FY21-0044_Redacted.pdf

Justification for Exception to Fair Opportunity Exceeding the SAT pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)

JEFO No: FY21-0044 Page 1 of 6 Rev: 10/22/2020

JEFO Number: FY21-0044 PR Number:

1. Agency and Contracting Activity.

The Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Office of Contracting, proposes to award a task order on behalf of USCIS, Office of Information Technology (OIT), Systems Delivery Division (SDD), pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(b)(2), Exceptions to the fair opportunity process.

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

USCIS intends to award a task order to Sevatec, Inc., hereinafter referred to as Sevatec, under its GSA ALLIANT II contract, contract number 47QTCK18D0034. Sevatec is the incumbent contractor providing support under task order HSHQDC-13-D-E2075/HSSCCG-15-J-00086 for Joint Engineering Teams - Sustainment (JETS) Mission Services (formerly titled Customer Service) portfolio.

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

The proposed task order to be awarded will continue vital DevSecOps and Engineering services, to include supporting cloud migration and modernization efforts, supporting the implementation of new technologies, technology/engineering studies and analysis, application development, database support, and use of modern tools/approaches such as Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), DevSecOps, AWS, Kafka, electronic workflow, enterprise services, and open source technologies, which provide the modernization and application development and operations & maintenance necessary to achieve ecosystem stabilization and modernization onto more modern platforms/technologies, allowing USCIS to keep pace with the increased reliance on the Mission Service applications within the Enterprise.

The period of performance for the proposed action would commence on 03/15/2021 and end on 08/14/2021 for a total of five (5) months. The estimated total dollar value is .

4. Statutory exception and supporting rationale.

The applicable statutory FAR citation and basis for using an exception to fair opportunity process is:

JEFO No: FY21-0044 Page 2 of 6

☒ 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.

Rationale:

Currently, Sevatec performs Joint Engineering Team Sustainment Services (JETS) Mission Services (formerly titled JETS Customer Service) under task order HSSCCG-15-J-00086 until 03/14/2021. As described in greater detail further below, the JETS Mission Services work is paramount to agency continuity of operations, and without ongoing support, several large and impactful programs will not be able to continue the development work which is key to the USCIS immigration application process.

A competitive recompete which will procure these important required services is currently in-process with a planned award in a third quarter of the Fiscal Year 2021, for more information see Section 6 of this document.

This justification supports the agency’s requirement for complete and independent JETS Mission Services commencing on 03/15/2021. Market Research that was conducted for the competitive re-compete currently in-progress indicated that there are contractors capable of performing services required by JETS Mission Services on multiple EAGLE NextGen contracts. However, based on the research conducted, it has been concluded that only Sevatec has the specific skills, knowledge and experience needed to provide the required specialized services at the level of quality required at this time.

The nature of the requirement is complex and requires large-scale coordination and mobilization of development teams and there is a significant learning curve associated with commencing to support these projects. The time between a potential competitive short-term award action and the need date for services (03/15/2021) would not allow sufficient time for recruiting, hiring, background checks and entry-on-duty, as well as, most importantly, a transition period with knowledge transfer. No other company than Sevatec is capable to provide this level of quality within this short timeline. Sevatec has been providing satisfactory services, has sufficient staffing, with all necessary teams in place as well as extensive program knowledge to continue operations to complete the projected tasks and to transition ongoing activities to the new competitive awardee.

As referenced above and for greater context, the JETS Mission Services Portfolio supports USCIS mission critical operations. Halting some of these projects would create an issue with the services provided to applicants and create additional problems for other USCIS interconnected services, as noted below. If a task order is not awarded to continue these DevSecOps and

JEFO No: FY21-0044 Page 3 of 6

Engineering services in the Mission Services Portfolio, development and operational sustainment efforts will halt and the immigration application process for thousands of immigrants will be impacted. This would be detrimental to the USCIS mission. Specifically, the following areas will be impacted:

• CMIS - The effectiveness of USCIS operations in field offices across the U.S. depends on the management and flow of applicants throughout the office. The Customer Management Information System (CMIS) Program supports the business operations at the field offices with a computerized queuing system used to facilitate and expedite the processing of the applicants in the USCIS field office waiting areas. Additionally, the program provides digital signage which is displayed on monitors in the waiting areas broadcasting valuable information to the applicants. Currently the content on displayed is in relation to the COVID19 pandemic.

Disruption in service for CMIS would impact business operations at all of the USCIS field offices by not having a support mechanism in place to ensure the functionality of the queuing software and ensuring the technology, multiple webservers, databases, security, and individual configurations for each field office continues to operate and deliver the expected functionality to maintain optimum efficiency of the Immigration Service Officer. If there is a lapse in service, any changes or updates needed to the COVID19 content displayed on the monitors would not be completed.

• Pay.gov - USCIS has kiosks located in the Field Offices across the U.S. These kiosks are being repurposed to allow Pay.gov functionality. When this functionality is deployed, attorneys will be able to pay for specific forms via a secure iPad in the kiosks. This will eliminate the need for face to face human interaction which is important during the COVID19 pandemic. Additionally, the majority of the field offices do not have a financial management staff on site. The kiosk iPads will be the only mechanism available to make these specific payments. Pay.gov capability will allow for a quick efficient method for the attorney’s transitions.

A disruption in service will result in the complete stoppage of delivery efforts and maintaining the Pay.gov functionality. The Pay.gov URLs and acceptance of credit card transactions is owned by the Department of Treasury. USCIS is currently engaged with Treasury. A lapse in service would impact Treasury’s ability to complete their requirements from USCIS and the entirety of the project would be stalled.

• CSWP - The Customer Service Web Portal supports www.uscis.gov website. The website is the main site supporting the mission of USCIS by providing timely and accurate information to USCIS staff and customers. The information provided by www.uscis.gov promotes awareness and understanding of immigration and citizenship topics as well as confirm eligibility to work in the United States. The portal uses Drupal content

JEFO No: FY21-0044 Page 4 of 6 management for updating this information for www.uscis.gov. CSWP development team supports the enhancements and maintenance of Drupal through which the content authors make updates and changes to the website. The Customer Service Web Portal (CSWP) provides the development expertise and infrastructure services to support, maintain and modernize the primary public interface site for USCIS information and services.

Without the continuity in services, Drupal maintenance and upgrade will not happen which will directly impact the content owners and the information published on the website. www.uscis.gov being the primary site and the face of USCIS needs constant updates to information which is critical to the mission of USCIS.

• CRIS - The Contact Relationship Interface System’s tools are an integral part of the

USCIS mission. Its tools have a global reach, where customers can receive information about their case status, change their address, see information about processing times for different forms, and can submit requests for action on their cases to the offices handling them. In addition, the USDA uses CRIS to provide information to a section of their customers.

If the services stop, not only would global and our American customers not be able to obtain information or perform tasks of such sensitivity as change their address, but USCIS and the USDA would not be able to fulfill some of their mission. In addition, government entities such as Congressional staff would not be able to request action for their constituents.

CRIS provides a critical self-service to the USCIS community and beyond. Any disruption would be of great harm to USCIS and its mission.

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

The Contracting Officer anticipates the proposed price will be consistent with the Alliant 2 Unrestricted Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC) contract held by Sevatec that includes maximum/ceiling rates. In addition, historical pricing information is available for all services to be provided, which are the basis for the independent government cost estimate.

Pricing will be evaluated for reasonableness in accordance with one or more analysis techniques identified in FAR Subpart 15.404-1. The Contracting Officer may request other than certified price data if determined to be necessary in the assessment of fair and reasonable pricing. Prior to award, the contracting officer will be able to determine that issuing the proposed task order via the Alliant 2 GWAC represents the best value and that the proposed price is fair and reasonable for award.

6. Any other facts supporting the justification.

JEFO No: FY21-0044 Page 5 of 6

As briefly discussed in Section 4, the succeeding competitive procurement was expected to be in place prior to the expiration of the current task order HSSCCG-15-J-00086, but this competitive procurement experienced multiple delays due to various unforeseen circumstances, chiefly revisions to the requirement imposed by the Agency’s emergent funding issues which were the result of significantly reduced revenues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Agency was planning to transition the work from the current JETS Mission Services task order, HSSCCG-15- J-00086, contractor Sevatec, to the contractor(s) awarded the re-compete task order(s), titled Services for Product Engineering and Enterprise Delivery (SPEED), however, the current task order HSSCCG-15-J-00086 ends on 03/14/2021 and it is necessary to proceed with the short-term task order with Sevatec to continue these mission critical services while the competitive award is finalized.

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.

Any barriers to competition will be removed upon finalization of the source selection and a transition to a new awardee(s). No other competitive barriers are known at this time, which would lead to a future fair opportunity exception. This sole source task order is only intended to continue the current services until the award and transition-in of the in-process competitive procurement is completed.

8. USCIS intends to post this requirement on Beta.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.

JEFO No: FY21-0044 Page 6 of 6

Contracting Officer Date

11. APPROVAL: Pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(10), I hereby determine the circumstance identified in Section 4 applies to the order.

Procuring Activity Advocate for Competition Date