Notice of Intent to Sole Source for the Railroad Credit Assessment and Portfolio Management System Support For the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) Program

The United States Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Office of Acquisition Services, under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Rules (FAR) Part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items, and FAR Part 13, Simplified Acquisition Procedures, intends to issue a sole source contract to BancLab of New York, New York for Railroad Credit Assessment and Portfolio Management System Support for the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) Program. The justification is as follows. BancLab is the only source able to provide the services. The additional work to be performed is closely related to services currently performed by the contractor. BancLab uses RCAPM software for the current RRIF support services it performs for FRA. This new effort, like the current effort, also requires the use of the RCAPM software, proprietary software created by the contractor and modified by the contractor in response to continuing OMB requirements. No other software is suitable to perform the work, as it is specialized for the RRIF program because of the unique credit risk premium requirements and how re-estimates are calculated. Furthermore, coordination and use of the software by another contractor would, at the least, require significant additional time and resources to perform the work. For example, BancLab would need to initially train another contractor to use and understand the data processed by the software, as well as provide continuous additional training to that other contractor in response to changes required of RCAPM. Lastly, the new work itself is part of broader RRIF reporting services the contractor is currently performing. This new work is the other portion of the requirement, work that will no longer be required of FRA past September 30, 2017. Accordingly, even if another contractor was to be brought on-board, the services are no longer of a recurring nature and the time delay required to bring another contractor up to speed would make award moot. Additionally, performance of these related services by a single contractor ensures that the entirety of the work and the work product is done in a single standardized and congruent manner that does not require expenditure of additional time and resources by FRA to reconcile multiple contractors' deliverables. NO SOLICITATION OR REQUEST FOR QUOTE IS AVAILABLE. Notwithstanding, any firm that believes it is capable of meeting this requirement may submit a response, which if received within two days of the closing date of this announcement, will be considered. Responses to this announcement must be in writing to the Contract Specialist, Ryan Daniels, at ryan.daniels@dot.gov.