P01 PD Calabrio MAY_16_2025_REV2_MAR_18_2026 03232026.docx

Software Licenses Support and Maintenance – Calabrio TAC Number: VA-26-00011254

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION (PD)

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps) Connectivity & Collaboration Services (CCS) Unified Communications (UC)

Software Licenses Support and Maintenance – Calabrio Date: 3/23/2026

VA-26-00011254

PD Version Number: 1.0 Disclaimer: The TAC accepts no liability for the completeness or correctness concerning the Information Technology content of this template. This template is a means to simply assist the requiring activity in developing their requirements. It is the Requiring Activity’s responsibility to ensure the correctness of all requirements within their final Product Description.

Contents

(This Product Description (PD) Template is for Hardware/Software acquisitions to serve in place of a PWS.

NOTICE to all Requiring Activities:

1. Artificial Intelligence Requirements All requiring activities must adhere to the policy for all in-scope AI use-case owners to submit their AI Use-Cases through the CAIO Team Site which contains AI Use-Case Intake Form. Please see the Intake Form site referenced for further information on AI Use-Cases, and the submission instructions. See below for the Use-Case Categories and Examples of Use-Cases that would require submission of your effort using the AI Use-Case Intake Form.

Use-Case Categories and Examples That Require Intake Submission:

· VA AI Use-Cases required for Intake commonly fall under the following categories:

1. A software system that learns from data

1. A tool that mimics or supports human decision making

1. A tool exposed to new data to make predictions, decisions, or recommendations about real people, agency service delivery, or agency program execution

· Some examples of AI Use-Cases at VA include:

1. Machine learning or other AI tools to provide a clinical diagnosis or determine a recommended treatment;

1. AI chat tools to summarize claims and contention data;

1. Natural language processing to review Veteran survey comments and identify potential risks of crisis;

1. AI tools to automate components of benefits and application processing.

The answers provided within the AI Use-Case Intake Form including, but not limited to the type of AI used, the domain the AI is in, the benefit and output of the AI, will be used by CAIO to evaluate and determine if the use-case is required for Inventory, as well as if it is High-Impact, as required by M-25-21. See also Identification and Review of High-Impact AI Use Cases.

1. After submitting the use-case to the CAIO office Intake process, CAIO office representatives will assist the Use-Case Owner through next steps required for their Use-Case. If High Impact Use-Case, the CAIO office will also provide information regarding required risk management practices, the AI Impact Assessment, and Risk Mitigation Plan requirements. As a result, the Requiring Activity should determine if any specific related requirements tasks are needed for their PD to support these minimum risk management requirements.

0. Use-Case Owners should also indicate to CAIO whether the AI Use-Case is a pilot, which will release them from the full compliance process, but will trigger a follow-up by CAIO at six months

1. See Section 5.7 in the PD Template for the required information and language that will always be included in your PD, regardless of intake determination, and instructions regarding any modifications to the requirements, as necessary. Section 5.7 also contains PD requirements to ensure Unbiased AI Principles are adhered to and incorporated into the AI System/LLM.

1. Additionally, there are solicitation instructions/requirements for the Vendor to submit with its proposal, located in the Notes to the CO Section at the end of this document.

2. Source Code Harmonization and Reuse in Information Technology (SHARE IT) Act Requirements:

All custom software development efforts (except for those programs/products for use in national security systems, classified code, or code whose disclosure would create an identifiable risk to individual privacy) must include software source code delivery of custom-developed code for Federal re-use requirements in accordance with the SHARE IT Act, P.L. 118-187, December 23, 2024. (Custom-developed code means source code, or segregable portions of source code, written for a software project, module, plugin, script, middleware, or application programming interface, that is first produced in the performance of a contract, exclusively funded by the Federal Government, for which the Federal Government could obtain unlimited rights under FAR Part 27

a. See Section 5.8, Source Code Harmonization and Reuse in Information Technology (SHARE IT) Act, in this PD Template for the required information and language to be included in this PD if the SHARE IT Act applies.

b. The formal deliverable and task such as, “The Contractor shall provide a Custom-Developed Code Package including the source code or segregable portions of source code, and other key technical components of the code (including documentation, data models, schemas, metadata, architecture designs, configuration scripts, and artifacts required to develop, build, test, and deploy the code) to support reuse and transparency in accordance with the SHARE IT Act,” (or similar) must be added to the Software Development requirements at the appropriate location within the PD task in Section 1.x (to include adding the associated Custom Developed Code Package deliverable and its due date requirements in the Schedule for Deliverables table within the Notes to the CO Section (and corresponding CLIN within the Price Schedule)) to ensure delivery of the custom developed code package throughout the development process to the current VA GitHub Source Code Inventory Repository for VA/Federal re-use, as required in the SHARE IT Act.

3. VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) Efforts, Enterprise Cloud Solutions Office (ECSO):

The VA CIO and Infrastructure Operations Director require that, if a solution cannot be provided by a SaaS solution or Infrastructure as Code, that it next be assessed for hosting on one of VA’s Enterprise Cloud Hosting Platforms including the VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC), and VA Platform One (VAPO). VAEC is a multi-cloud hosting platform, providing both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure government community clouds. VAPO provides a containerization strategy for migrations and new development within the VAEC clouds. Both VAEC and VAPO support the efficient migration to and utilization of cloud technology by the requiring activity. Through VAEC and VAPO, Infrastructure Operations (IO) provides applications and systems with secure and seamless cloud functionality together with enterprise tools, standards and common services. IO adheres to the Cloud Smart Policy (https://cloud.cio.gov/strategy/),which offers practical implementation guidance to fully realize the potential of cloud-based technologies while ensuring thoughtful execution that incorporates practical realities. New cloud hosting requests can be directed to the IO Unified Intake Services Request here: IO Unified Intake Services Request. To expedite a request, contact OIT IO INTAKE TRIAGE.

To aid requiring activities that need to migrate applications or systems to the VAEC or are implementing applications or systems in the VAEC, the Office of Strategic Sourcing (OSS), Technical Acquisition Center (TAC), and the Enterprise Cloud Solutions Office (ECSO) have provided a VAEC Technical Reference Guide VAEC Technical Reference Guide 11/2022 This guide is applicable to migrations to or new development in the VAEC platforms.

Requiring Activities should also note that there is standard VAEC performance work statement (PWS) language (see below) to be used by project teams that need to migrate applications or systems to the VAEC or are implementing applications or systems in the VAEC. This language includes cloud-specific requirements and deliverables that should be considered in your PWS/PD.

Projects where an existing COTS or custom, legacy application or system has been deemed cloud suitable and is targeted to be migrated to and hosted in the VAEC (or is currently hosted in a VAEC) should refer to the “Standard VAEC PWS Language for Migrations” document for PWS/PD sample language considerations regarding specific VAEC requirements to be added to the Requiring Activity’s PWS/PD.

Projects where there is a new solution implementation should refer to the “Standard VAEC PWS Language for New Implementations” document for PWS/PD sample language considerations regarding specific VAEC requirements to be added to the Requiring Activity’s PD.

These documents can be found at the VAEC Acquisition Resources page: https://dvagov.sharepoint.com/sites/OITECSO/SitePages/VAEC-Acquisition.aspx?csf=1&e=dhnDL4. If you require further assistance, please contact ecsoinfo@va.gov.

4. SaaS EFFORTS:

In addition, Requiring Activities should note that for Software as a Service (SaaS) acquisitions, Digital Transformation Center (DTC) has developed standardized PWS/PD Language for several scenarios regarding FedRAMP, etc., to be added to your PWS/PD requirements document, as appropriate. Please see the document “SaaS Contract Language and Price Schedule – FY24” in the “SaaS” folder for the latest language and example price schedule, located in the “OIT Acquisition Guides” folder within the “OPAL Acquisition Requirements Package (ARP) Templates” area: OIT Acquisition Guides. Please also see the VA Digital Marketplace at DigitalVA Product Marketplace for existing VA-approved software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and low-code no-code (LCNC) products to consider reusing an existing, proven solution in the catalog that may satisfy your requirements. However, the Digital VA Product Marketplace is not intended to direct procurements.

5. Clinical Data Determination Standards:

(Requiring Activities should note that for acquisitions of solution(s) involving a Clinical and Data Management System, the VHA Health and Medical Informatics office has developed standardized PWS/PD requirements language to be added to your PWS/PD requirements document as appropriate. Please see the document “PWS Guide – Clinical Terminology Standards Requirements” located in the “VHA Acquisition Guides” folder within the OPAL Acquisition Requirements Package (ARP) Templates” area: VHA Acquisition Guides. This Guide is intended to help programs and projects develop and/or select Clinical and Data Management systems that are aligned with terminology standards. Please contact VHA Health Informatics Knowledge Based Systems Terminology Standards Staff at VHA10P2AHIKBSTerminologyStandardsStaff@va.gov for any questions regarding these requirements.)

PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS

(VA Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps) Connectivity & Collaboration Services (CCS) Unified Communications (UC) has a requirement for continued subscription and maintenance of the brand name Calabrio software government owned Calabrio license(s). Calabrio is a commercial off the shelves (COTS) software bundle that is used to provide Call Recording, Workforce Management, and Quality Management for the VA Genesys CX3 Contact Centers.

CCS Has a requirement to maintain / support the existing Calabrio licenses being utilized in the VA Contact Center environment. These are proprietary OEM licenses purchased by the Government.

The Calabrio software maintenance and support shall allow for enhancing and optimizing software, as well as remedying any software defects and failures; it includes all new fixes, patches, corrections, releases, updates, versions and upgrades to the software. Support is a range of services providing 24x7x365 assistance for the software via telephone, e-mail, and website. This will ensure the Veterans Affairs Contact Center platform remains operational and free of vulnerabilities to meet the Continuous Readiness Information Security Program requirements.

Service and Support shall include:

BASE YEAR

SP-SUPPORT

SP-SUPPORT

Option Year 1 - NTE Quantities

SP-SUPPORT

Contractor shall begin to provide support and maintenance services upon award of this Task Order (TO) <ITEM 1 SALIENT CHARACTERISTIC(S)> (Add additional items as needed)

NOTICE OF THE FEDERAL ACCESSIBILITY LAW AFFECTING ALL INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) PROCUREMENTS (SECTION 508)

(Three standards listed in Section 2.1 below [E205 Electronic Content – (Accessibility Standard -WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA Guidelines), E204 Functional Performance Criteria, and E208 Support Documentation and Services] always apply to the evaluation of ICT and should remain marked as “x”. The requiring activity should un-mark any of the other remaining standards below [E206 and/or E207] that do not apply to this effort. The Accessibility Requirements Tool (ART) is a web-based application that will help the requiring activity determine the Section 508 standards that apply to their specific acquisition. The ART tool is located at Accessibility Requirements Tool (ART).)

On January 18, 2017, the Access Board issued a final rule that updated accessibility requirements covered by Section 508 and refreshed guidelines for telecommunications equipment subject to Section 255 of the Communications Act. The final rule went into effect on January 18, 2018. The revisions and updates to the Section 508-based standards and Section 255-based guidelines are intended to ensure that information and communication technology (ICT) covered by the respective statutes is accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.

SECTION 508 – INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) STANDARDS

The Section 508 standards established by the Access Board are incorporated into, and made part of all VA orders, solicitations and purchase orders developed to procure ICT. These standards are found in their entirety at: Revised 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines (access-board.gov). A single PDF file version of the Revised Section 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines will be supplied upon request, or can be obtained from the Access Board website. Federal agencies must comply with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.

The Contractor shall comply with “508 Chapter 2: Scoping Requirements” for all electronic ICT and content delivered under this contract. Specifically, as appropriate for the technology and its functionality, the Contractor shall comply with the technical standards marked here:

COMPATABILITY WITH ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

The standards do not require installation of specific accessibility-related software or attachment of an assistive technology device. Section 508 requires that ICT be compatible with such software and devices so that ICT can be accessible to and usable by individuals using assistive technology, including but not limited to screen readers, screen magnifiers, and speech recognition software.

ACCEPTANCE AND ACCEPTANCE TESTING

Deliverables resulting from this solicitation will be accepted based in part on satisfaction of the Section 508 Chapter 2: Scoping Requirements standards identified above.

The Government reserves the right to test for Section 508 Compliance before delivery. The Contractor shall be able to demonstrate Section 508 Compliance upon delivery.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY USING SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS

(Reference: RFO 52.223-23 (NOV 2025), Sustainable Products. In accordance with RFO 23.102(a), Agencies are required to procure sustainable products and services (as defined in RFO 23.101) to the maximum extent practicable. If the requiring activity is procuring the following types of Information Technology Products delivered to the Government, or furnished by the Contractor for Government use or for Contractor use at a Federally controlled facility (applicable to the work being performed and/or the solution requires) the requiring activity must include the products that fall into the Energy Star and FEMP Low Standby Power statutorily required purchasing programs within the requirements specifications for the products within this PD to indicate applicability to this contract.

If the products/services do not involve the acquisition of products that fall into the Energy Star or FEMP Low Standby Power categories at all, this entire section can be indicated as “Not Applicable” and any references to Energy Star or FEMP Low Standby Power can be removed from the product requirement specifications within the PD. If after consulting with the Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist, the requiring activity determines there are no Energy Star certified or FEMP Low Standby Power designated products that meet VA requirements and a written justification or an exception has been provided, this entire section can be indicated as “Not Applicable” and any references to Energy Star or FEMP Low Standby Power can be indicated as N/A within the product requirement specifications within the PD.

The Requiring Activity should review the following websites to help determine which statutory purchasing programs apply (e.g. Energy Star Certification and/or FEMP Low Standby Power Designation) to a specific product or service and also review specifics on various brand, model numbers, and specifications of products that meet them by reviewing the Department of Energy site https://www.energy.gov/femp/search-energy-efficient-products , as well as the specific Energy Star and FEMP Low Standby Power Product List websites directly.

The Contractor shall comply with Sections 524 and Sections 525 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007; Section 104 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005; Executive Order 14148, “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” dated January 20, 2025; Executive Order 13221, “Energy-Efficient Standby Power Devices,” dated August 2, 2001; and the Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Overhaul (RFO) to provide ENERGY STAR® certified and Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) Designated Low Standby Power information technology products, see https://www.energy.gov/femp/search-energy-efficient-products. See http://www.energystar.gov for complete product specifications and updated lists of Energy Star certified products. FEMP low standby power product listing can be found at https://www.energy.gov/femp/low-standby-power-product-list.

The Contractor shall provide products that meet the definition of sustainable products if the products are delivered to the Government; furnished by the Contractor for use by the Government, incorporated into the construction of a public building or public work, or acquired by the Contractor for use in performing services under a Government contract where the cost of the products is a direct cost to a Government contract (versus costs which are normally applied to a contractor's general and administrative expenses or indirect costs).

Specifically, the Contractor shall provide sustainable products under this contract in accordance with RFO 52.223-23 (NOV 2025). The applicable products with their associated certification and/or designation required (e.g. Energy Star, FEMP Low Standby Power) are identified within the product requirements specifications in this PD. The Contractor shall self-certify that its proposed products meet the certification(s) and/or designation(s) specified.

SHIPMENT OF HARDWARE OR EQUIPMENT

Not Applicable ( N/ A)

SPECIAL SHIPPING INSTRUCTIONS

N / A

NATIONAL ACQUISITIONS

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

(VA Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps) Connectivity & Collaboration Services (CCS) Unified Communications (UC) has a requirement for continued subscription and maintenance of the brand name Calabrio software government owned Calabrio license(s). Calabrio is a commercial off the shelves (COTS) software bundle that is used to provide Call Recording, Workforce Management, and Quality Management for the VA Genesys CX3 Contact Centers.

CCS Has a requirement to maintain / support the existing Calabrio licenses being utilized in the VA Contact Center environment. These are proprietary OEM licenses purchased by the Government.

The Calabrio software maintenance and support shall allow for enhancing and optimizing software, as well as remedying any software defects and failures; it includes all new fixes, patches, corrections, releases, updates, versions and upgrades to the software. Support is a range of services providing 24x7x365 assistance for the software via telephone, e-mail, and website. This will ensure the Veterans Affairs Contact Center platform remains operational and free of vulnerabilities to meet the Continuous Readiness Information Security Program requirements.

Service and Support shall include:

VA TECHNICAL REFERENCE MODEL

The Contractor shall comply with the VA OIT Technical Reference Model (VA TRM). Compliance with the VA TRM is achieved by using only technologies and standards that are listed as approved for use in the VA TRM. The Contractor shall provide all necessary information requested by VA to ensure TRM approval is obtained prior to use on VA’s network.

ZERO TRUST – VA CRITICAL SECURITY CONTROLS

VA has established minimum mandatory security requirements and requires that any network connected software system or service must meet the VA Critical Security Controls as outlined in the VA Memorandum, “VA Security Controls”, https://www.voa.va.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DocumentID=5010. VA Critical Security Controls identify the minimum mandatory requirements that must be implemented across all VA enterprise infrastructure, cloud computing environments, information systems, networks, and specialized devices (medical devices/systems, special-purpose systems, and research scientific computing devices) that process, store, and/or transmit VA data. Effective July 1, 2025, the Contractor shall implement these VA Critical Security Controls, within any network connected software system or service prior to being authorized for use in the VA. This functional requirement is not negotiable, and Plan of Action & Milestones (POAM) will not be accepted in the event these controls cannot be implemented for new systems. Critical Security Controls are intended to increase VA’s security posture and provide security and privacy risk visibility into the VA network and is not a new requirement. The Contractor’s failure to maintain these VA Critical Controls after implementation will result in VA discontinuing the use of the system.

SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER (SSN) REDUCTION

The Contractor solution shall support the Social Security Number (SSN) Fraud Prevention Act (FPA) of 2017 which prohibits the inclusion of SSNs on any document sent by mail. The Contractor support shall also be performed in accordance with Section 240 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) 2018, enacted March 23, 2018, which mandates VA to discontinue using SSNs to identify individuals in all VA information systems as the Primary Identifier. The Contractor shall ensure that any new IT solution discontinues the use of SSN as the Primary Identifier to replace the SSN with the Integrated Control Number (ICN) in all VA information systems for all individuals. The Contractor shall ensure that all Contractor delivered applications and systems integrate with the VA Master Person Index (MPI) for identity traits to include the use of the ICN as the Primary Identifier. The Contractor solution may only use a Social Security Number to identify an individual in an information system if and only if the use of such number is required to obtain information VA requires from an information system that is not under the jurisdiction of VA.

INTERNET PROTOCOL VERSION 6 (IPV6)

The Contractor solution shall support IPv6-Only based upon the memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on November 19, 2020 (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/M-21-07.pdf). Which defines IPv6-only as the state of an operational system or service when IPv4 protocol functions (addressing, packet forwarding) are not in use. The NIST USGv6 profile defines technical requirements for a product to be capable of operating in IPv6-Only environments. IPv6-Only technology, in accordance with the USGv6 Program (https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/usgv6-program/usgv6-revision-1), NIST Special Publication (SP) 500-267B Revision 1 “USGv6 Profile” (https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.500-267Br1), and NIST SP 800-119 “Guidelines for the Secure Deployment of IPv6” (https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-119), compliance shall be included in all IT infrastructures, application designs, application development, operational systems and sub-systems, and their integration. In addition to the above requirements, all devices, applications, and systems shall support all applicable functionality on native IPv6-Only as well as dual stack (IPv6 / IPv4) connectivity without additional memory or other resources being provided by the Government, so that they can function in a mixed environment. All public/external facing servers and services (e.g., web, email, DNS, ISP services, etc.) shall support native IPv6-Only and dual stack (IPv6 / IPv4) users and all internal infrastructure and applications shall support using native IPv6-Only and dual stack (IPv6 / IPv4) for all functionality and operations.

SOFTWARE AND LICENSING REQUIREMENTS

The Contractor shall be responsible for the provision of all software licenses and any associated licensing maintenance required for any development, delivery, integration, operation, and/or maintenance associated with its proposed application(s), software products, software solution, and/or system including, but not limited to, any and all application(s), software and/or software products that comprise, are a part of, or integrate with the Contractor’s proposed application(s), software products, software solution, and/or system for the life of any resulting contract.

TRUSTED INTERNET CONNECTION (TIC)

The Contractor solution shall meet the requirements outlined in Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-19-26, “Update to the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Initiative“ (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/M-19-26.pdf), VA Directive 6513 “Secure External Connections”, and shall comply with the TIC 3.0 Core Guidance Documents, including all Volumes and TIC Use Cases, found at the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) (https://www.cisa.gov/publication/tic-30-core-guidance-documents.)

GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REQUIREMENTS

If Artificial Intelligence (AI) is part of the Contractor system/solution, the Contractor shall be in compliance with E.O. 13960 and 14319, OMB Memorandums M-25-21, M-25-22, and M-26-04, and VA Directive and Handbook 6500 to support VA in trustworthy, secure, responsible, accountable, Truth Seeking, and Ideologically Neutral AI innovation.

No web-based, publicly available generative AI service has been approved for use with VA-sensitive data including, but not limited to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude. No PII, protected health information (PHI), or VA-sensitive data should be entered into these unapproved services. The entire definition of VA Sensitive Data can be found at 38 U.S.C. § 5727 (23). The Contractor shall protect VA Sensitive data from unauthorized disclosure or use, and from being used to train or improve the functionality of the vendor's commercial offerings without express permission from VA.

The Contractor shall deliver the services, technical data, configurations, models, weights, documentation or other information, including source code, developed during contract performance. The Contractor, in collaboration with VA, must evaluate the output of any AI tool for accuracy prior to using the output in VA efforts. All data, including models, weights, algorithms, and outputs generated using either Government-furnished data or data first developed under this contract shall be the property of the Government with unlimited rights as defined by FAR 52.227-14. The Contractor shall also deliver any custom-developed code developed with AI methodologies in accordance with the SHARE IT Act, if applicable. VA shall also retain unlimited rights to any improvements to that data, including the continued design, development, testing, and operation of AI systems and/or systems utilizing AI.

The Contractor shall ensure that all AI Systems, including Large Language Models (LLM), whether standalone LLMs or integrated into broader software platforms, procured under this effort and/or used in performance of this contract complies with the Unbiased AI Principles as defined in Executive Order 14319 and OMB Memorandum M-26-04, e.g. Truth Seeking and Ideologically Neutral, as applicable to the intended use of the system.

The Contractor shall ensure that AI System/LLM generated outputs are truthful in responding to user prompts seeking factual information or analysis, prioritize historical accuracy, scientific inquiry, and objectivity, as well as acknowledge uncertainty where reliable information is incomplete or contradictory and do not fabricate, hallucinate, or present unverifiable information as fact.

The Contractor shall ensure that LLMs and AI outputs are neutral, nonpartisan tools that do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas such as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The Contractor shall ensure that the LLMs, including the AI System, are not intentionally encoded with partisan or ideological judgments within an AI System’s/LLM’s outputs unless those judgments are prompted by or otherwise readily accessible to the end user.

Compliance with the AI requirements of this contract, including adherence to the Unbiased AI Principles, Truth-Seeking and Ideological Neutrality requirements, disclosure obligations, monitoring and reporting requirements, and corrective action responsibilities, is a material condition of eligibility for payment and continued performance. In accordance with OMB Memorandum M-26-04, failure to comply with these requirements, or refusal to take timely and appropriate corrective action to remedy identified noncompliance, may constitute a material breach of contract and may result in remedies consistent with the terms of the contract and applicable law including but not limited to withholding of payment, termination for cause/default, or other appropriate contractual remedies, as determined by the Contracting Officer.

All AI for delivery and/or use in performance of the contract shall adhere to the VA Trustworthy AI Framework, available at https://department.va.gov/ai/trustworthy/. Once the Contractor has obtained CO authorization to use specific AI in contract performance, the Contractor shall provide the COR a signed Statement of Attestation prior to AI implementation as identified in the Artificial Intelligence in VA Contracts clause, to include its associated list of AI being used in contract performance.

Deliverable:

1. Statement of Attestation

AI SYSTEM/LLM DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATION DOCUMENTATION REQUIREMENTS

To enable Government continued assessment of compliance with Trustworthy AI requirements and both Unbiased AI Principles, Truth-seeking and Ideological Neutrality, in accordance with OMB M-26-04, the Contractor shall provide AI System/LLM Development and Operation Documentation Package to include, at a minimum:

1. Acceptable Use Policy The Contractor shall provide an Acceptable Use Policy document governing its AI operation that characterizes and differentiates appropriate and inappropriate use of their product offering

1. Model Cards, System Cards and/or Data Cards The Contractor shall provide documentation describing essential information about the model, system, and or data as it relates to the AI/LLM product offering. The documentation shall address summaries of training process, identified risks and mitigations, and model evaluation scores on LLM benchmarks at a minimum, where appropriate

1. End User Resources The Contractor shall provide documentation to include product tutorials, developer guides, and/or other tools to assist VA in ensuring proper use of the AI/LLM to maximize utility

1. Mechanism for End User Feedback The Contractor shall provide documentation describing the mechanism employed to provide feedback to the Offeror on outputs identified that violate the Unbiased AI Principles. This may be satisfied by a general inbox, specific Point of Contact, or similar feedback mechanism.

1. Pre-Training and Post-Training Activities of the AI System/LLM The Contractor shall provide documentation of Pre-Training and Post Training Activity that provides details on:

4. Actions taken that impact the factuality and grounding of AI System/LLM outputs

4. System-level prompts that provide natural language instructions to the model specifying guidelines on responding to user-generated queries, to include how a model responds when reliable information is incomplete, contradictory, or subject to individual interpretation

4. The type of outputs restricted via content moderation and safety filters

4. The use of red teaming as a means of continuously assessing the model to protect against incidents of bias in generated output.

4. Training or development, if any, that occurred outside the United States, to include the type of activity and the country in which it occurred.

4. Any modifications or configurations undertaken to comply with any regulation from a government other than the U.S. Federal Government.

1. Model Evaluation Results and Methodologies The Contractor shall provide documentation describing the Evaluation Results of bias evaluations conducted by the Vendor to include the methodology for performing such tests (e.g., testing prompt pairs for politically oriented topics).

The documentation shall also include Benchmark scoring results measuring the model’s bias, helpfulness, honesty, or accuracy when provided with ambiguous versus straightforward questions. (Including any benchmarks comparing performance across multiple languages, where applicable).

1. Description of Enterprise-Level Controls The Contractor shall provide documentation describing the Enterprise Governance tools and controls, such as:

6. Customizable system instructions that are additive to a base model’s system prompts or content generation filters.

6. Product features that require a model to cite sources of its outputs or otherwise provide visibility into the provenance of the model’s outputs.

6. AI System/LLM model evaluation tools that enable comparisons either between a model’s outputs, or across various models.

1. Third Party Modification Disclosure The Contractor shall disclose of any additional controls to modify an AI Model’s/LLM’s output applied by the Contractor if the Contractor is not a direct developer of the LLM (e.g., classifiers, system prompts, fine-tuning, content moderation and filters, etc.)

Deliverable:

A. AI System/LLM Development and Operation Documentation Package

MONITORING, REPORTING, AND CORRECTIVE ACTION

The Contractor shall develop and implement a Compliance Monitoring and Reporting Plan supporting ongoing monitoring processes to evaluate AI outputs for compliance with Trustworthy AI and Unbiased AI principles. This plan shall include the mechanism for authorized users to provide end user feedback to report suspected violations of Truth-Seeking or Ideological Neutrality requirements.

The Contractor shall notify the COR within 10 business days of identifying any material deviation from these principles and shall submit a written Corrective Action Plan describing mitigation steps, responsible parties, and timelines. Any material deviation, corrective action taken, and results shall be detailed in the <Weekly or Monthly> Progress Reports.

Deliverable:

1. Compliance Monitoring and Reporting Plan

1. Corrective Action Plan

AI MODEL UPDATES AND CHANGE DISCLOSURES

The Contractor, in an AI Model/LLM Change Disclosure, shall notify the Government throughout the PoP in advance of any material changes to AI models, including new AI enhancements, features and/or components, controls, retraining, classifiers, system prompts, fine-tuning, content moderation, filters, version replacement, or architectural changes, that could reasonably affect compliance with Trustworthy AI or Unbiased AI principles. Updated documentation shall be provided to VA for VA approval prior to implementation of such changes.

SECURITY AND PRIVACY REQUIREMENTS

POSITION/TASK RISK DESIGNATION LEVEL(S)

Position Sensitivity and Background Investigation Requirements by Service Task/Item Number Service Task / Item Number

The Tasks identified above and the resulting Position Sensitivity and Background Investigation requirements identify, in effect, the Background Investigation requirements for Contractor individuals, based upon the tasks the particular Contractor individual will be working. The submitted Contractor Staff Roster must indicate the required the Tasks identified above, and the resulting Position Sensitivity and Background Investigation requirements identify, in effect, the Background Investigation requirements for Contractor individuals, based upon the tasks the particular Contractor individual will be working. The submitted Contractor Staff Roster must indicate the required Background Investigation Level for each Contractor individual based upon the tasks the Contractor individual will be working, in accordance with their submitted proposal.

ADDENDUM B – VA INFORMATION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM SECURITY/ PRIVACY LANGUAGE .

CONTRACTOR PERSONNEL SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

Contractor Responsibilities:

1. The Contractor shall prescreen all personnel requiring access to the computer systems to ensure they maintain the appropriate Background Investigation, and are able to read, write, speak, and understand the English language.

Within 3 business days after award, the Contractor shall provide a roster of Contractor and Subcontractor employees to the COR to begin their background investigations in accordance with the PAL template artifact. The Contractor Staff Roster shall contain the Contractor’s Full Name, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, individual background investigation level requirement (based upon Section 6.2.1 Tasks), etc. The Contractor shall submit full Social Security Numbers either within the Contractor Staff Roster or under separate cover to the COR. The Contractor Staff Roster shall be updated and provided to VA within 1 day of any changes in employee status, training certification completion status, Background Investigation level status, additions/removal of employees, etc. throughout the Period of Performance. The Contractor Staff Roster shall remain a historical document indicating all past information and the Contractor shall indicate in the Comment field, employees no longer supporting this contract. The preferred method to send the Contractor Staff Roster or Social Security Number is by encrypted e-mail. If unable to send encrypted e-mail, other methods which comply with FIPS 140-2 (or its successor) are to encrypt the file, use a secure fax, or use a traceable mail service. (Note that by September 22, 2026, all FIPS 140-2 certificate validations will be placed on the Historical List. See FIPS Transition Effort Timeline for more details: https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/fips-140-3-transition-effort#schedule)

1. The Contractor should coordinate with the location of the nearest VA fingerprinting office through the COR. Only electronic fingerprints are authorized. The Contractor shall bring their completed Personnel Security Adjudication Center (PSAC) Fingerprint request form with them (see paragraph d.4. below) when getting fingerprints taken.

b. The Contractor shall ensure the following required forms are submitted to the COR within 5 days after contract award:

1) Optional Form 306

2) Self-Certification of Continuous Service

3) VA Form 0710

4) Completed PSAC Fingerprint Request Form The Contractor personnel shall submit all required information related to their background investigations (completion of the investigation documents (SF85, SF85P, or SF 86) utilizing the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) Electronic Application (eAPP) (formerly e-QIP) after receiving an email notification from the PSAC.

The Contractor employee shall certify and release the eAPP document, print, and sign the signature pages, and send them encrypted to the COR for electronic submission to the PSAC. These documents shall be submitted to the COR within 3 business days of receipt of the eAPP) notification email. (Note: DCSA is moving towards a “click to sign” process. If click to sign is used, the Contractor employee should notify the COR within 3 business days that documents were signed via eAPP).

1. The Contractor shall be responsible for the actions of all personnel provided to work for VA under this contract. In the event that damages arise from work performed by Contractor provided personnel, under the auspices of this contract, the Contractor shall be responsible for all resources necessary to remedy the incident.

1. A Contractor may be granted unescorted access to VA facilities and/or access to VA Information Technology resources (network and/or protected data) with a favorably adjudicated Special Agreement Check (SAC), completed training delineated in VA Handbook 6500.6 (Appendix C, Section 4), signed “Contractor Rules of Behavior”, and with a valid, operational Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credential for PIV-only logical access to VA’s network. A PIV card credential can be issued once your SAC has been favorably adjudicated and your background investigation has been scheduled by DCSA. However, the Contractor will be responsible for the actions of the Contractor personnel they provide to perform work for VA. The investigative history for Contractor personnel working under this contract must be maintained in the database of DCSA.

1. The Contractor, when notified of an unfavorably adjudicated background investigation on a Contractor employee as determined by the Government, shall withdraw the employee from consideration in working under the contract.

Failure to comply with the Contractor personnel security investigative requirements may result in loss of physical and/or logical access to VA facilities and systems by Contractor and Subcontractor employees and/or termination of the contract for default.

PIV Credential Holders must follow all HSPD-12 policies and procedures as well as use and protect their assigned identity credentials in accordance with VA policies and procedures, displaying their badges at all times, and returning the identity credentials upon termination of their relationship with VA.

Deliverable:

A. Contractor Staff Roster

(For procurements which include continuous/full-time/on-site technical support being acquired with the hardware/software, additional information security requirements may apply. All Sections in this Addendum B must be reviewed to determine applicability to the requirements of the effort within the PD. Any Sections (B1 through B14) which DO NOT apply should be removed from this Addendum B. Requiring Activities should see the inclusion instructions prior to each Section and remove any full Sections that DO NOT apply (indicating “N/A” underneath the Section Heading(s)). The language within these Sections MUST NOT be modified, except for the removal of instructional text provided prior to each Section.)

(For PD’s that do not require these additional security requirements, Addendum B may be deleted.)

ADDENDUM B – VA INFORMATION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM SECURITY/ PRIVACY LANGUAGE

NOTE: In the event of a conflict, VA Acquisition Regulation (VAAR) Security Clauses take precedence over the language in this Addendum B.

APPLICABLE SECTIONS TAILORED FROM: VA NOTICE 24-12, APRIL 22, 2024, UPDATE TO VA HANDBOOK 6500.6, CONTRACT SECURITY, APPENDIX C VA INFORMATION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM SECURITY/PRIVACY LANGUAGE, FOR INCLUSION INTO CONTRACTS, AS APPROPRIATE

GENERAL

This entire section applies to all acquisitions requiring any Information Security and Privacy language. Contractors, contractor personnel, Subcontractors and subcontractor personnel will be subject to the same federal laws, regulations, standards, VA directives and handbooks, as VA personnel regarding information and information system security and privacy.

VA INFORMATION CUSTODIAL LANGUAGE

(This entire section applies to all acquisitions requiring any Information Security and Privacy language)

a. The Government shall receive unlimited rights to data/intellectual property first produced and delivered in the performance of this contract or order (hereinafter “contract”) unless expressly stated otherwise in this contract. This includes all rights to source code and all documentation created in support thereof. The primary clause used to define Government and Contractor data rights is FAR 52.227-14 Rights in Data – General.

b. Information made available to the Contractor by VA for the performance or administration of this contract will be used only for the purposes specified in the service agreement, SOW, PWS, PD, and/or contract. The Contractor shall not use VA information in any other manner without prior written approval from a VA Contracting Officer (CO). The primary clause used to define Government and Contractor data rights is FAR 52.227-14 Rights in Data – General.

c. VA information will not be co-mingled with any other data on the Contractor’s information systems or media storage systems. The Contractor shall ensure compliance with Federal and VA requirements related to data protection, data encryption, physical data segregation, logical data segregation, classification requirements and media sanitization.

d. VA reserves the right to conduct scheduled or unscheduled audits, assessments, or investigations of Contractor Information Technology (IT) resources to ensure information security is compliant with Federal and VA requirements. The Contractor shall provide all necessary access to records (including electronic and documentary materials related to the contracts and subcontracts) and support (including access to Contractor and Subcontractor staff associated with the contract) to VA, VA's Office Inspector General (OIG), and/or Government Accountability Office (GAO) staff during periodic control assessments, audits, or investigations.

e. The Contractor may only use VA information within the terms of the contract and applicable Federal law, regulations, and VA policies. If new Federal information security laws, regulations or VA policies become applicable after execution of the contract, the parties agree to negotiate contract modification and adjustment necessary to implement the new laws, regulations, and/or policies.

f. The Contractor shall not make copies of VA information except as specifically authorized and necessary to perform the terms of the contract. If copies are made for restoration purposes, after the restoration is complete, the copies shall be destroyed in accordance with VA Directive 6500, VA Cybersecurity Program and VA Information Security Knowledge Service.

g. If a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) contract is terminated for default or cause with a business associate, the related local Business Associate Agreement (BAA) shall also be terminated and actions taken in accordance with VHA Directive 1605.05, Business Associate Agreements.