Description
This is a limited sources justification, pursuant to the requirements of FAR 8.405-6, Limiting Sources under Federal Supply Schedules under the authority of the Multiple-Award Schedule Program. 1. Agency: United States Environmental Protection Agency Contracting Activity: EPA Cincinnati Acquisition Division Requisition No.: PR-OMS-25-00614 Title: Cincinnati Security Management Services 2. Nature and/or description of the action: The Cincinnati Acquisition Division intends to award an extension of the bridge contract via modification to a General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule (Federal Supply Schedule) Firm Fixed Price (FFP) task order. EPA intends to issue an extension to the existing armed security guard bridge contract issued to Diversified Protection Corporation (DPC). The extension will be for an additional three (3) months of services with three one-month options as described in Paragraph 3 while the next iteration of this requirement is competed on GSA Schedules, in accordance with FAR Part 8. The period of performance for the current task order (GS-07F-120GA / 68HE0C18F0866) expires April 30, 2025. This modification will extend the period of performance end date to July 31, 2025, with three one-month options potentially extending the period of performance to October 31, 2025. 3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value): The contractor shall provide armed staff and security support services 24 hours per day, 7 days a week for all eight US EPA locations in Cincinnati, OH and Northern Kentucky. In addition, the contractor shall manage the EPA Security Program. The contractor shall assess threats and vulnerabilities through risk analysis and determine the required level of security necessary to provide oversight for physical security programs at multiple locations with a variety of operational functions. Security threats include, but are not limited to, human threats, which are those typically defined as active threats, crimes, terrorism, sabotage, and operational and procedural deficiencies. In addition, the contractor shall have an understanding and knowledge of emergency operations/preparedness procedures to manage a crisis caused by natural disasters such as fires, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and in other threatening environments such as chemical releases. The contractor shall be knowledgeable of the current Homeland Security Alert Levels established by the National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS), as well as the Risk Management Process for Federal Facilities: An interagency Security Committee Standard Appendix B: Countermeasures. A complete description of the requirements can be found in the attached Performance Work Statement. Total value is estimated to be $2,469,437.28 for a six (6) month period. 4. Authority and supporting rationale and, if applicable, demonstration of the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service: FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(A) - An urgent and compelling need exists, and following the procedures would result in unacceptable delays. This justification is based on the consideration that armed security guards are a critical, necessary service for EPA. A GSA task order, GS-07F-168GA / 68HERC24F0255, was solicited via solicitation number 68HERC23Q0113 and competitively awarded to 8(a) contractor Servexo on March 15, 2024, with an initial effective date of April 1, 2024. Servexo subsequently requested that the Agency terminate the order. The reasons for Servexo’s request are detailed in a separate document titled “Memorandum on Termination Request - GS-07F-168GA - 68HERC24F0255”, which is included in Tab 122 of the contract file, and which is incorporated by reference into this justification. However, because that document may include proprietary or confidential information, EPA is not including it with the public version of this justification in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(2)(iii). EPA terminated the GSA task order GS-07F-168GA - 68HERC24F0255 on April 26, 2024, and the 1-year bridge via extension modification was awarded on April 30, 2024. The PR for the Cincinnati follow-on GSA Task Order was received on May 21, 2024. Due to a high workload in the CO’s branch and other procurements taking priority, the acquisition team was not able to start reviewing requirement documents and going over acquisition strategy with the COR until August 2024. The CO started developing the solicitation in October 2024. Due to the accelerated timeline for awarding the follow-on security requirement, the CO began exploring solutions to speed up the evaluation process. On October 8, 2024, the CO met with OGC for a concept review of a new evaluation strategy to better streamline the evaluation process through a phased approach involving oral interviews followed by evaluation of technical proposals. The solicitation, with the piloted evaluation process, was submitted for Branch Chief review on February 6, 2025. As a result of subsequent internal reviews, significant revisions were made to the solicitation. The solicitation was released on April 21, 2025, and the follow-on GSA task order has a projected award date of July 2025. Conflicting priorities as well as piloting a new evaluation process slowed the development and release of the security follow-on solicitation. GS-07F-120GA / 68HE0C18F0866 is set to expire on April 30, 2025, and without an extension to provide additional time to award the follow-on security task order, there would be a break in these critical armed security services, potentially causing disastrous life, property and safety issues for all Cincinnati, OH and Northern Kentucky US EPA facilities. With no extension to the existing GSA Task Order in place, it is highly likely that EPA’s facilities would need to be closed until a new contractor can begin performance due to lack of security at these facilities. This would be a situation where EPA-owned buildings, leased spaces, equipment, property, EPA personnel, EPA contractors, and visitors could be physically harmed without security contract support. A lapse in critical and essential security services could cause catastrophic failures to laboratory experiments and numerous stop-work situations with onsite contracts, among other detrimental impacts to the Agency. Following competitive procedures to solicit and award a new order will take more time than EPA currently must prevent an unacceptable break in service. The CO has determined that, given the history of this requirement and CAD’s current heavy workload, an additional 90 days (3 months) in options should be included to allot for potential delays. This additional 3 months would be included as three one-month option periods after the 3-month extension base period and only exercised if delays prevent an award in 3 months. EPA cannot afford to take on any additional risk associated with these critical services, as such, a maximum 6- month bridge on the current GSA task order is in EPA’s best interest. Current Contractor: Diversified Protection Corporation 8020 S. Rainbow Blvd., Suite 100-530 Las Vegas, NV 89139 Current Task Order (TO) Number: GS-07F-120GA / 68HE0C18F0866 TO Total Price, including Option Periods: $30,118,901.97 TO Period of Performance, including Option Periods: 10/01/2018 – 04/30/2024 First Bridge Extension Task Order Total Price, including Option Periods: $4,846,510.44 First Bridge Extension Period of Performance: 05/01/2024 – 04/30/2025 Proposed Extension Period of Performance: 05/01/2025 – 10/31/2025 Proposed Estimated 3 Month Base Extension Total Price: $1,234,718.64 Proposed Estimated Base plus 1 Month Option Extension Total Price: $1,646,291.52 Proposed Estimated Base plus 2 Month Option Extension Total Price: $2,057,864.40 Proposed Estimated Base plus 3 Month Option Extension Total Price: $ 2,469,437.28 5. A determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with 8.404(d). The anticipated cost to the Government will be evaluated based on the contractor’s level of expertise, skill, and labor force mix, as well as a comparison to the pricing for the previous year of service. As this is a GSA task order, the contractor cannot exceed their GSA labor rates. The Contracting Officer will conduct a complete analysis, including a comparison of the proposed price for the bridge to the most recent twelve-month period of the existing task order, to confirm the quotation is fair and reasonable and within the best interest of the Government. 6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted. No additional market research was completed for the current extension. Urgency and the critical nature of this requirement requires EPA to utilize the current contractor. 7. Any other facts supporting the justification. n/a. 8. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made. A new task order will be competed between eligible small business 8(a) vendors on GSA MAS 561612 (Security and Protection – Security Services) to replace the terminated task order GS-07F-168GA - 68HERC24F0255. There are no particular barriers that led to restricted consideration in the case of this bridge. As explained above, EPA elected to use a novel procurement approach for the follow-on requirement, which resulted in a longer solicitation development period than anticipated. Having refined the approach for the follow-on requirement, subsequent solicitations using the same or a similar approach will not take as long to develop.