JEFO FY21-0056 redacted_2021.04.30.pdf

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

JEFO No: FY21-0056 Page 1 of 5 Rev: 10/22/2020

JEFO Number: FY21-0056 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 Accenture Federal Services, LLC, hereinafter referred to as Accenture, under its GSA ALLIANT II contract, contract number 47QTCK18D0036.

Accenture is the incumbent contractor currently providing support under task order HSHQDC- 14-D-E2005/70SBUR18F00000183 for myUSCIS support services.

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 necessary to support the Agency’s public facing website (my.uscis.gov), as well as the Civics Test Study Tools mobile app for iOS and Android.

The period of performance for the proposed action consists of a four (4) month base period (05/01/2021 - 08/31/2021) with one (1) one (1) month option period (9/1/2021 – 9/30/2021) for a total period of performance 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:

☒ 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.

JEFO No: FY21-0056 Page 2 of 5

Rationale:

Currently, Accenture performs myUSCIS services under 70SBUR18F00000183 task order until 04/30/2021. As described in greater detail further below, the myUSCIS 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 to continue myUSCIS support commencing on 05/01/2021. Market research that was conducted for the competitive re-compete currently in-progress indicated that there are contractors capable of performing services required by myUSCIS on multiple EAGLE NextGen contracts. However, based on the research conducted for this task order, it has been concluded that only Accenture 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 (05/01/2021) 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. Accenture is currently in place and capable to provide this level of quality within this short timeline. Accenture 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 myUSCIS work supports the existing website and mobile app as well as development of new and enhancement of existing capabilities that make it easy for the public to understand and navigate the immigration process, apply for benefits online, view information about their cases, respond to requests for additional information and contact USCIS for support. Halting some of these projects would create an issue with the services provided to benefit 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 engineering services for myUSCIS, development efforts will halt and the

JEFO No: FY21-0056 Page 3 of 5 immigration benefits application process for thousands of immigrants will be impacted. This would be detrimental to the USCIS mission. Specifically, the following areas will be impacted:

o myUSCIS Public website:

The public facing my.uscis.gov website will be unsupported, and any issues that arise with security, infrastructure or functionality will not be resolved.

o Online Filing:

The forms currently available online for digital filing will not be supported or modified when OMB requires form revisions, which occurs frequently.

o Online Accounts:

Millions of applicants and representatives with online accounts will not be supported when issues arise with the website or system integrations;

Development of new account features that are in progress will not be completed, to include personalized processing times, paper case linking, enterprise address service, paperless notices etc.

o Mobile App:

iOS and Android versions of the mobile app will be unsupported and if any issues arise with security, infrastructure or functionality they will not be resolved;

Civics Test questions will not be updated when the answers change (for instance when the names of elected officials change) o Analytics:

The personal processing times data that is displayed on the uscis.gov public website will not be maintained or refreshed, potentially causing inaccurate information to be shared with the public which will negatively impact call center volumes.

The web usage metrics and dashboard metrics that are provided on a weekly, monthly and on demand basis will not be produced.

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 Accenture 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.

JEFO No: FY21-0056 Page 4 of 5

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.

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 70SBUR18F00000183, 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 myUSCIS task order, 70SBUR18F00000183, contractor Accenture, 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 70SBUR18F00000183 ends on 04/30/2021 and it is necessary to proceed with the short-term task order with Accenture 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.

JEFO No: FY21-0056 Page 5 of 5

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.

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