VA118-16-D-1019-032.pdf

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics

Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is for a firm-fixed price and Time and Materials Task Order (TO) to be issued under the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with By Light Professional IT Services, Inc. (By Light), 3103 Wilson Blvd. Suite 850, Arlington VA 22201. This TO will support sustainment of Loan Guaranty (LGY) software products for Enterprise Program Management Division LGY Product Line. This TO will serve as a bridge of support until a new competitive contract is awarded.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed TO will provide continued software sustainment support for the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) LGY software applications/products. The required services include support for software application and systems sustainment, testing, system security, technical documentation, software development, and systems architecture for the LGY suite of applications. These services are required to support LGY services that provide home loan benefits to eligible Veterans obtaining mortgage loans through private lenders by guaranteeing a portion of the loan against default while offering competitive rates with little or no down payment. The sustainment activities required under this effort directly support LGY and Veterans supported under the LGY program. The period of performance for the proposed TO shall consist of a 1-month base period and, if exercised, four 1-month option periods and a 1-month optional task for transition support.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) entitled, “Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this action is By Light, 3103 Wilson Blvd. Suite 850, Arlington VA 22201. By Light was awarded contract/TO number VA118-11-D-1004 / VA118-1004-0063 on a competitive basis under the Transformation Twenty-one Total Technology (T4) IDIQ. The period of performance for that TO ends on March 16, 2020. The

Task Order Bridge to Support Sustainment of Loan Guaranty (LGY) Control Number VA-20-00021992 new competitive procurement is underway; however, award is currently not projected until late March / early April 2020. This projection also makes several assumptions such as a manageable number of proposals being received, no significant questions on the solicitation requirements, no proposal extension requests, limited or no discussions, etc. Once the competitive contract is awarded, there is also a need for at least one month of overlap to support a seamless transition of the services to a new vendor. For these reasons, LGY requires support provided by By Light under contract/TO number VA118-11-D- 1004 / VA118-1004-0063 beyond its current end date of March 16, 2020, however, an extension of this TO is not a possibility as the T4 contract has expired. By Light is a Prime contractor on the T4NG IDIQ; therefore, this TO will be issued against the T4NG IDIQ Contract. By Light is currently providing the required LGY support and is meeting the requirements of the TO.

VBA LGY software applications support a mission critical system delivering services for approximately 3,349,000 Veterans and it is imperative that this support continue uninterrupted. The only way to ensure uninterrupted support when the current TO with By Light expires is for By Light to continue providing support until the competitive contract is awarded and transition is completed to the new vendor. Conducting a competitive procurement for the bridge to the new contract is not feasible as the lead time to such an award is at least 60 days (i.e., end of March 2020), which is effectively the same lead time remaining until the new contract is awarded. Furthermore, it would be illogical to award a sole source order/contract for the bridge effort to any vendor other than By Light as the lead time for such an award is approximately 30 days (i.e., end of February 2020) and any vendor other than By Light would require at least 30 days after award (i.e., end of March 2020) to fully onboard and transition-in. By Light has worked closely with LGY over the past three years and has obtained significant knowledge regarding the current systems making up the product line. Only By Light can meet VBA’s LGY requirements without a break in service. Specifically, the required services necessitate knowledgeable personnel to sustain the LGY servers and maintain current software applications to support current development efforts that are underway. By Light has been working on this effort since 2016 and has technically competent and security-cleared staff available to support LGY immediately after the current TO expires. LGY has 35,000 internal and external users that utilize the LGY suite of applications daily. If system issues (outages, defects, degradations, reporting, database fixes, etc.) occur, they will not be able to be addressed timely due to lack of VA resources. LGY Lenders and Servicers are required to provide and service loans for Veterans and if they are unable to perform this work due to system unavailability, it would directly affect Veterans. If loans are not processed within seven days, Veterans will lose opportunities to purchase homes.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements.

Task Order Bridge to Support Sustainment of Loan Guaranty (LGY) Control Number VA-20-00021992

There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. In accordance with FAR

5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities Page and the justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: No barriers to future competition are anticipated. A competitive contract is anticipated to be awarded in late March / early April 2020 and future acquisitions will be awarded on a competitive basis.

8. Market Research: This requirement is leveraging market research conducted in October 2019 as part of the competitive procurement which includes support for the same services. The VA Vendor Information Pages database was reviewed and there were 2577 matches for the keyword Computer Systems Design Services under North American Classification System code 541512. As a result, further market research was conducted. A Request for Information was released on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website on October 11, 2019. Two responses were received including one response from a Large Business (Accenture Federal Services) and one response from a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (Halfaker and Associates, LLC). All of the capability statements were reviewed and both respondents were determined to be capable of performing the effort. By Light did not respond to the RFI on FBO; however, the Contract Specialist for the bridge task order contacted By Light and confirmed that they are capable and willing to continue providing LGY sustainment support until the new contract is awarded. By Light also explained that due to the new contract’s expanded scope, it is not pursuing the effort as a prime but instead as part of a team. Therefore, By Light did not submit its own RFI response. This market research supports a VA determination that only By Light is capable of providing continued LGY sustainment until award of the competitive contract.

The competitive contract is currently projected to be awarded in the late March / early April 2020 timeframe. When that contract is awarded and staff fully transitioned in, the bridge TO will no longer be utilized.

9. Other Facts: None.