The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) plans to replace an existing Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) with a new one that includes functions widely available in the private sector, limiting the opportunities for contractors to compete for work that should not be part of an FFRDC, the Professional Services Council (PSC) says.
Citing the Request for Proposals that DHS released in September for the new FFRDC, Stan Soloway, president and CEO of PSC, says that language in the solicitation that the scope of the new Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) “’refocuses the existing Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute (HSSAI) FFRDC with comprehensive and renewed core competencies in operational analysis,’” indicates the sought after core competencies include services such as acquisition, organization, policy and doctrine studies, all capabilities currently done in the private sector.
“Thus, we question how DHS could have conducted comprehensive market research in determining that only an FFRDC could perform the scope of work within the solicitation,” Soloway says in a Nov. 20 letter to Reginald Brothers, the under secretary for Science and Technology at DHS. The PSC released Soloway’s letter on Monday.
The PSC also notes that the ceiling value for the HSOAC contract is $500 million, yet awards for work at the HSSAI have been well under the $286 million ceiling for that FFRDC.
“It is difficult to discern how such a dramatic increase in the estimated contract value ceiling is not tied to an anticipated expansion of the scope of work,” Soloway writes. “If this is the case, there should be significant concern that the solicitation is solely designed to shift vast amounts of work away from federal employees or from non-FFRDC contractors that routinely compete for, and successfully perform, similar tasks under a wide variety of contract vehicles.”
The HSSAI is operated by Analytics Services Inc., better known as ANSER. FFRDC’s are public-private partnerships that do independent research and analysis for the federal government that can’t be done by federal employees or for-profit companies. The FFRDCs are usually managed by non-profit companies, universities, and occasionally for-profit companies.
Soloway says that the PSC supports the use of FFRDCs when the private sector can’t meet the needs of the federal government. He is asking Brothers to review the solicitation for the HSOAC and DHS policy regarding FFRDCs before awarding a contract.
According to the RFP, the HSOAC will provide mission level technical and integration expertise to DHS leadership and managers.