Offerors Instructions - doc.doc

U.S. Department of Justice

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS

52.252-1 SOLICITATION PROVISIONS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE (FEB 1998)

This solicitation incorporates one or more provisions by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer (CO) will make the full text available. Be cautioned that the listed provisions may include blocks that must be completed by the Offeror and submitted with its quotation/offer. In lieu of submitting the full text of those provisions, the Offeror may identify the provision by paragraph identifier and provide the appropriate information with its quotation/offer.

(a) The Government may award without discussions with the offeror; therefore, the offeror is cautioned to examine the solicitation in its entirety and to ensure that its quotation is complete, containing all necessary information/all required documentation, in all respects. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct discussions and to permit the offeror/ quoter , whose cost/price in the competitive range to revise its quotation(s).

(b) The Offeror shall electronically submit a signed and dated offer, by 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on January 8, 2021 to julie.truong@atf.gov (c) Offers/Quotes received after the time and date specified for receipt will be considered LATE.

1.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

(a) To be considered for selection, the Offeror must submit a complete response to this Request for Proposal (RFP) using the sequence and format provided herein. All pages must be identified with the Offeror’s name and Solicitation number.

(b) For the electronic submission, proposal shall be in uncompressed files submitted via email.

(c) The electronic version of the text shall be in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat Portable Data Format (PDF).

(d) Information shall be confined to the appropriate section to facilitate independent evaluation. The technical proposal/quote should be clear and concise, logically assembled and indexed and cross-indexed to applicable parts of the RFP as appropriate. Pages over the maximum-page limitation for any section will be excluded from evaluation. The page limits shall include any diagrams, figures, tables, or reference material 2.

FORMAT

(a) Submissions. Submissions shall be on 8 ½” x 11” (with no fold-outs) white paper and printed only on one side of the paper. The text shall have 1” margins on all sides, be single-spaced; font style Times New Roman; font color black; and font size 12. Illustrations (e.g., graphics figures, graphs, and tables) shall be in portrait format with font colors other than black allowable and font sizes 12, 10, and 9 are considered acceptable. The Offeror’s company name (no logos), the date, solicitation number, section shall be included on each page of the quotation/offer (may be included in a header/footer). All pages of the quotation/offer shall be numbered, using a uniform-paragraph-numbering system. Page numbers, headers and footers may be outside the page margins, and are not bound by the font, color and point-size requirement. Information not contained within the above limitations will not be evaluated.

(b) The Offeror shall present all information relevant to each factor in the appropriate section. The Offeror shall insert its company’s name in the filename. At the end of each section, the Offeror may include any “Exceptions” that they take with the requirements, constraints, and terms and conditions. Any exceptions taken shall clearly identify the RFQ Section, paragraph, and requirement/objective, constraint, or terms and conditions to which exception is being made and include appropriate supporting rationale for each exception. The Government is not obligated to accept such exceptions to the RFP, and these may render the Offeror’s proposal/quotation unacceptable.

(c) Requirements

d) Please email Julie.Truong @atf.gov before you prepare your proposal with your company name, DUNS number. She will provide you an Alpha Numeric for your proposal. Please use this Alpha Numeric throughout your proposal in lieu of the company’s name. This is for evaluation purposes only.

e)

Documents: Please submit 2 separate documents:

Document 1 consists of Sections 1-4. Clearly name the document: - Technical Proposal (for example: A1-Technical Proposal) Document 2 consist of Section 5: Clearly name the document: - Price Proposal (for example: A1-Price Proposal).

DO NOT SUBMIT MORE THAN 2 DOCUMENTS

If documents/proposals submitted do not comply with instructions above, proposal will not be considered. If more than 2 documents are submitted, other documents will be discarded.

3.

CONTENT

3.1 Section I – The Offeror is requested to provide the below information.

3.1.1 Introduction & Table of contents for easy reference.

3.1.2 Executive-Level Summary. Provide a letter formally transmitting the offer/quote. Identify the name, address, e-mail address, telephone and facsimile transmission number of the person(s) whom has the contractual authority and can be contacted concerning any questions about this offer/quote. Also, include the following as attachments to the letter:

(a) A document containing the following information:

· Name, address, telephone number, facsimile number, e-mail address, and cage code of the contractor and of any corporate affiliate at which work is to be performed.

· The Offeror shall demonstrate its corporate experience, as well as that for all proposed subcontractors or team members, in performing tasks similar to those identified in the PWS 3.1.3 Section I - Exceptions/Alternatives (Terms and Conditions).

(a) Offerors are cautioned that they take exception to any Terms and Conditions of the solicitation at their own risk. The Government may, at its option, reject an offer/quote which contains any such exceptions.

(b) Nonetheless, any exception taken by the Offeror, at its own risk, shall be identified in this tab. The Offeror shall clearly identify the paragraph and term or condition to which the exception is being made and include appropriate rationale for any such exception.

(c) Suggested, optional wording changes (to include clarifications and addenda) to any terms and conditions of the solicitation shall be identified in this part. The Government may at its option accept or reject any such changes. If accepted, it may be necessary to amend the solicitation and to discuss the changes with other Offerors.

(d) If no exceptions are taken, the Offeror shall include the following statement in this part of the proposal/quotation: “[Name of Offeror] takes no exception to any terms and conditions of Solicitation No. 15A00020R00000128 3.1.4 Section I Contractor must provide their registered under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) number 541219 Other Accounting Services within the Systems Award Management (SAM) database).

3.2. Section II – Technical/Managerial Approach

3.2.1 The offeror is to thoroughly address its Technical/Managerial Approach to meeting all the requirements of the PWS, and effectively demonstrate a knowledge, understanding, and technical ability to successfully perform and manage the requirements of the PWS. Additionally, the contractor’s proposal should clearly demonstrate the appropriateness, soundness and reasonableness of the Offeror’s problem resolution, logistic considerations to achieve the overall project objectives and methodology for providing resource support will be assessed

3.3 Section III – Key Personnel FAR CLAUSE 52.222-17 – Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers.

(a) “Service employee,” as used in this clause, means any person engaged in the performance of a service contract other than any person employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity, as those terms are defined in 29 CFR part 541. The term “service employee” includes all such persons regardless of any contractual relationship that may be alleged to exist between a contractor or subcontractor and such persons.

(b) The Contractor and its subcontractors shall, except as otherwise provided herein, in good faith offer those service employees employed under the predecessor contract whose employment will be terminated as a result of award of this contract or the expiration of the contract under which the service employees were hired, a right of first refusal of employment under this contract in positions for which the service employees are qualified.

All contractors are required to employ this FAR Clause above.

3.4 Section IV – Past Performance

3.4.1 Past Performance –

The Offeror shall provide references of three (3) contracts/Orders with the Federal Government and/or commercial customers that demonstrate recent and relevant past performance of similar scope, size and complexity of services identified. Recent is defined as within the last three years. Relevant is defined as work similar in complexity, magnitude, and type of the work described in the PWS

3.4.1.1 Contractors are instructed and encouraged to send requests for three references to the referenced party with instructions that they, in turn, should complete the “Past and Present Performance Survey” (provided as Attachment A) and send the information directly to the ATF Contract Specialist listed above.

3.4.1.2 Contractors shall provide the following information for each past performance references provided.

(a) Contract/Order number

(b) Title of Program/Project

(c) Scope

(d) Contract Type

(e) Period of Performance

(f) Awarded Dollar Value

(g) Organizational name (Government/Commercial Activity), Address, Telephone and Fax numbers, and e-mail address for the technical and contractual points of contact

(h) A one (1) page or less description of the project or contract referenced and the contractor’s rationale as to the relevance of the experience to the prospective work to be performed under this solicitation.

The Government may consider the past performance of other companies when they are team members, affiliates, or significant subcontractors, who will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement when such information is relevant to the acquisition; however, the offeror must clearly explain how these other companies will be significantly involved in the proposed contract. The Offeror shall provide a detailed summary of the work performed for each past performance reference submitted. Where possible, ATF intends to interview each reference provided to verify project scope, dollar value and obtain additional past performance information. The Offeror shall provide telephone, fax, and email for the points of contact for the technical and contractual personnel with each referenced project as well as a description of the referenced contracts/task orders.

3.5 Section V – Price

3.5.1 General. The Offeror shall ensure that all information is presented in an organized fashion by completing Section B of the solicitation and the accompanying pricing table in its entirety. The task order resulting from this solicitation shall be Firm-Fixed Price- Level of Effort (FFP-LOE). Offerors are free to propose different labor category mixes provided a sound justification and rational for the difference is provided. If a substitute labor category is proposed, Offerors shall map all substitutions to the RFP labor category positions. Labor category descriptions are included in the PWS

4. FORMAL COMMUNICATIONS

4.1.

The solicitation, amendments, notices and other information will be made via email.

4.2 Offerors are advised to monitor their email continuously in order to obtain information in a timely manner.

4.3 All questions pertaining to this solicitation shall be addressed to the Contracting Officer, Julie Truong, via e-mail, julie.truong@atf.gov. In order to issue pertinent and timely solicitation amendments, all offerors’ questions must be received by 12:00 PM EST, January 4, 2020. Questions received after this date will not be answered. No phone call will be accepted.

5.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST. Any contractor (or member of its team and/or subcontractor) having a conflict of interest as defined under Far Part 9.5 must identify the conflict as soon as it is known and provide a recommended mitigation plan. Mitigation plans are required whenever a competing contractor has had unequal access to non-public information regarding this requirement and/or competition, or has assisted the Government in defining the requirements or evaluation criteria.

Evaluation Criteria

Order of Importance:

Technical/Management Approach Key Personnel

Past Performance

Price

Technical/Management Approach, Key Personnel and Past Performance are referred to as technical criteria. Technical/Management Approach, Key Personnel, and Past Performance are in descending order of relative importance (Technical Management is more important than Key Personnel , Key Personnel is more important than Past Performance). Key Personnel, Technical Management and Past Performance (when combined) are significantly more important than Price. As the technical quotations approach equality, price will become more important in making the award determination. In the event that two or more quotations are determined not to have any substantial technical differences (i.e. are technically equivalent), award may be made to the lower priced quotation. It should be noted that award may be made to other than the lowest priced quotation if the Government determines that a price premium is warranted due to technical merit. The Government may also award to other than the highest technically rated quotation, if the Government determines that a price premium is not warranted.

Technical/Managerial Approach The Government will evaluate the degree to which the Offeror effectively demonstrates knowledge, understanding and technical ability to successfully perform and manage the requirements of the PWS. Additionally, the Government will evaluate and assess appropriateness, soundness and reasonableness of the Offeror’s problem resolution, logistic considerations, corporate commitment to achieve the overall project objectives and methodology for providing resource support will be assessed.

Key Personnel Key Personnel Qualifications: The Government will evaluate degree to which the Offeror’s proposed key personnel’s resumes demonstrates the individual’s ability to execute SOW requirements on the bases of strength of relevant education, training, and professional qualifications, depth and breadth of relevant experience.

All qualifications must be met in accordance to the Statement of Work Past Performance

The offerors’ proposal will be evaluated to determine the extent to which their performance demonstrates the likelihood of successful performance in providing requirements recent, relevant and similar in size, scope and complexity of this solicitation. The Government may choose to evaluate publicly available reports, and/or data from the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS). The Government may use present and/or past performance data obtained from a variety of sources, not just those contracts identified by offeror. The information gathered for past performance may also be used in the responsibility determination.

The Government may consider information obtain through other sources. Past Performance information will be utilized to determine the quality of the Contractors’ past performance as it relates to the probability of success of the required effort. The Offeror shall provide a detailed summary of the work performed for each past performance reference submitted. Where possible, ATF intends to interview each reference provided to verify project scope, dollar value and obtain additional past performance information. The Offeror shall provide telephone, fax, and email for the points of contact for the technical and contractual personnel with each referenced project as well as a description of the referenced contracts/task orders. If an offeror does not have similar past performance projects, ATF will assign it a neutral rating.

Price

General. The Offeror’s Price quotation will not receive an adjectival rating. The Offeror’s Price will be evaluated in accordance with FAR 8.4. The price evaluation will assess the accuracy, completeness, and reasonableness of the competitive range and the Government Estimate Cost (IGC). This process involves verification that prices and/or discounts are included for all RFP requirements, figures are correctly calculated, and prices are reasonable and presented in an adequate format. The Government will evaluate price quotes for the purpose of making an award by adding the total price of all options to the base price. Evaluation of options does not obligate the Government to exercise the options. If the Government determines that any separately priced line item(s) are significantly unbalanced, the offer may be rejected if the Contracting Officer determines that the lack of balance poses an unacceptable risk to the Government. Unbalanced pricing exists when, despite an acceptable total evaluated price, the price of one or more contract line items is significantly over or understated as indicated by the application of cost or price analysis techniques.

The Government will consider the option at 52.217-8 to have been evaluated through the evaluation of rates proposed for all ordering periods.

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