15-233-SOL-00573-000003_BPA.pdf

(x)

15-233-SOL-00573

x x copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted; or (c) By separate letter or telegram which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT

THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment you desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by telegram or letter, provided each telegram or letter makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

x

DAM

Rockville MD 20857 12501 Ardennes Avenue Twinbrook Place, Suite 400

DHHS/PSC/AMS/DAM

08/12/2015000003

13. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO MODIFICATION OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS. IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA (If required) is not extended.is extended, Items 8 and 15, and returning

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods: (a) By completing

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in Item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

FACILITY CODE CODE

10B. DATED (SEE ITEM 13)

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NO.

9B. DATED (SEE ITEM 11)

9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION NO.

CODE

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR (No., street, county, State and ZIP Code)

7. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 6)CODE 6. ISSUED BY

PAGE OF PAGES

4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NO.3. EFFECTIVE DATE2. AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION NO. 5. PROJECT NO. (If applicable)

1. CONTRACT ID CODE

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT

08/12/2015

CHECK ONE A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE CONTRACT

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES (such as changes in paying office, C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER (Specify type of modification and authority) appropriation date, etc.) SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

E. IMPORTANT: Contractor is not, is required to sign this document and return __________________ copies to the issuing office.

ORDER NO. IN ITEM 10A.

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION (Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible.)

The purpose of this amendment is to incorporate responses to Questions #1-33.

16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print)

15C. DATE SIGNED 16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR 16C. DATE SIGNED

(Signature of person authorized to sign) (Signature of Contracting Officer)

CRISTY R. SCOTT

STANDARD FORM 30 (REV. 10-83)

Prescribed by GSA

FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

NSN 7540-01-152-8070

Previous edition unusable

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in Item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

Solicitation: 15-233-SOL-00573 Amendment 000003

Legal Resources Professional Services

Questions and Answers

1. Question: There are 2 similar BPA Call Orders 1 attached in the RFQ Sections and 1 BPA Call Order in the

BPA Section. Which one is the offeror supposed to follow? Is this in error?

Response: Please refer to the package that was uploaded on 8/12/15 at 3:41pm for the appropriate documents.

2. Question: Is this a new requirement or existing requirement? If existing, please provide incumbent contract #, contract value, contract period of performance and seniority of incumbent contractor employees.

Response: The current contract number is GS-10F-0135R_ HHSP233201100240G and is held by STG International Inc. The period of performance is 12/04/2011 to 09/30/2015

3. Question: Are we required to submit resume for all the Labor Categories outlines in the BPA and in the Call Order?

Response: Resumes are only to be submitted at the call order level.

4. Question: Or is the resume submission to be done at Call Order Level once the BPA is awarded to awardees?

Response: Please see the response to question #3.

5. Question: Volume I - Technical for Call Order --- Section 10.2 states 5 page limitation, whereas BPA states 20 page limitation. Please clarify the following:

• Will Resume submission be counted towards this 5 page limitation on the Call Order?

• Will the QASP counted towards this 20 page for BPA and 5 page for Call Order limitation?

• Is there a page format (Font, margin, etc.)

Response: Resume submission is not counted toward the page limitation; however, the QASP will count toward the page limit.

6. Question: Volume II - Price/Business for Cal Order --- Section 11.2.2 provides an example which has Base BPA rate, Discount %, and HHS Rate. Since the BPA Rates have not been established, how can we offer any discount for each Call Order? Is this supposed to be at Call Order Level or at BPA Level?

Response: Discounts are to be offered at the call order level.

7. Question: The proposal submission date for the BOA is August 28. The submission deadline for task order 1 under the BPA is August 21. We assume the August 21 is incorrect and should be August 28 too. Please advise.

Response: The response due date is September 4, 2015 2:00pm eastern.

8. Question: In the technical proposal (Volume I) are resumes required for all positions?

Response: Resumes are only required at the call order level.

9. Question: What is the approximate start date for task order 1?

Response: October 1, 2015.

10. Question: Do all awardees have to bid on all task orders?

Response: No, however awardees must provide a response if they do not plan on submitting a quote.

11. Question: Since per page 25 of the BPA it is stated that the frequency of ordering will be at least one order per year, does this mean that Task 1 will be the only order for the base period?

Response: No.

12. Question: Please advise the names of all incumbents currently performing this statement of work.

Response: Please see the response to question #2.

13. Question: It is unclear whether the government requires that the QASP be incorporated into the BPA response or the Call Order response – or both. Can you please ID, which of those choices are correct.

Response: The QASP is to be incorporated into the BPA response and the Call Order response.

14. Question: Section 2.4.2 of the RFQ requires Paralegal Assistants to be “certified by the National Association of Legal Assistants.” Would the government consider a work experience (e.g. x years of employment as a Paralegal Assistant in a law firm, corporate law office or law office of a government agency) as the equivalent of such certification?

Response: Yes

15. Question: Section 10.3 of the RFQ provides in pertinent part that “Past performance information shall be provided for predecessor companies, key personnel who have relevant experience or subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement….” Both the RFQ and the Call Order have the following provision: “The following individuals shall be considered key: To Be Addressed at the BPA Call Level,” but neither lists the Key Personnel. Does this mean that no past performance information (other than that in the required resumes) need to be supplied for any personnel?

Response: No, each of the labor categories for the call order is Key Personnel.

16. Question: Does the RFQ require all items identified in 10.2. (such as resumes, a Quality Assurance Plan, etc) to be submitted for every Call Order or only when the Call Order specifically requests items addressing but not limited to those elements identified in 10.H.?

Response: Resumes and a QASP will need to be submitted for each call order.

17. Question: Please elaborate regarding Analyst (Analyst/Paralegal) and Jr. Business Analyst labor categories in Call Order #1. Neither are identified or described in the RFQ or Call Order #1.

Response: These are the same labor categories as described in section 2.4.2 of the RFQ.

18. Question: In Call Order #1, the table in Section 1.4 identifies Secretary III twice as a Labor Category without a Legal Secretary identifier. Is that category a Legal Secretary as well? If not, there is no labor category in the RFQ or the Call Order for “Secretary III”. Please clarify which Labor Category applies.

19. Question: Does the Call order have to be priced using Service Contract Act rates and benefits? Those rates are higher than the industry standard.

20. Question: Can the Offeror submit a proposal in Times New Roman 10pt font? If not, can you please outline the Font and table/graphics requirements?

Response: Please submit in Times New Roman 12pt font.

21. Question: Is a QASP required for the BPA proposal? Section 2.5 of the BPA RFP states “The QASP will be developed by the quoter at the call order level and a final agreed upon QASP will be incorporated into the order at time of award.” If a QASP is required at the BPA level, will the government consider making it an appendix to the BPA submission and not counting against the 20 page limitation?

Response: Yes.

22. Question: Can the government please confirm file size constraints for email submissions?

Response: An attachment cannot be larger than 10MB.

23. Question: We would like to request two week extension for the RFQ response.

Response: The RFQ dude date has been extended one week to September 4, 2015 2:00 PM Eastern.

24. Question: Based upon the information provided in your Amendment 2, dated August 21st (Legal Resources Professional Services; Sol# 15-233-SOL-00573) we would like to request the names, roles and tenure on the job for all incumbent personnel. As you are aware, the Service Contract Act requires us to recognize any incumbent employee’s original start date in determining their level of vacation benefits. We believe that since the Government is requiring us to give the incumbent personnel right of first refusal, we must be provided the necessary information to insure our costs can reflect these additional costs required of us by the Government.

Response: Unfortunately, we will not be able to provide that information.

25. Question: STGi would like to clarify if the QASP in the BPA counts against the page count or not.

Questions #5 and #21 leave it open to interpretation. If possible, we would like to request that the government considers making it an appendix that does not count against page count.

Response: The QASP can be submitted as an appendix and will not count against the page count.

26. Question: Can you provide us with a breakdown between full time, long term positions versus short term positions?

Response: The duration of position depends on OGC’s needs. This will be specified on calls.

27. Question: What are the number of slots that are filled; annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly?

Response: The number of slots depends on the OGC’s needs. At the present time, the number is listed in the Call #1.

28. Question: Can you let us know your projected need by task and job category?

Response: Future needs will be determined by the OGC as determined in any calls.

29. Question: “Contractor’s paralegals and legal assistants will perform legal services, which while not strictly legal work, will render the OGC lawyers more effective by freeing them to concentrate on the law.

Research materials include court records, depositions, interrogatories, law books, serials, journals, technical and legal documents including legal precedents in any given case, audio-visual, maps and data sheets” (15-233-SOL-00573_BPA) (2.3.1, para 1) - We require more specific information on the tasks other than/within the scope of legal research in which support is required. Please provide some insights or the list of all activities required to be done under this labor category in detail for us to understand and respond appropriately?

Response: The descriptions provided in the Scope of Work and Labor Categories sections of the Call #1 sufficiently explain the kinds of activities to be performed.

30. Question: “The Contractor shall edit technical reports written for specialists into secondary versions suitable for the general reading public. Some research products have applicability to a wider audience of state and local officials, and members of other non-governmental organizations. The original form of these products is often written in a technical style suitable only for those who have studied public policy at an advanced level. Working from the original report, a technical writer/editor would translate key findings into a more readable and widely accessible version for broad dissemination. Such a writer would be highly skilled at analyzing technical reports, distilling major points and developing a jargon-free, non-technical version. The writer must have outstanding interpersonal communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively with the authors of the original report.” (15-233-SOL-00573_BPA) (2.3.3, para 1) – can you please provide more information on the type of technical reports mentioned here?

Response: The type of technical reports may include management, budgetary, legal and health and human services-related reports.

31. Question: Your solicitation expressly mentions this is a “total” small business set aside in accordance with 19.502-2 and 52.219-6. May a non-small business assist a small business as a subcontractor under the 50% limit described in 52.219-14, which has been incorporated into the contract, or must all subcontractors be 100% small business concerns?

Response: The total small business designation applies to the prime contractor.

32. Question: Is HHS expecting a resume for each labor category listed in BPA call order 1? 12 resumes total?

Response: HHS is expecting resumes (1 or more) for each of the 12 labor positions listed in Section 1.4 of the Call #1.

33. Question: Some of the labor categories listed do not have a direct crosswalk to an existing DOL Wage Determination Labor Category. Can you provide the direct DOL labor category the current incumbent staff are listed under for each of the suggested labor categories within the BPA call order 1? This will level the field for bidders responding to call order 1 and prevent underbidding resulting in excessive incumbent staff turnover upon award.

Response:

Labor Categories CMSD (MD) Secretary IV (Legal Secretary) Paralegal and Legal Administrative Support Services CMSD (DC) Analyst (Analyst/Paralegal) Paralegal and Legal Administrative Support Services GLD (MD) Secretary III Paralegal and Legal Administrative Support Services GLD (MD) Secretary III (Legal Secretary) Paralegal and Legal Administrative Support Services GLD (DC) Jr. Business Analyst Human Resources Support IO (DC) Legal Assistant Paralegal and Legal Administrative Support Services IO (DC) Legal Assistant Paralegal and Legal Administrative Support Services IO (DC) Legal Assistant Paralegal and Legal Administrative Support Services R5 (IL) Legal Assistant Paralegal and Legal Administrative Support Services R5 (IL) Paralegal Paralegal and Legal Administrative Support Services R9 (CA) Secretary III (Legal Secretary) Paralegal and Legal Administrative Support Services R9 (CA) Secretary III Paralegal and Legal Administrative Support Services