Mine_Reclamation_Q&A.pdf

Mine Reclamation A/E IDIQ for USFS Region 6 & 10 Solicitation Number: 12046W18R0011 Response to questions posed by vendors

*Questions have been grouped, and some may be paraphrased.

General Questions

1. Are there any circumstances where a R6/R10 HAZMAT prime contract holder would be in conflict of working on the contract issued from this procurement?

We would like to include one of the Hazmat prime contractors as a subcontractor on our Team to pursue the CERCLA solicitation. Are they conflicted from even being a sub on our team for the CERCLA contract? Or would they just be conflicted on doing the specific removal action (under the Hazmat contract) for any design project they were involved in under the CERCLA contract? In other words can the same contractor be involved in both contracts as long as they are not involved in the same project?

The conflict would only come from working on the same site/project. If a contractor performs work for a particular site under the Mine Reclamation A/E IDIQ contract (say design of a removal action at ABC Minesite), that contractor would not be eligible to receive a task order for the removal action itself at ABC Mine site under the hazmat contract, due to conflict of interest.

2. The draft SOW and the FBO notice issued June 15, 2018 includes six summary tasks, including Post-Removal Operations, Maintenance, and Monitoring. The body of the SOW and the FBO notice includes scope language for the first five summary tasks but does not appear to include that same language for Post-Removal Operations, Maintenance, and Monitoring. Is Post- Removal Operations, Maintenance, and Monitoring meant to be included with Activity II – Task 4 Removal Action Engineering Support or is there missing language describing the scope requirements for Post-Removal Operations, Maintenance, and Monitoring?

See the revised Notice of Intent. Task 5 was added to Activity II. Disregard the Draft SAMPLE solicitation.

3. Why are the Hyperlinks to FAR no longer functional in Section E and subsequent sections of the Scope of Work Document?

Disregard the draft SAMPLE solicitation. Follow instruction on the revised Notice of Intent.

4. Is a price proposal required? The posting on the website under “SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS”

(7) PRICE states that one is not required at this time. However, in “General Instructions” Page 57 of the Scope of Work document, Section L(a)(1)(c), it states submittals are required to include a Business/Cost Proposal. Please clarify the submittal expectations.

Disregard the draft SAMPLE solicitation. Follow instruction on the revised Notice of Intent.

Price is not required at this time.

5. Are you able to provide a list of known and/or likely sites that will be addressed during this contract cycle?

No

6. Is there a deadline for submittal of questions?

Yes, please submit all questions by 7/16/18

STANDARD FORM 330

7. Are you looking for all the criteria (Qualifications, Organization & Management, Specialized

Experience & Technical Competence, Past Performance, Capacity, and Geographic Location) to be addressed within the 330 form? If that’s the case, I would imagine we’d use the “Additional Information” section of the 330 to address some of these criteria. Can you advise/confirm?

Yes, any requested information that does not fall under sections A-G of the SF-330 should be addressed in Section H (Additional Information).

8. Professional Qualifications: Is it acceptable to use active projects in the Resumes?

Yes

9. Is the past performance form required as part of the response? If so, should it be included in Section H of the SF-330 form?

Include past performance on the SF-330 form, Section H.

10. Does the 50 page limit for Part I include Title Page and Table of Contents?

See revised Notice of Intent. 75 page limit total.

11. Please clarify whether we can submit different projects in the SF 330 than the projects we feature on these past performance reference forms.

Disregard the Past Performance reference worksheet document. Follow instruction on the revised Notice of Intent.

Past Performance

12. Is past performance required to be 100% completed or is 80% completed acceptable?

80% completed project would be fine to include in your past performance submittals.

13. Please expand the Past Performance projects range from three years to five years.

See amendment one. Past Performance has been expanded to five years. Pen & Ink change the revised Notice of Intent to reflect five years.

14. As part of Submission Requirement (4) PAST PEFORMANCE, it states respondents should only include projects completed within the past 3 years. Given the solicitation is a total small business setaside and there have been limited mine reclamation projects in Region 10 over the past 5 years, would projects completed within the past 5 years be acceptable? We feel this is appropriate given small businesses typically do not have the same volume of projects that larger companies do and most IDIQ contracts last 5 years. Thus, many applicable projects may fall out of consideration if only the past 3 years are included.

See the revised Notice of Intent. Past Performance has been increased to the past 5 years.

15. Amendment 1 states to "Disregard the Past Performance reference worksheet submittal.

Add Relevant Past Performance within the last 5 years to the SF 330 form." However, Section 4)b)i) on page 11 of the FB0 _Notice_of_lntent_062618, states: "Detailed narrative of up to ten (10) projects, similar in nature, scope, and difficulty as this requirement, completed over the past three (3) years... " Please clarify the time limitation.

5 years

16. Past Performance: Please confirm that the ten (10) projects can include projects that are currently ongoing as well as those that have been completed within the past three (3) years.

Yes, ongoing projects are acceptable. Also, the period has been extended to the past five (5) years.

17. Past Performance Worksheet Submittal forms – are you requiring us to include “Part 1” of these forms with our proposal? And, would we send out “Part 2” of the form to our client references, or is that something that the Forest Service will do (as part of the reference check)?

In accordance to amendment one, disregard the past performance worksheet submittal form.

Place all past performance information in Section H of the SF-330. The Forest Service will call the references provided.

18. As part of Submission Requirement (4) PAST PEFORMANCE, it refers to the A/E firm experience.

If respondents are submitting as a team (1 prime firm with subconsultants), is it acceptable to provide the past performance of all the team members in this section, not just the prime?

Yes

19. Should we attach the first pages of the "Past Performance" (reference form) as an attachment to our submittal response and if not, where should these forms be included?

Disregard the Past Performance reference worksheet document. Follow instruction on the revised Notice of Intent.

20. Regarding past performance questionnaires; does the FS want the potential contractors to send the questionnaires to the listed points of contact or will the FS be doing that directly after proposal submission?

Disregard the Past Performance reference worksheet document. The Forest Service will be contacting vendors regarding past performance after proposal submission.

21. How should the Word Documents attached to the posted solicitation be used by responders?

The Past Performance Word document refers to a different RFP number; it does not match the solicitation number for this contract. Additionally, it only refers to Region 6.

Disregard the Past Performance reference worksheet document. Follow instruction on the revised Notice of Intent.

SUBMITTAL REQUIREMENTS

22. Submittal Requirements: Please clarify the submittal requirements – electronic versus hard copy. We find it noted differently in the solicitation (page 8) and Draft SOW document (page 57).

Disregard the draft SAMPLE solicitation. Follow instructions on the revised Notice of Intent.

23. Submittal Requirements: Please confirm that Phase 1 is a qualifications-based phase whereby interested parties submit complete SF330s and Phase 2 is a price-based phase whereby a shortlisted group of offerors submit price proposals?

a. Please clarify when we are to submit the Package #1 documents – 2018_Mine_IDIQ_DraftSOW_060118.docx and Past Performance[1].rtf. Are they to be submitted with the SF330 due on July 16, 2018, or with later price proposals?

Disregard the draft SAMPLE solicitation and Past Performance reference worksheet document.

Follow instructions on the revised Notice of Intent.

b. Past Performance Reference Worksheet: Please clarify if we are to submit Part 1 of the Past Performance Reference Worksheet for each project presented in SF330 Section F and request clients complete and return Part 2 directly to USFS.

i. If yes, where in the proposal do you want the Part 1 of the Past Performance Reference Worksheet to be presented?

ii. And, do they count against the 50-page SF 330 Part I limit?

Disregard the Past Performance reference worksheet submittal. Follow instructions on the revised Notice of Intent. Now 75 pages total.

24. Is there a page limit for the individual resumes?

Yes, you can use as many pages for your resumes as you want, as long as the total page count does not exceed 75 pages

25. Will our registration in SAM be adequate for this solicitation? The Scope of Work Document refers to Central Contractor Registration and ORCA.

Yes. SAM is adequate.

26. How should the proposals be delivered? The announcement on the Website refers to emailing a "paper copy" in addition to mailing a USB flash drive. Will emailed submittals be accepted, or should submittals be physically mailed to the address listed on the website? Please clarify.

See the revised Notice of Intent. One mailed hard copy and one electronic email copy.

27. Please confirm that only a single hard copy of the SF 330 and a USB flash drive with an electronic pdf copy is required.

See the revised Notice of Intent. One mailed hard copy and one electronic email copy.

28. The solicitation indicates the proposal is due Monday July 14th. Monday is actually July 16th .Please confirm the due date and time.

See revised Notice of Intent. Due date has been extended to 4:00 pm (PST) on Monday, July 23rd, 2018

29. We would like to clarify the proposal due data is Monday July 16th?

See revised Notice of Intent. Due date has been extended to 4:00 pm (PST) on Monday, July 23rd, 2018.

SELECTION PROCESS

30. The draft SOW states that the criteria for the Technical Evaluation are:

a. Professional Qualifications

b. Specialized Experience

c. Past Performance; and

d. Capacity.

The FBO notice states that the following criteria will be used for the Technical Evaluation:

a. Professional Qualifications

b. Organization and Management

c. Specialized Experience

d. Past performance;

e. Capacity; and

f. Geographic Location.

Which document takes precedence?

Disregard the Draft SAMPLE solicitation. Follow instruction on the revised Notice of Intent.

Items a-f above will be used.

31. The solicitation indicated 4 awards in one place and then 4 to 6 awards in another. Can you confirm the anticipated number of awards?

See amendment one. Disregard the Draft SAMPLE solicitation. The Forest Service anticipates 4 to 6 awards.

32. Will the selection of contract awards be based only on the SF-330 submittal, or will the final ranking/award be based on price through the issuance of the “actual solicitation”?

After final review of the SF-330 submittals, the highest ranked vendors will be issued an actual solicitation, including the schedule of items for pricing.

33. What are the weights for the selection criteria?

Yes, items a-f in the Notice of Intent will be rated in descending order and will be weighted as follows. Also, see attachment for additional rating criteria. Replace RFP/RFQ with Notice of Intent.

Assigned Ratings

Outstanding

Satisfactory

Marginal

Unacceptable

34. Are A/E contractors being evaluated on their ability to provide services to both Region 6 and Region 10?

Yes.

35. Are contractors being selected specifically by Region?

No.

36. Is there a single review team, or are there separate review teams for Region 6 and Region 10?

There will be a single review team.

37. In 2012, the submission requirements were summarized by the USFS and included with the solicitation (attached for reference). Will there be a similar list of requirements for the current solicitation?

No