Versar Piney Point Sole Soure Special Notice in PDF to be published in SAM.gov on September 17 2026.pdf

Sole Source Special Notice / Pre-Solicitation Notice for a

Project Involving Contractor-Work To Be Performed For

Versar Security Systems (VSS) ESS Upgrade, Maintenance & Monitoring

(IDS Upgrade & Annual PM/CM Support) at the

US Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s)

Continuity Of Operations Center Site

Located at Piney Point, Maryland

This document is not a Solicitation.

This document is instead a SOLE SOURCE SPECIAL NOTICE / PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE in support of the U. S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) contemplated awarding-----to Versar Security

Systems.-----of a Purchase Order under which Versar will perform the project described in the document-heading appearing above.

ACCORDINGLY, DOT DOES NOT EXPECT TO HAVE ANY NEED TO PUBLISH ANY

SOLICITATION FOR THAT PROJECT. Further details are given below.

1. IDENTIFICATION OF THE REQUIRING ACTIVITY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY

AGENCY (REQUIRING ACTIVITY)

Department of Transportation

(DOT) Office of the Secretary (OST)

Departmental Office of Intelligence, Security and Emergency Response

(S-60)

CONTRACTING ACTIVITY

U.S. Department of Transportation/OST

Acquisition Services Division, M-63

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE

Washington, DC 20590

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION BEING APPROVED

The Department of Transportation’s (DOT), Office of the Secretary (OST), Departmental Office of

Intelligence, Security and Emergency Response (S-60) has an existing Versar Security Systems -installed PC / CM system, at DOT’s Continuity of Operations Center located at Piney Point, Maryland, on which the project, which is described in the document-heading set forth above, needs to be performed by a contractor. Further details are given in the following paragraph numbered 3.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES REQUIRED TO MEET THE AGENCY’S NEED

See Section numbered 2 above.

Versar Security Systems is believed, by DOT, to be the only firm capable of performing the subject needed upgrade-work at the high level of quality and dependability and “know-how” and timeliness indispensable to DOT, and at the low level of risk indispensable to DOT. Versar Security Systems’ unique qualifications are specified below in this document’s section numbered 5.

4. STATUTORY AUTHORITY PERMITTING OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION

In accordance with the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul’s (RFO’s) Part 6 (section 6.103-1), I hereby determine that the subject procurement’s contemplated upgrade-project is available from only one source, Versar Security Systems, and that competition is precluded for the reasons indicated below. There are no substitutes available.

5. STATEMENT DEMONSTRATING THE UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE PROPOSED

CONTRACTOR OR THE NATURE OF THE ACTION REQUIRING THE USE OF THE

AUTHORITY

The current equipment at the USDOT Continuity of Operations (COOP) Site, located at Piney Point, Maryland, was deemed end-of-life (EOL) in June 2026. (That equipment was officially EOL in January 2026). Versar installed that existing equipment in 2015 and has been maintaining it yearly since then. Versar's 11 years of accumulated and unique and indispensable institutional knowledge would be lost if DOT were to now award a follow-on contract to any firm other than Versar.

Versar is a Team partner with SETEC, the monitoring company approved by the Intelligence Community to monitor and support Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities. USDOT’s

COOP site houses such a facility and thus requires SETEC’s services. Versar includes this service in its current contract with DOT, and would likely include such services in any follow-on contract which DOT might now award to Versar.

Versar is also a LENEL and BOSCH Certified company and distributor. USDOT uses both of those systems. If equipment needs to be ordered, upgraded and installed in the LENEL system, it must be procured and installed by a LENEL certified company (such as Versar).

In the past, companies OTHER than Versar have declined to consider the type of work contemplated in this Sole Source Special Notice, by stating that “most companies would want to do their own installation and contract afterwards, rather than upgrading some other vendor’s systems”. But any such NON-Versar procurement would now incur unnecessary costs (for DOT), since all the infrastructure "backbone" (i.e., everything needed to run Piney Point’s existing Versar-installed-system) is already in place at DOT's Piney Point facility. Versar, on the other hand, would only need to replace Piney Point's existing EOL equipment. Any company OTHER than Versar, due to any such other comapany’s unknown Piney Point system-integrity, would almost certainly want to, and need to, re-do all of Piney Point 's existing backbone equipment and wiring and terminations, in order to guarantee their work, at a total cost, to DOT, significantly HIGHER than the price needed by Versar, and over a calendar-time-period significantly LONGER than the time-period needed by Versar-----thereby significantly disrupting the continuity-of-services so vital to DOT at Piney Point. Therefore DOT is not aware of any company other than Versar that will be able to provide the necessary services without substantial duplication of cost and effort that are unlikely to be recovered through competition.

6. A DESCRIPTION OF EFFORTS MADE TO ENSURE THAT OFFERS ARE SOLICITED

FROM AS MANY POTENTIAL SOURCES AS IS PRACTICABLE, INCLUDING WHETHER A

NOTICE WAS OR WILL BE PUBLICIZED AS REQUIRED BY SUBPART 5.2 AND, IF NOT,

WHICH EXCEPTION UNDER 5.202 APPLIES

This Sole Source Special Notice / Pre-Solicitation Notice, as published in SAM.gov, constitutes DOT’s published effort to identify as many fully-QUALIFIED-sources as possible.

7. THE ANTICIPATED DOLLAR VALUE OF THE PROPOSED ACQUISITION, INCLUDING

OPTIONS IF APPLICABLE, AND A DETERMINATION BY THE CONTRACTING OFFICER

THAT THE ANTICIPATED COST TO THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE FAIR AND

REASONABLE.

The estimated total price of the subject contemplated upgrade project is $77,207.85. Before the subject procurement’s contemplated upgrade-project Purchase Order is awarded, DOT’s cognizant Contracting

Officer and cognizant Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) will jointly make a determination regarding the fairness and reasonableness of the project’s price.

8. DESCRIPTION OF MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED AND THE RESULTS OR A

STATEMENT OF REASON MARKET RESEARCH WAS NOT CONDUCTED

Market research produced search-results which did disclose the existence of some ostensibly-qualified firms other than Versar, but identified the following disqualifying weaknesses of such other firms:

~ Accreditation and Security Clearances: Because the [other] firm’s inventory includes that firm’s own access control and alarm system, any incoming technician of this [other] company must possess the appropriate facility clearances and personnel background checks required for government/secure spaces in DOT’s Piney Point Continuity of Operations Center, And that factor would heavily bottleneck transition timelines for performance of the needed upgrades at Piney Point.

~ Knowledge and Proprietary Setup: Lenel and Bosch enterprise systems can be heavily customized.

Handing over system configurations, database migrations (especially for Lenel OnGuard), and arming/disarming schedules to a new vendor would lead to initial teething issues, false alarms, and / or integration gaps.

~ SETEC Partnership Continuity: While SETEC works with a broad dealer network, a new vendor would have to officially establish or port the dealer agreement parameters to ensure uninterrupted UL-certified monitoring without a lapse in coverage.

But that same Market Research also confirmed that Versar alone possesses the following unique and indispensable qualifications for performing the subject upgrade project at Piney Point:

~ Versar is uniquely positioned as the incumbent provider currently maintaining the architecture at Piney

Point. Introducing a new vendor would require a complete teardown or risky reconfiguration of proprietary database mappings (Lenel/Bosch) and could compromise the integrity of the active SCIF access control and alarm system.

~ Versar is immediately capable of fulfilling DOT’s needed Piney Point upgrade and continuing maintenance and support requirement without causing unacceptable operational risks due to the following factors:

• Existing Security Clearances & Physical Access: Versar technicians already possess the necessary badging and clearances required to service sensitive and SCIF spaces within the Piney Point footprint.

• Proprietary Hardware and Software Configuration: Piney Point’s security ecosystem relies on deeply integrated Bosch and Lenel platforms. Versar uniquely holds the historic configuration data, eliminating a costly and vulnerable "learning curve" phase.

• SETEC Network Continuity: Piney Point’s current monitoring loop is natively configured through the SETEC partnership, ensuring zero lapses in critical central station signaling.

Further, this Sole Source Special Notice itself constitutes what is arguably an even broader investigation than was performed in the Google Market Research mentioned above, because this

Notice was published in SAM.gov, which is probably the widest possible worldwide dragnet for finding companies interested in, and qualified to perform, Federal contracts.

9. ANY OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING THE USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION

All indications so far are pointing to Versar Security Systems as the only company capable of providing

DOT’s subject needed upgrade-project at the high level of quality and dependability and “know-how” and timeliness indispensable to the Department, and at the low level of risk indispensable to DOT.

10. A LISTING OF ANY SOURCES THAT EXPRESSED A WRITTEN INTEREST IN THE

ACQUISITION

None so far—except for Versar Security Systems

11. A STATEMENT OF ANY ACTIONS THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR

OVERCOME ANY BARRIERS TO COMPETITION, IF SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITIONS ARE

ANTICIPATED

In support of any future procurement which seeks services similar to those envisioned in the instant acquisition, it is likely that DOT would hereafter perform further Market Research and also publish a Sole

Source Special Notice / Pre-Solicitation Notice similar to this one.

Any entity interested in this procurement—OTHER THAN Versar Security Systems—which believes that it is capable of performing DOT’s subject needed upgrade-project, as described herein, at the high level of quality and dependability and “know-how” and timeliness indispensable to DOT, and at the low level of risk indispensable to DOT, may attempt to prove those points by e-mailing a Statement of Qualifications for receipt by james.mowery@dot.gov and Carlos.Marrero@dot.gov and Leonel.Raba@dot.gov not later than 11:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time September 20th, 2026.

mailto:james.mowery@dot.gov mailto:Carlos.Marrero@dot.gov mailto:Leonel.Raba@dot.gov