1.5.1_FAR 16.5_JEFO_VINE_DHCA.pdf

OFFICE OF ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT

ICE Acquisition Manual 3016.505-90

JUSTIFICATION FOR EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

EXCEEDING SAT: FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)

J&A-24-0046

1. Agency and Contracting Activity.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Acquisition Management (OAQ), prepared this justification for an exception to fair opportunity for the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) on behalf of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

2. Nature and/or description of the item/service being procured and anticipated cost:

(a) Type of action: New Firm-Fixed-Price Task Order

(b) Amount the current J&A is justifying: $17,683,541.79

(c) OAQ intends to award a Task Order for continued operations and maintenance (O&M) and new functionality support services for the existing DHS/ICE Victim Information and Notification Exchange (DHS-VINE) on a sole source basis. The Task Order will be issued against the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Information Technology Acquisitions and Assessment Center (NITAAC) Chief Information Officer–Solutions and Partners 3 (CIO-SP3) government-wide acquisition contract (GWAC). The Contractor listed below is the only contractor that provides the solution that meets the Government’s requirements:

Data Systems Analysts, Inc. (DSA) 8 Neshaminy Interplex Suite 209 Feasterville Trevose, Pennsylvania 19053-6944

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

This requirement is to provide O&M support services for DHS-VINE for five (5) years at an estimated total cost of $17,683,541.79. United States Code (USC), Title 42, Chapter 112, § 10607 states that each federal department and agency in the U.S. engaged in the detection, investigation or prosecution of crime must include an office who will be responsible for identifying the victims of federal crimes and performing services to them. The DHS-VINE system supports ICE’s efforts to ensure the victims can receive notifications of all changes of their offender’s custody status in a timely manner.

The current contract, which was awarded to DSA, Inc., expires on June 30, 2024. In the proposed acquisition, ICE requires O&M, SaaS services, cloud hosting services and development and configuration for new functionalities which may be required by Congress.

ICE intends to award a Task Order with one (1) 12-month base period and four (4) 12-month option periods as outlined below.

JUSTIFICATION FOR EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Period Time Total

Base 12 mos. $3,398,040.99 Option Year 1 12 mos. $3,466,001.81 Option Year 2 12 mos. $3,535,321.85 Option Year 3 12 mos. $3,606,028.29 Option Year 4 12 mos. $3,678,148.85

$17,683,541.79

4. Statutory Exception and rationale for its use:

Exception:

☐ FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A). The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays.

☒ FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B). Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized. DSA is the only contractor currently having access to state and local custody information in 50 states and collects data from over 2,600 prison facilities across the United States.

☐ FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C). The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order.

☐ FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(D). It is necessary to place an order to satisfy a minimum guarantee.

☐ FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(E). For orders exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, a statute expressly authorizes that the purchase be made from a specific source.

Rationale:

ICE/OAQ intends to award a Task Order to procure operations and maintenance (O&M) support services for the DHS-VINE system. Pursuant to 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented in FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B): Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized developed by Appriss. It provides county and state prison data to provide custody change notifications to victims of crimes at the local and state level.

In November 2023, OAQ issued a Request for Information on NIH CIO-SP3 and SAM.gov for conforming solutions. Responses were received from twenty-two (22) contractors.

Through this market research effort, the Government found that DSA, Inc. was the only

JUSTIFICATION FOR EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

contractor capable of providing nationwide victim notification services. The other contractors lacked current access to state and local prison data with custody status across all 50 states.

Some contractors could only provide automated mass and emergency notification services to state organizations. Other contractors providing victim-specific notifications were only able to do so within state or to no more than 9 states – not on a national level. DSA was capable of providing a SaaS solution to meet all of the Government’s requirements due to its partnership with Appriss, Inc. The most critical consideration is that DSA’s offering is the only solution available that can match ICE offender records stored in the Enforcement Integrated Database (EID) with all victim registrations made in the DHS-VINE system.

DSA, Inc. built the current DHS-VINE system through customization of Appriss Victim Information Notification Everyday (AVINE) - a proprietary commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software as a service (SaaS) solution developed by Appriss. The COTS application uses SaaS in a Fed-ramp approved AWS Gov Cloud instance to leverage the county and state prison data to provide custody change notifications to victims of crimes at the local and state level. With this solution, DSA currently has access to state and local custody information in 50 states and collects data from over 2,600 prison facilities across the United States. Access to the Appriss SaaS solution is sold via direct purchase exclusively through its Federal partner – DSA, Inc. DSA’s offering is the only solution available that can match ICE offender records stored in the Enforcement Integrated Database (EID) with all victim registrations made in the DHS-VINE system, from all registrants at any location within all 50 states.

OAQ conducted extensive market research to identify alternative solutions in the commercial marketplace capable of meeting the Government’s requirements. Market research findings revealed that the DSA solution is the only COTS package available which includes all the functionalities required by ERO. There are no other solutions that can obtain criminal non-citizen information from State and Local law enforcement agencies in addition to data on current victims associated with criminal non-citizen. DSA provides the only solution which allows victim coordinators to help victims and send notifications to victims based on their preferred notification method (text, call or e-mail). It took almost two years to integrate the system to meet the requirements mandated by U.S. Code, Title 34, Chapter 201, § 20141.

This process involved integration of the new system with EID, State and Local enforcement agencies, modifying the COTS to support victim coordinators, and standing up the voice activated help line. If another qualified vendor existed, transitioning to this vendor (and ensuring all of the business requirements are met) would necessitate a transition period with an unknown duration. To ensure continuity of operations, both applications must run in parallel; this would result in a burden on taxpayer funds.

The continuation of these services by DSA is required to prevent a stoppage in the current systems and services from occurring. If ICE had to precipitously transition to another solution at this time, it would potentially result in unmitigable degradation of these specialized services. Additionally, as discussed, operational costs would likely increase due to maintaining current operations while at the same time developing a new application to replace the existing system. In addition, no other system exists which the current application could migrate to without a significant and prolonged development and testing effort. Without

JUSTIFICATION FOR EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

this critical task order, ICE is unable to ensure continuity of operations and performance without interruptions. ICE would be negatively impacted if the subject LSJ is not approved because ICE would potentially lose the ability to provide these critical services to victims and witnesses.

As the incumbent and the owner of the proprietary software, DSA and Appriss have the necessary experience, personnel, and security clearances to continue to perform services.

Failure to continue performance of these services would be highly disruptive to ICE as the current DHS-VINE system would cease to operate as required.

In addition to the RFI, ICE sought information from other Federal agencies with similar notification needs and discovered that their needs were satisfied by DSA’s Appriss-based solution. DSA, Inc. has been used exclusively for purchases of this nature in the past at the Department of Justice (DOJ) Executive Office of U.S. Attorney (EOUSA). Through market research, the Government found contractors that provide automated notification services to state organizations. However, the contractors only distribute mass and emergency notification services. The few contractors providing victim specific notifications were only able to do so locally (i.e. within state)—not on a national level. Access to the Appriss SaaS is sold via direct purchase through its only Federal partner, DSA. DSA is the only contractor Appriss allows to perform implementation and integration support with its proprietary software. Therefore, the Contracting Officer has determined that there are no other contractors capable of providing the required services.

5. Determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The contracting officer determines that the anticipated price to the Government for this Task Order will be fair and reasonable. The Contractor’s priced labor hour rates will be verified to confirm that they do not exceed the established benchmark labor rates in the Contractor’s CIO-SP3 contract. The level of effort and the mix of labor proposed will be evaluated to determine that the total price is reasonable for the effort. Finally, the Contracting Officer will seek additional price discounts on the established hourly labor rates in the base contract.

6. Any other facts supporting the justification.

There are no other facts supporting the justification.

7. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

The Government considered creating its own solution but discovered accessing victim registration data from the State VINE system is not feasible. The Government, as well as other responsive vendors, are able to create the platform and public facing portal but would be missing access to the victim data owned and managed by DSA / Appriss. DSA & Appriss

JUSTIFICATION FOR EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

are the only known providers of the data required. These solutions are only available from DSA, Inc. and leverage the access to prison data at the state and local level that only DSA, Inc. has at this time. ICE will continue to research opportunities to remove any barriers to competition for this procurement as each proposed option period is reviewed prior to exercising. The agency will continue to routinely survey the marketplace for solutions that can meet the Government’s requirements and consider the extent to which these solutions can be modified to meet the Government’s requirements.

8. DHS intends to post this requirement on sam.gov pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D).

9. Technical/Requirements Personnel Certification.

Pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(9), I certify that this requirement meets the Government’s minimum need and that the supporting data, which form a basis for the justification, are accurate and complete.

Technical Representative/COR Date

10. Contracting Officer Certification

Pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(8), I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief and hereby determine that the circumstances for an exception to fair opportunity exist:

Contracting Officer Date

11. Approval.

Head of Contracting Activity Date