Amendment 1_Request for Quote 140D0421Q0066_0001.pdf

Request for Quote 140D0421Q0066

Amendment 1

The purpose of Amendment 1 is to broadcast to potential quoter(s) the answers to questions submitted to the Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist. The amendment also extends the question timeframe and extends the deadline of the quote. In addition, a new Pricing Template “Attachment 4 Price Proposal Template V2” is to be utilized for quote submission.

Changes:

1. Extend the question timeframe from 3:00 PM ET February 10, 2021 to 3:00 PM ET February 19, 2021. Please continue to submit questions to the Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist.

2. Extend the due date for the quote from 3:00 PM ET February 24, 2021 to 3:00 PM ET March 3, 2021.

3. Replace “Attachment 4 – Price Proposal Template” with “Attachment 4 - Price Proposal Template V2”. Please use the revised pricing template and not the original.

Questions and Answers Received Through 3:00 PM ET February 10, 2021:

No Vendor Question Government Response 1 Should we just provide a quote for the one base year or for the additional four optional years?

Please provide a quote for the base period (12 months), four optional periods (12 months each), and FAR 52.217-8 six months option to extend services. The base year, four optional periods, and additional six months (FAR 52.217-8) will be used to determine the total contract value.

2 [Redacted] has not yet decided whether to apply or not this year.

The department would like to know, if they decide not to apply this year, will the opportunity to apply be available next year?

No, another opportunity will not be available next year. It is anticipated that any award(s) made resulting from this Request for Quote will provide the Peace Corps with recruitment services through July 31, 2026.

3 Under “52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors - Commercial Items.

(Jun 2020); section 4. Formatting” it notes that the technical quotation should be “12 Times New Roman point font.” The template, however, is Calibri 12 point. Do you want us to use the template as is, or convert it to Times New Roman?

Please use 12-point Times New Roman font.

4 In the instructions (“B. Price Volume”) it refers to “Attachment 3 – Pricing Template” and then indicates the price quotation “shall be submitted in MS Word and Excel format for budget tables.”

- The number of the attachments do not align with the file that I downloaded, so I want to confirm that I am to use the Excel spreadsheet that is labeled “Attachment 4 – Price Proposal Template”

- It is unclear what MS Word document to use for the Price Volume, if necessary

Please use the MS Excel Spreadsheet “Attachment 4 – Price Proposal Template V2” as your primary means of conveying the price data.

However, the Government requests that you convert the two tabs within the document (Price & Budget Detail) into MS Word documents to accompany the overall price submission.

Please provide a quote for the base period (12 months), four optional periods (12 months each), and FAR 52.217-8 six months option to extend services.

5 With the most recent contract, but with earlier ones, there has been a request to waive our university’s standard overhead [Redacted] for Federal contracts (set at [Redacted]% for Federal Public Service contracts). If this is to be the case for this contract, I need the waiver request in advance of submission, in writing, stating the cap and the rationale for it.

You should build any applicable indirect cost rate(s) into your quote to the Government. The Government cannot provide you with advice as to how your university applies their indirect cost rate(s).

6 I wanted to confirm there are no limits on indirect costs and may use are negotiated applicable rates. I would also like to confirm there is not a limit to the amount we may request as long as justified within the scope of work and needs.

You should build any applicable indirect cost rate(s) into your quote to the Government. The Government cannot provide you with advice as to how your university applies their indirect cost rate(s).

7 It appears that we’ll just need to populate and submit the Excel spreadsheet (attachment 4) and the Word doc (attachment 6), correct?

Correct, Attachments 4 “Price Proposal Template V2” and Attachment 6 will need to be submitted in addition to the overall quote.

8 How do we submit these and by when at latest? February 24th? You should submit all elements of your quote via email to Stephen Shaffer and Denise Carrio by March 3, 2021 at 3:00 PM ET. Please re-read all aspects of the Request for Quote to ensure you do not miss any deadlines or requirements.

Stephen_Shaffer@ibc.doi.gov Denise_Carrio@ibc.doi.gov

9 Presently our “strat” is only working during the academic year (9mos/year)—would it be possible to make this a 12-month contract so that [Redacted] can engage during the summer, both on and off campus? We think there would be immense value in this given the [Redacted], among other summer offerings on campus, as well as numerous off campus events (eg, farmers markets, fairs, etc.) where [Redacted] could engage with the community.

There could be, in limited circumstances, where a strat could perform recruitment activities outside of the academic year and include that data in their last deliverable of the academic year. However, the activities would need to be consistent with the deliverables and approved in advance by the Peace Corps.

10 Are there any other parameters or expectations that have significantly changed given the transfer of this from the agency to the DOI?

None. The Peace Corps will act in the role of Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) and the Department of the Interior, Interior Business Center will act in the capacity of the contracting office (i.e. Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist).

11 I wanted to confirm there are no limits on indirect costs and may use are negotiated applicable rates.

You should build any applicable indirect cost rate(s) into your quote to the Government. The Government cannot provide you with advice as to how your university applies their indirect cost rate(s).

12 I would also like to confirm there is not a limit to the amount we may request as long as justified within the scope of work and needs.

There is no limit to what you can request, and you should build any indirect cost rate(s) into your quote while taking into account customary salary rate of similarly situated student salaries.

The Government cannot provide you with advice as to how your university applies salary or indirect cost rates.

13 Could you please confirm that the Indirect Cost in the Price Volume should be 15%?

You should build any applicable indirect cost rate(s) into your quote to the Government. The Government cannot provide you with advice as to how your university applies their indirect cost rate(s). The 15% rate was merely an illustrative example for the formula. To avoid confusion, this has been removed from the updated Attachment 4 - Price Proposal Template V2.

14 In the Solicitation Provisions document, under Section 4 (Formatting), it is stated that the technical quotation “must include a Table of Contents and tabs.” Is the tab requirement referring to those at the bottom of the Price Volume Excel spreadsheet, or the Technical Volume Word document? I’m a little puzzled about what is meant by tabs in a Word document (outside of indenting).

The technical aspect of the overall quotation should have a table of contents. The price quotation MS Excel spreadsheet should have labeled tabs.

15 In the Solicitation Provisions document, under Section 4 (Formatting), B. Price Volume, the guidelines state that Attachment 3 - Pricing Template should “be submitted in MS Word and Excel Format.” The provided Price Volume Template is in Excel format. Is there an additional Word document that we should also be providing?

Please convert the MS Excel pricing template to MS Word and provide both documents in the overall response to the Request for Quote.

16 In the Solicitation Provisions document, under Section 4 (Formatting), it is stated that the technical quotation should be no longer than 10 pages. Could you please confirm whether the 10-page maximum includes the table of contents, as well as all of Peace Corps’ provided prompts and detailed recruitment plan, which are built into the technical volume?

The 10-page limit to the technical aspect of the Request for Quote does not include the table of contents. The Peace Corps provided attachments (Attachment 3 and Attachment 5) are for reference purposes only.

17 There were two Solicitation Provisions documents included within provided RFQ documents. In one, the Contract Specialist’s name and email address is listed as Denise Lopez (denise_lopez@ibc.doi.gov). In the other, it is listed as Denise Carrio (denise_carrio@ibc.doi.gov). Could you please confirm which name and email address we should use for submission?

Please submit all elements of your quote to Stephen Shaffer and Denise Carrio.

Stephen_Shaffer@ibc.doi.gov Denise_Carrio@ibc.doi.gov

18 Are we allowed to build in increases to salary over the 5 year period? We hire the Recruiter as a Graduate Assistant – generally a Coverdell Fellow – the hosting department covers the tuition waiver and we pay the stipend. Our graduate students are unionized and as a result their hourly rate generally increases each year. Over the course of the last contract, we ran into an issue with salary as we had not built-in increases to hourly wage rates. We were able to cover the cost as we had “savings” in other spending categories.

The Government cannot provide recommendation as to how you should quote the price of these services. If you believe it is necessary to include an escalated rate in the option years in order to retain the necessary skilled individual, then you may want to consider doing so.

19 As part of our last 5 year contract, we received specific permission to budget funds for food for student recruitment events – just want to make sure we can do this again.

No. Contract funds cannot be used to purchase food. The Peace Corps will provide food separately for student recruitment events if the Peace Corps feels it is necessary to provide food.

20 Can you confirm that we should submit the proposal to stephen_shaffer@ibc.doi.gov?

Please submit all elements of your quote to Stephen Shaffer and Denise Carrio.

Stephen_Shaffer@ibc.doi.gov Denise_Carrio@ibc.doi.gov

21 Does Peace Corps have an indirect cost requirement? Or is this requirement waived? If it is waived, please reply back with this information so we have it on record for our Office of Sponsored Projects.

You should build any applicable indirect cost rate(s) into your quote to the Government. The Government cannot provide you with advice as to how your university applies their indirect cost rate(s).

22 Is it allowable to include half-time benefits that are typical for 20 hour position at 30.6% in the budget?

The Government cannot provide recommendation as to how your university applies benefits to its part-time employees.

23 Our budget shows the $20/hour pay plus a 30% fringe rate.

Would you recommend that we increase the pay for future option years? We are not fully sure if the university will approve future graduate student pay increases.

The Government cannot provide recommendation as to how you should quote the price of these services. If you believe it is necessary to include an escalated rate in the option years in order to retain the necessary skilled individual, then you may want to consider doing so.

24 Am I correct that there are only two required documents to submit? I'm currently filling out the price sheet (Attachment 4) and have completed the Technical Volume (Attachment 6).

Please submit a Technical and Price Quotation documents. The Attachment 4 “Price Proposal Template V2” should suffice for the price quotation portion. Submit the price quotation as both an MS Excel document and MS Word document. The Technical portion should use Attachment 6 as a guide.