GSA picks BearingPoint for HSPD-12 system
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The $104.6 million contract will provide a turnkey solution to produce identification cards that meet Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 credentials requirements.
Bearing Point won a contract worth $104.6 million Thursday evening to provide a turnkey solution to produce identification cards that meet Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 credentials requirements, the General Services Administration announced Friday.
The integrator will provide the technology and services for setting up the personal identity verification accounts. GSA will be responsible for managing the contract and for providing the enrollment locations through its four-week-old Managed Service Offices in New York, Atlanta, Seattle and Washington, D.C., officials said.
The MSO will be responsible for managing all of GSA's Federal Acquisition Service offerings from products to assisted-service acquisitions.
HSPD-12 requires all agencies to begin supplying their employees and contractors with secure identity cards by Oct. 27. The mandate, issued in August 2004, states that the card should be interoperable with various access systems.
The intent of HSPD-12 'was to secure our people, our facilities and our technology within our community, and everyone understands after 9-11 how incredibly important that is,' said Michel Kareis, director of GSA's HSPD-12 program, in a conference call updating GSA's activities for HSPD-12.
Marty Wagner, acting deputy commissioner of FAS, said GSA's efforts are part of a multi-agency effort to build credentials that are standardized and interoperable across the federal government.
By offering a shared-service center to interested agencies, GSA will save agencies money through bulk purchases of HSPD-12 compliant goods, he said. Prices will remain uncertain, he added, until GSA knows precisely how many federal agencies are going to join the program for their ID needs.
The contract requires Bearing Point to use only products on the GSA approved list.
The Office of Management and Budget named GSA as executive agency for information technology acquisitions for HSPD-12, Kareis said.
She said GSA mobilized many resources under a tight deadline. She called the contract award and the newly established MSO successes for the agency.
Under HSPD-12, the credentialing of all civilian federal workers and contractors must begin by Oct. 27, and be completed by Oct. 27, 2007. GSA estimates the law will affect millions of workers.