Section E Draft.doc

Solicitation #19AQMM18R0428

Section E

SECTION E — INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE

E.1 CLAUSES INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

FAR SOURCE

TITLE AND DATE

52.246-2

INSPECTION OF SUPPLIES--FIXED-PRICE (AUG 1996)

52.246-4

INSPECTION OF SERVICES--FIXED-PRICE (AUG 1996)

52.246-6

INSPECTION – TIME-AND-MATERIAL AND LABOR-HOUR (MAY

2001)

52.246-16

RESPONSIBILITY FOR SUPPLIES (APR 1984)

E.2 INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE — SERVICES (05/95)

Inspection and acceptance of the services to be provided hereunder shall be made by the Contracting Officer's Representative.

E.3

PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS

The Government reserves the right, at all reasonable times, and upon reasonable notice to the Contractor or Subcontractor, to inspect or otherwise evaluate the work performed, wherever the work is being performed. If any inspection or evaluation is made by the Government on the premises of the Contractor, or a Subcontractor, the Contractor shall provide all reasonable facilities and assistance for the safety and convenience of the Government’s representatives in the performance of their duties. All inspections and evaluations by the Government’s representatives shall be performed in such a manner as will not unduly delay work. The Government representatives are extended to include agents i.e., other contractors.

The Government will endeavor to conduct all audits, inspection and evaluations in accordance with the highest levels of established professional auditing practices and standards. If a written report of such inspection or evaluation is prepared which reflects deficiencies or proposed corrective actions to be taken by the Contractor, or Subcontractor, a copy of those deficiencies and/or proposed corrective actions shall be furnished to the Contractor. Any corrective action proposed to be taken as a result of such inspection(s) shall be discussed with the Government prior to implementation. Reports of the Contractor’s performance shall be placed in the contract file and will be subject to release to the public. The Contractor agrees that such reports or deficiencies or proposed corrective action may be released to the public without objections by the Contractor.

E.4

PERFORMANCE METRICS

During performance of this contract, the Contractor shall be evaluated in accordance with the overall level of compliance with the contract and the demonstrated quality and timeliness of the services provided. Section C.6.3 Performance Requirements lists the metrics for which Contractor performance will be measured when performing work under the contract. The Government and the Contractor may mutually adjust these metrics and/or identify additional performance metrics as may be necessary to ensure that the performance metrics specified in the contract reflect the requirements.

In case of a finding that is not agreed upon within the performance metrics data review and resulting disincentive calculations, dispute resolution is generally managed at the working level between the CORs/CO and the Contractor. If that fails for some reason, FAR part 33 dispute process guidance would be implemented; reference https://www.acquisition.gov/?q=/browse/far/33.

E.5

VISA SUPPORT SERVICES CRITICAL PERFORMANCE METRICS AND DISINCENTIVES

The Department of State will incorporate performance-based disincentives into this contract for a range of visa support services as outlined in Section C.6.3 Performance Requirements, including approval and implementation of the Contractor proposed disincentive plan and quality control plan (QCP). This section, the disincentive plan, and QCP will be enforced from contract inception.

Disincentives will not apply for any critical performance program metric defects that occurred prior to contract inception (insert date), regardless of when they were discovered and/or reported.

The Contractor agrees, as a part of this contract, to meet the following critical performance program metrics with zero defects:

(a) Cleared Personnel:

“The Prime contractor’s team is responsible for all Contractor and Subcontractor employees possessing either the requisite TOP SECRET or SECRET security clearances or current Moderate Risk Public Trust (MRPT) determinations and vetting all VSS employees as required.”

· The Government will perform periodic verification that Contractor and Subcontractor employees have been vetted and possess proper clearances and determinations.

(b) Data Security Incidents

“The number of data security incidents that occur related to compromised or misused applicant data.”

· The Contractor shall report the incident to the Government within 24 hours of discovery (whether by Contractor or Government staff), followed by a full report within three business days.

· The Department of State may report incidents related to flagged records to the Government staff at NVC or KCC, and the Government will alert the Contractor when this occurs.

(c) Employee Integrity Incidents “The number of confirmed incidents that occur related to cases of employee fraud or malfeasance.”

· The Contractor shall report the incident to the Government within 24 hours of discovery (whether by Contractor or Government staff), followed by a full report within three business days.

· Incidents in this category include but are not limited to falsifying official records or attempting to commit visa fraud.

(d) Lost Document Rate

“The number of applicant documents (e.g. applicant passports, official records (whether hard copy or electronic file)) which are lost and/or misplaced while in the possession of any Contractor service provider.”

· The Government will consider a petition or case party documents lost if the associated review period by the last unit responsible for the case has passed and if 30 days have passed since the original finding or complaint.

· As the Government expects that not all instances of lost documents will receive complaints or be found through regular inspections, the Government expects zero defects reported per month, regardless of document type.

· Examples of incidents under this category include but are not limited to:

· Misplaced petition and a Bio-data sheet is created as a substitute when sending a case file to post for interview.

· Post finds petition/mail inadvertently included in other petition or case file and alerts NVC.

· Applicant complains and can provide proof mail was delivered to NVC.

· Post sends CAT-1 or DS-156 files to KCC for processing, with proof of delivery, and files cannot be located.

· Forwarding documents to NARA for storage that are non-required as detailed within FAM guidance

· The Government requests that the Contractor continue to alert the Government when documents are lost and to identify cases appropriately in the system when documents or cases are deemed misplaced or lost (e.g. entering a “missing memo created” note in a case if the file is sent to Post without the petition).

· Per the tiered disincentive approach outlined below, one lost document equals one incident (tier one), two lost documents equals two incidents (tier two), and three lost documents equals three incidents (tier three).

· The Lost Document Rate will exclude documents where disposition was in question at the inception of this contract.

· The Lost Document Rate will exclude documents received or sent from the Government (including any third-party quality assurance contractor).

· The Lost Document Rate will exclude documents received from USCIS for multiple petitioners/applicants interspersed within one petition. The Lost Document Rate does NOT exclude two adjacent petitions with their own supporting documents placed within one case file.

· The Lost Document rate will exclude documents (I-129 petitions) that USCIS incorrectly labels with the wrong case number.

· The Lost Document does NOT exclude documents (I-129 petitions) that USCIS ships together but the Contractor fails to separate properly before scanning and uploading into PIMS.

(e) Provision of Public Information

“The number of occurrences for which information is published on a contractor website or otherwise provided to the public without government clearance/authorization.”

· Some examples of incidents within this category may include:

· Applicant details posted on TSG, public-facing websites, or social media platforms.

· Applicant documents mailed to the wrong address.

· Applicant information released to unauthorized case parties.

· The Government will validate any external complaint from customers (post/public) and/or monitor various websites when encountering a report of information posted to an unauthorized location.

Some key details on the Government’s monitoring of these metrics:

· The Government will employ the third-party Contractor QA team to assist with monitoring the E.5 metric.

· The Government may monitor trends when incidents under Section E.5 arise. For example, if repeated incidents are reported, the Government may run system reports to find other incidents to understand the scope of the issue.

· The Government will work with the Contractor to determine remediation required (if applicable) on any incidents that occur. If remediation is not complete before the next month’s billing cycle begins, the contracting officer may continue to apply disincentives for the duration of months that the incident continues without remediation.

· If, at any performance period, the Contractor has not met any or all of these critical program metrics with zero defects, the contracting officer may apply disincentives as outlined below:

· Tier 1 (one critical performance metric defect/month) – Deduct $10,000 from the monthly invoice.

· Tier 2(two critical performance metric defects/month) – Deduct $30,000 from the monthly invoice.

· Tier 3 (three or more critical performance metric defects/month) – Deduct $50,000 from the monthly invoice.

Reporting period is defined to be one calendar month. E.5 penalties and performance-based disincentives will be applied based on the Contractor’s monthly performance and monthly invoice. Unless the Contractor’s approved disincentive plan suggests otherwise, all disincentives will be calculated monthly and added cumulatively to the semi-annual incentive/disincentive invoice which will be prepared after the PoP mid-point (date TBD) and PoP end-point (date TBD) of each year.

· However, while all incidents reported or discovered will be recorded each month, any disincentive recommended to the Contracting Officer may be dependent on how intentional, negligent or accidental the occurrence is in nature and is up to the discretion of the Government.

· The Contractor may be required to provide LifeLock (identity theft protection) or similar services if determined by A/GIS/PRV.

E.6

GOVERNMENT QUALITY ASSURANCE PLAN (QASP) SURVEILLANCE

The Government will perform those quality assurance procedures that may be necessary to verify that performance is in accordance with the terms of the contract. Government quality assurance will be performed routinely by the Contracting Officer’s Representative in accordance with the Government-issued QASP (Section J, Attachment H); however, other activities may be called upon to support this effort as required such as the engagement of a third party contractor for quality assurance purposes. The Contracting Officer’s Representative or designated quality assurance evaluators will record all surveillance observations and will maintain a file of all inspection results. Successive months of unsatisfactory performance for any critical performance metric may result in other appropriate action(s) by the Contracting Officer in accordance with the Inspection of Services clause, including Termination for Default. Any action taken by the Contracting Officer as a result of surveillance will be in accordance with the terms of this contract.

E.7

METHODS OF SURVEILLANCE

The Government may use a variety of surveillance methods to evaluate the Contractor’s performance. These include, but are not limited to, random sampling of deliverables, periodic surveillance of the Contractor’s quality control program, audit of recurring services, and customer complaints.