J A_TDPS_Final_Redacted.pdf

J&A Other Than Full and Open Competition Rev. 2/5/2016 J&A No.: FY16-0090

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Justification &Approval (J&A) Justification For Other Than Full And Open Competition

41 U.S.C. 3304

J&A No.: FY16-0090

Pursuant to the requirements of the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.3 and in accordance with the requirements of FAR 6.303-1, the justification for the use of the statutory authority under FAR Subpart 6.3 is justified by the following facts and rationale required under FAR 6.303-2 as follows:

1. Agency and Contracting Activity.

The Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), Office of Contracting proposes to award a sole-source contract on a basis of other than full and open competition for the Travel Document Personalization (Printing) System (TDPS) Maintenance and Support. The requiring office is the USCIS Office of Information Technology.

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

(a) Type of action: Time & Materials/Firm-Fixed-Price Hybrid contract for one year.

(b) Amount:

(c) Type of funding: Immigration Exam Fee, Immigration Services, Department of

Homeland Security.

(d) Year of funding: FY2016

(e) Other brief descriptive words and phrases:

USCIS intends to award a sole source contract for maintenance and support services to Trans Digital Technologies (TDT). TDT is the only contractor authorized by the manufacturer to provide the maintenance and support on the printing system.

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

The requirement is to provide maintenance and support services for travel document printers for a total of 12 months at a cost of . The printers allow USCIS to print travel document books that look like United States Passports for certain individuals in order to travel.

Period Unit Price Total Base Year 12 mo Total

4. Identification of statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41U.S.C.3304(a)(1) pursuant to FAR6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or servies will satisfy agency requirements.

J&A Other Than Full and Open Competition Rev. 2/5/2016

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5. Demonstration that the nature of the acquisition require use of the authority cited.

a. The Department of State awarded a contract competitively to TDT for Passport Printing

Systems in 2003. Since 2003, DHS has been installing and using the MP300US printing system as an integral part of the Travel Document Personalization System (TDPS). The MP300US TDPS is currently being utilized at USCIS production center in Lincoln, Nebraska. USCIS issues two travel documents: a Travel Re-entry Permit (I-327) issued to certain lawful permanent residents and a Refugee Travel Document (I-571) issued to certain refugees. These documents, used like passports at U.S. and foreign ports of entry, are printed in a passport-like format with photographs identifying information, and several blank pages for stamps. Blank US passports are printed and bound by the US Government Printing Office (GPO) and provided to the DHS for issuance. The travel documents issued with the TDPS are machine-readable. They conform to the international standards for such documents as prescribed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). These standards include specifications on the format and size of the documents and its data page, the variable and non-variable data in the passport, and the photograph. DHS USCIS worked with the Department of State to ensure the travel documents printed by USCIS mimic the documents printed by the Department of State for consistency purposes at United States and other ports of entry inspections.

b. Until April 2015, USCIS was able to use the IDIQ contract awarded by the Department of State in order to fulfill its maintenance and support needs for these printers. In April of 2015, USCIS was notified that Department of State was not able to award its follow-on contract in time and therefore it would need to award a bridge contract which USCIS was not permitted to use. As a result, USCIS issued a sole source contract, HSSCCG-15-C-00009, to continue the required support and maintenance needed. The Department of State has not awarded their Next Generation Passport Personalization Printers contract, and the award date is yet to be determined.

c. The MP300US printers were approved for production of travel documents meeting security requirements by the Department of State. TDT has the exclusive contractual rights from the Toppan Printing Company of Japan to market the Toppan MP300US printer and related merchandise and equipment in the US. Any other vendor would have to use TDT as the middleman to procure materials from Toppan which would increase the cost. The TDT support staff is uniquely trained and qualified to maintain the MP300US in their current configuration to develop a production shim, a highly secure and proprietary device used in production of MP300US security consumables that is unique to our requirements. The secure and proven logistical arrangement including inventory storage, shipping and supply chain arrangement have been approved by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. This arrangement has proved to prevent physical fraud against the travel document since the implementation of the hardware and related equipment. Therefore, USCIS cannot change the printer platform as this may compromise the efforts that are currently in place for the Department and its US travelers. The only alternative to this approach is to solicit and award a contract for brand new printers; this is neither economical nor affordable for USCIS.

d. Pursuant to 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) and the reason set forth above, no other type of maintenance and support can satisfy the needs of the Agency’s requirement; therefore only one responsible source (TDT) will satisfy agency requirements. TDT has the exclusive

J&A Other Than Full and Open Competition Rev. 2/5/2016

- 3 -contractual rights from the manufacturer, Toppan Printing Company of Japan, to market Toppan MP300US printers and related supplies and equipment in the United States.

e. Without this maintenance and support the printers would end up failing and would no longer conform to the international standards for such documents as prescribed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), of which the US is an active member. These standards include specifications on the format and size of the documents and its data page, the variable and non-variable data in the passport, and the photograph. The standards require the precise printing of variable text data in optical character recognition – B(OCR-B) font in a machine-readable zone, which must be machine-readable at the B-900 near-infrared level of the spectrum.

6. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable.

The notice required by FAR 5.201 will be published on FedBizOpps, and any proposals received shall be considered. USCIS intends to make this justification publically available pursuant to FAR 6.305 within 14 days after contract award. For the reasons stated above offers will not be solicited from other sources.

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

The contracting officer will ensure that the final anticipated price(s) to the Government will be fair and reasonable based on the comparison of proposed prices to historical prices paid for the same work over the past 13 years of which 12 of years were based on full and open competition)( in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(b)(ii).

8. Description of market research.

Market research was conducted in October 2015 through consultations with program managers, reviews of acquisition history and internet research. The market research indicates that TDT is the only contractor authorized by the manufacturer of the printers to perform maintenance and support as well as supply replacement parts without significantly increasing the costs and compromising the security measures that are in place with the Department and US Travelers.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition.

As addressed in Section 5, the Department of State awarded a contract competitively to TDT for Passport Printing Systems. USCIS worked with the Department of State to ensure the travel documents printed by USCIS mimic the documents printed by the Department of State for consistency purposes at United States and other ports of entry for Lawful Permanent Residents and Refugee Travel Documents (I-571) that are issued to certain refugees. These documents are printed in a passport-like format with photographs, identifying information, J&A Other Than Full and Open Competition Rev. 2/5/2016

- 4 -and several blank pages for stamps. The travel documents issued conform to the international standards for such documents as prescribed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), of which the US is an active member. There is no other vendor that can provide the maintenance and support for the Toppan MP300US printers and related supplies and equipment without substantial duplication of cost and risk to compromise the secure and proven logistical arrangement approved by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. The Department of State is working on a Next Generation Passport Personalization Printers Multiple Award Contract that USCIS is authorized to utilize which would enhance competition.

10. A listing of the sources, if any that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

No other sources were sought as TDT is the only contractor authorized by the manufacturer to provide the maintenance and support on the printing system.

11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for supplies or services required.

The Department of State is working on competitive procurement for a Next Generation Passport Printing System in which the Department of Homeland Security will have authorization to order from. The DoS award date is still currently under evaluation.