LexisNexis Accurint for Law Enforcement Database Services/Support

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity: The Department of State Office of Acquisition Management proposes to enter into a task order with exception to fair opportunity for the LexisNexis Accurint for Law Enforcement Database Services/Support on behalf of the Bureau of Consular Affairs' Office of Consular Systems and Technology (CA/CST). This will be a firm-fixed price contract for the period of five (5) years. The total estimated cost of the proposed acquisition is $xx. 2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved. The Department of State awarded task order SAQMMA12F3830 to LexisNexis in September 2012 for subscription to their Accurint Law Enforcement database. During performance of the this task order, the Under Secretary of Management, directed the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA), to enhance the travel documents adjudication process by adding various identity verification tools to the project as a primary automated checkpoint in documentation validations. Developing an integrated web interface with the Department of State and LexisNexis will provide an advanced public records platform, designed to maximize the Department's capabilities in this critical area. Continuation and renewal of the Accurint Law Enforcement (LE) Database Services/Support as provided by LexisNexis (L/N) meets CA's strategic and adjudicative goals of providing an accurate and secure passport and visa documents to include fraud validations/verifications utilities. The current number of potential CA users is approximately 14,000 personnel. 3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the Department's needs. This is a continuation of a previous effort and pertains to the acquisition of the L/N Accurint for LE Database Services/Support. The requirement is to provide L/N Identity Proofing Solutions user-accounts to service the Bureau of Consular Affairs on an Enterprise-wide basis. The services which meet the DoS needs are: a) Online Public & Proprietary Record Query Website: Accurint LE & Accurint for Government; b) Online Public & Proprietary Record Query Web Services Interface: Accurint XML; XML Web interface; c) Identity Verification Web Services Solution: Instant Verify; d) Identity Verification Web Services Solution: Instant Authenticate; e) Person of Interest Continuous Evaluation System for Law Enforcement: ProMonitor, f) Dedicated Program/Technical Manager will also be assigned to this effort - not to exceed 1,000 hours annually, and g) Consultative training and roll-out implementation to include onsite in multiple facilities nationally. Travel and consultation fees are included in the agreement. Consultative training is done in-person and via web seminar/telephonic. Activity is report to CST monthly. CA requires web-based access to public records and related information in order to assist conducting vast travel document applicants' identity verification. The search capability should efficiently help to locate, identify, verify, and provide background information on individuals and business entities, such as personal identifiers: to include real property, vehicles, landline and/or cell phone numbers, and historical address data. Further, the Department requires access to public record information regarding bankruptcies, liens, judgements, professional licensing, and criminal offender's information. The functionality will aid DoS users more efficiently to find relevant information, e.g., matching, filtering & scoring capacity. The reporting needs will provide real-time information form consumer reporting bureaus, comprehensive reports on individuals and businesses entities to include means of visualizing results or report data in ways that augment the context of the information and make it easily exportable to analytical applications. The service will provide account management functionality within the application to identify means to link specialist with each search including accidental and improper searches. To that end, the contract shall provide multiple training options throughout the life of the contract, including on-line, in-person, and customized training sessions. 4. Authority permitting a Fair Opportunity Exception and the supporting rationale. This acquisition is conducted pursuant to 41 U.S.C. 4103 and 4106 as implemented by FAR 16.505(b)(2) and substantiated by the following ? FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) - 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. The products identified herein have been determined to be the only items that meet the Department's requirements as a key component to enhance the travel documents adjudication process. CA has explored potential services which could support an enterprise identity verification process. Further analysis of the LexisNexis suite of tools determined that the product possesses more identity verification tools than any of the other competing commercial databases, e.g., West Law, Bloomberg Law, Google Scholar, Factiva, and ProQuest. Competitors are limited by federated search technology, which group records only when they match input criteria. Accurint's data linking technology cross-links every new record - regardless of whether or not the data is structured or unstructured, and in spite of name variations and misspellings. L/N's proof-identity tools are vital to ensuring CA offices of, Passport, Fraud Prevention Program, and Visa Operations have the capability to validate a person's identity at the time of adjudication, and further utilizing L/N's viable data to verify key identities against an authentication library that has a 99.9% precision result. This patented L/N technology allows an adjudicator to analyze large data sets more easily, accurately, and efficiently due to L/N's proprietary system. L/N creates a unique 12-digit identification number for individuals, that is often a more reliable and secure indicator than a Social Security Number. Other solutions, such as those relying only on credit bureau data, can leave out U.S. population segments with little to no credit history - which represent more than 70 million Americans. By correlating multiple credit and non-credit data sources, L/N affords DoS insight into the greatest range of identities, including people with thin (or absent) credit files as well as hard-to-reach population segments like the disadvantaged, un- and under-banked. Their provide an unique aggregation of credit header information from all three major bureaus. Other services do not provide this extent of coverage. L/N data-check tool has improved passport adjudicators' ability to thoroughly verify personal information. This has decreased the number of passports issued to fraudulent applicants. L/N proof-identity tools leverages the world's largest collection of public and proprietary records, with more than 65 billion records covering more than 760 million unique individuals. L/N adds more than seven million documents to their database weekly. In addition, L/N 4.7 billion records of real property data covers nearly 95% of the U.S. population base and is unrivaled in both depth of historical and current updating coverage. L/N is also the only major commercial provider of real property data that maintains archived tax assessor records. L/N bankruptcy data goes back as far as 1990, depending on the specific court. Also, 3.1 billion records are housed of potential relatives and associates that have been identified and linked using complex algorithms. L/N has unmatched business data coverage to include information on 200M+ businesses from over 180 data sources. Herein listed are additional exceptions L/N provides unlike other resources: ? More than 3.2 billion records of e-mail addresses as well as social networking information from more than 140 websites; ? Robust asset coverage: more than four billion vehicle registration records, one billion vehicle title records, 79 million watercraft registration records, and nationwide aircraft registrations; ? Nearly 20,000 English language news sources, for in-depth insight into national, regional, state, and local events and breaking developments; ? Information from federal and state dockets, which other services do not provide. Under the current task order, CA has collaborated with L/N representatives, to accustom them to our needs concerning the use of commercial databases in a passport adjudication setting. To this end, L/N completed numerous project meetings, tours of passport agencies, interviews with management, qualitative surveys; all to increase L/N understanding context and information about passport services, mission and duties. In return, CA, leveraging L/N DHS contracts, is distinctly able build on the synergies with other agencies like ICE and CBP for Visa overstays and investigating other people of interest. In addition, CA has learned the resource tools processes thoroughly, to better recommend configuration changes, and their potential impact to overall fraud risk mitigation goals and service requirements. As part of the current task order, a Front-End Identify Verification tool is being built into the passport adjudication system under the ConsularOne modernization program. Real-time content will be delivered to DoS CA via an XML feed; continued development will be necessary as ConsularOne evolves. The ability to complete these checks automatically and for an increased number of applicants will enhance the passport processing times for the majority of bona-fide applicants on a global scale. 5. A determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. L/N Accurint will be purchased through the Library of Congress contract. By signing the justification the Contracting Officer makes a determination that this contract type will be the best value to the Government, and that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. In addition, an analysis of pricing information will be performed that will consider commerciality, acquisition history, and other available pricing information in determining best value. L/N has already provided substantial technical and cost history performing this work, there is sufficient data internally to verify if the proposed cost is fair and reasonable. 6. Any other facts supporting the justification. The team recently surveyed the market through internet searches via GSA Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) and general searches for third-party vendors. As a result, it is determined that the requested L/N Accurint is only available and not carried through third-party resellers. Market research indicates that other companies' similar products do not meet or cannot be modified to meet the agency's needs for the following reasons: - No other vendor has demonstration the ability to handle the unique needs of the identity proof-verification tools with an advanced public records platform on an Enterprise-scale. - Service(s) will provide adjudicators forgery detection solution for identify person(s) and business entities efficiently with greater accuracy. - Permit multiple searches to occur on the same individual, without DoS incurring multiple costs per such search. A - search' should constitute a single - identify'. - Instant Authenticate tool provides a data-check that generates - out of wallet' questions used to confirm someone's identity. - Integrate & develop an XML web-service with CA & L/N; development has already commenced to build an encrypt portal that will allow CA users access to L/N's full suite of fraud prevention, proof-identity, data checks tools, etc. - Data is updated continually creating a real-time dynamic picture of an entity's most current identity attributes. The particular product and feature essential to the Government's requirement of maintaining the Law Enforcement Database Services/Support without upgrading or refreshing the system based on broader requirements. Only one product is capable of providing the services required at the level of quality and capabilities required because the services ordered are unique and highly specialized. 7. Actions the agency May Take to Remove or Overcome Any Barriers to Increase Fair Opportunity before any subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services is made. CST's requirement for Accurint represents a compelling need for the Office of Consular Affairs to continue to provide data solutions help the reduce fraud risk by quickly and intelligently analyzing billions of records on individuals and businesses to uncover relevant information for better informed adherence to DoS regulatory privacy requirements decision-making. Future requirements will be evaluated to determine whether an alternate brand/source can be used. The Government will continue to search the marketplace and alternative solutions will continually be researched to determine if they will function with currently used products. If the Government determines that L/N Accurint is no longer required or other product meets the Government's needs, then the Government will seek full and open competition for the required functionality. If similar requirements arise, every effort will be made to compete it to the maximum extent practicable.