I am certainly not a fan of these no-bid contracts but as far as the numbers go,
Alaska has a population of over 700,000 residents. That is, at least, 700,000 PFD applications each year. $650,000 over a two year period to check 1,400,000 applications (over 2 years) comes out to less than 50cents per application. I do not see a cheaper way to accomplish verifying applications unless we decide simply not to care to check unless a fraudulent happens to blatantly appear. It really depends upon how many fraudulent applications are really out there. I am more concerned about personnel information being handed out to yet another potential hacking target more so than I am concerned about my 50 cents. (Just offering my 2 cents worth).