20142132 BEAGLE JEFO _Redacted.pdf

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Justification for Exception to Fair Opportunity (JEFO) – FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)

Exceeding the SAT

Date: September 18, 2024 PR Number: 20142132

1. Agency and Contracting Activity.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Enterprise Services, Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Border Enforcement and Management Systems Directorate (BEMSD), and the Office of Acquisition Information Technology Contracting Division prepared the Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity

(JEFO).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

CBP intends to issue a task order (TO) pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C). The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency. The proposed order is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract; all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order. CBP intends to award a new cost-plus fixed fee task order, without considering other sources utilizing General Services Administration’s (GSA) Alliant 2 Best in Class vehicle to:

CACI, Inc.-Federal 12021 Sunset Hills Road Reston, VA 20190

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s need.

Under the Border Enforcement Applications for Government Leading-Edge (BEAGLE) Information Technology (IT) requirement, BEMSD is seeking to maintain support of its portfolio of applications using agile-based methodologies, integrated testing, and transformative processes to support current and future requirements. This includes standard architectures, advanced analytics, and business intelligence as well as a SecDevOps path to production and instantiation of mature, industry and performance-based best practices. Legacy applications must continue to be operated and maintained with high levels of application availability while enhancements to and/or modernization of existing applications or the development of new solutions are addressed.

The contractor shall provide a full range of IT-related services and technical solutions that encompass application administration services, property accountability, asset management, human resources, operations, configuration management, change management, incident management, cloud migration, capability backlog remediation, knowledge management, training, project management, problem management, release management, cyber security and audit management, testing, quality assurance, and sustainment requirements of the CBP OIT BEMSD agency mission. Additionally, the contractor shall perform operational maintenance and systems development services for BEMSD through standardized industry best practices (e.g., IT Service Management (ITSM)-based procedures).

Exceeding the SAT

Objectives include the following:

a. Mission Support

b. SecDevOps

c. Continuous Integration, Continuous Development

d. Modernization

e. Innovation

f. Operations & Maintenance (O&M) Cost Reduction

g. Cyber Security, Audit Readiness and Liaison Support

The period of performance for this action will be one (1) year. The total estimated value of the task order is approximately

4. Identify the exception to fair opportunity and supporting rationale, including a demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the exception cited.

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; all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order.

GSA FEDSIM competed the original BEAGLE task order requirement on the GSA Alliant 2 contract vehicle. GSA FEDSIM awarded a task order to CACI, Inc. The Statement of Work encompassed contractor supplied technical and management services in support of the full life cycle in planning, development, deployment, operations, and maintenance of systems. The primary objective is to establish operational maintenance and systems development support services for BEMSD which include mission support, SecDevOps (integrating security in all phases of development and deployment lifecycle), modernization, innovation, operations & maintenance cost reduction, and audit readiness. BEMSD requires continued services in support of these requirements on a sole source basis following the expiration of the GSA FEDSIM BEAGLE contract on September 29, 2024.

The successor BEAGLE 2 future competitively awarded contract will reflect different requirements from the work being performed today, as the diverse sets of applications will be realigned to reduce redundancies across the enterprise and create efficiencies in business processes and functional delivery. CBP anticipates the revamped requirement will be released in Q2 of FY25. In the interim, these applications must continue to be operated and maintained with high levels of application availability, and adequate time is required to ensure transition of tasks to other contracts, including the successor BEAGLE 2 contract, without disruption of service, transition delays, and without duplication of cost across project performance and administration.

BEMSD’s portfolio is made up of an estimated 155 customized applications supported by maintenance and development teams and shared services teams that deliver critical security, architecture and Agile governance across all applications. Maintaining these multiple applications and shared services across each, for this short period, could not be assumed by a new contractor without risk to performance and significant duplication in costs. Specifically, another contractor increases performance risks because it will take time for the new contractor to gain sufficient knowledge of CBP’s operating environment. These IT systems support CBP’s mission. They cannot go down because maintenance was improper or remain out of service for

Exceeding the SAT extended time frames. In addition, a new contractor’s slow learning may trigger schedule delays.

Under the current contract, BEMSD’s data center solutions have been migrating to the cloud environment, some with strict timeframes that are critical to mission success. Transitioning to a new contractor during the migration without a proper transition period would impede these timeframes and delay the full migration to the cloud environment in accordance with Data Center and Cloud Optimization Initiative, OMB Cloud Smart Strategy, DHS Directives and the overall CBP Cloud strategy. These delays are likely to disrupt performance and impact transition to the successor contract, which ultimately increases costs to CBP.

Instead, permitting the incumbent, which is steadily navigating active shifts in requirements, and which possesses the requisite institutional knowledge, to continue the work it began over five years ago, would conserve time and other resources, thus making this short-term award to the incumbent an economical and efficient choice. CACI knows the status of each program application systems, has comprehensive understanding of the project and numerous systems for interoperability, existing financial internal controls and processes. Additionally, CACI, Inc. has the immediate capacity (cleared personnel and other resources) dedicated to all 155 CBP applications.

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

The anticipated task order contract type will be cost-plus fixed fee. In accordance with FAR 15, the awardee will be required to provide certified cost and pricing data and will require the contractor to provide a build-up of its basis of estimate. The Contracting Officer will perform a cost analysis to evaluate the level of effort, skill mix, material and proposed technical approach to the Statement of Work to determine the total price to be fair and reasonable. The Contracting Officer will leverage the established financial internal controls and resulting historical data to evaluate and validate proposed costs. The CO will additionally consider CACI’s published Alliant II contract rates as well as historical labor and material prices from the previous CACI task orders to complete a cost realism analysis.

6. Any other facts supporting the justification.

No additional facts

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.

There are no barriers to future competition. This short -term follow on TO allows CACI to provide an effective transition and operational sustainment of BEMSD application development and maintenance until the next contract is awarded.

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

Justification will be posted as soon as practicable and in compliance with the above citation.

Exceeding the SAT

9. Program Official 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.

10. Contracting Officer Certification and Approval: *

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: