Subsequently, the Forest Service amended the NextGen solicitation and received revised proposals from offerors. If the agency reasonably determines that the award of a contract on a sole-source basis to Neptune is necessary for large airtanker services, the agency should execute a properly-reasoned J&A for the sole-source award. at 700. . The aircraft was the 2762nd 737 built, and was delivered new to Southwest Airlines in November 1995. We find this argument to be entirely without merit, and the reliance on FAR 6.304(d) misplaced; an accurate description of the services being obtained on a noncompetitive basis is not limited to the options that must be included when determining the J&As approval authority. AR, Jan. 31, 2014, at 9 n.7; Tr. A, Neptune Rate Sheet. See FAR 6.302-2(d) (the total period of a noncompetitive contract awarded on the basis of urgency generally may not exceed the time necessary to satisfy the urgent needs). 4890 Cherry Creek Road Port Alberni, B.C. FI found that the fundamental difference was that RUS had solely relied on Neptune-provided financial projections while FI had had access to a wider range of information that allowed it to develop its own projections. With our proprietary technology, multiple aircraft types, and highly experienced attack crews we can fight fires on multiple continents simultaneously. Neptune would undoubtedly prefer the financial security that would accompany a long-term NextGen contract, but this is simply not the standard by which an agency is permitted to make a noncompetitive award for industrial mobilization purposes. AR, Tab 148, Neptune Settlement Contract Offer, Oct. 31, 2013. at 462. This will be the third converted 737 for Coulson; the first two are identified as T-137 and T-138. | Overview Coulson . Neptunes Financial Stability - . AR, Tab 67, NextGen RFP, at M-4. . Tr. 3301(a)(1); FAR 6.101. All rights reserved. Based upon on our review of the record, including the J&A, its supporting documentation, the agencys submissions in response to these protests, and the testimony of the agencys representatives at the hearing held at our Office, the agency has failed to demonstrate that Neptune requires a sole-source contract to remain a source of large airtanker services for the Forest Service. [24] The SPE testified that, in the meetings she attended, she heard no rationale advanced for a sole-source award to Neptune that she had not previously considered, and no rationale that she believed properly justified such an award. Our teams pride themselves on operating safely and efficiently, with the ability to handle intense pressure in the most extreme firefighting theatres on earth. Coulson Aviation recently purchased four Cessna Citation II C550 jets that it will convert into aerial firefighting intelligence aircraft. Id. . [8] Neptunes fuel costs were not included in the 2013 Legacy contract rates, as fuel was again to be government-provided or separately reimbursed. AG-024B-C-14-9000, atB-1. SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 27: Wayne Coulson, CEO of Coulson Aviation looks on during a press conference at the NSW Rural Fire Service Headquarters, Sydney Olympic Park on January 27, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. It was retired by Southwest in August 2017, and transferred to Coulson Aviation later that month. The Forest Service also made a Legacy contract award to Minden for one P2V aircraft. See Tr. A, Calculation of Total Estimated Cost. Tr. [2] AR, Tab67, NextGen RFP. 4 C.F.R. [12] We dismissed Neptunes challenge to the awards related to CLINs 1-3 because Neptune was not an interested party to challenge awards under line items for which it had not submitted a proposal. Moreover, apart from Neptunes own unsupported statements and the anecdotal views of various agency officials, the record contains no analysis or evidence of Neptunes financial condition after 2017.[36]. Pursuant to the FAR, the head of a contracting activity only has the authority to approve noncompetitive awards of up to $62.5 million. A stand down may be undertaken when the operator believes there is something which might distract the pilots from safely completing their missions. This statement is also factually inaccurate insofar as 10 Tanker had a certified large airtanker currently available, which the Forest Service actually contracted for in 2013. [29] Id. at 464. The Forest Service is not confident that five of the seven contracted NextGen airtankers will be available to fight fires in 2014. AR, Feb. 19, 2014, at 3-4, 8. . at 4-5. . With contracts for aerial firefighting across the world, the work of the Coulson Aviation team has been featured in the aviation industry and media recently. AR, Tab 144, RUS Email to USDA, June 3, 2013. Although not stated in the award abstract, based on all aircraft and performance period options, the total amount per CLIN was approximately $350-$400 million. Wildland Fire Management: Improvements Needed in Information, Collaboration, and Planning to Enhance Federal Fire Aviation Program Success, GAO-13-684, Aug. 20, 2013, at 6. Only supported aircraft types that are active with this airline are included in the calculations. 3304(a)(3)(A) (2006), which provides for a noncompetitive award to a particular source to maintain that supplier for a national emergency or to achieve industrial mobilization. 3304(a). Accordingly, while the J&A may demonstrate that the Forest Service needs more large airtanker services than it currently has under contract, the J&A completely fails to demonstrate that Neptune must be the supplier of such services or that Neptune currently requires a 9-year sole-source contract to keep it in business as a vital supplier for the agencys post-2017 needs. The J&A also failed to consider the additional large airtankers that Coulson had offered to make available to the Forest Service. This redacted version has been approved for public release. [31] The agency points to the fact that the NextGen contracts include exclusive-use restrictions, such that the large airtankers that Coulson and Minden each already have under NextGen contract cannot also be offered to meet additional agency requirements. [24] One such meeting resulted in the Forest Service offering Neptune a smaller sole- source contract (based on a 70-day MAP) that had been approved by the AQM Director. On August 26, the Forest Service informed Neptune that the SPE would not approve the sole-source contract contemplated by the parties settlement agreement, insofar as the financial analysis of the additional documents provided by Neptune indicated that the company was financially viable without such a contract. The adequacy of the rationale and conclusions set forth in the J&A is dependent on the completeness and accuracy of the information included in the J&A. Neptune currently has available and ready to operate two airtankers that meet the specifications of the NextGen contract. The protesters argue that the agency put the cart before the horse, and agreed to settle Neptunes protest before properly determining that the promised sole-source award complied with CICA. The protesters contend that the sole-source award to Neptune was improper, insofar as the agency promised to enter into the contract in exchange for Neptune withdrawing its protests of the NextGen contract awards. The newest addition to our fleet are the Coulson modified 737 FireLiner aircraft. Id. Mr. Coulson is responsible for the Companys overall growth and strategic direction and has led the transformation of the company into an operator of regulated financial markets for U.S. and global companies. His ex-wife, 53-year-old Anne Resnik is the daughter of the late Philip Morris. The two crew members aboardboth pilotssurvived with minor injuries and were taken to hospital. Coulsons Port Alberni facility is also busy converting another one of its 737-300s into the B737 FireLiner. at 2, 4. at 45. . FAR 6.302-3(a)(2)(i). Id. He received his BBA from Southern Methodist University in 1989 and holds an OPM from Harvard Business School. Neptunes CEO was quite familiar with the FAM Director and other agency officials, as the CEO had been the Forest Services AQM Director until his retirement in December 2010. . 2 Future records only include new-built aircraft close to delivery and expected second-hand deliveries. There are no executives at OTC Markets getting paid more. On 6 February 2023, a Boeing 737-300 owned by Coulson Aviation and used as an air tanker crashed in the Fitzgerald River National Park in the Great Southern Region of Western Australia while fighting multiple fires. . 41 U.S.C. See e.g., AR, Tab 84, Forest Service Letter to Aero-Flite, Dec. 12, 2013. To the extent the agency believed an urgent need for large airtanker services would justify a noncompetitive 9-year contract, there is no analysis or explanation in the record demonstrating that this is so.[38]. The determination of whether a party is interested to challenge a sole-source award involves considering, among other things, the basis of the sole-source award. at79-80. [9] AR, Tab61, Neptune Legacy Contract Mod. See AR, Tab 22, Contracting Officer Letter to RUS, June 25, 2013. Tr. Planespotters.net 2023. R Coulson is 53, he's been the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of OTC Markets since . [38] Any sole-source contract based on urgency presumably would have been 1 year in length (i.e., the 2014 fire season), not 9 years. Missouri Mach. Tr. Id. Neptune currently provides eight of nine Legacy airtankers (this includes the two BAe-146 aircraft provided by Neptune for the 2013 fire season). In 2017, the number of [large airtankers] under contract to the Forest Service will decrease from 16 to 7, with the expiration of the Legacy contracts, unless additional NextGen airtankers are procured from the current NextGen contractors. Tr. at 32. After taking on a new retardant load, it took off at 1:50 pm for the second mission. [27] The Forest Service issued cure notices to Coulson, Minden, Aero Air, and Aero-Flite in September 2013 for failure to provide approved NextGen airtankers by the contracts MAP start dates. Stay informed as we add new reports & testimonies. 936 talking about this. CICAs overriding mandate is for full and open competition in government procurements, obtained through the use of competitive procedures. [11] AR, Tab 11, Neptune Email to Contracting Officer, May 9, 2013. After also finding Neptunes expected costs to be lower than the companys projections, FI concluded that Neptune would have the financial capacity to operate and continue performing on its in-place Legacy contract with the Forest Service through, at a minimum, calendar year 2016, without any further contract awards. Coulson Aviation is the first company in the world to convert Boeing's 737 commercial airliners into FireLiner tankers. Our pilots employ night vision technology (NVG), allowing our attack crews to hover fill from open water sources, and carry out pinpoint fire suppression using laser guided drop technology. OTC Markets Group Inc. was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in New York, New York. T-137 was purchased in May 2019 by the NSW Rural Fire Service along with the two Coulson Citation II C550 support jets. The company has over 160,000. at45253. Further, USDA argues the fact that Neptune would not have Legacy-contract revenues after 2017 was so obvious as to not warrant any business analysis focused on the years after 2017. Agency Post-Hearing Comments, Mar. At the end of the first day of the hearing, the GAO hearing official noted that the testimony thus far appeared to support the protesters arguments that the communications between the agency and various offerors were discussions rather than clarifications, as described by FAR 15.306. However, FI also expressed its opinion to the SPE that Neptune remained viable (without a sole-source award) through the end of its Legacy contract (2017). It offers OTC Link Alternative Trading System, an interdealer quotation and trade messaging system; OTC Dealer, a real-time, front-end application that provides consolidated quotation, trading, and information system to attract and access market liquidity; OTC FIX, which uses the industry standard FIX protocol for quote submission, trading, and routing of execution reports; and OTC Link Electronic Communication Networks (ECN) that acts as the executing party on an agency basis in relation to transactions executed on the ECN's platform. Subsequently, the Forest Service realized that the sole-source contract promised to Neptune would require the approval of USDAs senior procurement executive (SPE). Crocker Coulson is a 53-year-old Brooklyn resident, Yale graduate, former Fulbright scholar, father, and ex-husband. AR, Tab 31, FI Email to USDA, Aug. 13, 2013, at 4. The NextGen RFP, issued as a small business set-aside, contemplated the award of multiple fixed-price contracts under seven contract line items (CLIN) for airtanker firefighting services on an exclusive-use basis. [14] Tr. Servs., Inc., B-237742, Mar. Neptune subsequently withdrew its request before any advance payment was made, stating that the company no longer needed the advance payment. Alternatively, if the J&A was accurate here, then the contract awarded to Neptune impermissibly exceeded what the ASA had approved. Accordingly, on June 21 the Forest Service informed the SPE of the settlement agreement that the agency had entered with Neptune, and requested that she execute a justification and approval (J&A) for the sole-source award. The J&A also stated that the agency took into account alternative resources, and found there were no certified large airtankers currently available that were not already under contract with the Forest Service capable of meeting NextGen contract requirements. See 41 U.S.C. in order . . Absent from the J&A, however, was any discussion regarding Neptunes need for a sole-source contract to remain a source of supply. [27] The protesters argue that the sole-source contract awarded to Neptune, which was promised in exchange for Neptunes withdrawal of an earlier bid protest, is not justified. 2. . Coulson Aviation Usa doesn't have any recent trademark applications, indicating Coulson Aviation Usa is focusing on its existing business rather than expanding into new products and markets. Crew members aboardboth pilotssurvived with minor injuries and were taken to hospital 11 ] ar, Jan.,... 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