JA_BAM PMO Protest Additional 3-month extension_final_redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-25-00023490

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is for a Time and Materials modification for a three (3) month extension to task order 36C10B20N10060037 issued under Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG) Contract VA118-16-D-1006 for Benefits Appeals and Memorials (BAM) Program Management Office (PMO) and Technical Management Support with Favor TechConsulting, LLC (FTC), 8075 Leesburg Pike STE 300, Vienna VA 22182.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA requires an additional three-month extension for the current BAM PMO support contract in order to execute corrective actions associated with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) protest filed against the competitively awarded task order, which was executed on June 16, 2024.

The scope of the BAM PMO support task order is to provide information technology (IT) PMO and technical support for the BAM Portfolio. The BAM Portfolio delivers Benefits systems that must ensure reliable, secure, and seamless delivery of benefits and services directly to Veterans and their families. The BAM Portfolio serves its business customers, Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA), and National Cemetery Administration (NCA) to develop and manage advanced technology solutions. BAM is also predominantly responsible for supporting the execution of The Sergeant First Class (SFC) Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act requirements as it relates to the delivery of benefits to Veterans with exposure to environmental hazards. In August of 2022, the PACT Act was signed into Law by the President. This legislation is considered one of the largest healthcare and benefit expansion in VA history. Accordingly, it is critical to ensure Veterans obtain the benefits they are entitled to as soon as possible, which would lead to the success of the BAM portfolio mission and its delivery of PACT Act initiatives that VA continues to obtain BAM PMO support. Specifically, the support services provided under the current task order that will be extended include requirements management, implementation management, release management, schedule support, strategic analysis, capital planning and investment support, engineering and technical support, communications, and administrative support.

The current BAM PMO task order was awarded with a 12-month base period with three

(3) 12-month option periods. The last option period was set to expire on July 21, 2024.

A new competitive task order was awarded on June 16, 2024 under the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Veterans Technology Services (VETS) 2 Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) by the Technology Acquisition Center (TAC) to Microhealth, LLC. On July 1, 2024, one (1) unsuccessful offeror filed a GAO

BAM PMO Support Task Order Additional Extension Control Number VA-25-00023490 services required as a result of the delays caused by the protest action. This extension will provide for the timely continuance of this critically needed support in order to ensure there is no gap in service, where this continuance is critical to ensuring continued daily operation while CA is being taken for the competitive award as a result of the previous protest.

FTC is the only source capable of providing the services required during the required timeframe as it is the only contractor that has over 150 pre-cleared, trained, and onboarded staff able to provide the necessary BAM technical and programmatic support to ensure continuity of services. FTC contract support staff and engineering teams are fully integrated into teams across the BAM portfolio which is comprised of seven (7) Product Lines. Product lines are used to consolidate systems and projects that share a business strategy, objectives, and customers within a common structure to gain efficiencies in infrastructure, automation, and deployment. FTC operates within the entirety of the portfolio at all levels supporting management and the delivery of the Benefits’ systems utilized by VA. BAM needs continued support in the areas of project and program management, risk management, requirements management, strategic planning and analysis support, meeting, documentation, and data support, capital planning and investment support, financial information integration and reporting support, change management, configuration management, schedule support, communications, data calls, and action items support, engineering and technical support, requirements planning and management, architecture and design phase support, release management support, security requirements development and management. This support will require close coordination of requirements and communications across product lines, portfolios, to support the marked increase of internal and external VA communication and reporting requirements. As such, BAM PMO contract support is essential to ensure VA OIT and the BAM portfolio can adequately respond to the surge of reporting and communication requirements, as well as manage the tremendous increase in development, and modernization initiatives required to enable VBA systems to accomplish PACT Act legislation requirements. From a functional, technical, and administrative perspective, the time required to compete, award, and onboard resources under a separate contract vehicle to provide PMO support would take at least three months (i.e. the length of this extension) of procurement lead-time and cause unacceptable delays in critical program activities. These delays would severely disrupt the current benefits modernization initiatives and delivery against the PACT Act legislation which has been briefed to Congress, impact programmatic and technical timelines all of which would introduce significant added financial costs and technical risk. Any other vendor would need an estimated 30 days to onboard, train, and integrate a significant number of resources within the BAM PLs in order to provide the required BAM PMO support; therefore, only FTC has the ability to continue providing the necessary support starting on day one. As such, this task order extension is essential to avoid a gap in the BAM PMO services being provided that support VA’s mission to improve benefit claims processing, case management, and benefits and service delivery of benefits and services to Veterans of the United States.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. Specifically, aside from FTC, there are no other sources capable of providing the services required with the ability to start work immediately to ensure VA continues to receive BAM PMO support without any gap in service due to the GAO protest of the new competitive award for these services. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities website, SAM.gov and the justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The requirements under this effort were initially competed under a competitive acquisition. After receipt of a GAO protest, VA has decided to reevaluate the offers received for the competitive procurement, taking into account the corrective measures recommended by GAO, and re-issue a competitively awarded TO for these services. Future requirements are expected to be competed.

8. Market Research: Market research was performed for this action. VA reviewed the Request for Information results documented on January 31, 2024 for the recompete procurement for BAM PMO Support. VA has continued to conduct market research throughout this process; however, no source, other than FTC, would be capable of providing the aforementioned support during this period, due to the lack of being able to successfully on-ramp and gain the highly specialized knowledge needed in time to guarantee no failures in support as detailed above in Section 5 of this justification. This extension will provide for the timely continuance of this critically needed support in order to ensure there is no gap in service.

9. Other Facts: None.

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of a three (3) month extension to task order 36C10B20N10060037 for BAM PMO Support on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Date: ____________ Signature:

Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics

01/17/2025