GSA awards $99 million contract for IT support to combat drug trafficking

The General Services Administration awarded a contract on Wednesday to improve information sharing among the law enforcement agencies that investigate drug traffickers.

Under the contract, worth as much as $99 million over five years, Booz Allen Hamilton will maintain the Anti-Drug Network Plus program (ADNET PLUS), which the Defense Department's Defense Information Systems Agency operates. DISA provides the primary source of funding, although other agencies contribute to the costs. The system allows law enforcement agencies to share information and coordinate anti-trafficking efforts using 20 applications that include nationwide databases of drug seizures and arrests.

"It's an information-sharing system that links up all the available databases," said Paul Recklau, senior project manager at GSA's Federal Systems Integration and Management Center, which conducted the competition. "It's basically where you can take the information and pull the pieces together."

Thirteen agencies use ADNET PLUS, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, and Customs and Border Protection. Booz Allen was the incumbent contractor on the program, which is nearly 16 years old, and won the follow-on contract in an open competition that began more than a year ago.

DISA has asked the company, which adds new applications periodically, to explore upgrades such as expanding e-mail collaboration among law enforcement agencies and improving interoperability so that incompatible formats don't prevent data sharing.

Recklau said GSA managed the financial and contractual aspects of the procurement because the ADNET PLUS program office is staffed by only 10 people, most of whom focus on technical issues and monitoring contractor performance. FEDSIM typically assists agencies with high-dollar IT purchases through governmentwide contracts.

"For this particular project, one of the challenges is to get funding from multiple agencies, including small-dollar value transactions," he said. "We're set up at GSA to handle those types of transactions. We can do it a little more efficiently than DISA can."