Development of an Electronic Permitting (E-Permit) System for the US Army Corps of Engineers Wetland Regulatory Program

The last Paragraph, DUE DATE, should be correct to read as follows:

DUE DATE: The due date for the delivery of a response to this solicitation is 15 AUGUST 2008, Eastern Standard Time (EST) 3:00 PM, timeframe. POINT-OF-CONTACT (POC): Nancy Hilleary, Contract Specialist, Phone: 703-428-6120, E-MAIL: Nancy.L.Hilleary@usace.army.mil

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. ISSUED BY: USACE, Humphreys Engineering Center Support Activity, ATTN: CECT-HC, 7701 Telegraph Road, Alexandria, VA 22315-3660. The solicitation incorporates provisions and clauses that are in effect through the Federal Acquisition Circular 05-26. The NAICS Code is 541511. The following FAR provisions apply: 52.212-1, 52.212-2, 52.212-3 52.212-4, and 52.212-5.

Request for Proposals: Development of an Electronic Permitting (E-Permit) System for the US Army Corps of Engineers Wetland Regulatory Program


Background: The mission of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Regulatory Program is to protect the Nations aquatic resources, while allowing reasonable development through fair, flexible and balanced permit decisions. The Corps evaluates permit applications for essentially all construction activities that occur in the Nations waters, including wetlands. Extensive documentation on the USACE Regulatory program may be found at: http://www.usace.army.mil/cw/cecwo/reg/

The electronic permitting system to be developed under this contract will allow applicants to apply for permits online over the internet. The current application for a regulatory permit is Engineering Form 4345. http://www.usace.army.mil/cw/cecwo/reg/eng4345a.pdf. It is expected that the current form will be revised during the request for proposal process to reflect changing in federal regulation. The e-permit system should allow both the electronic submission of permits and for the completion and off-line submission of permit requests The E-Permit system must allow for the establishment of user accounts so an applicant or agent/consultant can manage and track multiple pending or completed applications. The system must allow for the uploading of associated documents to be associated with the permit. The E-Permit system should support checking the status of permit application regardless of whether it was submitted online or mailed it to the Corps.

A number of states have ongoing E-Permit programs and joint application programs with USACE. The E-Permit system will be required to support interaction with multiple states, and specialized data element requirements for various states. A standard XML schema for E-Permits will be developed, reviewed and published as part of this contract. The E-Permit system must interface with an Oracle database on an internal USACE network. The E-Permit system system will reside outside the USACE protected network, and may be either hosted on publicly accessible servers at USACE, or at an off-site hosting facility provided as government furnished equipment. A data transfer mechanism that allows data to be pushed from the internal network and pulled to the internal network via XML or other specification will be established as part of this contract.


Technical Requirements

This E-Permit application will be required to support interoperability with other information systems. Interoperability must be based on DoD approved open standards in the DISR. The proposed solution must support the USACE standard internet browser which is Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 with SP1 and must support other commonly used browsers such as Firefox.
The E-Permit application must operate using secure http protocol (https), and must always have a valid DoD issued certificate. The proposed solution should not require software plug-ins other than those commonly found on desktop computers such as Adobe PDF and Flash.

The contractor must establish separate development and testing environments. The testing environment must be available to government and other team members during normal business hours. The contractor must make use of a government provided code sub-version (SVN) code repository. The contractor must make use of a government provided issue tracking system.
Applications developed should be ADA Section 508 compliant. Applications developed must comply with Army Regulation AR-25-1 for Knowledge Management and Information Management. Information contained within this system subject to protection under Privacy Act. Proposals that make use of open source software will be treated equally with those that propose the use of closed-source software. Responders should consider use of innovative, low cost, technology such as use of commercial compute clouds.


Help Desk Functions

Contractor will be expected to respond to e-mail requests for assistance from public within 24 hours. Contractor will be expected to acknowledge and plan a response to bugs or faults with the operational system within 24 hours.

Security Requirements
A National Agency Check (NAC), INFOSEC certificate, and U-PASS userid are required to support this contract.

1. NAC. All contractors must have the minimum investigation, a NAC or Questionnaire of public Trust, before accessing a DoD (Department of Defense) computer or working off-site on this contract programs and data.

2. INFOSEC certificate. Annual INFOSEC training for all those contractors accessing a DoD (Department of Defense) computer or working off-site on OMBIL Plus programs and data is required. This training is available on-line at the DISA website, http://iase.disa.mil/eta/index.html, DoD Information Assurance Awareness, version 2, or by completing Computer Security Training for Users on the Fort Gordon website, https://ia.gordon.army.mil/iss/default.htm

At the time of proposal, the contract company must submit a list of names for those persons that have received a NAC and a copy of the INFOSEC certificate for each one. The Corps can assist in processing the NAC clearance if the company is not a cleared company

No operational E-Permit data may be transferred or removed from the operational facility in an unencrypted state. Unauthorized local storage, storage on USB keys, laptops or transportable hard drives may be grounds for termination of the contract


Travel

Senior technical staff may be expected to be available for on-site meeting in Washington, DC 2 or 3 times per year. Attendance at other meetings or conferences anywhere within the United States may be expected 2 or 3 times per year.


Administrative Requirements

The contractor will participate as a member of a broader team of contractors supporting the regulatory program. The contractor will be required to participate in weekly project status teleconferences, and provide a written activity report weekly. The contractor will be required to participate in bi-weekly (twice a month) interface software code review. All source code, software, scripts, graphics developed as part of this project will be delivered to the government and may be re-used and re-distributed.

Award will be made on the basis of the best value to the Government, Offerors are urged to ensure that their proposals are submitted on the most favorable terms in order to reflect their best possible potential.

The Government intends to make an award without discussions based upon initial proposal received but reserves the right to conduct discussions if determined to be necessary.

The Technical proposal shall describe the capability of the offerors organization to perform the work in accordance with the contract requirements. The proposal shall be specific and complete in every detail and shall contain the information necessary to evaluate the offerors proposal in the areas listed in the performance work statement (PWS).

Offerors technical evaluation factors are listed below in descending order of importance.


Evaluation Criteria

1. Technical Merit of Proposal
a. demonstrate knowledge of web technology
b. demonstrate knowledge of system design
c. demonstrate knowledge of oracle
d. demonstrate knowledge of IT security

2. Cost

3. Contractor Experience
a. demonstrate knowledge of the Corps regulatory program
b. demonstrate knowledge of the current regulatory e-permit site
c. demonstrate knowledge of ORM2
d. demonstrate knowledge of web database application

4. Past Performance
a. provide examples of past similar projects
b. provide reference list of previous clients
c. provide list of employee expertise related this type of project

COST/PRICE. Cost/price proposals will be evaluated for reasonableness and to determine the best overall value to the government. This factor shall be judged on the degree to which, the proposed cost/price elements are reasonable and consistent with the work to be performed. Excessively high or low cost/price may be deemed to indicate a lack or understanding of the work or level of technology required.

Submit your proposal in accordance with the following CLINs:

CLIN 0001, Labor Services for Development of an Electronic Permitting (E-Permit) System for the US Army Corps of Engineers.

CLIN 0002, Travel

CLIN 0003, Contractor Manpower Reporting Requirements

Wage Determination No. 2005-2103, Revision No. 6 dated 05/29/2008 is applicable.


DUE DATE: The due date for the delivery of a response to this solicitation is 24 JULY 2008, Eastern Standard Time (EST) 3:00 p.m., timeframe. POINT-OF-CONTACT (POC): Nancy Hilleary, Contract Specialist, Phone: 703-428-6120, E-MAIL: Nancy.L.Hilleary@usace.army.mil