Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) - Request for Information (RFI) for the Test, Evaluation, and Support Team 3 (TEST3) Acquisition NASA/JSC/WSTF is requesting information from industry regarding potential organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) arising from the Test, Evaluation, and Support Team 3 Contract (TEST 3). The nature of the work anticipated under the TEST 3 may create the potential for OCI as currently described in FAR Subpart 9.5. Each interested party should review FAR Subpart 9.5 in light of NASA’s anticipation of OCI issues and consider carefully the extent to which an OCI may arise before making the decision to compete for the TEST 3. The TEST3 planned effort is anticipated to fulfill requirements for providing propulsion testing; propellants, aerospace fluids, materials and components testing; hypervelocity impact testing; flight hardware processing; technical services; training; facility maintenance; and construction management. This RFI provides the following draft document in order for Industry to consider when identifying any potential OCI and for Government to obtain Industry feedback on this draft document: • Draft Performance Work Statement (Draft PWS) Information in this RFI regarding potential future requirements is being provided as notional information to interested parties to invite their comments or suggestions. The Government’s goal is to receive comments early enough to thoroughly consider those ideas when developing its final procurement strategy. The Government intends to consider all timely responses to this RFI before finalizing its procurement strategy. Your responses to this RFI will not be posted, and questions submitted in response to this RFI will not be answered. Specifically, NASA anticipates that the requirements under the TEST3 acquisition could lead to one or more of the following categories of OCI issues depending on the composition of the team selected for the anticipated TEST3 contract. This list is not all inclusive: Impaired Objectivity ( An OCI due to impaired objectivity is created when a contractor’s judgment and objectivity in performing the contract requirements may be impaired because its performance has the potential to affect other interests of the contractor ) TEST3 contractor performing reimbursable work (work performed by TEST3 contractor in support of a commercial partner doing business with NASA under a reimbursable Space Act Agreement) that could lead to an unfair competitive advantage of future work related to a commercial partner. The TEST3 Contractor may be in a position to review/analyze or otherwise provide input that favor its own company products, services and capabilities over others. Creation of biased ground rules ( An OCI due to biased ground rules is created when a firm, as part of its performance of a Government contract, is in a position to influence or set the ground rules for another Government contract by, for example, writing the statement of work or the specifications.) 1. TEST3 Contractor providing technical or operational assessments and advice to NASA personnel on specific technologies/methodologies (component and system designs, design requirements, analysis, and model development) that may affect NASA’s preparation of a specification of work, other contractual requirements, or NASA’s evaluation of proposals in a future competitive procurement related to: Artemis including Orion, Space Launch System (SLS), Gateway, and Lunar Lander International Space Station (ISS) Extravehicular Activities (EVA) Commercial crew or cargo providers New technology development 2. TEST3 contractor providing support to NASA for design, development, and technical integration operations activities for programs and projects including: Generic analysis and trade studies Reference mission development Operations concepts development Spacecraft and payload safety compliance Risk management Propulsion systems testing Material and components compatibility testing Unequal access to nonpublic information (An OCI due to unequal access to information is created when a contractor has access to nonpublic information which may provide the firm an unfair competitive advantage in a later competition for a Government contract.) Leadership and organizational management structure under the anticipated TEST3 contract could result in OCI concerns depending upon teaming relationships and other NASA contracts currently held or sought by potential TEST3 contractors. Access to Government Sensitive Information such as pre-decisional information associated with on-going or future NASA projects that may result in future competitive procurements and thus resulting in having access to source selection sensitive information. The TEST3 Contractor may have access to proprietary, business confidential, or financial data from another company (e.g. Associate Contractor, Subcontractor, Space Act Agreement Participant, etc.) that is in support of NASA. A link to the NASA Guide on Organizational Conflicts of Interest has been posted to the TEST 3 procurement website at: https://procurement.jsc.nasa.gov/test3/ . Please reference this document for additional information about NASA’s policies with respect to OCI issues. Interested parties are requested to address the following questions: 1. What type(s) of OCI issues would your company or potential team identify, if any, should you choose to propose on the TEST 3 contract? 2. What strategies would you anticipate proposing to mitigate the OCI issues that you identified (if any)? Please provide strategy details, previous examples/experience with other contracts with NASA or other agencies, etc. 3. Are there any other types of potential OCI issues with the proposed TEST 3 contract that were not identified in this RFI ? 4. Does your company foresee any OCI issues associated with the TEST 3 that would cause you to decide not to propose on the potential TEST 3 RFP? NASA will review any responses received regarding potential OCI and each offeror’s proposed OCI mitigation strategy. NASA may respond to each company who submits a mitigation strategy. NASA’s response will simply be an attempt to examine circumstances which might lead to or eliminate an OCI and is not intended to serve as a confirmation that, in fact, all potential OCI have been identified, an OCI will ultimately exist, or that an interested party is capable of successfully eliminating or mitigating an identified OCI. NASA’s response is also not intended to encourage or discourage any interested party from responding to an RFP issued for TEST 3 in the future. Furthermore, NASA’s response in no way alters or interprets FAR 9.5 as it applies to a final Performance Work Statement or a final proposal submission, should an interest party elect to submit a proposal to an RFP for TEST3. Subsequent to the initial OCI submission and NASA’s response, the Government will not consider further information as it relates to this RFI. The documents on this RFI are for information and planning purposes, to allow industry the opportunity to comment, and to promote competition only. NASA will not affirmatively release any information received in response to this RFI to the public, but may use information received in developing the best approach for a contract strategy, and therefore such information may be recognizable to the interested party who submitted it. Any information submitted in response to this RFI that is marked as “Confidential Commercial or Financial Information” will be considered as voluntarily submitted in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS FOR RFI RESPONSES You are requested to provide electronic responses via e-mail to the Contracting Officer listed below. Any feedback submitted on the PWS should be provided by commenting per the attached instructions on the PWS PDF file (see file named “How to Make PDF Comments”). Please send all responses via email to William Barrington to the following email:
[email protected] and reference "TEST3 OCI RFI Input” in your response. Your response is requested no later than 4:00 p.m. MST on January 17, 2020. Additionally, any communications in reference to this notice should be directed to the email shown above In order to facilitate teaming arrangements, NASA has released a list of names, addresses, and points of contacts of interested parties (who elected to be included) on the TEST3 website ( https://procurement.jsc.nasa.gov/test3/ ). Interested parties are responsible for checking this website and any TEST3 posting on https://beta.SAM.gov for further information and updates. Companies (vendors) are able to indicate interest in this opportunity through the Interested Vendors List in each https://beta.sam.gov posting. This list will be made available to other vendors. Parties that would like their information posted to the Interested Vendors List in https://beta.sam.gov shall use the “Add Me To Interested Vendors List” button. If a vendor would like to be removed from the Interested Vendors List, use the “Remove Me From Interested Vendors” button. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at https://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/pub_library/Omb.html . The Government is under no obligation to issue a solicitation or to award any contract on the basis of this RFI. The Government will not pay for any information solicited under this RFI. No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of a solicitation. If a solicitation is released it will be synopsized in https://beta.sam.gov . It is the interested party’s responsibility to monitor these sites for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. An RFI is not a solicitation and no proposals are being solicited at this time. Do not submit any proprietary data in response to the RFI. Information with proprietary markings will not be read or considered. An RFI does not obligate the Government to issue a request for proposal in the future. Any future solicitation based on the requirements described in this RFI will be published in https://beta.SAM.gov . Place of Performance: NASA/Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center/White Sands Test Facility 12600 NASA Rd Las Cruces, New Mexico 88012 United States