FINAL_SOW_ENERGY_NEWS_(6).docx

STATEMENT OF WORK

Bureau-wide Energy and News Service

BACKGROUND

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages more land—approximately 245 million acres—than any other Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The Bureau, with a budget of about $1 billion, also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM’s multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.

OBJECTIVE

The BLM has a requirement for a bureau-wide daily news and analysis service with a focus on regulatory and legislative developments, emerging issues, administrative and court decisions, government policy, and international standards for environmental and energy professionals. A web-based news site that delivers the latest developments and breaking news coverage focusing on the expert analysis of energy and the environment through web, email, and mobile notifications.

Key Features:

· News and special reports from national and international correspondents on new and emerging issues.

· Interviews with policy makers, government officials, and industry experts.

· Access to cited primary source documents, court opinions, reports, federal register document, legislation, and agency documents.

· Outlook reporting and analysis of potential legislative, judicial and regulatory developments surrounding energy, the environment, climate change, air pollution, water, chemicals, and waste.

· Daily and intra-daily mobile and or web based news.

· Access to editors and reporters via e-mail.

· Section 508 compliant content accessible to people with disabilities.

Content and Covered Issues:

· Coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear energy

· Renewable energy

· Hydraulic fracturing

· Public lands and mining

· Enforcement

· Litigation

· Environmental politics

· Sustainability

· Alternative Energy

· Endangered species

· Pipeline Safety

· Transportation

· Environmental impact assessments

· Air and water pollution

· Chemicals and HAZMAT

· Waste

· Climate

· Environmental justice and due diligence

· Federal legislation and policy makers

· State legislation and controversies

· Legal case and judicial decisions

· National and global energy developments in business, markets and regulations

PERIOD OF PERFOMANCE

Base year and four option years from the date of award.

TECHNICAL EVALUATION

Procedures and Evaluation Criteria

The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offer(s) or whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be the best value to the Government, price and other factors considered.

The technical proposal will be separate from the price proposal. Proposals must be in accordance with the labor categories and pricing set forth in your GSA Federal Supply Schedule or better. You may not quote items that are not contained within your schedule. The Contractor’s proposal must include all data and information required and must be submitted in accordance with these instructions. Non-conformance with specific organization and content may be cause for proposal rejection. The proposal must be clear and concise. It must include sufficient detail for effective evaluation and for substantiating the validity of stated claims.

The proposal will not rephrase or restate the Government requirements, but rather provide a convincing rationale to address how the Contractor intends to meet these requirements. A proposal that simply restates the Government requirements may be judged non-responsive. Contractors must assume that the Government has no prior knowledge of its experience and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the Contractor’s proposal.

The proposal must be written to the greatest extent possible on a stand-alone basis so that its contents may be evaluated with a minimum of cross-referencing to other sections of the proposal. Cross referencing within the proposal is permitted where its use would conserve space without impairing clarity.

The proposal will comply with the following limitations:

(1) A maximum of fifteen (15) pages for the proposal, excluding past performance.

(2) 12 point type will be used. The font will be Times Roman.

Do not include cost/pricing information in your technical submittal. The pricing information will be completely separate for the technical/management submittal and will contain all information relative to cost and pricing.

Your submittal will become the property of the Government and will not be returned. If your submittal contains information that you do not want disclosed to the public or used by the Government for any purpose other than Government evaluation, such restriction must be clearly indicated on each sheet containing such information.

The following evaluation factors will be used to evaluate the offeror’s proposal. The evaluation factors are listed in descending order of importance.

Evaluation Factors

Technical Expertise The offeror must have proven technical expertise as relevant to the requirements in the Statement of Work (SOW). The offer will be evaluated as to whether the vendor understands the work requirements as embodied in the SOW and their proposed approach to meeting those requirements.

Project Management/Schedule The offeror will be evaluated on their ability to meet the requirements as set forth in the SOW.

Past Performance Information Describe the experience and capability of your organization in conducting similar work.

Provide a summary of at least two (2) similar contracts/orders performed by your organization for the last three (3) years. Include a brief description of the project, contract number, period of performance, contract amount, client identification (including agency), point of contact information (email and telephone number). The contract information must be current.

Rating/Description

The information below demonstrates the ratings, and corresponding descriptions, that will be used by the Department to rate each offeror’s technical proposal according to the Technical Evaluation Factors for this contract.

Blue The offeror exceeds the requirements of the solicitation, as explained in the statement of work and proposal evaluation criteria. The offeror has proposed a superior service and there is no question as to the offeror’s ability to perform successfully. There are no deficiencies or weaknesses.

Green It appears that the offeror meets the basic requirements of the solicitation. While the proposed approach does not exceed expectations, the offeror will most likely be able to perform successfully, though minor deficiencies or weaknesses may exist. While further dialogue with the offeror may be needed, a revised proposal may not be necessary.

Yellow The offeror may meet the requirements of the solicitation, though there are doubts as to the offeror’s ability to perform successfully. In order to make their proposal fully acceptable, they would need to correct their deficiencies or weaknesses through submission of a revised proposal.

Red The offeror fails to meet the basic requirements of the solicitation. There are so many deficiencies and weaknesses that, should the offeror be allowed to correct them, it would be tantamount to submission of a new proposal. The proposal should not be considered for award.

INVOICE SUBMISSION

Electronic Invoicing and Payment Requirements – Internet Payment Platform (IPP) (September 2013)

Department of the Interior Internet Payment Platform Clause:

Electronic Invoicing and Payment Requirements – Internet Payment Platform (IPP) (September 2013) Payment requests must be submitted electronically through the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Internet Payment Platform System (IPP).

“Payment request” means any request for contract financing payment or invoice payment by the Contractor. To constitute a proper invoice, the payment request must comply with the requirements identified in the applicable Prompt Payment clause included in the contract, or the clause 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions—Commercial Items included in commercial contracts. The IPP website address is: https://www.ipp.gov.

Under this contract, the following documents are required to be submitted as an attachment to the IPP invoice:

Invoice______________________________________ The Contractor must use the IPP website to register, access, and use IPP for submitting requests for payment. The Contractor Government Business Point of Contact (as listed in CCR) will receive enrollment instructions via email from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (FRBB) within 3--5 business days of the contract award date. Contractor assistance with enrollment can be obtained by contacting the IPP Production Helpdesk via email ippgroup@bos.frb.org or phone (866) 973-3131.

If the Contractor is unable to comply with the requirement to use IPP for submitting invoices for payment, the Contractor must submit a waiver request in writing to the contracting officer with its proposal or quotation.

FOR INVOICE STATUS CALL: (866) 973-3131.

Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer Pursuant to FAR 52.232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer – Central Contractor Registration, payments under this contract will be made by electronic funds transfer. The Contractor will register in the Central Contractor Registration database.