Sole Source Special Notice 693JK425R600006 in PDF as PUBLISHED on June 9 2025 for FY 2025 E-Filing procurement.pdf

Sole Source Special Notice Concerning E-Filing System for Financial

Disclosure Forms of DOT Employees

Product Service Code: 7030 - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE

NAICS Code: 518210 - Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services

Description

This is NOT a Solicitation. This is instead a SOLE-SOURCE Special Notice announcing the intention of the U. S. Department of Transportation (DOT), to award, on a SOLE-SOURCE basis, to HRWorx, LLC (a Veteran Owned Small Business doing business as Intelliworx), a contract (or a purchase order or a delivery order) for

HRWorx, LLC to provide—to DOT’s Office of the Secretary (OST), and to DOT’s

Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and to all interested DOT Operating

Administrations (OAs) excluding the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)—during a BASE-Year running from approximately September 1, 2025 through approximately

August 31, 2026, and possibly during four OPTION YEARS thereafter, a DOT e-Filing

System known as Intelliworx FDonline, for the filing by DOT employees and for the retention by DOT of Confidential Financial Disclosure Reports concerning individual

DOT employees.

Given below in JUSTIFICATION for this intended SOLE-SOURCE acquisition is a supporting statement which follows the format prescribed in FAR 6.303-2.

IDENTIFICATION OF AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY

Office of the Secretary (OST) Acquisitions Services Division 1200 New Jersey

Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590

DESCRIPTION OF ACTION BEING APPROVED

The Departmental Ethics Office (DOT Ethics Office), in the Office of the

Secretary (OST) within the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and all

Operating Administrations within the agency have a continuing need for an electronic filing system for confidential financial disclosure reports required to be filed by certain employees with the DOT Ethics Office pursuant to regulations issued by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE). OGE requires certain executive branch employees to file confidential financial disclosure reports (OGE Form 450). See 5 CFR Parts 2634 & 2638. Each agency determines who must file an OGE Form 450, based on criteria established by OGE. See 5 CFR § 2634.904. The DOT Ethics Office determines the positions and grades of Departmental employees who must file the OGE Form 450, in accordance with 5 CFR § 2634.904. The DOT Ethics

Office comprises: (i) OST’s Ethics Office, housed in the Office of the

General Counsel’s Office of General Law; and (ii) an Ethics Office in each of the Department’s Operating Administrations.

DOT employees who are required to file an OGE Form 450 must submit a new entrant report within 30 days of assuming the duties of their position, unless an extension is granted. Thereafter, employees are required to file an OGE Form 450 on an annual basis. DOT employees currently use the system developed by HR

WORX LLC to file these reports.

OGE regulations provide that DOT’s Designated Agency Ethics Official

(DAEO) is responsible for determining whether the OGE Form 450

Confidential Financial Disclosure Reports will be collected in an electronic or a paper format (see 5 C.F.R. § 2638.205). In addition, OMB Memorandum

M-19-21, Transition of Electronic Records, directs all Federal agencies to ensure that all Federal records are created, retained, and managed in electronic formats, with appropriate metadata.

The Deputy General Counsel is the DAEO for DOT. The DAEO has determined that electronic filing of the OGE Form 450 will continue to effectively and efficiently manage DOT’s ethics program and address the intent of OMB

Memorandum M-19-21.

This procurement is to acquire an electronic confidential financial disclosure report filing system to facilitate the filing and review of approximately 5,000

OGE Form 450 forms. The majority of Federal agencies, including DOT, have already discontinued the use of paper OGE Form 450s and implemented an electronic filing system. It is also considered a best practice of confidential financial disclosure review in the government ethics practice community.

Under this contract, DOT seeks to obtain an electronic Confidential

Financial Disclosure Report system for confidential submission, review, certification, and maintenance of OGE Form 450s filed by DOT employees

(except FAA). This system will: (1) permit DOT employees to access their

OGE Form 450s from any location with Internet access; (2) continue to maintain the accuracy of information employees disclose on the reports; (3) continue to maintain the quality of legal review of the report; and (4) continue to enable a more efficient experience for both filers and reviewers. The contract will provide for cataloging of forms, searchable access and storage, as well as notification options for filers and reviewers. This procurement is for a cloud-based, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic confidential financial disclosure report system, to allow DOT employees and ethics officials (except FAA) to electronically file and review the annual and new entrant OGE Form 450.

The system is expected to meet all of the agency’s confidential financial disclosure report program requirements.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES REQUIRED TO MEET THE AGENCY’S NEEDS

The DOT Ethics Office requires a COTS-based electronic confidential disclosure report system that does the following:

• Support PIV/CAC single sign on logins;

• Be FedRAMP authorized;

• Be Section 508 compliant;

• Provide the most current version of the OGE Form 450;

• Permit access from any location with internet access;

• Provide encryption of the data consistent with Federal encryption requirements;

• Provide instructions to filers for what and how to report items in each section;

• Save each version of the form;

• Have functionality that permits the automatic deletion of reports beyond the required retention period that the DAEO has the ability to adjust as necessary to avoid deletion of reports where appropriate;

• Provide report functions that can be tailored by, among other things, date, filer, reviewer, or due date – at no additional cost;

• Automatically populate annual reports with data from previous electronic forms;

• Collect reportable information from filers through an interview wizard;

• Allow reviewers to provide comments on the reports;

• Allow documents to be uploaded and attached to the submission;

• Allow reviewers to separate certified reports that have no reportable information;

• Permit reviewers to change and update the list of filers and filings as necessary;

• Permit the DAEO to restrict access of field ethics officials to reports only for employees in their offices;

• Retain all records for the required timeframes, including those records from filers who leave a covered position;

• Purge records once they are no longer required to be maintained;

• Support up to 5,000 concurrent users; and

• Integrate training/helpful hints into filing process to aid in the completion and review of submissions.

Estimated Contract Value: $1,243,100

IDENTIFICATION OF THE STATUTORY AUTHORITY PERMITTING OTHER

THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

The statutory authority for the proposed contract is 41 U.S.C. § 253(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a), which states that an executive agency may use procedures other than competitive procedures only --- (2) “When the supplies or services required by the agency are available from only one responsible source . .

. and no other type of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided for.”

DEMONSTRATION THAT THE PROPOSED CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE

QUALIFICATIONS OR THE NATURE OF THE ACQUISITION REQUIRES USE OF

THE AUTHORITY CITED

DOT’s needed contract (or purchase order, or delivery order) MUST provide the following essential features:

License for a COTS electronic confidential disclosure report which shall meet the following requirements:

• Support PIV/CAC single sign on logins;

• Be FedRAMP authorized;

• Be Section 508 compliant;

• Provide the most current version of the OGE Form 450;

• Permit access from any location with internet access;

• Provide encryption of the data consistent with Federal encryption requirements;

• Provide instructions to filers for what and how to report items in each section;

• Save each version of the form;

• Have functionality that permits the automatic deletion of reports beyond the required retention period that the DAEO has the ability to adjust as necessary to avoid deletion of reports where appropriate;

• Provide report functions that can be tailored by, among other things, date, filer, reviewer, or due date – at no additional cost

• Automatically populate annual reports with data from previous electronic forms;

• Collect reportable information from filers through an interview wizard;

• Allow reviewers to provide comments on the reports;

• Allow documents to be uploaded and attached to the submission;

• Allow reviewers to separate certified reports that have no reportable information;

• Permit reviewers to change and update the list of filers and filings as necessary;

• Permit the DAEO to restrict access of field ethics officials to reports only for employees in their offices;

• Retain all records for the required timeframes, including those records from filers who leave a covered position;

• Purge records once they are no longer required to be maintained;

• Support up to 5,000 concurrent users; and

• Integrate training/helpful hints into filing process to aid in the completion and review of submissions.

DOT’s intended SOLE-SOURCE contractor, HRWorx, LLC (a Veteran

Owned Small Business doing business as Intelliworx), is the exclusive provider of the ONLY commercially available, off-the-shelf electronic filing solution for OGE Form 450s that DOT has identified as meeting ALL of

DOT’s special needs as listed above.

HRWorx, LLC (a Veteran Owned Small Business doing business as

Intelliworx) developed, owns, and maintains FDonline, the proprietary software that is used to automate the ethics financial disclosure reporting process for multiple federal agencies. FDonline is the only commercially available automated financial disclosure product that meets DOT’s financial disclosure requirements for OGE Form 450s.

As detailed below, DOT conducted research to identify all available electronic filing systems for OGE Form 450s that could meet the agency’s requirements.

The only commercially available, off-the-shelf electronic filing system that

DOT has identified as meeting the agency’s needs is FDonline. No other comparable COTS products exist on the market that are tailored specifically to managing e-filing of OGE Form 450s. Therefore, no other vendor can meet

DOTs requirement for a commercially available software that is available now, that will avoid the additional time and expense that would be required for a software developer to create a new solution for DOT. FDonline is the only

COTS product available that meets all of DOT’s requirements as described in

Part 3, above, and in the Statement of Work. HRWorx (d/b/a Intelliworx) is the sole owner and exclusive licensor of FDonline.

EFFORTS MADE TO OBTAIN COMPETITION, AND WHETHER A NOTICE WAS

OR WILL BE PUBLICIZED AS REQUIRED BY FAR SUBPART 5.2 AND, IF

NOT, WHICH EXCEPTION UNDER FAR 5.202 APPLIES

This SOLE-SOURCE Special Notice is being publicized, in Sam.gov

(formerly known as FedBizOpps) as is required by FAR Subpart 5.2. If and

ONLY if, as a result of this publishing of this Sole Source Special Notice, any responder (OTHER THAN HRWorx, LLC) e-mails, to james.mowery@dot.gov and to melina.oliverio@dot.gov and to christopher.cialeo@dot.gov and to laura.wainwright@dot.gov, by 11:59 PM

Eastern Daylight Time, June 24, 2025, any Statement of Qualifications proving, in DOT’S SOLE judgement, the responder’s CAPABILITY of performing this project at the high level of QUALITY and with the full list of special FEATURES indispensable to DOT, then in that event the Contracting

Officer would convert this procurement from a sole-source acquisition to a competitive one.

DETERMINATION BY THE CONTRACTING OFFICER THAT THE ANTICIPATED

COST TO THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE FAIR AND REASONABLE:

The rates proposed by DOT’s intended sole-source-awardee-company were reviewed and accepted by the cognizant DOT Program Office. The

Contracting Officer concurred with the recommendation of accepting those proposed rates. Moreover, each invoice submitted by the contractor-company during performance of any resulting sole source contract will be scrutinized for allowability, allocability and reasonableness of billed costs in accordance with FAR Part 31. These procedures will ensure that the anticipated cost to the Government is fair and reasonable.

A DESCRIPTION OF MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED AND THE RESULTS

OR A STATEMENT OF THE REASON THAT MARKET RESEARCH WAS

NOT CONDUCTED:

DOT researched possible e-filing systems that could meet the agency’s requirements. Only one commercially available, off-the-shelf solution was identified: FDonline.

HRworx, LLC (a Veteran Owned Small Business doing business as Intelliworx) developed, owns, and maintains FDonline, the proprietary software that is used to automate the ethics financial disclosure reporting process for multiple federal agencies. FDonline is the only commercially available automated financial mailto:james.mowery@dot.gov mailto:melina.oliverio@dot.gov mailto:laura.wainwright@dot.gov disclosure product that meets DOT’s financial disclosure requirements.

OGE has recognized the benefits of the electronic processing of confidential financial disclosure reports and has encouraged its implementation. DOT has implemented electronic filing of OGE 450s since late 2020. Some federal agencies have built their own agency-specific financial disclosure system, but those systems were built at a cost that is prohibitively high or are not available for use by other agencies. Others have purchased FDonline.

Market research conducted of potential vendors revealed that only FDonline meets DOT’s confidential financial disclosure processing requirements.

FDonline is the best software for the agency’s electronic financial disclosure system. There are at least two dozen other federal agencies successfully using

FDonline. Market research showed other vendors do not provide necessary services for our financial disclosure requirements. Internet searches were conducted for commercially available, off-the-shelf solutions but only FDonline was identified as a possible solution that could meet the agency’s requirements.

ANY OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING THE USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND

OPEN COMPETITION:

The vendor is the only known source of a COTS-based e-filing system for

OGE Form 450s that would meet DOT’s needs. That system is used by at least two dozen other federal agencies.

A LIST OF SOURCES, IF ANY, THAT EXPRESSED, IN WRITING, AN

INTEREST IN THIS FISCAL YEAR 2025 ACQUISITION

None, as of the date of publication of this Sole Source Special Notice.

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

REMOVE OR OVERCOME ANY BARRIERS TO COMPETITION BEFORE ANY

SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITION FOR THESE SERVICES:

The Contracting Officer will take all steps necessary to ensure that all the rules of procurement integrity are followed in addition to ensuring compliance with the

Competition in Contract Act. One of those steps is DOT’s publishing of this

Sole Source Special Notice.

Any individual or entity (OTHER THAN HRWorx, LLC) that believes, notwithstanding all of requirements specified above, that it can satisfy all of

DOT’s needs by providing the full array of above-specified essential special features at the high level of quality indispensable to the Department, may—

NOT LATER than 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time on June 24th, 2025— attempt to prove its capability by providing, via an E-MAIL to be sent to james.mowery@dot.gov and to melina.oliverio@dot.gov and to christopher.cialeo@dot.gov and to laura.wainwright@dot.gov, a fully-supporting Statement of Qualifications.

mailto:james.mowery@dot.gov mailto:melina.oliverio@dot.gov mailto:laura.wainwright@dot.gov