Intent to Award and JFOC

The statutory authority permitting exception to fair opportunity is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(l), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, titled "Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements."

The support services for the ECF and ECM systems that are currently being procured under QFlow Systems LLC contract 12SAD 120C0002 maintain patented and proprietary software for which only one service provider developed, making QFlow Systems LLC the only company that exists that can provide the maintenance and support of the Rural Development Electronic Customer File (ECF) and the USDA Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Systems. QFlow Systems LLC is uniquely qualified to satisfy the Government's specialized requirement.

ECM is a critical custom system that QFlow developed and maintains for RD programs as well as other program or mission areas across the Department as described in the associated System of Record Notice (SORN) and Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA). ECF is also a critical custom system that QFlow developed and maintains for many if not all RD programs to date as described in the associated SORN4, PIA5, and RD Instruction 20336 - RECORDS - Subpart A - Management of Rural Development Records. Now that the systems have been developed and USDA has made a significant investment, it is critical to Rural Development that the support services for ECF and ECM systems continue in order to maintain the patented and proprietary QFlow software. The current QFlow Systems LLC contract 12SAD120C0002 expires on 30 June 2023.