LSC_OIG_Q A_-QCR_RFP-April_16 _2015.pdf

Questions and Answers

LSC OIG Quality Control Review Services RFP

April 16, 2015

1. Vendor Question: Background section states that LSC as a federally-funded non-profit entity qualifies for GSA and non-profit rates. Please explain what is meant by that statement.

OIG Answer: The LSC OIG is not a government agency but a Designated Federal Entity (DFE) which receives funds from Congress. As a DC nonprofit organization the LSC also qualifies for non-profit rates, and any applicable GSA rates the vendor can propose.

2. Vendor Question: Will the resultant award be made under the successful offeror’s applicable GSA Schedule?

OIG Answer: The LSC OIG will consider rates provided under the offeror’s most applicable GSA schedule.

3. Vendor question: Will the Quality Control Reviews be performed as Agreed-Upon Procedures engagements or Consulting engagements?

OIG answer: The QCRs will be performed as a consulting engagement. The practitioner is expected to provide an independent opinion as a result of the review.

4. Vendor question: SOW C. Performance says the audits will cover the 2014 fiscal year. Is that the grantee’s fiscal year?

OIG answer: For the base year of the contract, we are referring to Quality Control Reviews of the Fiscal Year 2014 grantee’s financial statement audits conducted by the LSC grantees’ IPA.

5. Vendor question: When is the work expected to start?

OIG answer: June- July 2015 or as soon as an agreement is in place.

6. Vendor question: Will the schedule for the QCR’s be determined at the start of each year?

OIG answer: The schedule is determined at the start of each year/ review cycle through the contract and option letters.

7. Vendor question: Who is the incumbent CPA firm that performed the work for the last 3 years?

OIG answer: McBride, Lock and Associates

8. Vendor question: What was the incumbent firm’s uniform fixed price per QCR review each year?

OIG answer: The OIG will not disclose the uniform fixed price as this could influence vendors’ price proposals.

9. Vendor question: What were the incumbent’s hours and hourly rates by professional classification for each fixed price QCR review?

OIG answer: The OIG will not disclose this information for the reasons described above.

10. Vendor question: Are the Annual Summary Reports for the last 3 years available for review?

OIG answer: They are available on the OIG website at http://www.oig.lsc.gov/aud/audits.htm#top

11. Vendor question: Will LSC consider professional liability insurance sufficient to meet the requirement for professional malpractice insurance listed in the certification section (p. 15, Item F) of the RFP?

OIG answer: Yes.

12. Vendor question: Would LSC please exclude front matter (e.g., cover page, disclosure page, cover letter, table of contents, and certification page) from the page limits?

OIG Answer: Yes, those five items can be excluded from the page limits.

13. Vendor question: Would LSC like the certification page included as an appendix or a separate document?

OIG answer: Please include as an appendix.

14. Vendor question: Does LSC intend for offerors to include resumes of all proposed staff, or only key personnel?

OIG answer: Resumes of all proposed staff is preferred.

15. Vendor question: Would LSC consider changing the page limitations to 20 pages for the technical and price proposals combined, in order for offerors to provide adequate detail and to fully respond to the RFQ and proposal requirements?

OIG answer: The OIG believes it has the adequate page limitation for this procurement.

16. Vendor question: International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing and Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards, require you are either a Certified Public Accountant or a Certified Internal Auditor. Is this sufficient to satisfy the requirements of this RFP? Or, is LSC requiring a CPA firm to conduct these reviews? For example, the Project Director assigned to this project is a Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Government Audit Professional, Certified Government Financial Manager and holds a Certification in Risk Management Assurance and has over 20 years of government audit experience including establishing a federal compliance monitoring and reporting division for the second largest Texas state agency.

OIG answer: A CPA would be required. Having a non-CPA review a CPA would not be readily accepted.

17. Vendor question: Has a contractor performed similar work to this for the government in the past? If available, please provide the incumbent contract number. If you are unable to provide a contract number, is it safe to assume this is a new requirement for the government?

OIG answer: Yes, the incumbent is McBride, Lock and Associates.

18. Vendor question: Are all grantees’ IPA audits subject to the same guidance and standards?

OIG answer: Yes. The standards and guidance are provided in the LSC OIG RFP.

http://www.oig.lsc.gov/aud/audits.htm%23top

19. Vendor question: How does LSC select the 15 to 35 grants tested annually or is the contractor responsible for selecting the reviews?

OIG answer: The LSC OIG selects the 15-35 grantees tested annually. LSC OIG judgmentally selects the IPAs based on attributes such as the time elapsed since the last quality control review was performed, the results of the last quality control review and geographical considerations.

20. Vendor question: Due to the page limitations, can the resumes go in the appendices? Are the appendices outside of the 10 page limit?

OIG answer: Yes, resumes are part of the appendices. Appendices are excluded from the page limit.

21. Vendor question: What time on 4/27 are the proposals due?

OIG answer: Proposals are due on April 27th, 2015, 5PM Eastern time.

22. Vendor question: Is the contractor required to perform conflict checks on all IPAs prior to submission of the proposal?

OIG answer: It is not required but would be preferable as it would help determine the impact on the contract award and the feasibility of the audit work.

23. Vendor question: Was there an incumbent and what were the prior year fees?

OIG answer: As described in answer 8 above, the OIG prefers not to provide this information at this point.