22Q0076.pdf

RFQ# FHF22Q0076

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation and request for quotes (RFQ) for commercial products or commercial services in accordance with the procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 12 - Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR part 13 - Simplified Acquisition Procedures, with FAR part 12 taking precedence per FAR 13.500(b)’s reference to FAR 12.102(c). This announcement constitutes the only solicitation with quotes requested.

This requirement is considered unrestricted under NAICS code 524292 Third Party Administration of Insurance and Pension Funds with no size standard; therefore, any qualified, responsible vendor may submit a quote.

Questions, Suggested Alternate Terms, and Answers Quoters are invited to submit any questions or suggested alternate terms (including changes to the solicitation, contract clauses, statement of assumptions, or other terms). FHFA will consider all input and attempt to balance the needs of all parties.

Questions or other suggested changes must be submitted by 2pm ET August 15, 2022, by email to Natalie.Wallace@fhfa.gov. Questions, any written responses, or amendments will be posted at the Contract Opportunities webpage (please see https://sam.gov/content/opportunities for more information).

FAR References Any FAR clauses or provisions referenced may be obtained at www.acquisition.gov/far. Also, any reference to offeror or offer has the same meaning as quoter or quote for this solicitation.

The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular FAC 2022-06, May 1, 2022.

Submission Instructions Quoters shall be registered in the System for Award Management as stated in FAR 52.204- 7(b)(1).

Therefore, FAR 52.204-7 and FAR 52.204-16 are hereby incorporated by reference into the solicitation.

A Quoter that is not actively registered in the System for Award Management at the time of quote submission will not have its quote considered and will not be eligible for award.

Each Quoter shall submit an electronic quotation to Natalie.Wallace@fhfa.gov.

The electronic quotation shall include any scanned copies of signatures associated with the quotation.

Each email quotation including attachments cannot exceed 50 MB because it may be rejected by FHFA’s server. If your entire quotation exceeds 50MB in size, please divide your quotation into appropriate smaller emails.

mailto:Natalie.Wallace@fhfa.gov https://sam.gov/content/opportunities https://sam.gov/content/opportunities http://www.acquisition.gov/far

If a Quoter chooses to submit a quotation, the quote must remain valid for a minimum of 120 calendar days.

Each submission step shall specify its due date. Late submissions, modifications, and revisions will be managed in accordance with FAR 52.212-1(f).

FHFA’s Contracting Officer reserves the right to reject the quotation as non-compliant if the quotation takes exception to any of the terms of the RFQ, includes assumptions, or does not conform to the RFQ’s submission instructions.

All quotations must include a cover page addressing the following information:

1. RFQ Number

2. Quoter’s Name

3. Subcontractor Name(s), If Applicable

4. Quoter System for Award Management (SAM) Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

5. Contact Name

6. Contact Email address

7. Contact telephone number

8. Complete business mailing address

9. The following statement “The Quoter takes no exception and completely accepts all the terms and conditions in the RFQ and subsequent amendments.”

Step 1: Vendor Affirmations

Quotes are due no later than 10:00AM Eastern Time, on August 22, 2022. Late submissions, modifications, and revisions will be managed in accordance with FAR 52.212-1(f).

Each Vendor shall submit an electronic quote to Natalie.Wallace@fhfa.gov.

ONLY AFFIRMATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING PWS ITEMS SHOULD BE

DISCUSSED IN THIS SUBMISSION.

In this step, the vendor shall affirm and briefly explain how it will meet the following requirements:

1) The vendor can provide a pre-approved plan document matching all the selections (including features and definitions) made in FHFA’s current Adoption Agreement (Attachment B);

2) The vendor accepts the terms stated in Attachment C, which will modify the Adoption Agreement with respect to the non-applicability of ERISA;

3) The vendor accepts the terms stated in Attachment D, which will modify any Administrative Services Agreement or other Plan-related documents with respect to the non-applicability of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA);

4) The vendor can provide all of the funds currently available in FHFA’s 401(k) Plan, specified in Attachment E in the identical (or cheaper) vehicles and share classes;

5) The vendor accepts the terms of FHFA’s Subscriber Addendum (Attachment F)

6) The vendor can comply with the requirements contained in FHFA’s specialty clause, 6.208b IT Security clause for acquisitions in which FHFA Controlled Unclassified

Information (CUI) will be processed, stored, or transmitted in a nonfederal information system (OCT 2020). As part of its response, the vendor shall, for each system or solution that will process or store FHFA information, list all information security frameworks with a current certification issued by an independent organization (e.g., FedRAMP, ISO/IEC 27001, SOC2).

7) The vendor shall provide a full executed written conflict waiver or written confirmation that no such waiver is required by an individual authorized to act for the vendor affirming that FHFA’s counsel, Groom Law Group, Chartered, may represent FHFA in this process, including, but not limited to, reviewing and assisting FHFA in negotiating any agreements with the vendor.

This is a pass/fail evaluation step; any information regarding other items will make it difficult for the Government to evaluate this step.

If a Vendor chooses to submit a quote, the quote must remain valid for a minimum of 120 calendar days.

The two-page (2) limitation, not including filled out attachments, shall be treated as a maximum.

If exceeded, the excess pages will not be considered in the evaluation of the quote. The excess electronic pages will not be reviewed.

Quotes will be reviewed for completeness and compliance with the RFQ and preparation instructions. If a quoter (1) fails or refuses to assent to any of the terms and conditions of the RFQ, (2) proposes additional terms and conditions for this RFQ, or (3) fails to submit any of the information required by this RFQ, then the Contracting Officer may consider the quote to be unacceptable, which could make the quoter ineligible for contract award.

Step 2 –Down Select

After the Government completes evaluation of Step 1, quoters will receive a notice of pass/fail.

Quoters who pass will be advised to proceed to Step 3. The intent of this step is to minimize proposal development costs for those quoters with little chance of receiving an award. The Government’s notice is evaluative, and those vendors who receive a “fail” shall no longer participate in the acquisition. Quoters may request a debriefing after the completion of Step 2.

Failure to participate in Step 1 precludes further consideration of a quoter. Quoter submissions will not be accepted from quoters who have not submitted Step 1 – Vendor Affirmations by the due date and time stated in this solicitation.

Step 3 – Submission of Technical Questionnaire, Price Proposal, Section 508, and Past Performance

The notice of pass/fail in Step 2 shall provide the due date and time (no earlier than two weeks from the due date of Step 1) for Step 3 submissions. Late submissions, modifications, and revisions will be managed in accordance with FAR 52.212-1(f).

Each Vendor shall submit an electronic quote Volumes I, II, and III in separate files to Natalie.Wallace@fhfa.gov.

Each email quote including attachments cannot exceed 50 MB because it may be rejected by FHFA’s server. If your entire quote exceeds 50MB in size, please divide your quote into appropriate smaller emails.

Volume I: Technical Questionnaire Instructions

The quoter shall complete the Technical Questionnaire (Attachment J) in accordance with the requirements in the PWS.

Volume II: Price Proposal Instructions The quoter shall complete the pricing worksheet as stated in Attachment K, including any stated options. FHFA will evaluate the quoted prices for reasonableness. FHFA reserves the right to conduct a price realism analysis to assess whether the quoted rates are unrealistically low. Unrealistically low rates may be considered a negative attribute to the extent that they reflect a lack of technical understanding or a risk inherent in the proposed approach.

Volume III: Section 508 Requirement Instructions

Conformance with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Accessibility Requirements (Section 508): Provide an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) for each commercially available Information and Communication Technology (ICT) item that will be developed, procured, maintained, or used under this contract.

1. Create the ACR using the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT®)

Version 2.1 or later, located at https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat.

2. Complete each ACR in accordance with the instructions provided in the VPAT® template. Each ACR must address the applicable Section 508 requirements referenced in the Statement of Work/Performance Work Statement/Specifications.

3. Address each standard individually and with specificity, and clarify whether conformance is achieved throughout the entire ICT Item (for example - user functionality, administrator functionality, and reporting), or only in limited areas of the ICT Item. Each ACR shall state exactly how the ICT meets the applicable standards in the remarks/explanations column, or through additional narrative. All "Not Applicable" responses must be explained in the remarks/explanations column or through additional narrative.

4. Provide a description of the evaluation methods used to support Section 508 conformance claims. The Agency reserves the right, prior to making an award decision, to perform testing on some or all of the Vendor’s proposed ICT items to validate Section 508 conformance claims made in the ACR.

Past Performance mailto:Natalie.Wallace@fhfa.gov mailto:Natalie.Wallace@fhfa.gov https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat

The Government will evaluate recent and relevant past performance of each Vendor as submitted in the Past Performance Information Retrieval System via the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System. FHFA may also use any data available, including FHFA knowledge, in the evaluation of past performance, including data concerning any subcontractors.

Page Limitation. There is no page limitation.

For the technical questionnaire, a recitation or paraphrasing of the requirements already identified in the work requirements will not improve the quotation.

Oral Presentations After an initial review of the written technical quotations, and, if necessary, exchanges with Quoters, at its sole option, FHFA may conduct oral presentations with only those Quoters whose quotes are initially evaluated as technically acceptable or higher, meaning the quotes at least overall meet and in some cases may exceed requirements. Therefore, only Quoters invited to participate in oral presentations will continue to be considered for award.

The oral presentation will be evaluated as part of the vendor’s technical quotation. During oral presentation sessions, neither FHFA nor the Quoter will use the oral presentation sessions to discuss or negotiate changes to the initial written quotation, terms and conditions of the solicitation, or prices. However, FHFA may conduct separate exchanges after oral presentations, if necessary.

If oral presentations are conducted, the Contracting Officer will provide as much notice as practical to schedule the oral presentation and provide relevant details regarding the format of the presentation, including specific instructions for a demonstration or other presentation details. At a minimum Quoters will be provide a demonstration of their online portal and discuss their quality assurance process.

It is at the Contracting Officer’s option to reschedule presentations if requested by the Quoter, but FHFA is under no obligation to permit alternate times if the Quoter is unable to attend at the scheduled time.

Evaluation and Selection Process Since this award is made under the policies of FAR part 12 in conjunction with FAR part 13 procedures, the evaluation process is streamlined, and FHFA has considerable flexibility in its award decision. FHFA will evaluate the quotation considering positive attributes, negative attributes, and potential risk of the overall quotation.

During the evaluation process, FHFA may or may not conduct exchanges. If FHFA conducts exchanges, such exchanges may be with one, several, or all Quoters. Exchanges may vary based on FHFA’s need to understand or give Quoters an opportunity to improve their quotations, but all exchanges will be fair and equitable.

Only Quoters whose quotes receive an overall technical rating of acceptable or higher will be considered for award. Following an evaluation and, if necessary, tradeoff analysis, FHFA may make one award based on the quote that is evaluated to be the best value and determined responsible. While not guaranteed, at the current time, FHFA intends to make one award.

FHFA reserves the right to make an award based on other than the lowest quoted price.

Technical (Volume I and III) are more important than price (Volume II); however, the importance of price as a factor could become greater if competing quotations are evaluated as technically equal.

IT Security Compliance Prior to award, the apparent successful quoter shall complete and submit the “Security Assessment Questionnaire for External Vendors Processing, Storing, or Transmitting FHFA CUI” (see Attachment L) as part of demonstrating its ability to adequately comply with the requirements of FHFA specialty clause 6.208b, IT Security clause for acquisitions in which FHFA Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) will be processed, stored, or transmitted in a nonfederal information system (OCT 2020). In addition to the Security Questionnaire, the quoter shall submit any current, independent certification demonstrating that the quoter maintains compliance with a relevant information security framework (e.g., NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2, SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001, etc.). As part of its assessment, FHFA may request additional artifacts such as the results of independent penetration tests or security assessments, internal security policies, and other artifacts as deemed necessary to verify compliance with NIST SP 800-171, Rev. 2. If a quoter fails to provide reasonable assurance of its ability to adequately comply with the requirements of the clause, it may be considered ineligible for award. The request for the information described above does not constitute discussions (as that term is defined in FAR subpart 15.3).

FHFA will review the documentation submitted demonstrating the quoter’s ability to adequately comply with FHFA specialty clause 6.208b. The ability of a quoter to adequately comply with this clause shall be at the sole discretion of FHFA. If a quoter fails to provide reasonable assurance of its ability to adequately comply with the requirements of the clause, it may be considered ineligible for award, and the Government may consider other quotes for award.

Contractor Support Notification Quoters are advised that employees of the firms identified below may assist the Contracting Officer and technical evaluators during the acquisition process. These employees will not participate as voting members of the evaluation team (FAR 7.503(c)(12)). Further, these employees shall not rank or recommend one quote over another or otherwise act in a decision-making capacity. These firms are expressly prohibited from competing for the award.

Portfolio Evaluations Inc./CAPTRUST Groom Law Group Chartered 15 Independence Blvd 1700 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Suite 1200 Warren, NJ 07059-2721 Washington, DC 20006-5811

In accomplishing their duties related to the acquisition process, employees of the above firm may require access to proprietary information contained in the quotes. Such employees are required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement mandating compliance with strict confidentiality restrictions.

If a quote is submitted in response to this RFQ, FHFA will consider the submission as consent that the quote may be reviewed by employees of the above firms who have signed a Non- Disclosure Agreement.

List of Attachments Attachment A Work Requirements: Performance Work Statement and Clauses Attachment B Adoption Agreement Selections Attachment C Non-ERISA Addendum to Adoption Agreement Attachment D Non-ERISA Addendum to Administrative Services Agreement Attachment E Investment Options Attachment F Subscriber Addendum Attachment G FHFA Payroll Provider File Template Attachment H FHFA-OIG Payroll Provider File Template Attachment I FHFA-OIG Roth Payroll Provider File Template Attachment J Technical Questionnaire Attachment K Pricing Worksheet Attachment L IT Security Questionnaire