Advanced Research Center OCI RFI

PURPOSE: The purpose of this announcement is to notify potential offerors on the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Advanced Research Center (ARC) Follow-On Procurement of Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) submission requirements. Background: MDA Advanced Research Center (ARC) provides the infrastructure and cybersecurity engineering necessary to support Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) Hardware-in-the-Loop (HWIL) and related Ground Testing in a Continuous Integration/Continuous Agile Testing (CI/CAT) environment. MDA is developing an acquisition strategy for the follow-on procurement to the current ARC Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract HQ0147-07-D-0002. FAR 2.101(b) defines OCI as follows: "Organizational conflict of interest" means that because of other activities or relationships with other persons, a person is unable or potentially unable to render impartial assistance or advice to the Government, or the person's objectivity in performing the contract work is or might be otherwise impaired, or a person has an unfair competitive advantage. As mentioned above, the nature of the work performed at the ARC by necessity requires the ARC contractor to participate and/or support activities such as HWIL and related Ground Testing of MDA systems at various levels of development and/or fielding. MDA is concerned with the risk that the ARC contractor could be placed in a situation where there is the possibility that the nature of the work places a contractor in the position where their performance would have the potential (or appearance) to benefit their own company or a company with which they have economic interests. As part of continuing market research, MDA is seeking additional information to properly assess potential OCI issues early in the acquisition process. Therefore, the prime contractor may submit an OCI mitigation plan on behalf of their proposal team if they believe they can effectively mitigate OCIs while executing the ARC follow-on contract. The following are examples of areas of concern regarding OCI: •• MDA Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) whose deliverables or products are tested or validated in the ARC such as (but not limited to) Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and their subcontractors on MDA efforts. •• All MDA National Team members, contract number HQ0147-12-D-0003 and HQ0147-14-D-0001. •• TEAMS Quality/Mission Assurance, and Safety contract primes and their subcontracts •• Single Stimulation Framework (SSF) to include Objective Simulation Framework (OSF) development contract primes and their subcontracts may not bid on the ARC follow-on. Potential Modeling and Simulation Center (MASC) development contract primes and their subcontracts are advised that they may not participate in both MASC and the ARC follow-on contracts and shall be required to withdraw from the other competition if awarded one of these contracts. Request for Information: MDA is considering a Small Business Set Aside in accordance with FAR Part 19. Potential basis could include Small Business, 8(a), HUBZone, Service Disabled Veteran Owned (SDV) or Women Owned (WO). MDA's final acquisition strategy will be informed by these responses. To effectively promote competition prior to issuing the final Request for Proposal, MDA has determined that your preliminary OCI Mitigation Plan, if you require one, must be submitted by November 8, 2017 for consideration as an initial assessment from MDA on your ability to effectively execute the ARC follow-on contract. The intent is to use these OCI plans to inform the RFP as it relates to the impacts of OCI issues on the pool of potential offerors. OCI Plans shall state potential OCI concerns and clearly communicate how the prospective offerors shall mitigate these concerns. Plans shall be provided in accordance with the FAR 9.500 Organizational and Consultant Conflicts of Interest and submitted no later than November 8, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. central standard time. Included with this RFI is the ARC's Draft Statement of Work (SOW) requirements for OCI reference. If a company believes that unmitigatable OCI issues will prevent you from bidding on the ARC Follow-On Competition, please advise by submitting a statement to this effect to [email protected] attention "ARC Follow-On OCI Plan" no later than November 10, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. central standard time. Proprietary information is neither sought nor desired by MDA. If proprietary information is submitted, it must clearly be marked "proprietary" on every sheet containing such information and the proprietary information must be segregated to the maximum extent practicable from other portions of the response (e.g., use an attachment or exhibit). Respondents are responsible for adequately marking proprietary information contained in their response. Do not send any classified information. Companies are advised that the government may contact those who respond to this announcement, as needed, on a one-on-one/case-by-case basis, to further clarify the information submitted. Eligibility to participate in any future acquisition does not depend upon a response to this notice. The Government will not pay for any direct or indirect costs that are incurred in responding to this request for information. Furthermore, this request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated or received for this effort. The information provided may be used by the MDA in developing its acquisition strategy, statement of work/performance work statements and/or statement of objectives. If a solicitation is released it shall contain an OCI clause that could limit a successful offeror from participating in other MDA contracts. To the greatest extent possible, while still protecting the Government's interests, the OCI clause shall be applied only for the supported technology areas of the contractor's actual technical analysis performance. If a solicitation is released the contractor must be able to obtain and retain a Top Secret facility clearance and be able to comply with DFARS 252.204-7009, Limitations on the Use or Disclosure of Third-Party Contractor Reported Cyber Incident Information, 252.204-7012 Dev (Oct 2015), Safeguarding Covered Defense Information and Cyber Incident Reporting (DEC 2015), 252.204-7014, Limitations on the Use or Disclosure of Information by Litigation Support Contractors, and 252.239-7010, Cloud Computing Services. If a solicitation is released, this acquisition shall not be open to participation by foreign firms at either the prime or subcontract level. Response/Due Date : Please respond with your plans and/or OCI impacts to email: [email protected] attention "ARC Follow-On OCI Plan" no later than November 10, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. central standard time. Small Business Participation: MDA is committed to providing small businesses with maximum practicable opportunities to participate in MDA prime contracts and subcontracts. Questions concerning this RFI notice should be addressed to [email protected] .