19GE5023Q0014 Questions and Answers v3.pdf

V3, 2/24/2023

SGBS of Ukraine Dugout Shelters US Embassy Kyiv

19GE5023Q0014

Questions and Answers

Q1: Is the solicitation looking for the steel structure as verbally described only or the thick overhang roof structure on top of the steel structure as well as depicted in the rendering on the top of page 5?

A1: Only the steel container, no overhang roof on top of the container is required.

Q2: Placing is mentioned but no digging requirement is found in the SOW. Does this mean, places where these containers will be placed are already prepared/dugout?

A2: No placement or digging is required. The contractor shall only be required to deliver the shelters to the Ukrainian border (specific location shall be shared after award). The Ukrainian SBGS will install the shelters.

Q3: The technical specs require the overall dimensions to be 6000x2400x2440 mm. A normal 20 x 8 ft shipping container is 6.058 x 2.438 x 2.591. If the original requirements cannot be changed it would require custom built dugouts which increase the cost to the government and make transportation difficult on trucks which are designed to carry 20ft or 40ft containers. If our proposal has the dugouts at the normal 20 ft shipping container specifications will that disqualify us in the bidding process?

A3: Minor deviations in the size, as described in the question, to fit the size of a standard container are permissible.

Q4: Reference the delivery of the shelters, can more than 20 be delivered at once?

A4: Yes. Price quotes shall clearly indicate the proposed accelerated delivery schedule.

Q5: Is there a restriction on the country of origin of the shelters?

A5: Yes. FAR 52.225-5 Trade Agreements applies to this contract, which says:

The Contractor shall deliver under this contract only U.S.-made or designated country end products except to the extent that, in its offer, it specified delivery of other end products in the provision entitled "Trade Agreements Certificate."

Designated country end product means a WTO GPA country end product, an FTA country end product, a least developed country end product, or a Caribbean Basin country end product.

Refer to FAR 52.225-5 for the full list of designated countries.

Q6: Will the contractor be responsible for unloading the shelters from the delivery trailer?

A6: Offerors shall assume that the contractor will be responsible for unloading.

Q7: Is there a maximum number of containers the site can receive (offload and place) per day or per week?

A7: No.

Q8: How quickly after proposal due date (March 21, 2023) will an award be made?

A8: As quickly as possible after the offer due date. Barring any complications, realistically it would occur 7-10 days after the due date.

Q9: Confirming there is (1) Door penetration, and it is through the side of the shelter?

A9: Correct.

Q10: Do all wall and ceiling need to be insulated because the RFQ only specifies insulation on the man door wall?

A10: Only that one wall with the door needs to be insulated as it will be open to the air outside. The other three walls and the ceiling will be underground and covered with soil.

Q11: Clarifying the Shelter need (2) air vents and (1) wood stove exhaust vent for a total of (3) roof penetrations for piping.

A11: Correct.

Q12: Are large double container doors required to bring equipment inside or can everything fit through the standard end man door of the shelter?

A12: No, large double doors are not required. Only standard door is required.

Q13: In the introduction on page five, the solicitation requires the delivery of shelters to de-occupied areas from Russian Forces. The solicitation later narrows the delivery to a shipping address along Ukraine’s northern border.

a. De-occupied areas include both North, East, and, fortunately, South Ukraine too. We assume the SOW has been written while the East and South were not de-occupied. Please confirm that the transportation requirement should concentrate only on northern Ukraine.

b. The solicitation on page five requires "Deliveries shall be FOB Destination" but it is unclear where is the specific destinations so we can develop a budget for this quote.

c. The northern Ukrainian border spans hundreds of miles, and the delivery locations can be interpretated in multiple ways. Hence the requirement is ambiguous.

We ask you to solve this ambiguity by providing shelter drop-off delivery addresses.

A13: The transportation requirement for 100 dugouts will concentrate on the northern Ukraine’s border only. The plan is that these dugouts will need to be delivered and offloaded at the State Border Guard Service Detachments located in the following cities:

Lutsk – 10, Zhytomyr – 10, Chernihiv – 10, Khmelnytskyi – 10, Cherkasy – 20, Velyki Mosty – 20, Kyiv – 20. The government (SGBS) will transport and place the shelters in the actual installation locations. No placing to the pit is required.

Note: The exact delivery address within each city and the end user’s POC details for coordination purposes will be provided to the contractor not earlier than a month before the scheduled delivery to a certain location.

Q14: The solicitation on page five requires: "Full destination services (shipping, custom clearance, temporary warehousing, local delivery, loading/offloading, and placing) should be included in the contract price."

Your requirement for temporary warehousing, local delivering, placing, loading, and offloading is implied, partial, and lacking description of a complete logistical plan whose requirement is not comprehensively described, hence, can be interpreted in multiple ways.

We ask you to solve ambiguities in your logistics requirements by providing a comprehensive plan describing warehousing, local delivery, loading/offloading, and placing, should any of this are needed.?

A14: This statement, of page 5, will be removed in the upcoming amendment, as it is sufficient to say that delivery is FOB Destination. The offeror shall do due diligence to investigate all necessary and potential shipping and logistical costs.

Q15: The solicitation on pages 3 requires on CLIN 0001-0005 requires a delivery schedule spans along 5/31/23-09/30/23.

The solicitation on page five requires: "All items shall be delivered within six months after award of the purchase order". The requirement on page five and page three provides a contradicting delivery schedule, hence ambiguous.

Please provide a clear and consistent delivery schedule.

A15: Page 5 will be edited to be more consistent with the 9/30/2023 final delivery.

Q16: The solicitation requires on page 8: "lifting slings with hooks/loops – 4 pcs, 1 m long, made of rolled metal, Ø30 mm." Do you mean by "rolled metal" that you require a chain link for hooking the top of the shelter for moving it??

A16: Here is a picture of a required lifting equipment for quick loading/offloading and installation of dugouts. Ten pieces of this equipment is required for 100 dugouts (1 per 10).

Q17: The clause embeds 652.228-70 Defense Base Act - Covered Contractor Employees, but no CLIN for DBA is provided in this solicitation. Where should we include DBA costs??

A17: DOSAR 652.228-70 does not reference DBA. DBA is not required in this solicitation.

Q18: Please confirm that excavation is not within this contract's scope of work.

A18: Excavation is out of scope.

Q19: Please confirm delivery would be direct to the excavated pit. Otherwise, please provide a comprehensive description of the required logistics plan.

A19: No, the contractor shall not delivery to the final destination. See Answer #13.

Q20: The solicitation on page five provides drawings of the shelter, depicting a desk, chair, lamp, storage box, and bench in the lower picture. There is no written requirement for these items. Please confirm these items are not within the scope of requirements.

A20: Correct, these items are out of scope.

Q21: Would you also require mattresses as part of the folding bunk beds?

A21: Yes.

Q22: Ventilation

a. Please provide CFM rating for the intake fan.

b. Please provide salient characteristics of the ventilation portal/wall hatch.

A22: The ventilation system/equipment will have to provide for sufficient air circulation inside the dugout. The technical characteristics of the ventilation system/equipment will have to be appropriate (meet the ratio) for the dugout air capacity.

Q23: Please provide salient characteristics of the fire extinguisher.

A23: Two powder fire extinguishers (5 liters capacity each) per dugout.

Q24: Please provide salient characteristics of the solar powered system.

A24: The power supply system must provide for lighting, ventilation, and other equipment, like communication. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate the power consumption up to 2000 Watts.

Q25: What is the expected date of award.

A25: See Answer #8.

Q26: Is this opportunity funded?

A26: Yes.

Q27: Due to several long lead items, would the agency consider exercising CLIN 0002-0005 all at once to ensure material availability and no delivery delays.

A27: Yes, See Answer #4.

Additional questions are currently being processed, and will be posted on future iterations of this Q&A.