NASA recently announced that Computer Sciences Corporation of Falls Church, Va., was selected the prime contractor to support the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC), which will consolidate numerous human resources, procurement and financial management activities into one center.
CSC selected the Stennis Space Center, Miss., to locate the NSSC. The contract value is approximately $230 million over 10 years.
“We look forward to establishing a world-class organization to provide the kind of timely, efficient and effective support so important to NASA operations,” said NSSC Executive Director Richard Arbuthnot. “We look forward to working with CSC and the Stennis community to get the NSSC up and running,” he said.
The NSSC will perform a variety of consolidated transactional and administrative activities being done at each NASA center and Headquarters. The mission of the NSSC is to provide high quality, cost-effective, efficient, selective services for human resources, procurement, financial management and information technology operations.
The NSSC will have a phased implementation. Facility activation and initial operations of the consolidated NSSC is targeted for October 2005. Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement and Financial Management functions will transition into the NSSC from October 2005 through September 2008.
The NSSC will be staffed by a mix of civil service and contractor positions. Work subject to the competition will be done by contractor employees, and work that was inherently governmental in nature and not subject to the competition will be done by civil servants. The types and number of positions will be determined, while the NSSC is staffed from 2005 to 2008, as activities transition to the Center. NASA expects significant annual savings from consolidating services, once the NSSC transition is completed.
On Dec. 12, 2003, NASA announced the public-private competition under OMB Circular A-76 for the NSSC Service Provider. This type of competition is a process for determining the most efficient and effective way to conduct a particular set of activities, whether it is accomplished by the government or private sector. Because this was an A-76 competition, a NASA proposal was submitted, as well as private sector proposals.
The selection decision was made considering both the technical and cost merits of the proposals. The evaluation criteria included the overall cost and technical merit. The technical evaluation included an assessment of the offeror’s proposed approach, resources, capabilities, and plan for managing the effort.