HSRP Review of

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HSRP Review of NOAAs Mapping and Charting
Contracting Strategy Brian Greenawalt, Office
of Coast Survey
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Navigation Services Budget History
( millions)
FY06 Presidents Request
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Contract Award History
Data for NGS/OCS
Time Charter funds expended
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• Report on Strategy to Expand Contracting for
  Mapping and Charting
• Requested in House FY05 Appropriations Committee
  Report
• The Committee expects NOAA to work with the
  private mapping community to develop a strategy
  for expanding contracting with private entities
  to minimize duplication and take maximum
  advantage of private sector capabilities in
  fulfillment of NOAA's mapping and charting
  responsibilities.

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• 1996 National Ocean Service
• Contracting Policy
• NOS established contracting policy for mapping
  and charting services in 1996 that NOAA
  Navigation Services has essentially followed
  since that time
• Policy states that contracts for surveying and
  mapping services will be awarded to qualified
  commercial sources in accordance with Title IX of
  the Federal Property and Administrative Services
  Act of 1949 (40 USC 541 et seq.), commonly
  known as the "Brooks Act.
• Reiterated by the 1998 Hydro Services Improvement
  Act, which authorized contracting to the greatest
  extent practicable and cost-effective, and the
  use of Brooks Act service contracts for
  hydrographic surveys.

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• 1996 National Ocean Service
• Contracting Policy
• NOS will procure surveying and mapping services
  from qualified commercial sources when such
  procurement is the most cost effective source,
  unless
• a product or service is inherently governmental
  in nature
• there is no commercial source capable of
  providing a needed product or service to NOS at
  the required standard of performance, and at a
  price equal to or less than existing government
  services
• Government production, manufacture, or provision
  of a product or service is necessary for national
  defense or,
• the procured services cannot reasonably be
  quality controlled to ensure safety of navigation
  in the national coastal waters.

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• Brooks Act Contracting
• Brooks Architect-Engineer Act
• Qualifications-based selection process on the
  basis of competence and qualification for the
  type of professional service
• Price quotations are not a consideration in the
  selection process, unlike the normal procurement
  process with price competition
• Part 36.6 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations
  (FAR)

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• Brooks Act Contracting
• NOAAs Source Evaluation Board (SEB) evaluates
  each potential contractor in terms of
• Professional qualifications necessary for
  satisfactory performance of required services
• Specialized experience and technical competence
  in the type of work required
• Capacity to accomplish the work in the required
  time
• Past performance on contracts with government
  agencies and private industry in terms of cost
  control, quality of work, and compliance with
  performance schedules
• Location in general geographical area of the
  project and knowledge of the locality of the
  project and
• acceptability under other appropriate evaluation
  criteria.

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• Brooks Act Contracting
• SEB provides the selecting official with a ranked
  list of most highly qualified firms.
• Request for proposals (RFP) sent to the first
  selected contractor with technical specifications
  and a detailed statement of work.
• NOAA contracting officer then negotiates a fair
  and reasonable price to award a contract.
• If a fair and reasonable price cannot be
  negotiated with this contractor, NOAA terminates
  negotiations and issues an RFP to the next firm
  on the selection list.

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• Brooks Act Contracting
• NOAA opinion of Brooks Act
• Initially greeted process with some reluctance
• Unfamiliar procurement process
• More costly than standard procurements
• But NOAA has come to realize that process has
  proven successful
• Methods of doing work negotiated in advance
• Produces good data
• Contractors must provide quality product

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• Contracting Areas and Mechanisms
• Brooks Act reqd by HSIA 1998 to contract for
  the acquisition of hydrographic data
• Hydrographic data defined in HSIA as information
  acquired through hydrographic or bathymetric
  surveying, photogrammetry, geodetic, geospatial,
  or geomagnetic measurements, tide and current
  observations, or other methods, that is used in
  providing hydrographic services.
• Brooks Act thus also used for Shoreline, Height
  Mod/Geodetic activities
• NOAA uses Standard Contracting Procedures with
  Price Competition for
• Cartographic support on ENCs and raster charts
• Tide Gauge installation/maintenance
• Current meter deployment/retrieval

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• NOAA Core Capability
• 1998 HSIA Section 303 (b) provides that
• to fulfill the data gathering and dissemination
  duties of the Administration under the Act of
  1947, and subject to the availability of
  appropriations, the Administrator
• may procure, lease, evaluate, test, develop, and
  operate vessels, equipment, and technologies
  necessary to ensure safe navigation and maintain
  operational expertise (i.e., core capability) in
  hydrographic data acquisition and hydrographic
  services
• No official determination of what NOAA Core
  Capability should be, however
• Since 1998, Congress has appropriated additional
  data acquisition funds to NMAO to support 5 NOAA
  survey vessels (RA, FA, RU, TJ, BH)
• Also new funds for vessel/equipment replacement
  (sonars/SWATH)
• Recognition of role in Homeland Security with
  20M authorization
• Significant increases for NWLON/PORTS and Geodesy
  Height Mod work with states

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• NOAA Core Capability
• To meet U.S. requirements for high-accuracy
  navigation data to support safe marine operations
  and Maritime Domain Awareness
• Continued investment in NOAA fleet survey
  capabilities to maintain expertise and acquire
  more effective and comprehensive coverage for
  navigation products and services
• Core capability and expertise are critical
  component of NOAAs mission to establish
  standards and ensure the quality of data obtained
  by a multitude of sources contract, 3rd party,
  etc

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• NOAA Core Capability
• NOAA perspective on general components of core
  capability
• In the interest of safety, NOAA should maintain
• Federal expertise in shoreline/hydro data
  acquisition and continued RD for efficiency
  gains and technology improvements
• E.g., up to 6 hydrographic survey platforms,
  including an RD platform (BH)
• Personnel/equipment to operate those platforms
  and most efficiently maximize data collection
• Federal expertise in data processing/analysis to
  quality control NOAA and contract data acquired
• Federal expertise in electronic nautical chart
  database maintenance to quality assure
  NOAA/contract cartographic work
• Federal expertise in Tides/Currents data
  collection and maintenance of the National Water
  Level Observation Network
• Federal expertise in Geodetic reference systems
  to support state/national needs for a positioning
  framework

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• Charge to the Panel
• Review NOAAs current contracting strategy and
  means to achieve expansion of contracting
  opportunities with the private sector
• Re-examine and validate the process by which NOAA
  procures mapping and charting support
• Recommend Core Capability level for NOAA
• Additional areas of focus
• Better coordination with other agencies
• Minimization of duplication
• How best to work with the private sector on
  improving NOAAs contracting strategy

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• HSRP adopts NOAAs mapping and charting
  contracting strategy for review
• Public discussion at March 31, 2005 HSRP Meeting,
  San Diego, CA
• Federal Register notice for comments on NOAAs
  current policy by public/private sectors will be
  published post-HSRP meeting
• HSRP will provide draft recommendations within 6
  months
• NOAA will draft revised policy and publish for
  comment, giving public 90 days to comment on
  proposed new contracting policy
• NOAA will publish final, updated contracting
  policy by March 2006

Contracting Strategy Review Schedule