Redacted Limited Source Justification - CUI Redacted.pdf

CUI//SP-PROCURE

Control Number:

SEP 2021

Justification Review Document for Limited Source Justification - FAR Part 8

Program/Equipment: This proposed requirement is for the operations, maintenance, sustainment, and cloud-hosting of the Department of Defense’s Data Housing and Reports Tool (DHART) Suite of tools.

Authority: Title III of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41U.S.C. 251, et. Seq) and Title 40 U.S.C 501, Services for Executive Agencies, as implemented by FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.

Amount: The total estimated value of this proposed action is

Prepared by:

Contracting Officer:

Requirements Representative:

Technical Representative:

Reviews

I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support other than full and open competition.

Program Manager

Branch Chief

Division Chief

Legal Counsel

Limited Source Justification FAR Part 8

1. Contracting Activity: U.S. Army Contracting Command - New Jersey

2. Description of Action: The Office of the Provost Marshal General (OPMG) requests a follow-on Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Task Order under the General Services Administration (GSA) with CodeLynx, LLC, 4937 Fargo Street, North Charleston, South Carolina 29418, in support of the U.S. Army Law Enforcement Compliance Program (ALECP), the U.S. Navy’s Security Force Training and Certification Cycle and the U.S. Marine Corps’ Law Enforcement Program/Mission Assurance Program.

The Government will execute this action against contract GS35F0012V. Projected award is March 30, 2022 and fiscal year 2022 Operation and Maintenance, Army funds will be used.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: This proposed action is to obtain support for the operations, maintenance, sustainment, and cloud-hosting of the (DHART) Suite of tools in support of the U.S. Army Law Enforcement Compliance Program (ALECP), the U.S. Navy’s Security Force Training and Certification Cycle and the U.S. Marine Corps’ Law Enforcement Program/Mission Assurance Program. This includes hosting in a commercial cloud-hosting environment in Platform as a Service (PaaS) Cloud Service Offering (CSO) accredited with a Department of Defense (DoD) Provisional Authorization (PA) at Cloud Impact Level 2.

The tools within the (DHART) application allow the different services to assess and validate installation Law Enforcement (LE) agency (i.e. Military Police Station) compliance with standards in executing operations (Army/USMC); to track the training/certification requirements for each LE duty position (USMC/Navy), the status of each police officer in relation to those requirements (USMC/Navy); and to schedule officers for duty (USMC/Navy). The ALECP requires installations to conduct annual self-assessments and higher headquarters to conduct LE assessments as part of their Organizational Inspection Program. Additionally, (DHART) ensures that Government agencies are operating in accordance with all Federal laws and DoD requirements for such things as submission of crime data to Federal Bureau of Investigation databases like the National Instant Background Check System to help eliminate the ability for current and past service members with criminal records to obtain weapons that could be used in the commission of tragedies.

The DHART provides the capability to meet the DoD military and civilian LE training and reporting requirements in accordance with DODI 5525.15 (and Secretary of Defense Memorandum and DoD Directive 5124.02, and DoD Instruction 5105.18, and

OPNAV 5530.14/3591).

The total estimated value of this proposed action is The period of performance for this effort is a 12-month base period plus two 12 month Option Years, and up to a 6-month extension of services under FAR 52.217-8.

Period of Performance From To Estimated Cost

Base Period 30 Mar 2022 29 Mar 2023

Option Year 1 30 Mar 2023 29 Mar 2024

Option Year 2 30 Mar 2024 29 Mar 2025

FAR 52.217-8 (up to 6 months)

30 Mar 2025 29 Sep 2025

4. Authority Cited: Title III of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41 U.S.C 251, et Seq.) and Title 40 U.S.C 501 Services for Executive Agencies, as implemented by FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.

5. Reason for Authority Cited: CodeLynx, LLC is the only viable source for meeting the operational, maintenance, cloud hosting, and sustainment mission requirements of the DHART Suite at this time. CodeLynx, LLC originally designed and developed this software application and has provided all of the life-cycle modifications, operations, maintenance, sustainment, and hosting functions for DHART since the inception of the requirement in 2009. The ALECP Automated Assessment Tool (AAT) system is a Government Off-the-Shelf (GOTS), contractor operated system developed for the U.

S. Army and U. S. Marine Corps Law Enforcement professionals based on the (DHART). The (DHART) Suite of tools was developed specifically to support Marine Corps, Navy, and Army operational requirements and encompasses the (DHART) application, the AAT and the Scheduling tool (collectively referred to as DHART). The DHART was modified to support additional DoD mission and operational needs in Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 and FY 2015 and modified for Navy use in FY 2020.

As the original developer, CodeLynx, LLC has an intricate knowledge and understanding of the DHART system and is the only contractor who can currently operate, maintain, and sustain the subject system. There are currently no other contractors who have experience with the DHART. While the DHART system is Government owned and hosted on Azure Cloud, the Government does not own the system software product specifications and the associated supporting documentation needed to operate and maintain the system. The Government only owns the source code and has unlimited data rights to it with all supporting documentation. In addition, the incumbent has proprietary information related to an internal Help Desk Ticket tracking system, which documents and tracks issues until resolution, as well as a continuous integration and continuous delivery model to support the DHART Suite.

This model has increased complexity within the DHART suite whereas no other vendor has knowledge of it, and if the order was awarded to another vendor, the model would need to be migrated to another vendor’s platform, which would require significant training for the new vendor’s DevOps engineers on how to maintain that portion of the product. The total estimated cost for the migration of existing data and the training of engineers would exceed and a time burden of about hours for development operations, developer tasks, training, and testing. The continuous integration and development CodeLynx has performed has increased the complexity of the DHART suite, making it impossible for another vendor to successfully perform the Performance Work Statement (PWS) requirements.

At this time, no feasible alternatives were identified to fulfill the PWS requirements.

Alternative solutions do not meet all of the PWS requirements, are not PaaS models, or do not have an approved Authorization to Operate (ATO) for the DHART suite. Any PaaS alternative solution would require a new ATO for DHART, which is an increased cost of approximately based on a FY20 system cybersecurity assessment.

Large portions of the ATO rely on patterns, practices, and procedures that were created and implemented by CodeLynx. A new vendor will need to recreate these patterns and practices, which can lead to failure to meet the necessary standards set forth. If these standards are not monitored and maintained, the DHART system would ultimately lose its ATO. This would be disastrous for the branches using the system.

Suspending the use of the DHART suite would be counter-productive and inefficient as it would cause the Services (Army, Navy, Marine Corps) to revert to manual recordkeeping of officer training and mapping of requirements to stand watch at each post, creating opportunities for shortfalls in oversight of law enforcement operations.

The Services do not have the in-house expertise to perform the services presently provided by CodeLynx, LLC. In addition, the Navy and Marine Corps Law Enforcement will be unable to review and document which individuals have received training required by those individuals’ profiles and they will not be able to issue gun cards or assign badges.

This lack of visibility into readiness creates vulnerabilities in not having insight into which law enforcement officers are qualified to stand watch at posts at installations across the Armed Forces footprint of global installations. Similarly, assessment teams across the Navy, Marine Corps, and Army will be unable to complete required mission readiness assessments that are tracked and completed within the DHART suite of tools. This leaves installations vulnerable, it eliminates law enforcement’s ability to maintain their mission objectives, and wastes government funding as the aforementioned agencies cannot complete their daily tasks without implementing fallback processes and procedures to use while DHART’s transition completes. The DHART suite is used across the globe at all Navy, Marine Corps, and Army installations and its applications and features must be consistently available, accessible, and functioning at any given moment.

Furthermore, award of this Task Order to any contractor other than CodeLynx, LLC, would place Army, Navy, and Marine Corps’ law enforcement programs at risk of mission failure in maintaining agency-wide law enforcement officer credential and agency compliance, assurance and accreditation programs, thereby directly impacting military police and law enforcement readiness to protect mission critical assets and to respond to crises and threats to life, health, and, safety on Government installations.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Notices required by FAR 5.201 have been published, and any bids or proposals received shall be considered.

a. Effective competition. Competition is not anticipated for this acquisition given that similar products and capabilities do not meet the full capability that is currently provided.

b. Subcontracting competition. GSA Contract GS35F0012V has a master Subcontracting Plan. Any subcontracting will be reported through the GSA Base Contract.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: Currently, no other companies other than CodeLynx, LLC, can provide the required operations and maintenance for the DHART system. CodeLynx, LLC, is the original and sole developer of DHART and is therefore the only coding expert for any system maintenance, modifications, or enhancements required. The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are any changes in the marketplace, which will enable future actions to be competed. Additionally, OPMG will take action and request a ROM to obtain pricing information in order for the Government to purchase the system software product specifications and the associated supporting documentation needed to operate and maintain the system.

8. Market Research: February 2021 through June 2021

Market Research Techniques Used. ACC-NJ issued RFIs to vendors via betaSAM and GSA under Multiple Award Schedule (MAS): 54151S – Information Technology Professional Services, on 04 June 2021. ACC-NJ also issued an RFI to CHESS ITES- 3S on 13 January 2021. vendors;

via GSA and two via betaSAM, responded with capability statements. In July 2021, the

, in coordination with the reviewed the capability statements finding only the incumbent, CodeLynx, to be fully capable of providing the required services. While the other respondents provide IT support services for Government or commercial requirements, the capability statements submitted did not contain any specifics for all DHART functionality, capabilities, concept of operations, or operating environment, of which this effort requires. Overall, it was determined the vendors do not fully grasp the fact that the requirements within the PWS are in support of the items specified for each of the services required under this effort. vendor, did not address PWS sections 2.1.3. Continuous System Maintenance, 2.1.6. Interface data, 2.17 System interface, 2.1.8 Pathway to DHART, 2.19. Access control, and 2.1.11 Software reliability rate. failed to address PWS requirements in Task 2 for online training support, training management, systemic change training or training course evaluation plan. failed to specifically address PWS requirements 2.1.5 Help Desk Support, Quality Assurance, and Spillage, 2.1.15 Configuration Control Board Implementation and Coordination, 2.1.16 Systemic Improvements, Task 2 Training, or Task 3 Commercial Cloud Hosting Services.

vendors, did not provide specifics or how they would address any of the DHART PWS requirements. vendor, proposed replacing DHART with a completely different system under a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, while the requirement and current DHART system is currently maintained in the Microsoft Azure Cloud under a Platform as a Service (PaaS) model.

An RFI was posted to CHESS ITES-3S on 13 January 2021 and received responses;

The Army reviewed the responses to the RFI and found none of the vendors to be fully capable of providing all of the required services.

vendors only indicated they would be interested in the contract but did not contain any specifics for all DHART functionality, capabilities, concept of operations, or operating environment, of which this effort requires. While the other respondents provide IT support services for Government or commercial requirements, the capability statements submitted did not contain specifics for all DHART functionality, capabilities, concept of operations, or operating environment, of which this effort requires. did not address PWS 2.1.10 to address the capability to develop user guides and reference functions and the capability to modify user manuals and training manuals in accordance with changes resulting from updates to the DHART application. Additionally, the capability statement did address PWS 2.1.11 which requires the Contractor shall maintain DHART at a 98% software reliability and availability rate. Lastly, the capability statement did not address PWS

2.2.1 Data Import/Export which requires continued data migration from principal Navy data management systems (Total Workforce Management System (TWMS)) and participate in Commander Navy Installations Command (CNIC)-coordinated efforts to add data migration from Corporate Enterprise Training Activity Resource System (CeTARS), Fleet Training Management and Planning System (FLTMPS), and/or other sources that provide data formatted for import to DHART. Another vendor, previously responded to the DHART RFI issued on the System for Award Management in June 2021. The capability statement did not address PWS sections 2.1.3. Continuous System Maintenance, 2.1.6. Interface data, 2.17 System interface, 2.1.8 Pathway to DHART, 2.19. Access control, and 2.1.11 Software reliability rate. Although described how their products and service capabilities compensate for failing to meet all of the stated needs of the PWS, the risk to potential loss of functionality or capability is not beneficial to the government. The last vendors, did not provide specifics or how they would address any of the DHART PWS requirements.

The results of the market research clearly show that there is only one source that can provide support to the DHART software system. This decision is based on CodeLynx, LLC, being the original and sole developer of the DHART System and is therefore the only coding expert for any system maintenance, modifications, or enhancements required, which contain all previously captured data since system deployment.

9. Other Facts:

a. Procurement history. DHART was developed for the U.S. Marine Corps under Seaport Contract N00178-06-D-4759 V70. The Army became the contract lead in 2015 under the current procurement.

1. Contract number: W15QKN-18-F-0273

2. Competitive Status: Limited Source Justification, sole source to CodeLynx, Inc.

3. Authority Cited: FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B)

4. Paragraph 7 of the justification stated: Market research found interested vendors on GSA, FSS 70, Special Item Number (SIN) 132-51, IT Professional Services, however, only the incumbent was found capable. Additionally, ACC- NJ issued a RFI to 16 vendors under the Computer Hardware Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) Information Technology Enterprise Solutions- 2 Services (ITES 2S) contract vehicle from 01 March until 09 March and received no capability statements in response.

5. If any prior contract action for this requirement was accomplished using full and open competition: NA

6. An explanation of any unusual patterns: NA

7. If a justification was prepared to support the procurement made before this one, briefly describe the circumstances justifying the procurement and whether there have been any significant changes: No significant changes have been made from the previous contract to this requirement.

b. 1. Contract number: W15QKN-15-F-0066

2. Competitive Status: Limited Source Justification, sole source to CodeLynx, Inc.

3. Authority Cited: FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B)

4. Market research was conducted by OPMG in September 2014 to procure

DHART modification and support services. In accordance with FAR 10.002(b)(2)(vii), OPMG conducted market research using internet web searches and review/evaluation of published content on vendor/organization websites. Each identified vendor was evaluated on their ability to meet the requirements of this acquisition.

demonstrated ability to reasonably support complex Information Technology (IT) application requirements and showed technical proficiency through past performance. However, none demonstrated any knowledge of the DHART GOTS application, its functionality, capabilities, concept of operations, or operating environment. In August 2015, OPMG re-evaluated market conditions using the methodology recorded in 2014 and found there were no changes to the marketplace that would result in an adjustment to the initial market research conclusions.

5. If any prior contract action for this requirement was accomplished using full and open competition: NA

6. An explanation of any unusual patterns: NA

7. If a justification was prepared to support the procurement made before this one, briefly describe the circumstances justifying the procurement and whether there have been any significant changes: CodeLynx provides all of the life-cycle modifications, operations, maintenance, sustainment, and hosting functions for each service using the DHART system. The Government did not own the system software product specifications and the associated supporting documentation needed to operate and maintain the system. The Government still does not own the system software product specifications, therefore no significant changes have been made from the previous contract to this requirement.

10. Technical Certification:

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

11. Requirements Certification:

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

12. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination:

I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable.

This determination will be made using FAR 15.404-1(b)(2)(iv) by comparison of the proposal to the established GSA MAS: 54151S labor rates and labor categories. In addition, price analysis shall be conducted by comparing the proposal to the Independent Government Cost Estimate, FAR 15.404-1(b)(2)(v).

Certified cost of pricing data is not required in accordance with FAR 15.403-1(b)(3).

13. Contracting Officer Certification:

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.