JOFOC Redacted Final.pdf

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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Office of Finance and Operations Contracts and Acquisitions Management

Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity.

Agency: U.S. Department of Education Contracting Activity: Contracts and Acquisitions Management

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

The purpose of this Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) is to provide documentation that explains why this specific requirement is to be awarded as a firm-fixed price contract to eGlobalTech Industries (eGlobalTech Industries) without competition for the Information Collection Request, Review and Approval System (ICRAS) Maintenance and Enhancement requirement. The base period of performance for this contract is 12 months, with four 12-month option periods that may extend the period of performance for an additional 48 months, and the estimated total value of the contract is $???,???.

3. A complete description of the supplies and/or services required to meet the agency’s needs.

Project Title: ICRAS Maintenance and Enhancement

Federal statute directs the Department's Office of Chief Data Officer (OCDO) to manage the agency's inventory of currently active information collections, to be strategic in how it collects information, and encourage data sharing within and outside of the agency. Key drivers include the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 5 CFR 1320, OM: 6-102, and the Evidence-Based Policy Act.

To meet these legislative mandates, Strategic Collections and Clearance (SCC) requires unique technical expertise to maintain and operate ICRAS. ICRAS is a proprietary FedRAMP certified system that was developed, in 2015, by eGlobalTech Industries for the Department to manage its information collection clearance process. ICRAS allows for the creation, management, and electronic submission of an information collection request (ICR) to SCC for review. It also provides the ability to electronically submit ICRs to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The system produces reports based on various parameters.

ICRAS provides a platform for department users to view and track their ICRs as they proceed through the approval process. The Department has a continuing need for all these features within

ICRAS.

In addition, incremental enhancements are needed in ICRAS to meet the evolving needs of Departmental users and OMB, including automated system connections via an Application Programming Interface (API). Modifications to ensure the two systems: 1) ICRAS and 2) the

Regulatory Information Service Center (RISC) and Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Consolidated Information System (ROCIS) capture the same information will ensure our collection of data is complete, captures the universe of metadata about the department's ICRs and meets OMB expectations. ROCIS is used by cabinet level agencies to submit information collection requests to OMB for review and approval. These changes also provide other Departmental systems that rely on data from ICRAS (e.g., Open Data Platform, ED Data Inventory) to have complete information about the department’s inventory of information collections.

Without these enhancements, the Department would be out of compliance with the Evidence- Based Policy Act requirement to maintain a comprehensive data inventory. Automated data transfer is needed to lower discrepancies with data entry and automate low-value work that is currently done manually. These changes ensure consistency with submission, increased efficiency in work products for the department’s information collection portfolio managers and meets OMB requirements to ensure accurate reporting of burden for agency ICRs.

It is vitally important to make improvements to ICRAS to improve ICR efficiencies, and to improve metadata management and lifecycle data management of the department’s ICRs.

eGlobalTech Industries’ proprietary system is needed due the unique requirements of the information collection clearance process. This Government off the shelf (GOTS) system is the only web-based system that addresses these requirements. eGlobalTech Industry is the only firm who can make enhancements to their proprietary FedRAMP certified system. The Department must issue a sole source contract award to eGlobalTech Industry in order to continue to meet its requirement. It should be noted that on April 1, 2019, eGlobalTech became a wholly owned subsidiary of Tetra Tech, Inc.

4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

The statutory authority permitting the use of non-competitive procedures is 41 U.S.C.

3304(a)(1): When Noncompetitive Procedures May Be Used. An executive agency may use procedures other than competitive procedures only when the property or services needed by the executive agency are available from only one responsible source, and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the executive agency. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) citation permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition is FAR 6.302-1– Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

eGlobalTech Industries has left the small business program.

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

eGlobalTech Industries has extensive expertise and experience with the paperwork clearance process and the design of ICRAS. eGlobalTech Industries has supported the tool since 2015 and manages a separate version for EPA. Their expert knowledge of the clearance process, their knowledge of ICRAS, its design and functionality are unparalleled. In addition, due to the proprietary nature of the system they designed, the Department could not purchase from a different vendor without redevelopment costs, eGlobalTech Industries is the only vendor who can successfully fulfill the requirements of this contract.

To ensure delivery of the required components of this maintenance and enhancement contract, the Department requires a contractor with demonstrated expertise in the following two areas:

(1) Paperwork Clearance Process: Deep knowledge and expertise of the clearance process including use of external websites like Reginfo.gov and the Regulatory Information Service Center and Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Information System (ROCIS), the federal register and public commenting process, and knowledge of the OMB review process.

(2) Systems Development and Deployment: Demonstrated expertise in systems on the AWS cloud platform.

eGlobalTech Industries has highly technical and extensive knowledge, skills and experience in both of the required key areas identified above, demonstrated through both corporate experience and the experience of key personnel, required for the success of the ICRAS Maintenance and Enhancement requirement detailed as follows:

Key Area 1: Paperwork Clearance Process Expertise eGlobalTech Industries currently manages a version of ICRAS for the Department and EPA.

The organization regularly partners with agencies on its management of the ICRAS system, assists as their requests proceed through the clearance process, and works to innovate processes continually.

Matthew Robl, the Project Manager at eGlobalTech Industries, leads work to modernize routine tasks that are part of the clearance process through digital technology. Matthew has served on many IT projects with the department, EPA, HHS, FEMA, DOT, USPTO, and USCIS. eGlobalTech Industries has supported this work since 2011.

Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) enhancements are needed to ensure the Department's version makes use of similar improvements in EPA's version of the system taking advantage of advancements in the processing of PRA requests. The absence of these enhancements creates more manual work that could be automated.

Enhancements are further needed to meet the unique needs of Department users and OMB.

Changes in data collected between ICRAS and ROCIS ensures our collection of data is complete and captures the universe of metadata about our ICRs. These changes also ensure other systems that rely on data from ICRAS also have complete information about the Department's inventory of collections. Data discrepancies, errors, and incomplete reporting on behalf of the Department could occur with manual data entry.

Key Area 2: Systems Development and Deployment

Systems development and deployment expertise is required for the maintenance and enhancement of ICRAS under the current contract. This expertise will further be required to create a needed API between the ICRAS database and other Department systems. Specifically, the API must include top-level metadata for currently active information collections, tracking data to maintain accuracy and periodicity, and transparency of public data to support data analysis of agency datasets to identify duplication and lower burden for the public. The

Evidence Based Policy Act, as the driver for this maintenance and enhancement effort, requires this crucial piece of technology be added to ICRAS. This is a new requirement for ICRAS.

eGlobalTech Industries built APIs for other eGlobalTech projects.

ICRAS’ proprietary design prevents PRA violations because ICRAS includes advanced database tracking and monitoring tools to ensure Departmental and OMB users have real-time status of collection packages. Real-time tracking is a crucial benefit as it allows the Department to centralize the ICR workflow process and maintain proper monitoring at the agency level to prevent missed PRA deadlines and make timely submissions to OMB. eGlobalTech Industries met this challenge by creating email generated reminders to program offices, automated information collection request package creation, and tasks that routinely check OMB systems for date changes on OMB approvals. This maintenance and enhancement effort ensures the Department continues to make improvements as processes change.

eGlobalTech Industries is a proven Federal prime contractor with 35+ Federal prime contract awards resulting in a corporate growth rate of over 400%. In 2014, end-to-end operations and maintenance (O&M) support including, but not limited to, help desk, training, and user management saved over 75% in operating costs by migrating ICRAS to an Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. Securing the AWS environment helps to fight threats and monitor the posture of the system for compliance with Departmental and DHS requirements.

eGlobalTech monitors DHS bulletins for notices that affect the security posture of the system based on the criticality of the bulletin. When changes are needed, they partner with the Department’s OCIO team to address needed fixes, conduct testing to ensure changes meet or exceed DHS requirements, and deploy updates in a timely manner. Maintenance and enhancement support are needed to ensure ICRAS’ operability. Since eGlobalTech developed their proprietary system they are in the only position to make enhancements.

Making a noncompetitive award to eGlobalTech Industries is the most advantageous acquisition strategy for meeting SCC's need to an organization with a deep bench of technology expertise and skill at developing tools based on Departmental needs. For these reasons, a sole source contract to eGlobalTech Industries is necessary to ensure the success of the ICRAS Maintenance and Enhancement contract.

6. A 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 apples.

In accordance with FAR 6.305(d), this justification shall be made publicly available at BETA.sam for 30 days within 14 days after contract award. A solicitation will not be released to industry due to the proprietary nature of the system eGlobalTech developed which contains all the necessary attributes the Department requires to meet our needs. There are no vendors with this set of proprietary requirements or design that currently exists in the marketplace.

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

The Department will perform a price analysis to determine fair and reasonableness of price as required by the FAR. In addition, the Independent Government Cost Estimate uses historical data to estimate the cost of performance and the Department will use this information in the price analysis before award. The labor mix will also be confirmed as commensurate with the work required.

8. A description of the market research conducted and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

Members of the Council of Agency PRA Officials (CAPRA) that represent cabinet-level agencies were surveyed, in May 2018, to assess current operating mechanisms, team structure, and technology in use for work-related functions under the Paperwork Reduction Act. The survey asked vital questions: 1) the number of staff, 2) technology used to manage the process,

3) strategic barriers for improvement of an agency's operations. This research corresponds to the two key areas of required expertise described in Section 5.

Only one vendor with knowledge of PRA policy and practice was identified through this market research that could be assessed against the two required key areas. This market research confirmed that eGlobalTech Industries is the only vendor in the private sector space with demonstrated technical expertise in both key areas required for providing timely and high-quality deliverables for this contract. No other vendor demonstrated knowledge in both required key areas.

Agencies reported the use of Microsoft Office tools – specifically Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft Access - to manage the information collection clearance process for their agencies.

However, the Department’s ICRAS, a distributed web-based system, allows all ED employees and contractors to electronically submit information collections for review, track their progress through the process in real time, manage documents associated with ICRs, produce reports and provide automated reminders when ICRs are due for renewal. A backend database supports the collection of data for reporting purposes and provide metadata to other department systems.

The system performs automated tracking of other related processes with OMB (e.g. monitoring approvals) and the Federal Register (posting of federal register notices for public comment).

Differences in these approaches require agencies using Excel and Microsoft Access to send documents via email, limit access to only those within their PRA offices access for use, and exposes risks to data integrity, version control on documents, and no workflow to manage tasks within and outside of the information collection clearance process. This is not a viable option for the US Department of Education.

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

N/A

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

No vendors have expressed an interest in this requirement.

11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency will take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for supplies and services is made.

The Department will continue to conduct thorough market research to gauge marketplace capabilities for future requirements. As eGlobalTech is the sole provider and designer of

ICRAS, no options that are responsive to the Department’s needs currently exist. Should other systems in the PRA space be offered, all future work will be competed.

12. The ordering activity Contracting Officer’s certification that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the Contracting Officer’s (CO) knowledge.

This justification is accurate and complete to the best of the CO’s knowledge. The award of a sole source contract to eGlobalTech Industries for the ICRAS Maintenance and Enhancement requirement is in the best interest of the Government.

Approved

X

Chief of the Contracting Office

Procuring Activity Competition Advocate

Program Office Certification:

This is to certify that the data supporting this justification is the responsibility of technical or requirements personnel (e.g., verifying the Government’s minimum needs or schedule requirements or other rationale for other than full and open competition) and which form a basis for the justification have been certified as complete and accurate by the technical or requirements personnel.

Project Manager

Program Manager

United States Department Of Education