Description
Organization: NAVFAC
Team Name: NAVFACENGCOM Contracting Team
Related Acquisition Topic(s): Acquisition Practices Streamlining, Cycle Time Reduction (CTR), Partnering
Description:
These individuals' dedicated efforts and innovative approach in evaluating and awarding contracts resulted in the award of a $20 million dollar highly visible procurement within 62 days. Specifically, this requirement "The Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) Program" is a tri-lateral effort between the militaries of the US, Norway and Russia. The goal is to support the US National Secruity Strategy through environmentally safe and accountable reduction of Russian naval nuclear forces in northwest Russia.
Historically, the US has obtained AMEC support from a variety of contracted sources under contract vehicles issued by several agencies or activities (DOE, EPA, NRL, Navy, Air Force etc.) including purchase orders issued using simplified acquisition procedures (SAP), GSA non-mandatory supply schedules, and large contracts. Due to the obvious inefficiencies inherent in have multiple contractors supporting a single program or project, and the unique complexities of dealing with foreign entities on a day-to-day basis, it was determined that the US AMEC Program Office would best be served by having only one contract vehicle, whenever possible.
NAVFACCO had to overcome several hurdles in order to place the requirement. Some include the following: a) Unique requirements for multi-national support services and supplies, including capability to successfully conduct business in the Russian Federation and Norway. b) A technical customer located over 3,000 miles away from the contracting office that included stakeholders from several agencies, each with their agency's unique perspective of source selection procedures and processes. In order to overcome these hurdles, the NAVFACCO contract specialists conducted research to explore alternative source selection methods that would streamline the procurement process without jeopardizing the "best value" concept. The Level of Confidence Assessment (LOCAR/Fast Track) source selection method was chosen, not only for is potential to streamline the procurement process, but also because of the sound business sense and rationale upon which it was based.
