded competitively under the ITS-EPA II BPA and GSA Schedule 70. There are seven BPA holders under ITS-EPA II; the Task Order was competed amongst those ITS-EPA II BPA holders. 7. Any other facts supporting the justification. None. 8. A statement of any actions the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required. No actions are currently available to remove or overcome any barriers that preclude the Agency from meeting the requirements of 8.405-1, because of the nature of the items being procured. 9. The ordering activity contracting officer's certification that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the contracting officer's knowledge and belief. The Contracting Officer certifies that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Joel P. Smith, 3/09/15, Contracting Officer, Office of Acquisition Management 10) Technical or Requirements Personnel Certification: This is to certify that the provided supporting information which is the responsibility of the undersigned program representative is accurate and complete. Timothy Hinds, 3/09/15 Task Order COR, OEI.