TSA Plans Sole-Source Award for Credentialing Management Support

The US Transportation Security Administration intends to award a sole-source contract for credentialing management support, naming Identification Technology Partners as the company it plans to negotiate with rather than opening the work to full competition.

According to a special notice posted to the federal contracting portal SAM.gov, the agency’s Contracting and Procurement and Technology and Systems offices intend to issue a solicitation using other than full and open competition. The agency has been surveying this ground for some time, having earlier issued a market research notice for secure identity management support. The contract would cover requirements of TSA’s Security Technology office for credentialing management support, focused on technical expertise for credentials issued through the agency’s Security Threat Assessment.

A Security Threat Assessment is the vetting TSA runs on individuals seeking access to sensitive transportation environments, checking them against criminal history, immigration, and terrorism-related records. The credentials issued on the back of that vetting include the Transportation Worker Identification Credential carried by port and maritime workers, a programme whose reader hardware has drawn its own procurement activity, with the US Coast Guard seeking vendors for a TWIC biometric reader programme.

A notice of intent to sole source is the standard way a federal agency signals a planned non-competitive award and invites any other capable vendor to come forward before it proceeds. TSA cited Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1, the authority used when only one responsible source can meet an agency’s requirement, and said it intends to solicit and negotiate with a single source. Interested companies may identify their interest and capability, or submit proposals, within ten days of the notice being posted, though the agency stressed that the notice is not a request for competitive proposals and that any decision not to compete the award rests solely with the government. Vendors seeking subcontracting work were directed to approach the named company directly.

Identification Technology Partners is based in Germantown, Maryland, and the work would be performed in Springfield, Virginia, under the classification code for other scientific and technical consulting services. Responses are due by July 16.

Sources: SAM.gov

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By Ji-seo Kim