Justification and Approval – Intent to do a Sole Source Modification for Additional Maintenance and support of the Marine Corps on-line Ground Climate Assessment Survey System (GCASS) Contract (Option Yr3)

Justification and Approval - Intent to do a Sole Source Modification for Additional Maintenance and support of the Marine Corps on-line Ground Climate Assessment Survey System (GCASS) Contract (Option Yr3)

Notice Type: Justification and Approval

Posted Date: 23-DEC-13

Office Address: Department of the Navy; United States Marine Corps; MCB Quantico - National Capital Region (NCR); 2010 Henderson Road Quantico VA 22134-5045

Subject: Intent to do a Sole Source Modification for Additional Maintenance and support of the Marine Corps on-line Ground Climate Assessment Survey System (GCASS) Contract (Option Yr3)

Classification Code: B - Special studies and analysis - not R&D

Contact: Summerlin S. Walker, Phone 7034322316, Email [email protected] - Summerlin S. Walker, Contract Specialist, Phone 7034322316, Email [email protected] 6.302-1

Description: Department of the Navy

United States Marine Corps

MCB Quantico - National Capital Region (NCR)

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION 1. Contracting Activity

The Regional Contracting Office-National Capital Region (RCO-NCR), 2010 Henderson Road, Quantico, Virginia 22134.

2. Description of Action Being Approved

Authority to act under this Justification and Approval (J&A) for a modification to a Firm Fixed Price award on a sole source basis (contractor: Advanced Survey Design, LLC is a SDVOSBC) for maintenance and support of the Marine Corps on-line Ground Climate Assessment Survey System (GCASS), Contract M00264-10-P-0258). A need now exists to increase the number of surveys funded under the contract to enable the Commandant Marine Corps (CMC) to address important leadership, readiness issues impacting the Marine Corps.

3. Description of Supplies/Services

In 2003, the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) established a goal reducing preventable accidents by 50%. SECDEF increased this goal to 75% in 2006. The GCASS is one part of the CMC Safety Division's overall safety assessment program. GCASS is a proactive mishap prevention process that aids commanders and senior leadership in risk assessment and intervention strategy development. GCASS focuses on operations, maintenance, and other areas directly related to safety. The GCASS process involves collection of data from organizations by means of on-line survey measurement tools that quantify respondents' safety perceptions. These surveys examine the organizational climate using a human factors framework.

Despite parallel requirements for Command participation, the Commandant's Command Climate Survey (CCS) is experiencing a far higher degree of compliance from across the Marine Corps than has typically been experienced with GCASS. The visibility and leadership interest in this survey tool have prompted greater participation. With survey products that are established at a command (O-5) level, it is advantageous for the CCS to be administered separately by subordinate units due to geographical dispersion where the concerns of the command are more appropriately directed to the local Commander than aggregated to a Commanding Officer. While this also occurs with other survey types, the sensitivity and gravitas of the subject matter of the CCS have increased the desire of commanders to drive these surveys down to levels below O-5. The importance of this information has also prompted greater interest in analysis of the data gleaned from the survey. While individual results are confidential, the information that aggregate data provides about the Marine Corps are extremely valuable to leadership as they see to address important leadership, readiness issues by higher headquarter and command elements.

In order to support the increased demand for surveys below the O-5 level, participation by higher headquarters command elements and commensurate increase in analysis; a modification is being requested for 433 additional surveys plus 360 hours of analysis.

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 10 U.S.C. Section 2304(c)(1), as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1(a)(2), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

5. Rationale Justifying Use of Cited Statutory Authority.

The Commandant's Command Climate Survey was implemented and a new CLIN in Option Year 3 (of 4) of an existing Contract for the Ground Climate Safety Survey System (GCASS). Advanced Survey Design conducts GCASS for the Marine Corps and under separate Contracts also manages various survey instruments for the Department of the Navy, the Air Force, NASA and other agencies.

Advanced Survey Design was founded by Dr. Robert Figlock, a Marine Corps aviator with a strong interest in safety. ASD specializes in operational and maintenance safety assessments using a survey process well-grounded in organizational theory and risk management concepts. ASD is sole proprietor of the online assessment system that seamlessly aligns with CMC's mission and the broader fields of Naval Aviation and safety. In addition ASD employs a number of highly specialized former military officers whose expertise contributes to highly efficient and effective analysis and debriefing of Survey results.

The provisions of the contract with ASD do consider the possibility of a future award to a different contractor, in that the data is the property of the government. However, a critical element of these survey systems is the ability to identify trends and culture shifts. Therefore the effectiveness of the system would be significantly impaired if multiple providers were employed simultaneously. The contract structure is reconciled to the objective of promoting competition by allowing for the transfer of the entire data set to the executing contractor in future acquisition cycle(s). ASD's proprietary collection and user interface remain ASD intellectual property. It would be expected that a new contractor would establish a similar user interface proprietary to them. It would be unacceptable to provide multiple competing contractors access through each other's systems to facilitate the critical analysis and trending that is essential to the process.

6. Description of Market Research

CMC SD has contracted for various survey instruments using multiple vendors over the past decade. The pricing of such products varies based on a number of factors: (1) whether the product is delivered on-line or is also provided in a "paper" version; (2) the extent of any tracking, follow up and reporting required of the contractor; and (3) whether any on-site time is required of the Contractor in the execution of surveys or followup actions.

In comparison to other products, the CCS, as well as the GCASS after which it is structured, incorporates efficiencies developed over time and well understood across the fleet. There is no on-site time requirement in the execution of surveys. Travel is reserved for higher leadership and strategy discussions, analysis, and evaluation at the program level. Separately contracting the CCS would create confusion and increase costs if a different contractor were introduced to conduct this work at this time. The government accepts that these products will be re advertised on a five year acquisition cycle, and with only 17 months before the next award the consolidation of CCS with the GCASS Contract has contributed to a more rapid implementation and gleaning of valuable feedback by Commanding Officers and higher leadership. Continued success is anticipated with the award of the CCS CLIN in Option Year 4, and will likely result in the continued coupling of these efforts under a single new contract in the next cycle.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost

The government uses the historical performance of this contractor on previous contracts and the published GSA costing to compare against the rates and labor evident in this procurement. As described in paragraph 6, previous contracted efforts to provide similar survey products involved significantly greater cost.

8. Actions Taken to Remove Barriers to Future Competition

The current contract was offered for competition as a set-aside for Service Disable Veteran-Owned Business (SDVOSB) but only one proposal was received. The Contractor is also has a GSA schedule. Award of this additional work meets the conditions whereby the Contracting Officer (CO) may award a sole source contract:

a. The requirement is not exempted from SDVO contracting and cannot be set-aside. b. There is not a reasonable expectation that at least two responsible SDVO SBCs will submit offers for this added work. c. The anticipated award price of the contract, including options, will not exceed $3.0M.

It is possible that additional SDVO SBCs may participate in the next acquisition cycle. The government anticipates offering this requirement as a competitive solicitation SDVO set-aside in the next acquisition cycle.

Link/URL: https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DON/USMC/M00264/M00264-10-P-0258/listing.html