GS-35F-0047S-008.doc

VHAPM Part 808.405-6 Limiting Sources

Attachment 2: Request for Limited Sources Justification Format >SAT

LIMITED SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

ORDER >SAT

FAR PART 8.405-6

Acquisition Plan Action ID: 36C776-19-AP-1002

1. Contracting Activity:

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Program Contracting Activity Central (PCAC)

6150 Oak Tree Blvd., Suite 300

Independence, Ohio 44131

2. Description of Action: This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple-Award Schedule Program (41 U.S.C. 251 and 40 U.S.C. 501).

The VHA Workforce Management and Consulting – Workforce Management (WMC-WFM) is seeking a federal benefits retirement solution. Purchase is for limited licenses and GRB web-based hosting license. Government Retirement & Benefits (GRB) is an application that provides inference calculation of Federal Government employee retirement and other benefits per the latest applicable laws governing CSRS and FERS retirement programs. Additionally, the application generates approved versions of form required for processing that meet standards and guidance set forth by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

WMC-WFM has the need of a comprehensive commercial retirement benefits calculator platform that is web-based with capabilities to accurately compute various complex estimates needed in assisting employees with their retirement decisions. The calculator software is used for computing benefits and counseling employees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), the Federal Thrift Savings Plan and the Social Security program.

GRB Platform Limited Access is an application that provides inference calculation of Federal Government employee retirement and other benefits per the latest applicable laws governing CSRS and FERS retirement programs. The application generates approved versions of form required for processing information that meet standards and guidance set forth by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). WMC-WFM has the need of a comprehensive retirement benefits calculator tool for federal benefits personnel. The calculator software is used for computing benefits and counseling employees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), the Federal Thrift Savings Plan and the Social Security program.

Order against: X FSS Contract Number: GS-35F-0047S

3. Description of Supplies or Services:

The GRB Platform Limited Access user subscriptions for a minimum of 21 and a maximum not to exceed (NTE) 150 users will require full access granting users complete administrative control. All the underlying rates, algorithms, and assumptions used to calculate an employee’s retirement package shall be kept up-to-date to OPM’s publications on retirement benefits, in accordance to Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The ability to build a service history from user entered data of Federal and Military service and be able to analyze the service history to determine between creditable and non-creditable periods. Any data that the user puts in one retirement analysis form can be automatically applied to other retirement calculations.

The service shall have robust security where any system downtime shall not exceed 24 hours. If system downtime is going to persist beyond 24 hours, the Contractor shall notify the Government of scheduled system downtime in writing. The service shall be accessible to users 24/7. Any technical issue shall be resolved within 48 hours. If the issue is going to persist beyond 48 hours, the Contractor shall notify the Government in writing.

Subscription for this retirement calculator will grants users access to the following features:

Full and Part-Time Retirement Annuity Estimates

- Optional

- Involuntary/Early

- Deferred

- Disability

- Survivor Benefits

- Special Groups (LEO, Firefighters, ATCs)

- Phased Retirement

- VA Title-38

Other Retirement Computations

- FERS Annuity Supplement

- FERCCA Election Comparison

- Alternative Form of Annuity

- Supplemental Annuity for Reemployed Annuitants

- CSRS Voluntary Contributions

- Part-Time Service Proration Factors

- Severance Pay

- Lump-Sum Annual Leave Payment

- Divorce/Court Orders – Former Spouse

Service Credit Computations

- Civilian Deposits

- Civilian Redeposits

- Post-1956 Military Service Deposits

- Peace Corp/VISTA Service Deposits

Service Analysis

- Retirement Coverage Determination

- Creditability of Service Determination

- FERCCA Determination

Average Salary Computations

- High-3 Salary

- Breaks in Service

- Less Than 3-Year Period

- Part-Time Employment

Service Computation Dates

- Retirement SCD

- Leave/RIF SCD

- TSP SCD

- Agency SCD

Social Security Estimates

- Retirement Benefits

- Survivor Benefits

- Disability Benefits

- Amount of CSRS Offset

- Windfall Elimination Penalty (WEP)

TSP Tools

- Single/Joint Life Annuities

- Withdrawal Estimates

- Account Balance Projection

- Loan Calculator

Create reports for various reports to include: retirement analyses, including retirement estimates, annuity estimates, service computation dates, average salary, part-time proration factor, Thrift Savings Plan, Social Security, military service, and civilian deposit/redeposits. The report displayed on screen shall look identical when being printed on paper and can be saved in PDF format.

Annuity estimates shall be computed with the utmost accuracy which includes taking into account the applicable reductions and deductions from their gross monthly annuity computation. The reductions and deductions from the gross monthly annuity shall include calculations for health benefits, life insurance, dental and vision premiums, federal tax, survivor benefits, unpaid deposits/redeposits, alternative annuity, and early retirement age.

GRB Platform Limited Access shall provide access to produce forms and come with an integrated forms package containing a variety of retirement and benefits related forms. Forms will automatically pre-populate with employee information saving significant time and minimizing manual data entry.

GRB Platform Limited Access has been the retirement calculator used throughout the VA for and has the historical records for previous estimates. The continued use of GRB will allow the VA to utilize previously developed GRB estimates by inserting new variables such as the dates of retirement and any changes in salary without having to create a new profile and enter personally identifiable information. This acquisition will also allow the VA to maintain the current level of accurate and efficient estimates.

This requirement is for the acquisition of GRB Application user subscriptions for a minimum of 21 and NTE 150 user subscriptions on behalf of the Department of Veteran Affairs. The need is for a centralized requirement platform to meet the requirement for the VA’s Retirement Shared Service Office (RSSO). Approval for RSSO was on December 6, 2018.

(4) IDENTIFY THE AUTHORITY AND SUPPORTING RATIONALE (see 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(A), (B), and (C) or 8.405-6(b)), AND IF APPLICABLE, A DEMONSTRATION OF THE PROPOSED CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS TO PROVIDE THE REQUIRED SUPPLY OR SERVICE.

X Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized;

(5) DESCRIBE WHY YOU BELIEVE THE ORDER REPRESENTS THE BEST VALUE CONSISTENT WITH FAR 8.404(d) TO AID THE CONTRACTING OFFICER IN MAKING THIS BEST VALUE DETERMINATION:

As part of the VA Modernization effort, Human Resources functions currently spread across many VA HR offices are being consolidated under single “Shared Services” offices. All retirement functions will be consolidated first under WMC-WFM’s new “Retirement Shared Services Office” (RSSO), more than likely followed by a benefit’s functional consolidation under the same RSSO office in the near future. This will ensure VA has a structure that provides efficient, consistent, accurate, timely and measurable Retirement and Benefits services that meet the needs of management, supervisors, employees, and HR staff in a cost-effective manner while leveraging current resources. On December 6, 2018, the VA Revolving Funds Board approved the creation of RSSO under the Franchise Funds model.

The GRB Platform Limited Access application has been in use at WMC-WFM and throughout VA HR offices for many years. This application provides end users with inference calculation of federal government employee retirement and other benefits according to the latest applicable laws governing CSRS and FERS retirement programs. It is not in the best interest of the government to incur unreasonable costs associated with replacing GRB Platform Limited Access.

The future RSSO would lose significant amounts of production time if data currently archived in GRB Platform Limited Access had to be relocated to another platform. Data maintained on the GRB server is proprietary. Data may not be transferrable to another vendor. It is mission imperative that we do not have a loss of retirement servicing or data.

GRB Platform Limited Access is currently in use by more than 150 facilities in the VA and more than 300 HR Retirement and 286 Benefits HR staff members. We estimate we would lose at least one week (40 hours) of production time per employee to train on a new application. The estimated cost of that lost production is approximately $457,600. Loss of production time due to familiarization on a new application is estimated to be an additional 80 hours per employee resulting in a cost of approximately $572,000. The VA currently has approximately 40,699 employee records/data in the GRB system that would be lost if the RSSO is required to seek a new servicing platform from a different vendor. The time to recreate these documents is estimated at 241,709 hours with an estimated cost of $262,868,961.78. These records consist of critical data from the employee’s Electronic Official Personnel Folder (eOPF) which may include federal employment/service history, military time, determinations of whether the employee was full-time or part time during specific periods, status of Federal Employee Government Life Insurance (FEGLI), Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB), high three years of salary, etc. Once the data is entered GRB it stays until its changed.

The negative impact of transitioning to a new and entirely different retirement and benefits-support system during the consolidation and standup of the Retirement Shared Services Office would be substantial. Delivery of customer service and meeting required service levels and standards would be exceedingly difficult. The RSSO has five business days to complete a customer’s request for retirement services. Initial training on a new application is expected to be at least one week, and with the additional time required to become familiar with a new application, the RSSO would be in jeopardy of missing deadlines on all required services over a two-week period or more. This would result in a catastrophic customer service event, cause undue burden on the RSSO’s customers, and significantly hamper the establishment of the RSSO’s reputation as a new centralized service-providing organization. An unnecessary change to a new retirement and benefits processing application would be a disservice to the entire HR modernization effort, and to retiring employees and employees seeking other benefits. A decrease in the RSSO’s execution of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) requirements with other VA facility customers could also result, potentially leading to the loss of our negotiated Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) for services provided. This would reduce revenue and could potentially impact our staffing levels within the section.

GRB Platform Limited Access is an application that provides inference calculation of Federal Government employee retirement and other benefits per the latest applicable laws governing CSRS and FERS retirement programs. The application generates approved versions of form required for processing information that meet standards and guidance set forth by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The calculator software is used for computing benefits and counseling employees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), the Federal Thrift Savings Plan and the Social Security program.

GRB Platform Limited Access allows the HR Specialist to quickly generate and provide reports to the employee. For example: GRB has FEGLI and FEHB information which, based on data entered into the system, will report how much the employee will have to pay for FEGLI/FEHB in retirement. Without GRB the HR Specialist would need to search other websites such as the FEGLI Calculator and the FEHB charts for the information and produce a manual report versus an automated report which is saved to GRB’s site. GRB also has forms that can be quickly generated (auto populate from the information stored in GRB) and sent to the employee on-line and in real-time; thereby eliminating the need to spend time going to another site. The forms can be stored and reprinted at any time. Without GRB each request will have to be treated as new and our office would need to develop another method of generating the requested reports needed. The stored data allows us to generate reports quickly for the employee.

When an employee requests a retirement action; such as military service/civilian deposit, service computation date (SCD), retirement or estimate, the HR Specialist will conduct a review of their eOPF then enter that data into GRB (storing it for future use which can be used repeatedly). Regardless of when an employee submits their retirement paperwork or wants another estimate or to make a deposit, the HR Specialist simply does another review and updates the data in GRB. Without GRB Platform Limited Access we will have to do a full review and generate the data manually each time. This is not only time consuming but increases the error rate. GRB Platform Limited Access also allows the HR Specialist to provide benefits information to include Social Security Estimates, retirement benefits, survivor benefits, disability benefits, amount of CSRS Offset, Windfall Elimination Penalty (WEP). Ability to access TSP Tools which include Single/Joint Life Annuities, Withdrawal Estimates, Account Balance Projection, and Loan Calculator. GRB Platform Limited Access is the only known customized and distinctive software system capable of providing accurate retirement and benefit estimates for the Civil Service (CS) system, which include the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS).

The GRB Platform Limited Access is a complete Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Federal Retirement and Benefits Administration solution that meets the goals and objectives for HR. Offered on a subscription basis for unlimited use and developed specifically for the Federal sector, the GRB Platform combines tools and capabilities for human resource specialists, managers, and employees into a common system. The GRB Platform contains a flexible bi-directional interface used to communicate with an Agency’s payroll/human resource information system (HRIS), third-party benefits providers, and any outside parties as necessary. Hosted in GRB’s data center, the GRB Platform has received certification and accreditation by meeting the stringent security requirements of FIPS 199 and NIST 800-60. This Platform also provides HR Specialists with a suite of tools for assisting employees with their retirement and benefits decision in which it increases productivity and lowers cost by providing the framework for organizing and managing a high-volume caseload.

A requirement exists from the Department of Veterans Affairs One-VA Technical Reference Model (One-VA TRM) that establishes a common vocabulary and structure for describing the information technology used to develop, operate, and maintain enterprise applications, including the Standards Profile and Product List, for supporting Office of Information Technology (OIT). Technologies must be operated and maintained in accordance with Federal and Department security and privacy policies and guidelines. All Office of Information Technology (OIT) staff and contractors use http://trm.oit.va.gov/ to ensure all technologies, programs, and projects comply with a single TRM, see Memorandum WebCIMS #447341. GRB is on the TRM Approved List, http://trm.oit.va.gov/ToolPage.aspx?tid=5988.

GRB Platform Limited Access is able to interface with the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), third-party PeopleSoft products such HR Smart, and is FEDRAMP certified which must be in place prior to task order award.

(6) DESCRIBE THE MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED AMONG SCHEDULE HOLDERS AND THE RESULTS OR A STATEMENT OF THE REASON MARKET RESEARCH WAS NOT CONDUCTED:

In accordance with FAR Part 10, market research has been conducted for this acquisition. The following techniques were used:

a) FBO.gov An Intent to Sole Source was posted February 6, 2019 with due date February 15, 2019 12:00 pm eastern local for comments concerning the sole source. Two responses were received as a result of the posting. See attachment 1.

b) VetBiz.gov The vendor information page (VIP) at www.vetbiz.gov was queried on February 4, 2019 in an attempt to locate Service-Disabled-Veteran-Owned-Small-Business (SDVOSB) & Veteran-Owned-Small-Business (VOSB) concerns utilizing NAICS code 541519. The search produced 2232 results. Vendors were emailed the notice of intent to sole source with an opportunity to provide comments. Two responses were received. See attachment.

(7) ANY OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING THE JUSTIFICATION: N/A

(8) A STATEMENT OF THE ACTIONS, IF ANY, THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME ANY BARRIERS THAT LED TO THE RESTRICTED CONSIDERATION BEFORE ANY SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITION FOR THE SUPPLIES OR SERVICES IS MADE: N/A

(9) REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION: I certify that the requirement outlined in this justification is a Bona Fide Need of the Department of Veterans Affairs and that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge. I understand that processing of this limited sources justification restricts consideration of Federal Supply Schedule contractors to fewer than the number required by FAR Subpart 8.4.

(10) Approvals in accordance with the VHAPM Part 806.3 OFODC SOP:

All appropriate signatures received.

VHAPM Part 808.405-6 Limiting Sources

Original Date: 08/30/2017 Revision 01 Eff Date: 04/23/2018