Census Bureau gave Anchorage's Katmai Quantum $3.27 million without competition

The Census Bureau did not competitively award the $3,265,216 contract it gave Katmai Quantum LLC of Anchorage this month for work on a Census budget system. The record shows the work was not available for competition, only one source solicited and one offer received.

The authority cited is the statute behind the Small Business Administration's 8(a) program, which allows set-aside and sole-source awards to disadvantaged small businesses. Katmai Quantum is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ouzinkie Native Corporation, an Alaska Native corporation formed under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The recipient record lists it as a self-certified small disadvantaged business.

The scope covers project management, application development and functional testing. It also covers database development and server administration for what the award record calls the DBIT system. The record describes DBIT as critical to the agency's finances, though the description is truncated and never spells the acronym out. A 2022 Commerce Department privacy assessment identifies the Decennial Budget Integration Tool as the Decennial Budget Office's cost estimation, budgeting and budget execution system, hosted in Bowie, Maryland, and in AWS GovCloud regions.

The contract was signed Sept. 11, is firm fixed price, and is performed at Census headquarters in Suitland, Maryland. Performance begins Wednesday and runs through Sept. 15, 2027, with options running to Sept. 15, 2029. The record calls it a task order, an order placed under an existing contract. The award is tracked under ID 13TECH26C0004.

The bureau awarded Katmai Quantum a Decennial 2026 contract in August 2024 as an 8(a) sole source, running through Feb. 25, 2027. That contract now carries $8,913,755 in obligations.

Federal records show similar awards, including $58.5 million in sole-source IT work to three Koniag Inc. subsidiaries and a $4.45 million State Department order to Anchorage's Kadiak LLC.