LSJ_Redacted.pdf

LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

AcqTrack 28517

NBIB IT Program Management Office

Case Processing Operations and Enhancement Support (Salient)

17 October 2018

I. Contracting Activity

This Limited-Sources Justification (LSJ) supports a procurement action to be conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program (FAR 8.405-6). The procurement action is generated by:

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Office of Procurement Operations (OPO) 600 Arch St. Suite 3400 Philadelphia, PA 19106

Name: Lucy Tascone Email: Lucy.Tascone@opm.gov Phone: (202) 705-9675

II. Nature and/or Description of the Action Being Approved

The Office of Chief Information Officer (OCIO), National Background Investigation Bureau (NBIB) Information Technology (IT) Program Management Office (PMO) has a requirement for continued support for the maintenance and enhancement of investigation case processing systems. These services are currently provided under OPM Task Order (TO) Number OPM1517F0028, issued on a sole source basis under General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract, GS-35F-0238K to LIST INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS, INC. An LSJ was prepared in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) to support that award, to include a period of performance of August 8, 2017 through November 04, 2018, inclusive of all options under FAR 52.217-9 and FAR 52.217-8.

The purpose of TO OPM1517F0028 was to bridge the gap between the expiration of competitively awarded Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) OPM3212A0013 Call W0005 and a competitive follow

on. Subsequently, Request for Quotation (RFQ) 24322618Q0075 for the competitive follow-on was issued on September 21, 2018, with a due date of October 22, 2018 for quotations. The release of the solicitation for the competitive follow-on procurement was delayed due to several factors including short staffing, time to conduct/complete Market Research, and time to refine the Performance Work Statement (PWS) based on emerging business requirements. The Case Processing Branch (CPB) had three of its six Federal employee positions open due to an internal hiring freeze. As a result, CPB, short half of its staff, was forced to compete with higher priority operational issues when working on the competitive follow-on acquisition. Additionally, there was a shortage of trained CORs along with several other acquisition packages - contracts and software renewals - that needed to be completed in order to sustain operations. This impacted the overall schedule negatively, especially in the completing Market Research and finalizing the PWS. Although

Limited Source Justification AT 28517 – Case Processing Operations

17 Oct 2018 the Market Research effort was started within the recommended Procurement Acquisition Lead Time (PALT), it took over 11 months to complete due to the staffing shortages. PIPS support is complex and involves synchronicity across several other projects, such as the emerging electronic identity management and the agile center of excellence programs. The introduction of new emerging business requirements and staffing shortages delayed the completion and approval of the

PWS.

This LSJ supports the issuance of a new TO, which will allow OPM to continue to receive these critical services while the quotations are being evaluated and a competitive follow-on awarded.

Services must begin on November 05, 2018 to avoid a lapse in service. In addition the TO will be structured to allow for a period of transition between the incumbent and the awardee of the competitive follow-on, if the awardee is not the incumbent. Specifically, the TO resulting from this LSJ will provide for a 3-month base period (November 05, 2018 through February 04, 2019) with three sequential 1-month option periods, if needed for a transition, (February 05, 2019 through March 04, 2019; March 05, 2019 through April 04, 2019; and April 05, 2019 through May 04, 2019).

The systems supported through this work are critical to preserving a trusted workforce that can be vetted within a reasonable amount of time. A failure of these system’s security protections could expose current, past, and future Federal employees and contractor personnel to the risk of theft of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Additionally, a technical failure with the system could derail the processing of conducting personal investigations, threatening progress to decrease the existing backlog.

III. Description of the Supplies or Services Required to Meet the Agency's Needs

The PMO is responsible for maintaining the hardware and software tools used in the personnel investigative process. A large portion of the work supporting the maintenance and enhancement of these tools is performed by contractor personnel. Key activities may include, but are not limited to:

• Working experience in development activities for large-scale, real-time, transaction-oriented systems utilizing the following core development languages.

• Assist in the transfer of software applications between development, test, and production environments.

• Provide operational and administrative support to ensure that Case Processing continues to support Federal Investigations Processing Center (FIPC) operations

• Devise and conduct risk assessment programs to identify areas of potential vulnerability for all applications within the NBIB application suite.

• Interpret and evaluate proposed legislation and broad-based policies concerning information technology. Assess potential impact on existing program requirements working with Case Processing System Analysts. Evaluate the feasibility of implementing new developments to enhance systems security and reliability, and analyze findings and develop long-range plans to minimize risks, mitigate vulnerabilities, prevent security incidents, and insure systems reliability across Case Processing.

• Develop, recommend, and implement approved security contingency plans, incident response plans, and disaster recovery procedures for the Case Processing applications.

The estimated value of the additional services is . A breakdown of this amount can found in the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

IV. Authority Permitting Acquisition using Limited Sources

It has been determined that only one source is capable of providing the services at the level of quality required. FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) is the appropriate authority in executing the new TO. OPM is actively working a re-compete effort to consolidate the services provided under this effort, as well as under two other efforts, into a single procurement. As the competitive effort is actively being worked, the continuation of the current services is required to be provided by the incumbent to ensure no break in service occurs.

LIST INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS, INC. not only provides this mission critical case processing services but is also extensively trained in the systems and operations of the OPM. This workforce is fully trained, dedicated and familiar with all OPM policies and procedures and thus would require no transitional support to continue providing these services during the shortened bridge period represented herein. Additionally, by providing staff on site the incumbent has a fully functional workforce within OPM with the proper certifications and security clearances necessary to provide the entirety of the scope of work services. The time and effort required to competitively award for a bridge of such short duration would not be recouped through competition, and would result in a significant risk to the agency in terms of time, cost and break in services being performed. The incumbent has provided the required services for numerous years via a previously competitive awarded task order and current bridge effort. No other contractor has the capability to continue to provide OPM with these critical services with no transition time.

V. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Order Represents the Best Value

The vendor will be required to submit pricing based on government-provided level of effort and labor categories, utilizing associated hourly rates within their existing GSA MAS contract. The vendor will be additionally expected to provide an additional discount beyond the pricing in their MAS contract, which has already been determined to be both fair and reasonable in accordance with FAR 8.404(d). Price analysis techniques may be utilized to further validate price reasonableness and to determine the quoted price, inclusive of all options, represents the best value to the Government. Specifically, the Government will compare the quoted pricing to recent relevant historical pricing.

VI. Description of the Market Research Conducted and the Results or Statement of the Reason

Market Research was not Conducted

OPM released Request for Information (RFI) OPM3217N0007 through the Government’s FedBizOpps.gov portal on April 26, 2017 in preparation for a competitive procurement to consolidate several on-going NBIB IT PMO support contracts which will include a longer performance period. Six firms responded to the announcement with submissions, which were forwarded to the PMO on May 11, 2017 for further consideration. The market research concluded on May 24, 2018. Based on evaluation of the RFI responses, three firms were determined potentially capable. An RFQ was issued to those three firms, and was also made available to any GSA Schedule holder who requested a copy.

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=c927d1aee453c4adf36de1fa32ac3ef1&tab=core&_cview=0

As indicated previously, RFQ 24322618Q0075 for the re-compete was issued on September 21, 2018 with quotations due October 22, 2018.

VII. Any other facts supporting the justification

None

VIII. Statement of 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

In accordance with FAR 8.405-6 – Limited Sources, within 14 days after task order award, a notice shall be posted in accordance with FAR 5.301 and a copy of this justification posted at the GPE http://www.fbo.gov for a minimum of 30 days. Any contractor proprietary data, references and citations, as are necessary to protect the proprietary data, will be removed before making the justifications available for public inspection.

http://www.fbo.gov/