Immigration & Naturalization Service, Procurement Division, 425 I St., NW, Room 2208, Washington, DC 20536

99 -- OPTICAL CARD STOCK DUE 111999 POC Robert Richards, 202/514-5729 The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)intends to modify Contract Number COW-9-C-0007 with Information Spectrum, Inc. (ISI) to purchase additional optical card stock, holograms, and protective laminate used to produce various immigration cards. As part of its mission to enforce immigration laws, the INS produces a variety of cards to identify recipients of certain benefits. This action sets forth the immediate requirement for a one-time purchase of optical card stock, holograms, and protective laminate from the current supplier, ISI. The purpose of this contract modification is to bolster card stock inventory to allow sufficient time for INS to evaluate proposals for these items. A competitively selected vendor for these supplies is currently being sought under solicitation HQ-99-09. Proposals are due November 15, 1999. The INS plans to purchase an interim quantity of approximately 2.5 million units of optical card stock and all associated hologram and protective laminate. The current INS schedule anticipates award to a competitively selected vendor in March 2000. This award date and this interim purchase from ISI allows over five months for the first delivery of optical card stock under the new contract. The optical card stock required by the INS is the size of a credit card and contains a write-once-read-many memory (WORM) optical memory stripe that is encoded with cardholder information by the INS Integrated Card Production System (ICPS). ICPS encoding of the WORM stripe, additional printing, and the application of a hologram and a protective laminate personalizes the generic optical card stock for individual recipients. Optical card stock must be manufactured in accordance with Drexler European Licensees Association (DELA) optical card and all other standard incorporated by ISO/IEC 11693 and 11694. The composition and printing, on both the front and back of the optical cards, must be identical to that of the existing completed cards in circulation, all of which were supplied to the INS by ISI under a competitive contract awarded in GFY 1996. This modification is justified in accordance with FAR 6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. ISI is uniquely qualified to supply this optical card stock, hologram and protective laminate.. As the original (and current) supplier, ISI is the only vendor with a complete subcontract network in place to begin production of all additional quantities immediately. Only by building up inventory now can the INS allow sufficient time for both a competitive selection process and the manufacture retooling and preparation time likely needed by any viable new source(s) of supply. Interested sources are invited to submit in writing, their qualification/capabilities within 15 days of the publication of this notice. Such information will be used solely for the purpose of planning other competitive acquisitions of card stock, and associated holograms and protective materials, for the INS ongoing requirements for these items. Posted 11/04/99 (W-SN398070). (0308)

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