The Defense Health Agency awarded a Bridge Contract to Knowesis, Inc., under a limited sources justification for services required by the DHA Assistant Director, Combat Support Agency, Operations, and supporting the Director, DHA; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD), for Health Readiness Programs and Oversight (HRP&O); Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs (PDASD(HA)); Office of the Assistance Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; and subordinate Program Directorates. This action continues services competitively awarded under contract GS-10F-0165W, order HT0011-13-F-0016, with no new work or change of scope.
Services include administrative assistance, analysis, and consulting to support, analyze, and investigate issues related to military public health, force health protection, and health service support during deployments, extended training missions, and operational testing. Services also support organizational planning for deployment activities and medical readiness.
For the competitive follow- on, the requiring activity undertook significant revisions to the requirement as currently reflected in HT0011-13-F-0016. These included realignment of requirements to reflect the new structure of supported offices, increased level of effort related to Military Health System transformation, and addition of surge capability to address contingencies. Additionally, the current award underwent 20 modifications, resulting in a patchwork of performance requirements in need of streamlining into a coherent structure. The requiring activity submitted initial procurement documents for review on August 14th, 2018, for an award in 2019. The contracting office deferred action on the requirement until after the end of the fiscal year due to the priority of effort on completing actions requiring expiring funds.
… This presents opportunities for companies historically performing contracts funded by the agency, but otherwise ineligible to submit a proposal. Such teaming arrangements will require scrutiny not only for compliance with limitations on subcontracting, but also for potential organizational conflicts of interest emerging from performance of other DHA contracts. The contracting officer will need to work closely with the to-be-appointed Source Selection Authority, to navigate the evaluation and arrive at a defensible award decision.
