Three month extension to . NET Development Services Contract TAC-16-26753

Added: Sep 21, 2015 10:57 am Modified: Oct 08, 2015 12:47 pmTrack Changes JUSTIFICATION

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION



1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Acquisition Operations

Technology Acquisition Center

23 Christopher Way

Eatontown, NJ 07724



2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a sole source time-and-materials contract for .NET software development services with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC).



3. Description of Supplies or Services: The proposed action is for .NET software development services which will provide developer/architect expertise to perform system development life cycle tasks in the development of Microsoft .NET web-based applications. The Financial Services Center (FSC) is a franchise fund site operated under the Government Management Reform Act, P.L. 103-356. Consequently, FSC receives no federally appropriated funding and is thus required to provide FSC services to customers on a fee for service basis. As such, FSC provides financial services within VA, as well as to other Government agencies (OGAs). In order to meet the requirements of both internal VA and external OGA customers, FSC develops applications using the Microsoft .NET framework.



Under the proposed action, the Contractor shall provide labor and supervision in order to perform the tasks required to maintain FSC's over 200 custom developed applications. The Contractor also must meet requirements for continued custom development efforts in order for FSC to meet their mission. The primary tasks are planning/design; analysis; development; testing; implementation; and maintenance. Microsoft .Net development projects will be assigned as each FSC service request is approved. The Government estimates an initial need for 5,123 intermediate level software analysts/developer hours and 8,312 senior level software analysts/developer hours to meet the requirements of FSC Information Technology Service, Product Development Division.



These development services support multiple FSC healthcare claims processing business lines to include dialysis claims, Camp Lejeune family member medical claims, and VA's Accelerated Access to Care Initiative. The Accelerated Access to Care Initiative supports overflow of claims, involving the processing of claims to non-VA care providers to reduce wait time for Veterans' care. Failure to maintain and implement new releases for these applications will result in delayed and/or erroneous claim adjudication and payment processing for Veteran healthcare service providers. Healthcare service providers who are not paid timely and accurately for their services may cease providing service to Veterans, resulting in longer wait times for Veterans to receive care through VA or another non-VA care provider.



In addition, these development services support FSC's core financial business lines, which support all organizations in VA. These services include financial reports and accounting services, commercial payments, travel services, auditing service, electronic data interchange services, data analytics services, and payroll services. Information Technology (IT) software development is critical to maintain and enhance applications depended upon by FSC to provide these core services. The period of performance (POP) will be two months from date of award, with four, 1-month option periods. The total estimated value of the proposed action is inclusive of options. The subject contract action will provide required services until General Services Administration's (GSA) contract is awarded to avoid a lapse in service and will allow for a transition period to the new contractor.



4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C.3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.302-1 entitled, "Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements."



5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this action is CSC, P.O. Box 8500-S-4610, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19178-4610. VA previously entered into an Interagency Agreement (IA) with the Department of Interior (DOI) for the required services. DOI awarded a contract to CSC with a POP that was to conclude on April 1, 2015, after which the requirement would be satisfied under IA number VA118-14-IA-X-0006-0010 with General Services Administration (GSA). GSA awarded the new competitive contract in February 2015 for this effort; however, this new contract was under a Government Accountability Office (GAO) award protest. On March 23, 2015, the GAO protest was dismissed with a stipulation that GSA complete an investigation on three separate Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) allegations. GSA was required to make a determination on each OCI allegation and report back to GAO. As a result, GSA has performed in-person interviews; however, more questions have arisen as a result of the interviews. Each OCI investigation is very extensive and has taken a significant amount of time. GSA completed their second round of in-person interviews, which were scheduled to end in July, but continued on through August. As a result of the GAO protest, a 6-month extension to option year three, in accordance with FAR 52.217-8, Option to Extend Services, under DOI, task order number D11PD18825 was awarded and will expire on September 30, 2015. GSA submitted their report to GAO and GAO decided in favor of the awardee. As a result, the 10 day window for subsequent protests has started on September 8, 2015 and closes on September 18, 2015 during which all parties may file subsequent protests.



Failure to maintain and enhance applications supported by this .Net development services contract will result in delayed and/or erroneous claim adjudication and payment processing to Veteran healthcare service providers. Healthcare service providers who are not paid timely and accurately for their services may cease providing service to Veterans, resulting in longer wait times for Veterans to receive care through VA or another non-VA care provider.



In addition, FSC's core financial services (cited in Section 3 above) would risk interruption and delays if these development services are not provided. For example, interruption of development services could result in VA employees not being paid timely and/or accurately if applications used to support FSC's payroll help desk are not functioning. FSC has no in house resources that can perform .Net development tasks required to maintain the systems. If this sole source contract is not awarded, VA's intragovernmental payment processing system provided as an accounting service by the FSC would not be supported, resulting in the thousands of monthly payments and collections between VA and non-VA organizations going unprocessed. This can result in a significant budget impact to VA, as collections against OGAs would not process timely. In addition, this could result in critical services, such as facility leases (provided by GSA) and security guard services (provided by Department of Homeland Security) being terminated or accruing penalties due to lack of timely payment by VA.



FSC's mission is to provide accurate, timely, customer-oriented financial services, which cannot be accomplished without development services. A 2-month bridge contract, with options, will allow for the transition period from the incumbent contractor to the new contract awardee.



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 within the required timeframe. Additionally, the proposed action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website in accordance with FAR 5.201. Any proposals that are received shall be evaluated.



7. Actions to Increase Competition: GSA awarded a competitive contract on February 25, 2015 through the Federal Supply Schedule 70. This award was protested at GAO and GAO decided in favor of the awardee. As a result, the 10 day window for subsequent protests has started. Once the GSA awarded contract's period of performance ends, all future actions will be competed and awarded by the Technology Acquisition Center.



8. Market Research: In accordance with FAR, 10.002 (Procedures), VA's technical experts conducted market research in July 2015 for the procurement of .NET Software development services. The market research consisted of a review of GSA Schedule 70 and internet queries for software development service companies. There are a wide range of providers on GSA schedule 70, which provide commercial healthcare claims support services. While this research identified potential sources that could fulfill these requirements, the nature of the .NET development work would not make it possible for another contractor to succeed in providing services without a transition period. To this point, the Government has concluded that replacing the current contractor, CSC, would be impossible due to a two month POP and the knowledge transfer required to ensure the new vendor can successfully review and understand the current .Net coding in place, successfully maintain the code, and successfully develop new code that is compatible with existing .NET coding framework utilized at the FSC. A review of the published labor rates on GSA's website determined the current contractor's rates are competitive.



9. Other Facts: None.