Q and A - Amendment 0001.docx

COURT REPORTING 2031JW21Q00008 – Q&A for Amendment 0001

Q1: Will the location of all proceedings occur at the U.S. Department of the Treasury with headquarters in Washington, D.C. and/or the district offices in four major cities throughout the continental United States? If not, please elaborate on frequent locations of the proceedings.

The OCC does not have a list of cities where it anticipates services, although historically many proceedings have been at or near OCC district or field offices, which are identified on OCC.gov. The Contractor must be available nationwide.

Q2: Will the contractor be allowed to charge travel expenses in accordance with GSA guidelines post performance?

No.

Q3: How many simultaneous proceedings occur per year on average?

This is an infrequent, but possible occurrence. It has occurred a handful of times over the past few years.

Q4: What is the typical frequency at which the 75 Digital Appearances and 75 Steno Appearances occur per week, month, or year?

The OCC cannot provide a frequency for the amount of work that will require stenographer services vs. digital services. The OCC will have discretion to determine whether or not to request stenographer services. The OCC's expectation is that stenography services will be available nationwide upon request.

Q5: What is the average page count per proceeding?

We estimate a full 8-hour day of testimony to average 250 pages.

Q6: Is there a list of conference spaces preferred by the department for proceedings?

No, the requirement is that the vendor provide conference spaces upon OCC’s request. See the Answer to Q1 for more information about geographies.

Q7: Will virtual court reporting services be the standard in the event of another government shutdown due to a pandemic; or will no contract services be ordered?

The OCC will be requiring virtual proceedings upon request during the course of the pandemic or otherwise. We cannot guarantee the frequency of proceedings in the case of a government shutdown, but our agency does not typically close in the event of a government shutdown.

Q8: What was the breakdown of each district office and satellite office last year in terms of number [of] appearance days?

Please see the answer to Q1 regarding information about geographies. Locations of proceedings vary widely from year-to-year based on agency needs

Q10: What is the expected number of virtual hearings for the year?

Unknown, the contract requires vendors to provide virtual reporting services upon request during the course of the contract.

Q11: Once COVID has concluded will hearings remain virtual?

The PWS requires the contractor to provide virtual reporting services upon request during the course of the contract; we also note the high level of uncertainty around when COVID will “conclude.”

Q12: How many steno, video and/or digital cases were done last year in each region. Not number of pages but number of days per office or region.

See responses to Questions 1, 8 and 9.

Q13: How often was real-time used last year. Number of days, not pages.

This a new requirement for this contract.

Q14: Section 8.5 electronic transcript is shipped. Could it be emailed or sent through secure server? Same question for 8.6 with the video.

TO BE ANSWERED IN COMING AMENDMENT

Q15: In the eastern region, which sees more cases New York or DC?

This number can vary widely year-to-year depending on agency needs.

Q16: Data section 10.0 “All transcripts, recordings, records, exhibits, and any other material which is part of, or relates to, any action recorded by the Contractor shall be the property of the OCC and shall be delivered to the COR together with the finished transcript.” Does this include steno notes and or digital audio recorded at the proceeding?

TO BE ANSWERED IN COMING AMENDMENT

Q17: There are 4 editions of the VPAT?

TO BE ANSWERED IN COMING AMENDMENT

Q18a: On the VPAT provided do all 6 tables need to be filled out.

TO BE ANSWERED IN COMING AMENDMENT

Q18b: What is the basis for the VPAT? Transcripts are looked at on a computer with software the user would already have, therefore, wouldn’t the users’ equipment need to be accessibility compliant and not the transcript/product?

TO BE ANSWERED IN COMING AMENDMENT

Q19: Will all questions from all responders to the solicitation be distributed in case we forgot to ask something?

Yes.

Q20: What was the average yearly spend for reporting services over the last 3 years?

This information will not be provided.

Q21: Please clarify how you want us to show pricing for different areas of the country. Can we give you pricing for each state? Do you have a list of cities/states that you have done depositions in? Pricing for court reporters can vary greatly from state to state and even by cities in the same state. One nationwide price would not make sense.

The quote must provide one price for services regardless of the location the service is provided.

Q22: What types of litigation are most common?

Administrative litigation before OFIA, arbitration hearings, MSPB proceedings, Federal District Court litigation and appeals, and appeals.

Q23: What is the average length of proceedings?

4-8 hours. (Some run longer or are multi-day.)

Q24: What percentage of proceedings are public v. private?

The vast majority are confidential/private, because they are confidential sworn statements.

Q25: What percentage of proceedings result in a copy of the transcript sold to a party not affiliated with Comptroller of the Currency/ your opposing counsel?

The OCC expects that a minimal percentage of the proceedings will have sales to the public.

Q26: What is the average total number of proceedings per year? On Page 26 section 2.2, you define “proceedings” as depositions, sworn statements, arbitration hearings, personnel grievances and appeals, conferences, and committee meetings. Please give an estimated percentage to each one of these different types of proceedings to indicate what percentage of the total they make up in an average year. Court reporting agencies price differently for depositions vs. hearing/meetings/conferences so this is an important statistic.

The OCC cannot provide a percentage for the different types of proceedings in which we may require court reporting services. The OCC is requesting one rate for stenography and one rate for digital for all proceedings.

Q27: I calculated 22,000 pages per year as the total for electronic and steno reporting. You state that there are 150 electronic transcripts required per year. Is 150 the average total number of proceedings per year?

Historically, we average about 80 ‘calls for service’ per year, which may include multi-day statements or depositions/hearings. There can also be multiple witnesses in one day, resulting in individual transcripts for each.

Q28: What percentage of 2021 proceedings do you estimate to be virtual vs. in-person?

As this is a new requirement that is largely dependent on the nationwide status of the pandemic, we anticipate a large majority of proceedings will have a virtual component. Among virtual proceedings, we do anticipate having multiple “blended” virtual proceedings, where some people (including potentially the court reporter) attend in person and some attend remotely.

Q29: On Page 33 Section 12.0, you define normal hours of service as between 8am and 6pm. Do you have a standard rate multiplier you use for hours outside the normal timeframe? Do you want us to quote our rate or use yours?

Please provide us your pricing.

Q30: Regarding your invoicing platform (IPP), do you charge the contractor a fee to use IPP?

No.

Q31: VPAT – what exactly do we have to do to comply? I am not sure what VPAT is. Can we provide you with our IT/security policy?

TO BE ANSWERED IN COMING AMENDMENT

Q33: Page 90, 4.3.1. Volume I – Corporate Experience. Is it possible to discuss exactly what specifics you need? Not clear to me.

OCC feels the instructions for this section are adequate as is. Please provide the information as is relevant to the services OCC is requiring in the PWS.

Q34: Please confirm that you do not require nor will pay for a word index at the end of each transcript. Is that still the case?

We do not require a word index, nor will we pay for the page count of one if it is provided.

Q35: The SOW calls for one contractor to provide both certified professional court reporters using stenography machines (stenographers) and digital reporters operating tape records (digital reporters), and it states that the type of individual to be used for a given assignment will be at the election of the OCC. Can you explain why the OCC would want work performed by digital reporters, who are minimally-trained individuals operating a tape recorder to record a proceeding, which then needs to be typed up from the audio file, as opposed to a professional, highly trained and certified court stenographer who can create a far more accurate transcript in a fraction of the time? To wit:

A. Are there different types of proceedings (easier or shorter) that a digital reporter is traditionally used for other than a stenographer to save money?

A. The OCC can request a stenographer for any proceeding at our discretion.

B. The OCC is not directing Quoters on how to formulate their pricing.

Q39: Nationally court reporters' working day starts at 9:00 AM local time, yet the SOW states that depositions may start at 8:00 AM. Court reporters always exact a surcharge for an early appearance for depositions that start before 9:00 AM, yet there is no CLIN for this. Do you expect the court reporters to forego this usual and customary charge when handling depositions under this contract? If so, this would be unfair to the court reporter.

B. How many proceedings started before 9:00 AM historically in the last two years?

We disagree with the assumption(s) built into this question. There is no “national standard” with a 9:00 o’clock start time that we are aware of.