20241016 - FAR 19 competitve 8(a) Final Publish.pdf

SOLICITATION NO. 12314425Q0007

USDA-MRP ITD Support Services

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Solicitation Contents:

Section 1: Solicitation Information, Dates, and Deadlines Section 2: Overview of Solicitation Section 3: Submission Instructions Section 4: Award Criteria Section 5: Attachments

Section 1: Solicitation Information, Dates, and Deadlines

1.1 Solicitation Amendment History

Amendment Action Date 3 Solicitation Issued 10/18/2024

1.2 Point(s) of Contact / Contract Administration

Points of Contact: The following points of contact are to be used to communicate with the Government during the delivery order duration. During solicitation through award, the Contracting Officer shall be the primary point of contact:

Contracting Officer (CO):

Name: Terry Tabron Email: Terry.Tabron@usda.gov

1.3 Solicitation Due Date and Delivery

Phase One (1) Quotes must be submitted on or prior to 2:00 pm EST October 25, 2024. USDA will not accept quotes received by fax or mail. Offerers are to submit quotes electronically via email directly to the CO. Subject line of the submittal email shall be formatted as follows: RFQ # 12314424Q0203, Vendor Name, Phase # 1.

1.4 Questions

Questions regarding the RFQ, SOW or Phase 1 shall be submitted to Terry.Tabron@usda.gov by 2:00 pm EST October 15, 2024. Responses to all Contractor questions will be sent via email to all contractors. The Government reserves the right not to provide a response for any Offeror question/clarification received after the date and time listed above. If, however, the Contracting Officer determines that a request cites an issue of significant importance, the Government will provide a written response to all Offerors. Offerors shall use the subject line in their e-mail: USDA OHRM RFQ 12314424Q0203 [Insert Business Name] – Questions.

Section 2: Overview of Solicitation

2.1 Acquisition Details / Type of Contract

This solicitation is a Request for Quote (RFQ) being issued under SBA 8(a) set aside – Category 541611.

This is a FAR Subpart 19.805 competitive 8(a) acquisition.

This acquisition will result in a single award standalone contract.

The order will be Firm Fixed Price contract.

2.2 Period of Performance

Period of Performance for this task order is anticipated to be base period plus [X] Option Periods are anticipated as follows:

Base Period:

Option Period 1 Option Period 2 Option Period 3

TBD -09.27.2025

09.28.2025-09.27.2026 09.28.2026-09.27.2027 09.28.2027-09.27.2028

Section 3: Quote submittal instructions

Offerors shall submit the following:

Offerors will be evaluated in two phases with an advisory down-select after the first Phase.

Contractors shall prepare and deliver only Factor 1, Prior Experience for Phase 1 submission, the government will evaluate Phase 1 submissions and provide contractors notice via advisory down-select notification.

Failure to participate in Phase 1 of the solicitation precludes further consideration of an Offeror. Submissions will not be accepted from Offerors who have not submitted the Phase 1 quote by the due date and time stated in this RFQ. Additionally, an Offeror's decision not to participate in Phase 2 of the procurement precludes further consideration of an Offeror.

The Government will be conducting the evaluation in two (2) phases. Phase 1: The Government will be evaluating Factor 1: Prior Experience. Phase 2: Factor 2: Technical Understanding and Capabilities and Factor 3: Contract Price mailto:sean.jordan@usda.gov

After the Government completes evaluation of the Phase 1 submission, Offerors will receive an advisory notification via email from the Contracting Officer. The notification will advise the Offeror of the Government's advisory recommendation to proceed or not to proceed to Phase 2. The Government anticipates only recommending three (3) of the most capable vendors to Phase 2. The intent of this advisory notice is to minimize development and other costs for those offerors with little to no chance of receiving an award. The Government's advice will be a recommendation only and those Offerors who are advised not to proceed may elect to continue their participation in the procurement. The Government does not intend to provide debriefings after the completion of the advisory notifications. The Government reserves the right to bypass down select activity based on the best interest of the USDA.

Factor 1: Prior Experience The Offeror shall provide up to three (3) examples of contracts within the last three (3) years and at least one year in length (recency) of similar scope, size, and complexity (relevancy) to the requirements detailed in the SOW. The Government reserves the right to obtain information from other sources (e.g., CPARS, PPIRS) to assess Offeror’s performance risk. The Government may consider positive and negative information not mentioned by the Offeror but found during assessing Prior Experience.

The quote must illustrate clearly how the Offeror has successfully accomplished present and past projects, including accolades and failures. Reference efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility with respect to timeliness, work quality, and types and scope of services provided. Failure to comply fully with the preceding may result in elimination of the quote from further consideration.

Factor 1: Prior Experience submission shall not exceed 10 - pages (8.5x11in 12 point font 1 sided).

Factor 2: Technical Understanding and Capabilities The Offeror will demonstrate their knowledge, understanding, capabilities, and approach, for meeting the requirements as described in the Statement of Work (SOW). The Offeror shall provide an efficient approach and solution for managing and accomplishing the tasks enumerated in the SOW as well as proposed performance standards for evaluating the work, identify the Key Personnel with a letter of commitment, and detail capabilities and approach for recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and retaining resources to support the SOW.

The offeror shall provide an efficient methodology and tools for accomplishing the tasks enumerated in the SOW. The offeror shall include the following:

• Discussion of the proposed method, techniques, and tools for meeting and surveilling all the requirements in each task and subtask (where applicable) of the SOW to include demonstrating planning skills and the development milestones and key deliverables

• Discussion of any anticipated difficulties and problem areas, along with potential recommended approach for resolution and mitigation.

• Discussion of the offeror’s technical knowledge in all functional and specialty areas outlined in the SOW to facilitate the successful performance under the resulting contract

• If applicable, discussion of the offeror’s proposed subcontractor’s technical knowledge in all functional and specialty areas outlined in the SOW to facilitate the successful performance under the resulting contract.

The Government will assess its level of confidence that the Offeror will successfully perform the requirements based on the Technical Understanding and Capabilities information submitted. The Government will evaluate the overall quality, reasonableness, and comprehensive understanding of the Offeror’s Technical Understanding and Capabilities and Key Personnel as to whether it includes a detailed narrative that clearly outlines the approach for accomplishing the areas covered in the SOW.

Factor 2: Technical Understanding and Capabilities submission shall not exceed 15- pages. The 15 - pages does not include the actual resumes or letter of commitment.

Evaluation Criteria/Methodology:

The following ratings will be used in assessing Technical Understanding and Capabilities:

Confidence Rating Definition

High Confidence

(Low Risk)

The Government has high confidence the vendor understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, and will be successful in performing the contract with little or no Government intervention.

Some Confidence

(Moderate Risk)

The Government has some confidence the vendor understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, and will be successful in performing the contract with some Government intervention.

Low Confidence

(High Risk)

The Government has low confidence the vendor understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, or will be successful in performing the contract even with Government intervention.

Factor 3: Price The Offeror shall provide a FFP for this effort. The Government will evaluate price for fair and reasonableness of the total evaluated order price to perform all services in accordance with FAR 8.4. The Government will check the Offeror’s quote for mathematical accuracy and will verify that the Offeror correctly summarizes prices.

Price submission shall be submitted as a separate attachment. The offeror shall submit the pricing using a pricing schedule accompanied by any applicable supporting documents to provide a complete understanding of the basis of the estimate; any offeror assumptions shall be listed. Offerors shall also clearly show any discounts applied to USDA, if there are any.

Quotes that exhibit the following characteristics may be deemed to show an inherent lack of technical competence or failure to comprehend the complexity and risk of the contract requirements:

• Unrealistically low or high total price (compared to the Government estimate and/or other competitive quotes submitted in response to this solicitation).

• Unbalanced pricing exists when, despite an acceptable total evaluated price, the price of one or more contract line items is significantly over or understated.

• The Government reserves the right to reject such quotes.

Section 4: Award Criteria

The Government will award one (1) Standalone Contract from this solicitation. For purposes of this solicitation, Best value means the expected outcome of an acquisition that, in the Government's estimation, provides the greatest overall benefit in response to the requirement. The Government may elect to award to other than the lowest priced offeror, or to other than the highest technically rated, based on the results of the tradeoff analysis between non-price and price factors. Offerors should therefore propose their best approach to meeting the requirements of the solicitation. The Contracting Officer shall make an assessment of the proposed price and the Confidence ratings and trade one off for the other to determine the best value for the government.

• Technical Understanding and Capabilities is more important than all other factors combined.

• Prior Experience is most important after technical understanding and capabilities

• Price is more important after Prior Experience

USDA intends to award without discussions, so all offerors should submit their best quote with the original submission.

Section 5: Attachments

Attachment 1: Statement of Objectives (SOW)

Attachment 2: Provisions and Clauses