JA eFOIA 3-MTH EXT_Redacted Posted.pdf

AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress Software VA-22-00042453

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, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for the incorporation of a three-month extension to the Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) Task Order awarded under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for a brand name AINS, Incorporated, LLC (AINS, Inc.) FOIAXpress software and associated maintenance support. The Contractor is ThunderCat Technology, LLC, 1925 Isaac Newton Square, Suite 180, Reston, VA 20190.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Quality, Performance and Risk, Office of Quality and Compliance has a requirement for a three-month continuation of 1,055 licenses of brand name AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software and associated maintenance support to provide continued support of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (eFOIA) System. Additionally, the VA requires

The requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552 as amended By Public Law No. 110-175, 121 Stat. 2524 states that any person has a right of access to Federal agency records, except to the extent that such records are protected from release by a FOIA exemption or a special law enforcement record exclusion. Executive Order 13392 and the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act, which amended FOIA, requires VA to provide more customer-oriented service by improving the management and administration of its own FOIA program. VA’s web-based eFOIA system was created in response to these laws and directives. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) currently uses AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software to process its FOIA requests. This software redacts sensitive and personal information from audio, video, and documents so that it can be released in accordance with United States Laws and VA Directives. Without this software, responding to FOIA requests would be a labor-intensive manual process.

Each document and media file would have to have all sensitive information manually redacted. The maintenance support associated with this procurement involves software updates, responding to system outages, training, and help desk support.

Software automating FOIA requests is critical to VA’s mission and obligations under United States Law. The period of performance for this effort shall be a three-month extension, to be exercised on a month-to-month basis, to the current Contract NNG15SD26B, Task Order, 36C10B22F0119 for continued use of the software and associated maintenance support. Additionally, this effort includes a period of performance extension of the previously funded eFOIA Transition and Orientation Support for a total of three months (one-month initial extension funded at time of award and two additional one-month extensions that may be funded at a later date). .

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting the use of other than competitive procedures for this acquisition is 38 U.S.C. 8127(c), known as the Veterans First Contracting Program. This program provides the authority to directly contract with a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) or a Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB).

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this acquisition is ThunderCat Technology. ThunderCat Technology is a certified SDVOSB and is technically qualified to continue to provide services and associated maintenance support. Thundercat Technology has been determined by the Contracting Officer to be a responsible source due to active and continued successful performance on the current contract. Pricing as already determined to be fair and reasonable for the previously exercised Option period will be used to calculate a monthly rate which will then be extended for the three-month extension. Furthermore, given that the current eFOIA contract is nearing its Period of Performance end and is no longer a viable vehicle for this work, and the follow-on contract is not yet awarded, it is not in the Government’s best interest to compete for a short-term bridge effort as it would likely require the transitional of terabytes of Government data between systems. This would introduce significant risks to the integrity of data being transferred between multiple systems in a short few months of time which might result in loss of Veteran data. The Contracting Officer will therefore be able to award using a fair and reasonable price that offers the best value to the United States.

ThunderCat Technology was awarded a competitive Task Order in May 2022 to perform this work and has performed successfully to date. The existing task order expires on April 30, 2025, however, the need for continued services, maintenance support and transition support is an ongoing need beyond this Task Order. Specifically, while the VA has been working to award the follow-on eFOIA contract for this requirement, due to unforeseen funding restrictions, the approved programmed funding release was delayed leading to delays in reaching final award. This short-term three month contract action is being sought to avoid a break in service for the brand name eFOIA software currently in use by the VA until the follow-on contract is awarded.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted in March 2022, as discussed in Section 8. Upon determination that a brand name award to ThunderCat Technology was in the best interest of the Government, the Contracting Officer confirmed that ThunderCat meets all of the requirements detailed in VAAR 819.7008.

Furthermore, based on the Consistent with the guidelines of the Veterans First Contracting Program, the proposed action described herein will be synopsized and this justification will be posted on the Contracting Opportunities Page in accordance with FAR Part 5.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The current task order was competed and awarded via NASA SEWP V GWAC. A new award is planned to replace the current task order, however it is currently in the evaluation phase and not expected to be awarded prior to the end date of the current Contract NNG15SD26B, Task Order 36C10B22F0119 completion date. A continuation of services, maintenance support, and transition tasks is needed to bridge the gap between the current Task Order and a newly awarded Task Order contract for the eFOIA requirement.

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted in March 2022 and the Contracting Officer considered other contractors in the marketplace. Given that the current task order is nearing the end of its period of performance and the follow-on Task Order has not been awarded, it is not in the Government’s best interest to compete for a short-term bridge effort as no other alternative can provide a seamless integration to the existing VA network due to proprietary software coding, data security protections and trade secrets used to store VA data on the AINS, Inc.

servers. The use of an alternative software would require the duplication of time and effort. Additionally, use of any alternative software would also expose VA to risk of data loss and corruption.

The Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) database was accessed on April 23, 2025. This search concluded that ThunderCat Technology is registered and certified and qualifies as a SDVOSB in accordance with the federal small business size standard for the applicable Northe American Industry Classification System Code (NAICS) 541519. It was also verified on April 23, 2025 that ThunderCat Technology is registered in the SAM.gov database and is eligible to receive a government contract.

Additionally, the Contracting Officer reviewed 84 of ThunderCat Technology’s performance ratings dated within the last three years and included Product Service Code 7A21 in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS).

Of all these recent ratings, only two of which have a rating less than fully Satisfactory.

In reviewing these ratings, both were of Marginal in one or more elements. After review of these less than Satisfactory ratings, the details appeared to not be related to future performance of this contract. The remaining 82 CPARS all identified instances across all elements have been satisfactory or better. As the result, the Contracting Officer determined that risk of unsuccessful performance by Thundercat for the three month extension is low.

9. Other Facts: The Procuring Contracting Officer has determined that this proposed action meets all the requirements of 38 U.S.C. 8127(c) and VAAR 819.7008. This acquisition is below the $5,000,000.00 threshold, ThunderCat Technology is a responsible SDVOSB for performance of the services described herein, the proposed extension of the Task Order can be awarded at a fair and reasonable price, and award to ThunderCat Technology is in the best interest of the Government. In addition to the three-month extension, FAR 52.217-8, “Option to Extend Services,” will be included in the modification.

10. Technical and Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Date: _____________________________

Signature: _________________________

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this action will be fair and reasonable based on a direct comparison to historical prices paid by the Government for these same services on the current contract. Furthermore, NASA SEWP V GWAC catalogue prices which have previously been determined fair and reasonable, will be used to verify Thundercat’s proposed price is fair and reasonable per FAR 15.404-1(b)(2)(ii).

Date: ______________________________

Signature:

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Date: ______________________________

Signature: