EPA Cincinnati Security Management Services

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.