Amendment 4 - 12.12.2022.pdf

Amendment 4: RFP NO. 75N93022R00007

Amendment No.4: RFP No. 75N93022R00007

“NIAID Logistical Meeting and Conference Support Services (MACSS)”

Solicitation Number:

Amendment Number:

Amendment Issue Date:

75N93022R00007

Four (4)

December 12, 2022

Proposal Due Date/Time: Wednesday, December 28, 2022 at 3:00 pm, Local Time (Unchanged)

Issued By: Sevag Kasparian, Contracting Officer

OA/DEA/NIAID/NIH/DHHS

Point of Contact PRIMARY:

Sevag.Kasparian@nih.gov

Sevag Kasparian, Contracting Officer Phone: 240-669-5177

The purpose of this Amendment is to:

1) Make changes to the RFP

2) Answer questions from potential offerors regarding the solicitation

Offerors must acknowledge receipt of this Amendment and all previous Amendments by identifying this amendment number and date of the amendment on each copy of the proposal submitted. Failure to receive your acknowledgement may result in the rejection of your proposal. Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the solicitation remain unchanged and in full force and effect.

Questions & Responses

Question 1: Will the government consider allowing for a Senior Project Manager with a BS/BA degree or equivalent experience and a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) credential in lieu of an advanced degree?

Response 1: No.

mailto:Sevag.Kasparian@nih.gov

Question 2: Please confirm that the personnel requirements on page 53 are not applicable and that instead the requirements in the SOW Attachment 3, Section 3.2 Labor Categories prevail.

Response 2: Single Principal Investigator and Other Investigators are not applicable on page 54.

Attachment 3 – Base IDIQ SOW are the anticipated positions needed to fulfill this RFP requirement, but the labor categories are not all-inclusive for this contract.

Question 3: For pages 56-64 please confirm that because the task orders will be Time & Materials or Firm Fixed Price, that offerors do not need to provide the breakdown of pricing data by fringe, indirect rates, etc., and that a Total Compensation Plan is not required.

Response 3: Certified Cost of Pricing Data is not applicable to this IDIQ contract with T&M and FFP Task Orders. Also, unless specifically requested by the Contracting Officer after proposal submission, Data Other than Certified Cost or Pricing Data is not currently requested.

Question 4: Attachment 1 page 72 of PDF: For the resumes of the science writer, may the related publications exceed the 2-page limit?

Response 4: No.

Question 5: Attachment 3, SOW page 79 of PDF, page 6 of 8 of SOW: May we substitute years of experience for bachelor’s degree for Senior Project Manager?

Response 5: No.

Question 6: Section L, page 45, Please confirm that it is acceptable, and will not eliminate an Offeror, if they can provide a letter of adequacy of their accounting system, from an independent accounting firm, if the Offeror does not have a DCAA-certified accounting system.

Response 6: This language is applicable for a cost reimbursement contract. The task orders under this IDIQ contract will be T&M and FFP, so this is not applicable.

Question 7: 30. Section L, page 47, Please confirm that the requirement for staffing, organization and management is to be provided for both the IDIQ SOW and each Task Order SOW.

Response 7: Correct.

Question 8: Section L, page 51, The RFP requirement specifically states contracts, however, many task orders under IDIQ contracts can meet the specific requirements of the MACSS IDIQ contract. Please confirm if individual task orders can be used as a "contract" for purposes of meeting the past performance requirements.

Response 8: Yes.

Question 9: Attachment 6, page 1 of 4, Please confirm that Attachment 6 is to be used as the instructions for the Technical Proposal response and that the Section L requirements should be integrated into the outline provided in Attachment 6.

Response 9: Correct.

Question 10: Attachment 5, Sample Task Order 2, In Sample Task Order 2, the RFP requests the following: "The technical proposal should also include the sample letters and graphics specified above."

Please confirm these can be excluded from the page limitation.

Response 10: Since these are part of the technical proposal, they are included in the page count and are not excluded from the page limitation.

Question 11: Attachment 5, Sample Task Order 2, Please confirm what materials need to be translated to Hindi. Also, please confirm the translation service required during the 2-day meeting is live interpretation from English to Hindi?

Response 11: All material, welcome letters, participant list, agenda, scientific reports, etc. Also, yes.

Question 12: Attachment 5 Sample Task Order 2, Do the requirements include a poster session or just the creation of a poster?

Response 12: Poster Session.

Question 13: Sample Task Order 2, Please provide an estimate of the FTEs (as was done for TO 1).

Response 13: The offeror should propose based on the need and requirements of the meeting.

Question 14: Attachment 6, Section 4 and 5, please confirm if the Logistics Specialist is the same role as the Logistics Manager, and if so, which position title to use.

Response 14: Yes, and Logistics Specialist is the correct title to use.

Question 15: Section L, page 47, Instructions indicate to see Section J for attachment for the Technical Cost Proposal Summary, but it is not included. Please provide or confirm if Technical Cost Proposal Summary is not required.

Response 15: No, it is not required.

Question 16: Page 57, Because all anticipated Task Orders for this IDIQ contract will be T&M or FFP, is provision of a bidder’s indirect rates and Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement a requirement?

Response 16: See response 3.

Question 17: Attachment 6, page 94, Please clarify whether three separate technical proposals are required; one for the IDIQ and one for each of the two task orders. If so, is there a page limit for the task order proposals?

Response 17: One technical proposal document, 3 areas: one for the IDIQ SOW, one for each of the two total Task Orders. No page limit for each area, however the total combined overall pages cannot exceed the 30 page limit for the technical proposal.

Question 18: Section L, page 64, As royalties typically pertaining to the licensing of technologies from the Government, would the Government consider removing this requirement in its entirety as it is not applicable to this procurement?

Response 18: This is not applicable to this RFP.

Question 19: Section H, Article H.11, Please confirm the Section 508 Product Assessment Template is excluded from the page limitation.

Response 19: Yes, this would be included in the Business proposal.

Question 20: Attachment 3: Base IDIQ, pages 74 & 77, Please provide breakdown by meeting type (e.g., DSMB, conference, workshop), modality (face to face vs remote), and location (estimated # of domestic

vs. foreign) for the estimated 250 annual events.

Response 20: There is no breakdown for the anticipated minimum of 250 annual events within the overall application of the indefinite quantity indefinite delivery (IDIQ) requirements of the

SOW.

Question 21: Can the Government provide an average Task Order scope (quantity of meetings, conferences, workshops)? Will the Government issue individual Task Orders for each of the anticipated 250 annual ‘events’?

Response 21: Each task order can vary with an estimated 1 to 30 events included.

Question 22: Should offerors assume the full scope of activities as defined in SOW 3.1 for every individual event?

Response 22: No.

Question 23: Section F, Delivery Schedules, There are a number of deliverables that appear to be required for each ‘event’. Given the quantity estimates of up to 250 events annually, are all event-related deliverables required for all events?

Response 23: No, at a minimum the work plans and close out reports will be required for each event.

Question 24: Attachment 7, Section 2, reference to Attachment 15, Attachment 15 is the Wage Determination Register. Attachment 9 is the Labor Category Proposal Rates. Please confirm that the Government intends the reference to be ‘Attachment 9’? How is the Government using the Labor Category Proposal Rates in pricing evaluation?

Response 24: Correct, in Attachment 7, Section 2, the government intended to reference Attachment 9: Labor Category Proposal Rates, that should be completed for the offeror’s proposed labor categories that will be used in accordance with page 67, Section M, Cost/Price Evaluation.

Amend Attachment 7, page 1 of 2 (overall page 98):

Offerors shall provide its per hour labor rate for each labor category and skill level across all years of the IDIQ contract performance as part of the offeror’s business proposal. Attachment 9:

Labor Category Proposal Rates must be included as part of the offeror’s business proposal. The labor rates must be fully loaded, as in each per hour rate must include applicable costs for fringe benefits, overhead, General and Administrative (G&A), profit, etc. The labor rates an offeror provides in its proposal shall be incorporated into the contract as the schedule of prices which an offeror must provide in response to task orders. Consequently, the awardee(s) will not be able to propose cost adjustments or profit markup on top of its labor rates when it later proposes in response to future task orders.

Question 25: Attachment 7, page 1 of 2, Please confirm that Attachment 7 requirements are supplemental to those instructions provided in Section L for the Business Proposal.

Response 25: Correct.

Question 26: Attachment 6, on Page 2 of 4, Please clarify which attachment is being referred to in Section 2 Paragraph 4. Attachment 2 is the Proposal Intent Response Form.

Response 26: See Amendment 3 page 1 regarding Attachment 6, where the capability of the Offeror to fulfill the requirements of the base IDIQ SOW will be assessed based on the Offeror’s response to the base IDIQ SOW and Task Orders 1 and 2 (listed in Attachments 3, 4, and 5).

Amend Attachment 6, page 2, Section 2, paragraph 4:

The order of items should be presented in a manner that is consistent with the outline of the base IDIQ SOW and Task Orders 1 and 2 (Attachments 3, 4, and 5), or the most meaningful for evaluating the technical merit of the proposal. For each major Technical Requirement and Task Area describe the technical approaches, rationale, proposed methodologies, proposed plans and procedures, etc. to carrying out each task.

Question 27a: RFP pages 65 & 68: Qualifications of the Offeror on page 65 in the Business Volume appears to map to Criterion 2 of the Evaluation Criteria for Corporate Experience and Capability noted in the Evaluation Criteria on page 68. Please confirm if evaluators would expect to review the Corporate Experience and Capability in the technical volume; if so should it be included as part of the Technical Proposal Outline (Attachment 6), as Section 6?

Response 27a: Yes.

Amend Attachment 6, page 4 of 4 (overall page 97) Section 6:

Section 6: Other Considerations

This section of the Technical Proposal should document other resources not covered in Sections 1 through 5 above necessary to carry out the Statement of Work, including:

Identify any relevant information not requested elsewhere in the RFP, including a description of any requested supporting documentation.

Corporate Experience and Capability

When assessing performance risks, the Government will focus on the past performance and corporate experience of the offeror as it relates to the following sub-factors which are of equal importance:

a). Demonstrated corporate experience in strategy development, project management, needs assessment, program design, program development, and program implementation b). Ability to deliver a well coordinated team of experts appropriate for specific tasks, projects and services in addition to having the corporate flexibility to leverage additional resources as needed to supplement any talent gaps identified during this period.

The offeror shall describe the qualifications and corporate capability of the organization.

Specific information relevant to this requirement shall be provided. The following sub-factors are of equal importance:

a). Human Resources: Capability to recruit, select, assign/reassign, train, and evaluate personnel b). Facilities/Equipment/Technical Resources: Available and appropriate to the requirements of the SOW.

Question 27b: Noting that this Criterion 2 will focus on past performance and corporate experience, page 51 of the RFP instructs offerors to include past performance in the business volume. Please confirm the proper location of the past performance so that it is able to be scored appropriately by evaluators.

Response 27b: For the Technical Proposal include sufficient information to address Corporate Capability and Experience being evaluated in Section M, Section 4, Criterion 2 on page 68.

For the Business Proposal include the requested information in Section L: pages 51 and 65.

Question 28: Attachment 5, Sample Task Order, Part II, 3.d (p. 86 of 140). Is the contractor responsible for providing a single link for participants to upload an abstract submission during the registration process, or is a robust abstract management system required to include: collection, review, and selection for creation of programmatic content? How many abstract submissions are anticipated?

Response 28: This is for the offeror to propose to the government.

End of Amendment No. 4