SPECIAL NOTICE
R -- National Organic Program Peer Review
- Notice Date
- 7/17/2013
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 813920
— Professional Organizations
- Contracting Office
- Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Administrative Services Division/Contracting, 100 North 6TH Street, Butler Square 5TH Floor, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403
- ZIP Code
- 55403
- Solicitation Number
- req_649787
- Point of Contact
- Nathan Johnson,
- E-Mail Address
-
nathan.d.johnson@aphis.usda.gov
(nathan.d.johnson@aphis.usda.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- AGENCY: USDA - Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) - National Organic Program CONTRACTING ACTIVITY: USDA-APHIS-MRPBDS Minneapolis Business Services DATE: July 5, 2013 1. Description of Contract Action: The USDA National Organic Program (NOP) proposes to award a contract to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to conduct a Peer Review Peer Review of NOP's accreditation program. The purposes of the peer review are to (1) Support and inform continuous improvement of NOP's quality management system, and to (2) Meet the NOP's regulatory obligations to maintain a documented quality management system and allow peer review of our accreditation decision processes. Founded in 1918, ANSI is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Washington D.C. that actively engages in accrediting and reviewing programs that assess conformance to standards - including globally-recognized cross-sector programs that operate under the International Standards Organization (ISO) standards. 2. Description of Supplies or Services: Peer Reviews are an important part of NOP's quality management system, and are required by the USDA organic regulations at section 205.509. The Peer Review process is intended to evaluate the NOP's accreditation program, using ISO/IEC Guide 61 "General requirements for assessment and accreditation of certification/registration bodies" and ISO 17011 "General requirements for accrediting bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies" as baseline references. NOP's last Peer Review was completed in 2011. The scope of this assessment would include assessing activities related to NOP's accreditation and oversight of certifying agents. There are currently 84 certifying agents. The locations of the assessment would include the NOP office in Washington, DC; and field locations as necessary to conduct accreditation audit(s) or witness audit(s) for an NOP-accredited certifying agent. Processes to be assessed in this review include all phases of NOP accreditation from initial application through final decision, and ongoing surveillance and renewal. Key activities would include file reviews, interviews, site visits, and report preparation. 3. Reasons for Sole Source: ANSI is uniquely qualified for this project. It is the leading independent non-profit Institute in the U.S. for providing accreditation in accordance with ISO/IEC Guide 65 for product certification programs. Highly active internationally, ANSI works closely with peer standards and accreditation bodies around the globe and is the U.S. representative to international and regional forums such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) as well as regional bodies such as the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC). No other non-governmental U.S. organization holds these qualifications. ANSI product certification accreditation programs have been in place since 1972 and currently utilize ISO/IEC Guide 65 (soon to be replaced by ISO/IEC 17065) as the base standard for the program. Where applicable, ANSI authenticates laboratory compliance with ISO/IEC 17025, which is the set of general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. ANSI currently has accredited 66 product certification programs for a variety of scopes including a range of sector-specific programs that are operated under agreements with the FCC/NIST/NVCASE, the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), EPI and others. These programs are all highly applicable to the NOP's accreditation work. 4. Efforts to Obtain Competition: A second organization qualified to provide accreditation peer review services is the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), a government agency. NIST conducted the NOP's 2011 Peer Review. NOP requires a different peer organization to conduct the assessment to ensure diversity of perspectives between assessments 5. Fair and Reasonable Determination The estimated price is fair and reasonable based on comparison with similar actions 6. Market Research: Market research has revealed that ANSI and NIST are the two qualified organizations qualified to conduct a Peer Review of the NOP's accreditation program. For the reasons described in Element 3 above ANSI is the only source capable of providing this service. 7. Other Supporting Factors. ANSI serves as the policy forum for the U.S. standards and conformity assessment communities and is recognized by both the public and private sectors; accredits standards developers, U.S. Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) to ISO and conformity assessment programs, and approves standards as American National Standards; is the official U.S. representative to non-treaty, regional and international standards and conformity assessment organizations, and as such, facilitates access by U.S. interests to those organizations and promotes U.S. interests abroad; serves as a key interface with U.S. and other governments on standards and conformity assessment issues; and is a signatory to Multilateral Recognition Agreements with the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC), and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) as well as a founding member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and many other key international and domestic organizations and initiatives. 8. Interested Sources: Interested Sources must contact the contracting officer at Nathan.d.johnson@aphis.usda.gov and provide documentation showing that they can provide accredited peer review. 9. Actions to Increase Competition: Not applicable, as the product and services provided by ANSI are unique within this industry. 10. Technical Certification Certified by Technical Representative 11. Contracting Officer Certification Certified by Contracting Officer
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/USDA/APHIS/Contracting/req_649787/listing.html)
- Record
- SN03119072-W 20130719/130718005214-e5c89835ac53323e7684da105e9105f1 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |