Limited Source Justif PTACMod.6.10.21Redact.pdf

United States Department of Education

Office of Finance and Operations

Contracts and Acquisitions Management

LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

1) IDENTIFICATION:

Agency: U. S. Department of Education

Contracting Activity: Contracts and Acquisitions Management

2) NATURE AND/OR DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION BEING APPROVED:

The Department of Education (the Department) established the Privacy Technical Assistance

Center (PTAC) in 2010 as a technical assistance resource center for education stakeholders to learn about privacy requirements and related best practices for student data systems. Since its inception, PTAC was a contractor-run technical assistance center managed via contract with

Applied Engineering Management (AEM). Historically, this work supported the Student Privacy

Policy Office (SPPO), previously known as the Family Policy Compliance office, in regard to its external facing privacy work includes developing policies for, ensuring compliance with, and enforcing through complaint resolution and other mechanisms, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), the military recruiter provisions under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).

In September 2020, with the award of a five year task order (base plus four options) to AEM, the

Department expanded the role of PTAC to align with all of SPPO’s operations more fully. This expanded role included new tasks to support SPPO’s internal privacy safeguards work in ensuring compliance with, the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, Section 208 of the E-

Government Act of 2002, the Social Security Number Fraud Prevention Act of 2017, the privacy aspects of the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA), Office and

Management and Budget (OMB) Memos and other requirements applicable to federal agencies, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) privacy framework as adapted by the Department.

It should be noted that the current GSA task order # 91990020F0049 was competed off the GSA

Multiple Award Schedule and AEM was awarded the task order through a competitive process.

The Department is completing this requirement as a modification to the Base Year for GSA task order number: 91990020F0049. In summary, this modification will add Task 16 to the task order. This task will require the contractor to develop a Complaint Management Tracking

System (CMTS) by modifying its existing system, Enterprise Wizard (EW) -an Agiloft product, previously used exclusively to track help desk inquiries, to process and track the resolution of all

SPPO operations. This processing/tracking includes the following: informal requests for technical assistance (see Task 2); complaints regarding the Family Educational Rights and

Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (see Task 14); approval; compliance documents including Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA) and Privacy Threshold Analyses (PTA)

(see Task 15); and requests to release data submitted to the Disclosure Review Board (see Task

5).

The Department believes it is in the best interest of the government to modify the GSA order rather than conduct a new procurement because this new task # 16 is consistent with, and further enhances, the scope of work currently performed as noted in the associated tasks above. Should a new vendor complete this work it may not be compatible with the Department’s system. In addition, based on a documented history of positive contractual performance including having developed the requirements document for the SPPO CMTS (as a deliverable under the prior order), AEM has the background and insight that will result in a more timely and comprehensive solution because their solution is an enhancement of the existing system. While a new vendor would have to create a new system in addition to procurement costs.

Government Estimate for new work:

Current Base Year $2,062,344.16

Task 9.5.2 (Migrate SDPC) $57,683.50

Task 9.5.2(Additional SME support for SDPC) $28,506.00

Task 16 (SPPO Complaint Management Tracking System) $397,783.88

Revised Base Year amount $2,546,317.54

3) DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES OR SERVICES REQUIRED TO MEET THE AGENCY'S NEEDS:

Project Title: Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) [GS-00F-083GA/

91990020F0049]

Description of supplies or services:

The Government wishes to add Task 16 to the base year of the existing order. As stated above, the task will require the contractor to modify its existing system, Enterprise Wizard (EW) used exclusively to track help desk inquiries to process and track the resolution of all SPPO operations. As background, in its final report summarizing the findings regarding the Office of the Chief Privacy Officer’s (Privacy Office) processing of Family Educational Rights and

Privacy Act, the Department’s OIG identified that the Family Policy Compliance Office, now known as the Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) did not ensure efficient and effective complaint tracking. At the time of the audit, the office did not have a single system to track complaints and was using two separate systems to do so. In the response to the audit, the

Department, then through the Office of Management, (please note that since January 6, 2019 the new SPPO was reorganized into OPEPD), stated that it was taking action to rectify this deficiency, and anticipated identifying and implementing a new technical solution in FY 2019 that would meet SPPO complaint processing information management requirements. SPPO must comply with their Corrective Action Plan submitted to OIG. If they are found to be non-compliant, they would be unable to fully meet the statutory obligation in enforcing FERPA and

PPRA.

This modification to the new 2020 GSA order will allow SPPO to leverage the expertise exhibited by AEM as well as AEM’s insight into our business processes, to give us a cost-effective option.

4) THE AUTHORITY AND SUPPORTING RATIONALE:

The authority is 8.405-6 (a) (1)(i)(C): In the interest of economy and efficiency, the additional work is a logical follow-on to the original Federal Supply Schedule order. The current GSA order was awarded under the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award

Schedule 541611. The current contractor has demonstrated excellent results over the course of the task order. The current contractor has been providing similar activities for the Department since 2010 as documented in Section 6 below. It is not efficient or cost effective to go through a procurement process for a separate vendor to provide the additional work when AEM is already providing similar functions and is familiar with SPPO’s work having developed the requirements document for the CMTS. AEM can enhance the current system thereby allowing SPPO to be compliant with their Corrective Action Plan submitted to OIG. The current tracking system only tracks help desk inquiries, and the new enhancement (new task 16) will process and track all of

SPPO operations as referenced above. A new vendor would have to create a new system from scratch and there is no guarantee that it will be compatible with ED’s current system. The government estimates that the time for procuring a new vendor and completing the work would be 12 months minimum. In addition, the cost to complete the work in addition to procurement costs would be approximately $514,800. This modification enhancement will support several tasks already in the current PWS, and will ultimately serve to enhance both PTAC, and SPPO operations, in general.

5) A DETERMINATION BY THE ORDERING ACTIVITY CONTRACTING OFFICER

THAT THE ORDER REPRESENTS THE BEST VALUE CONSISTENT WITH 8.404(d):

As with the overall contract, this modification will also be firm fixed price. The Program Office has secured funding and supplied the Contracting Officer (CO) with an Independent Government

Cost Estimate (IGCE) to assist in determining whether the price is fair and reasonable. The CO and Contract Specialist will conduct a price analysis of the vendor’s proposal before award to determine whether the price is fair and reasonable and represents best value.

6) A DESCRIPTION OF THE MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED AMONG SCHEDULE

HOLDERS AND THE RESULTS OR A STATEMENT OF THE REASON MARKET

RESEARCH WAS NOT CONDUCTED:

Task 16: this modification, as identified in the FY2021 acquisition plan, focuses on the development of a new complaint management tracking system. Initially, we considered utilizing one of the vendors that will be part of OCIO’s BPA for the development of the CMTS or partnering with Office of Secretary and Federal Student Aid in their contracting action with

Appian. OCIO’s BPA was determined to be no longer a viable solution as various obstacles arose resulting in the BPA likely approved for use too late in the 2021 calendar year at best. In addition, the Office of the Sectary’s Appian solution was already quite far in the development cycle and incorporating the SPPO CMTS would require time to address our specific programmatic needs. Thus, neither of these solutions would likely result in SPPO having a viable solution by the proposed September 30 end date of the CCM application (when it will be phased out). In the past, when considering other potential solutions for our CMTS preliminary estimates were in the $400-500K range solely to address our informal TA and complaint processing work. Therefore, the Department believes it is in its best interest to award this work as a modification, since AEM was recently awarded this new, five-year contract through a competitive process; knows our business case and has been tracking and managing our informal technical assistance inquiries since 2010. This background positions AEM to be best suited to conduct this additional work by building out the functionality afforded by EW for a new CMTS.

Further, as has been previously mentioned, these tasks are enhancements to existing tasks within the PWS.

7) ANY OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING THE JUSTIFICATION:

This modification will allow SPPO to complete one of the two remaining findings from the 2018

OIG audit.

8) A STATEMENT OF THE ACTIONS, IF ANY, THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE

OR OVERCOME ANY BARRIERS THAT LED TO THE RESTRICTED

CONSIDERATION BEFORE ANY SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITION FOR THE SUPPLIES

OR SERVICES IS MADE:

OPEPD understands the serious nature of modifications and will work to limit their occurrence to the minimum required. This modification should only impact the base year and will result in more efficiencies overall in terms of the performance of those tasks identified above that are in the existing GSA order.

9) THE ORDERING ACTIVITY CONTRACTING OFFICER (CO) CERTIFICATION THAT

THE JUSTIFICATION IS ACCURATE AND COMPLETE TO THE BEST OF THE CO'S

KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF:

The CO certifies that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of their knowledge and the procurement is not a result of planning or expiration of funds.

Program Office Certification:

This is to certify that the data supporting this justification is the responsibility of the program office personnel, including verifying the Government's minimum needs or schedule requirements or other rationale for limited sources (pursuant to 8.405-6) or for other than full and open competition justification (pursuant to 6.303-2(b)) which form a basis for this justification, and that such data and rationale are accurate and complete.

Frank E. Miller Jr. Date

Deputy Director, Student Privacy Policy Office

Program Manager and COR

Kevin Herms, Date

Director, Student Privacy Policy Office

Project Manager

Contracting Officer Certification:

This is to certify that the data supporting this justification is the responsibility of the undersigned program office personnel, including verifying the Government's minimum needs or schedule requirements or other rationale for limited sources (pursuant to 8.405-6) or for other than full and open competition justification (pursuant to 6.303-

2(b)) which form a basis for this justification, and that such data and rationale are accurate and complete. The circumstance that applies is 8.405-6 (a) (1) (C).

Pamela W. Bone

Contracting Officer Date

Approved:

Christopher Rosier

Contracting Activity Competition Advocate Date