The U.S. Dept. of Defense says it awarded a no-bid military facility support contract in Africa as a critical move in support of global counter-terrorism activities. PAE Government Services, Inc., which already is working in Camp Lemmonier in Djibouti (CLDJ) and Camp Simba in Kenya, recently received a nine-month contract extension to continue providing base operations services.
The estimated cost of the contract extension is blacked out in a new Justification & Approval document. Despite being blacked out, however, an electronic document that the Monitor located via routine database research intermittently displays a $65 million estimate for the June 1, 2012- Feb, 28, 2013 period.
The estimated cost of the previous contract likewise is uncertain. One contracting document indicates a $50 million maximum, while another says $75 million
A noncompetitive contract extension is justified because PAE already is performing work at those bases, according to the Naples, Italy-based Naval Facilities Engineering Command-Europe Africa Southwest Asia (NAVFAC EURAFSWA). Interrupting those projects with a new contractor would interfere with counter-terrorism operations as well cause the government to incur unnecessary and extraordinary start-up costs for a new vendor, it said in the J&A document.
Delays negatively would affect Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) , which:
oversees counter-terrorism operations in the Horn of Africa for USAFRICOM [U.S. Africa Command]... If this contract action is not executed, the mission critical support of ongoing operations in the entire [HOA] region would not be provided and this would adversely impact military mission readiness and and personal safety. Repercussions of the lack of support may have a huge impact to the global war on terrorism [GWOT], as CLDJ is the only US military base in Sub-Saharan Africa, providing front line security to the [GWOT]. Any interruption of services cannot be interrupted at this time.
NAVFAC further noted that "PAE possesses the manpower and skill levels to continue performance without a learning curve, break-in service, or additional phase-in/mobilization requirements."
The project calls for a range of initiatives, from airport operations and base-support vehicle management to "morale, welfare and recreation."
