Question_and_Answers,_Aug_20_2018.pdf

19AQMM18R0336 – Questions & Answers

The responses provided below replace in entirety, the responses provided by the Government on August 10, 2018.

# QUESTION GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

1 How many awards does the Government intend to make on this IDIQ contract?

Answer:

The Government expects approximately 3 awards will be made.

See Section 10.4

2 Will a SBA Mentor Protege Joint Venture (JV) offeror receive a "Pass" evaluation if each of the entities of the JV have facility clearances at the Secret level or higher. If so please confirm that such a JV, if selected for award, will be sponsored by DoS for Top Secret FCL.

If both entities and the JV already possess a Secret FCL, they may be sponsored for a Top Secret FCL. See Section 10.7.1.1 for additional information.

3 Will the government consider award to a joint venture who’s entities possess TS FCLs but who’s joint venture does not possess an FCL?

No.

4 Will the government provide a list of the 275 posts locations?

No. The task order will identify the specific location. The Contractor is expected to be able to provide services worldwide.

5 Which positions will be station in the Washington, DC area?

The task order will state which position is required in which location. There are no positions that are guaranteed to only be required in Washington (DC), or solely within the United States.

It is, however, unlikely that the Office Manager (attachment 5) and Administrative Assistant (attachment 7) positions will be required outside of the United States.

6 Which, if any, personnel will be permanently stationed outside abroad?

The task order will state which position is required in which location. There are no positions that are guaranteed to only be required in abroad.

7 Please confirm that subcontractor past performance references can be included in the PAST PERFORMANCE AND EXPERIENCE section of offeror’s proposal and it will be evaluated per Section M of the RFP.

No, subcontractor past performance references cannot be included.

8 How many total IDIQ positions are likely to be fulfilled in a year?

The number of positions is unknown at this time.

9 Are worldwide positions accompanied or unaccompanied? The contract will not provide for dependents. In some locations, should the company and/or employee choose to cover associated cost, the employee may choose to have dependents accompany them. For some locations, this will not be allowable. In general, if the Government is providing housing under a task order, dependents will not be allowable.

10 Is the Government stating that the JV members must produce 1-5 prime contract references in total for all members combined?

All members combined- minimum of 2, maximum of 5.

11 How does the government decide what are the standards they will use during the selection and award process. Specifically, under section G- 002 Selection and Award the government state that “Task Order RFP and will be either a Lowest Price Technically Acceptable process or a Tradeoff process”. Industry would like to know what is the standard being used for the “Tradeoff process”?

Should the trade-off process be used, the task order will identify the factors and importance of each.

12 Section M - Evaluation Factors for Award pg. 68 – Under this section there appears to be a slight disconnect under M-001 “Evaluation Factors” and “Technical Proposals Evaluation”. Under M-001 is states that Evaluation factors are listed in descending order of importance.

The list includes the following:

Technical Factor 1: Facility Clearance (FCL) Technical Factor 2: Technical Capabilities Technical Factor 3: Quality Control Program Technical Factor 4: Past Performance and Experience Price However, under the very same section “Technical Proposals Evaluation” price is removed from the Technical Factor 4:

See the below table:

So our question is simply this…was this an oversight on the governments behalf or was price intentionally removed?

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL EVALUATION

Technical proposals will be evaluated based on the following technical evaluation factors.

Technical Factor 1: Facility Clearance (FCL)

See Section 11.6. Price is Factor 5, and will be evaluated.

Technical Factor 2: Technical Capabilities Technical Factor 3: Quality Control Program Technical Factor 4: Past Performance and Experience

13 Can you identify which positions, if any, are subject to the Wage Determination?

The only position that is subject to Wage Determination is Administrative Assistant.

14 "In no event shall costs associated with employee commuting be reimbursable as direct cost under this contract" - While this is acceptable and usual practice, but in case of TDY travel, employees do incur costs to travel both direct & indirect to go from Temporary Lodging to the work site / post not incurred during regular commuting while not on TDY. How will the govt reimburse such costs when incurred in the performance of DoS directed TDY?

Commuting from the lodging location to the work location/facility while on TDY (i.e. directly related to performance) is an allowable cost.

15 Monthly Activity Reports & Final Activity Report - Will the govt. outline format / contents of these mandatory reports that is required to be submitted?

See section 4.4 and 4.4.1 for detail. Additional reporting requirements may be identified at the task order level as well.

The Contractor will work with the COR to determine the format.

16 What is "ProjNet"? How do we access this? There is no need to access ProjNet.

17 Will the govt. consider providing a Fair & Transparent Methodology to implement this giving the employee and fair opportunity as is afforded to a Govt. employee working in the Govt. site? Will the contractor be allowed to conduct a fair enquiry before terminating the employee to ensure that due process and fairness has been provided to the employee in question?

The Government retains the right to direct the replacement or removal from Government work site any worker who fails to comply with (A) the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations policy/instruction, (B) the Overseas post policy, (C) the provisions of this contract, or (D) when the individuals conduct is embarrassing or otherwise damaging to the United States’ interests. It is for the Contractor to determine whether the employee will then be terminated from their employment.

18 Will "Non-American Citizens" - Local Nationals / Third Country Nationals be allowed to work on this contract in overseas posts? Will US Permanent Residents aka "Green Card Holders" be allowed to work on this contract both Stateside and OCONUS and if OCONUS be treated at par with US Citizens? How will the Non Citizens be provided Limited Access Authorizations should a Security Clearance be required of allowed to work on this contract?

All personnel require a Secret or Top Secret clearance. No exceptions will be provided.

19 Page - 45 of 71 - 52.216-24 Limitation of Government Liability (Apr 1984) - (b) The maximum amount for which the Government shall be liable if this contract is terminated is $1,000.00 dollars. This seems to be in contradiction to the minimum IDIQ amount of $20,000 as per B-004 MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM CONTRACT AMOUNTS (Indefinite Quantity Contract) Page 24 of 71. Will the govt. kindly clarify?

The referenced clause is for letter contracts, and has been removed.

20 Is it still required if Reps & Certs have been uploaded via SAM? Format for completing Paragraph (b) on Page 51 and identifying applicable paragraphs at (c) through (t) of this provision that the offeror has completed for the purposes of this solicitation only, if any)? Will the govt. kindly clarify as this is confusing?

A copy of the most recent SAM registration will be sufficient.

However, it is the offerors responsibility to ensure all identified representations and certifications are provided.

21 Since this is a Non-Personal Services Contract, interview of contractor personnel may not be allowable as that would be an indicator for a Personal Services Contract. Therefore, will the govt, remove the sentence - "The Government may request an opportunity to interview any proposed substitution'?

This statement can be removed from the SOW.

22 Since this is a Best Value Trade-Off procurement, will the govt. clearly outline the criteria that the contractor needs to demonstrate to be able to earn the Highest Rating of Superior Vs other lower ratings like Acceptable, Marginal, and Unacceptable.

See Section 11.0 for evaluation information.

23 Will all labor categories require personnel at the TOP SECRET level?

All personnel performing under this contract are required to hold either a SECRET or TOP SECRET level clearance. The task order will identify the personnel clearance level requirements.

24 Will the govt. allow bi-weekly invoices to coincide with the bi-weekly payroll cycle of the employees for a small HUBZone firm to be able to better maintain it's cashflow as is / has been allowed on other contracts of DoS and other Govt. agencies?

No. Invoices shall be submitted on a monthly basis.

25 Since the govt requires the contractor to provide Program Management. will the govt. directly reimburse the contractor for such Program Management costs? Will the govt. give access to Contractor Management personnel to be able to provide effective Program

No, the Government will not directly reimburse. The Government does not intend to provide general access to the facilities to the PM. However, with adequate notice the Government could assist (e.g. escort) the PM for QC

Management / Supervision of employees working at Govt. sites and be made privy to the work activities that the employees are working on?

purposes. The PM would need to coordinate scheduling for this with the COR.

26 As per SOW - "The Contractor must be able to fill these positions for the duration of the task order and must be able to maintain a pool of qualified alternates to minimize delays in providing qualified contractor personnel to fill the positions in a timely fashion". While we appreciate the need to minimize delays in providing qualified contractor personnel to fill the positions in a timely fashion, how does the govt. realistically expect a small HubZone firm to be able to maintain a pool of qualified alternates? How does the govt. plan to reimburse the small HUBZone contractor the costs for maintaining such a pool of qualified alternates including associated payroll costs when such alternate pool of candidates are not billable on a direct task be available anytime that the govt, appears to expect? Moreover as per NISPOM, contractors are not allowed to - Per NISPOM – Chapter 2, Section 2. Personnel Security Clearances – D.

“Request for PCLs shall not be made to establish ‘pools’ of cleared employees”.

Hence in accordance with NISPOM, since the Contractors CANNOT maintain pools of alternates as is being requested in this solicitation unless NISPOM is violated, will his requirement "to maintain a pool of qualified alternates be" removed?

The Government does not expect the contractor to hire a pool of personnel (on payroll). However, the Contractor is expected to conduct recurring recruiting efforts to maintain a list of viable available candidates.

27 While it is not any contractor's intention to replace personnel working on a task without a justified cause, nevertheless will the govt recognize that for this Non-Personal Services contract, the contractor is the employer and not the govt.? Therefore the right to hire and fire any employee rests with the contractor and not with the govt. Consequent to this right, written consent of the Contracting Office should not be necessary for any personnel action taken by the contractor on it's employees as it is a Non-Personal Services contract. Correct? Of course the contractor will still be responsible for the work deliverables for

See the updated sections 2.5.4.1 and 2.5.4.2.

reasons within it's control and shall always strive to meet / exceed the quality and work deliverables to the highest standard.

28 For pricing purposes does the Government have an estimated award date for this contract?

November 2018 is the estimated award timeline.

29 Reference Page 5, Section B – Supplies or Services and Prices/Costs, CLINs x032 -x037: What does the Unit LT represent?

LT stands for ‘lot,’ however note that the referenced CLIN have been removed.

30 Reference Page 42, Section I – Contract Clauses, 52.22-41: Will the Government please provide the labor mapping for the Labor categories outlined in Section B to the Wage Determination Occupation Titles?

The only position that is subject to Wage Determination is Administrative Assistant.

31 Reference Page 42, Section I – Contract Clauses, 52.22-43-44: Will the Government please confirm that applying escalation to SCLS labor categories is allowable on this contract.

32 Reference Page 68, Section M-001 Evaluation Factors, Technical Factor 1: Facility Clearance: What does the Government consider to be “required qualification documentation”?

See Section 10.7.1.1 for required information/documentation.

33 Page 5 - 22 of 71 - CLIN Prices - CLIN Items - CLIN 001 - 4031 - This section lists the requirement to outline unit Fixed, Fully Burdened T & M labor rates with 1 Hour Qty for each Labor Category. Will this be used to establish the Contract Ceiling - Total Cost instead of using the Govt's envisaged Labor Hours to establish the realistic contract ceiling - Total Cost? How does the govt. plan to establish the contract ceiling in the absence of total estimated maximum number of hours?

The ceiling value is identified under Section 1.2.

34 Page - 23 - 24 of 71 - B-003 TRAVEL COSTS (TIME-AND- MATERIALS/LABOR-HOUR) (FEB 2018) d) "Hazardous duty premium pay shall not be burdened with any indirect costs (e.g. overhead, G and A) or fee/profit" - Hazardous Duty Premium is NOT an expense reimbursement to an employee but a direct payroll cost to the contractor resulting in incurring of Indirect Costs like Overhead, G & A etc and is a part of that pool since it is an additional payroll albeit at a fractional percentage rate. We therefore request that the indirects - Overhead, G & A etc. allowed for regular payroll along with fee that is included in the Fully Burdened Labor Rate be allowed for billing of Hazardous duty premium pay when applicable in the same fractional percentage rate of the fully burdened labor rate without the small

The Contractor can burden premium pay with overhead and G&A, however, fee/profit is unallowable. See Section 1.5.2.

HUBZone firms loosing money each time an employee is required to be paid this Hazardous Duty Premium. If this request is not granted, how will the contractor recover the costs associated with this additional payroll and not loose money? Similar query for COLA as it too is an additional payroll cost.

35 Page - 32 of 71 G-002 SELECTION AND AWARD - "(a) The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays." - How does the govt, define "so urgent" that may justify to preclude providing a fair opportunity resulting in less competition and higher prices to the govt negating the Multiple Award nature of this IDIQ contract effectively potentially making "Sole Source Awards" or a Single Award IDIQ contract rather than a Multiple Award besides reducing opportunities to all HUBZone firms that might get this award at the IDIQ level?

This determination will be made by the Government at the time of the need. The determination to move forward without fair opportunity will not be made lightly.

36 Page - 33 of 71- G-003 COST REIMBURSABLE ARRANGEMENTS - INVOICING - "For each direct labor cost under arrangements when payment is made based on actual costs incurred". Is this a Cost Type Contract or a Time & Materials (T & M) Contract? If this is a Time & Materials (T & M) Contract, what is the need to include this clause when there is no applicability?

The materials portion of T&M is cost.

37 Page - 42 of 71 - X (2) 52.222-41, Service Contract Labor Standards (May 2014) (41 U.S.C. chapter 67) and X (7) 52.222-53, Exemption from Application of the Service Contract Labor Standards to Contracts for Certain Services--Requirements (May 2014) (41 U.S.C. chapter 67) seem to be contradictory. Will the Govt. kindly clarify?

The contract requires service both domestically and abroad.

The service contract labor standards apply domestically.

38 Since this is the evaluation criteria has been listed first in terms of descending order of importance, will the govt. then give a higher weightage to firms that have a Final Top Secret Clearance Vs those firms that do not and outline the relative difference instead of Pass / Fail? Alternatively will the Govt. consider restricting this procurement to only such firms that have a Final TS FCL to ensure that there is no risk / delay in the ability of a firm to meet the Govt. requirements that may be at the TS Level or even at the SCA Level as a Pass / Fail criteria?

See the updated narrative under Section 10.7.1.1.