Q&A_ISO_Auditor.pdf

Questions and Answers for ISO Auditor Requirement 12639519Q0136

1. Section 1.1 and 3.0 limits fair and open competition. ANAB is one of several accreditation bodies.

Our firm has been successful with GAO in protesting this issue. The requirement should read that “the Offeror shall be accredited to ISO 17021 by an Accreditation Body (AB) that is a member of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) with a scope of membership including management system certification.” This wording would include ANAB and other organizations which are equivalent. It should be noted that the current certification being ANAB accredited has no bearing on future accreditation requirements. The references to ANAB Fees in Section 1.4 must be removed as well.

Certification Bodies typically charge an annual maintenance fee and a certificate fee once every three years. The use of ANAB is prejudicial and restricts fair and open competition. The solicitation has been revised to address this.

2. Provide a copy of the current ISO 9001:2015 certificate. Note: Please do not respond that this certificate is covered by FOIA or will be available to the successful Offeror post-award. The Certificate is a public document, and all accredited CB's must verify that this certificate has not been suspended or revoked and is valid during the bidding process. See attached certificate.

3. State whether the Agency has in its possession all previous audit reports issued by the current

Certification Body (yes or no); Yes

4. State whether the Agency has in its possession all previous corrective actions issued, if any, by the previous Certification Body (yes or no); Yes

5. Please confirm that all previous audits have been conducted as scheduled by the current

Certification Body. Yes

6. State whether any Major nonconformances have been identified during the past 3 years of certification. N/A

7. The deadline in the Solicitation stated June 13th and should be corrected. Solicitation closing date extension has been extended.

8. State what sections of ISO 9001:2015, if any, have been determined to be NOT APPLICABLE to the organization. Provide specific ISO 9001 section numbers.

The following processes are considered exclusions from IES’ QMS due to the nature of the IES organization and its products:

• Human Resources: Limited role for IES

• Information Technology/Telecommunications/Information Security: Provided by

Department and Agency.

• Control of Monitoring and Measuring Devices: No measurement devices required to determine whether the work product meets customer requirements.

• Control of externally provided processes, products and services: Not applicable; all services completed in-house.

• Design and Development: Work product is always a report or equivalent with the template being controlled through the document control process.

9. Travel expenses are not listed as a line item for pricing. Please clarify this issue. Solicitation has been revised to address this.

10. Section 1,2 references “ANAB accredited auditor.” There is no such thing. Auditors are certified by either Exemplar Global and/or the International Registry of Certificated Auditors. Please revise the language to be accurate and remove any reference to ANAB. Solicitation has been revised to address this.