NASA/GSFC intends to extend Contract No. S43978G, entitled "Information Technology Research and Development," for the Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate with SAIC, Inc., on a sole source basis. This extension will be for a 6-month period through March 31, 2005. This extension will allow the work to continue until the award of the competitive follow-on procurement. The follow-on procurement is expected to be in place by April 1, 2005. SAIC, Inc. is uniquely qualified to perform this requirement, due to their extensive work in the U.S. Intelligence world, which has been applied to NASA for performing long range Systems Engineering technology planning. If SAIC is not allowed to continue their service, during this 6-month extension, interrupting the ongoing research work will cause delays and missed milestones. There would also be major delays in getting a new contractor's staff up to speed, and there would be a loss in time for a new contractor to develop its own new methods to apply to ongoing tasks.
The statutory authority for Other than Full and Open Competition is 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), Only One Responsible Source. The Government does not intend to acquire a commercial item, using FAR Part 12. See Note 22.
Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.
All responsible sources may submit an offer which shall be considered by the agency.
An Ombudsman has been appointed. See NASA Specific Note "B".
Any referenced notes may be viewed at the following URLs linked below.
