Under the authority of 41 USC 253(c)(1) and 41 USC 253(c)(3), the United States Department of Commerce (DOC), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division (AMD) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on behalf of the NIST Information Technology Laboratory's (ITL) Information Access Division (IAD), intends to negotiate and award a five-year, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) task order type contract with a ceiling amount of $2 million to Mitretek Systems (Mitretek), 7572 Colshire Drive, Falls Church, Virginia 22102. The scope of the IDIQ contract will be technical support in evaluation of biometric identification and verification standards, which may include fingerprint matching systems (rolled, flat, latent, live-capture), face recognition systems, iris recognition systems, and/or multimodal biometrics systems (including fingerprint). Such support will require expert-level technical support to NIST in technology evaluation, development of methodology and metrics, and recommendations to NIST. BACKGROUND: NIST was mandated by the federal USA Patriot Act to develop and certify a standard for verifying the identity of persons applying for a visa or seeking to enter the United States of America be developed and certified, and providing technical support to the United States Attorney General and the United States Secretary of State in evaluation of biometric identification systems for Entry and Exit Data System for borders of the United States of America. NIST ITL IAD has served the central role in this requirement. Other agencies, including the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) (including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)), have sought technical guidance from NIST ITL IAD in research and evaluations of biometric systems which may be considered for homeland security. Due to the urgency of these homeland security requests, along with the sporadic nature of other agency funding, it was determined that NIST ITL IAD needed to contract to obtain technical support for some of its tasks in biometics. CONSTRAINTS: NIST requires that the Contractor for the aforementioned types of work not have any conflicting role that could potentially bias its judgment in carrying out tasks under its contracts, and that the Contractor not be in a position to gain or be perceived as gaining an unfair competitive advantage as a result of work performed under the contract. This applies not only to the Contractor but to any other organization that has or is perceived to have a business relationship with the Contractor that may lead to a potential conflict of interest. PROCUREMENT HISTORY: Since 2000, NIST ITL IAD has contracted for technical support in biometrics, research study, and computer security from Mitretek Systems (Mitretek) of Falls Church, Virginia using several different procurement mechanisms since NIST concluded for each of those needs that contracting with Mitretek was NIST's only reasonable alternative to satisfy its requirements with a non-governmental source that possessed no potential conflicts of interest. Mitretek is a 501(c)(3) corporation chartered to work exclusively in the public interest. As stated in its articles of incorporation, the nature of Mitretek's business is exclusively charitable, educational, and scientific. Its primary purpose is to carry on scientific research in the public interest in order to provide a public benefit through the application of science and technology. Mitretek has no stockholders, but is administered as a public trust by a board of trustees made up of eminent citizens. Mitretek, as a nonprofit corporation chartered to work exclusively in the public interest, operates in a manner that meets the spirit and specific requirements of the conflict of interest avoidance criteria stated above. Mitretek does not manufacture or promote any commercial products, does not provide routine services, and does not work for or formally compete against profit-seeking firms. In addition to the above safeguards against organizational conflict of interest, Mitretek has in place corporate policies and procedures that guard against individual trustees, officers, and employee personal interests conflicting with Mitretek's work. NIST ITL IAD'S CURRENT AND FUTURE NEEDS: NIST ITL IAD continues to have a need for long-term contract support for expertise in biometrics identification and verification systems from a source that has hands-on experience using DOJ FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) fingerprint matching system and the DHS US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indication Technology (US VISIT) System. NIST's recent market research indicates that Mitretek continues to remain the only apparent non-governmental source that can fulfill those requirements in a non-partial manner without any potential conflicts of interest. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541710, and the size standard is 500 employees. NIST AMD'S INTENT: For the reasons noted above, NIST AMD intends to negotiate and award a sole source IDIQ contract worth up to $2 million over 5 years to Mitretek. This notice of intent to award the aforementioned IDIQ contract to Mitretek is not a request for competitive proposals. However, if responses are submitted from non-governmental entities in response to this notice that CLEARLY AND UNAMBIGUOUSLY DEMONSTRATE their capability to satisfy NIST's requirements while at the same time maintaining impartiality and presenting no potential financial or other conflicts of interest, NIST AMD will consider those responses solely for the purpose of determining whether NIST AND could compete this requirement. SUCH RESPONSES MUST BE SUBMITTED BY EMAIL TO
contact@example.gov WITH A COURTESY COPY TO
contact@example.gov AND MUST BE RECEIVED AT THOSE EMAIL ADDRESSES NO LATER THAN APRIL 25, 2006. The determination whether NIST AMD could compete the IDIQ contract requirement will be made solely at NIST AMD's discretion.
