JA SDVOSB Sole Source_IN3102 Authentic8_Redacted.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics (OPAL) Strategic Acquisition Center (SAC) 5202 Presidents Court, Suite 103

Frederick, MD 21703

Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition 6.302-5 – Authorized or required by statute

1. Contracting Activity:

This Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) is executed by the Strategic Acquisition Center - Frederick (SAC-F), on behalf of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Operations and National Security Services (ONSS) Division – Defensive Counterintelligence (CI) Branch, Office of Emergency Management and Resilience (OEMR), Office of Operations, Security and Preparedness

(OSP).

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

This activity proposes to negotiate a non-competitive award (sole-source) with V3 Gate, LLC, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, for the procurement of Authentic8 Silo licenses and technical support and maintenance to enhance OSINT capabilities with conducting appropriate research in support of national security efforts.

This will enable reporting and analytical capabilities needed to maintain a risk-centric Common Operational Picture. The tool will provide analysts the opportunity to develop products used to provide detailed Senior Leader decision support before, during and after events of interest national security or which pose threat to the VA.

The period of performance is a 12-month base period with one 12-month option period.

August 5, 2024 – August 4, 2025 (Base Period) August 5, 2025 – August 4, 2026 (Option Period 1)

Estimated dollar value is $25,450.25 for two years.

3. Description of Services:

The VA ONSS, Defensive CI Program's mission is to conduct activities to detect, deter, and neutralize activities conducted for or on behalf of threat actors. By virtue of this mission, VA CI regularly conducts open-source intelligence research and analysis to make recommendations to decision-makers on protecting VA equities from adversarial threats.

Such analytical research capability is done through open-source intelligence which includes the ingest of publicly available information attributed to emerging content that may impair the biomedical, health, cybersecurity, and government sector. This type of

Strategic Acquisition Center (SAC) research requires common analytical tools that allows for browsing the internet with limited impact on the VA network. Authenticate Silo provides such ability through its managed attributed capability. Managed attribution operates within a virtual cloud network that separates the U.S. government network from cyber signatures or patterns that can alert or inform the respective element being researched about United States Government (USG) interest.

The scope is to provide a complete commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS), web-based managed attribution solution that can be used by counterintelligence analysts to mitigate research risk. Such capability will enhance and professionalize the VA Defensive CI mission and streamline best practices used by interagency partners with similar challenges, threats, and structure.

4. Statutory Authority:

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C.

§ 3304(a0(5) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.302-5 entitled, “Authorized or required by statute”. The applicable statute is Public Law 109- 461: “Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006” specifically, the “Veterans First Contracting Program” outlined in 38 USC § 8127(c).

5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited:

VAAR 819.7007 states explicitly, “A determination that only one SDVOSB can meet the requirement is not required,” and that using this authority, the following must be verified:

(1) The anticipated award price of the contract (including options) will not exceed $5 million; the estimated value is $25,450.25.

(2) The requirement will be synopsized in accordance with FAR part 5.

(3) The SDVOSB concern has been determined to be a responsible source with respect to performance; V3 Gate, LLC is a registered and verified Service- Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) with recent proven capabilities to perform the required services. V3 Gate, LLC has demonstrated proven past experience with providing the same support for the past 12 months.

Strategic Acquisition Center (SAC)

(4) In the estimation of the contracting officer, contract award can be made at a fair and reasonable price that offers best value to the Government. This determination will be based on a comparison of the proposed price to the Independent Government Cost Estimate, or other methods describe in FAR 15.404-1(b).

6. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applied.

IAW VAAR § 819.7007 Sole source awards to service-disabled veteran-owned small business concerns (b), “The contracting officer’s determination whether to make a sole source award is a business decision wholly within the discretion of the contracting officer. A determination that only one SDVOSB concern is available to meet the requirement is not required.” Market research was conducted as detailed in section 7 below; based on the market research information and consideration of the most appropriate acquisition strategy, the Contracting Officer determined a SDVOSB sole source was in the best interest of the Government.

A notice will be publicized as required by FAR Subpart 5.2.

7. Description of the market research conducted (see Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted:

Market research was conducted, using Government sources. V3 Gate, LLC has been determined to be a responsible source with respect to performance. They are registered and certified in the Small Business Administration (SBA) VetCert database (https://veterans.certify.sba.gov/) as a SDVOSB with the NAICS code for this requirement (541519 – Other Computer Related Services) which in accordance with Public Law 109-461 Section 502(c) meets the requirements of this statute to sole source to a SDVOSB. In addition, a review of their Representations and Certifications was conducted in the System for Award Management (SAM) and V3 Gate, LLC represented that it is a small business and SDVOSB.

In addition, the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) was reviewed and FAPIIS shows no reports for V3 Gate that would indicate defective pricing, instances of contractor fault or recipient not-qualified, terminations for cause, default or material failure to comply, or non-responsibility of the contractor.

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

Strategic Acquisition Center (SAC) 5202 Presidents Court, Suite 103

Frederick, MD 21703

In accordance with Public Law 109-461, codified at 38 USC § 8127, in order to increase contracting opportunities for small business concerns owned and controlled by veterans and small business concerns owned and controlled by veterans with service-connected disabilities, contracting officers of the VA are given specific statutory authority to award a contract to a small business concern owned and controlled by veterans using procedures other than competitive procedures (i.e. a “sole source” contract). The contracting officer may do so in accordance with VAAR 819.7007.

9. Listing of the sources, that expressed an interest in the acquisition.

V3 Gate, LLC 555 Middle Creek Parkway Suite 120 Colorado Springs, CO 80921-3798

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

All future requirements will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Toward the expiration of this contract, consideration will be given as to whether the future acquisition should be competitive.

11. Certifications / Signatures.

Technical Representative Certification:

Strategic Acquisition Center (SAC) 5202 Presidents Court, Suite 103

Frederick, MD 21703

Contracting Officer Certification:

Pursuant to FAR 6.303-2(b)(12), I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.