RFP 277-20-0550 Amendment 2.pdf

RFP 277-20-0550

Questions & Answers

Secretary of Health and Human Services Report to Congress on Preventing Underage Drinking

Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act

1. Section L.2.c, Section L.2.c.2, and Attachment 8 - The referenced solicitation text indicates offerors are to use letter size paper (8.5 x 11 inches) in portrait mode only with fonts that are at least as large as 10 point Times New Roman for the Business Proposal. All offerors are also expected to include a summary in the Business Proposal that is based on RFP 277-20-0550

Attachment 15 Sample Summary of Cost and Hours Spreadsheet.pdf. However, both pages of that attachment are larger than 12 x 15 inches, and one of the pages is landscape. While we can fill out the Attachment 15 spreadsheet PDF and include the file in our submission as specified in

RFP L.2.c.2, the oversized pages in the PDF make it challenging to include printed pages from it in the Business Proposal without scaling down the font below 10 points or splitting each page into a collection of letter-sized portrait pages. Since scaling the tables down will make the fonts illegibly small, does the Government have any guidance for how offerors should address the issue, such as splitting the printed pages into letter-sized portrait pages or restructuring the tables in Excel? Answer: The submission of Attachment 15 can be in landscape orientation, but the page size still needs to remain 8 ½ x 11. eCPS has been updated to accept both portrait and landscape orientation documents. Providing the attachment in excel format should fix this problem. Attachments 13, 14 and 15 will provided in excel format with these Q&A’s.

2. Section L.2.b.2 - Please clarify what the Government expects for "author(s) of the technical proposal". For example, would a list of companies that contributed to the technical proposal content satisfy this requirement? Answer: The Government expects a list of the names of the individuals that contributed to writing the proposal.

3. Section L.2.c.11.c (Subcontracts) - Is the specified amount of $700,000 spread over the 5 years

(base year plus 4 options years), or is it $700,000 in a single year? Answer: The amount of

$700,000 references the full 5 years of the contract.

4. Page 3, Section D - Please confirm that the expectation for state level survey completion are state officials, state agency staff, etc. to respond. Answer: Yes, the expectation is for state level survey completion is state officials, state agency staff, etc. Does the government also expect any individual-level surveys targeting teens and the young adult population? Answer: No, the

Government does not expect individual-level surveys targeting teens and the young adult population. If so, would the government provide a sampling frame or if they expect contractors to develop a sampling frame for each state? Answer: N/A

5. Page 13, Task 8 - Please clarify who is responsible for meeting travel arrangements.

Answer: The Contractor is responsible for meeting travel arrangements.

6. Task 5.5 – Is there a separate contractor responsible for the contractor-maintained website?

Answer: No, there is not a separate contractor responsible for the contractor-maintained website. Or do you envision website development and maintenance as part of this contract?

Answer: Yes, website development and maintenance is part of this contract.

7. Task 8.2 (c) – Which type of transcript does the government expect: verbatim, edited, or intelligent transcriptions? Answer: The Government expects verbatim and edited based on the type of the meeting s (e.g., Principals, Stakeholders)

8. In Attachment 14, is the “Fixed Fee” line shown in each of the worksheets supposed to represent the total of both the “Base Fee” and the “Award Fee”? Answer: Yes, the “Fixed Fee” is supposed to represent the total of both the “Base Fee” and the “Award Fee”.

9. Attachment 6 – When does the disclosure of lobbying form need to be submitted, how and to whom? Answer: The Disclosure of Lobbying form should be submitted as part of your proposal which is due on March 25, 2020.

10. Pages 43-45, 53-57, Section L.2 Instruction to Offerors and M.2 Non-Cost Evaluation Factors -

The RFP L.2.b Technical Proposal Instructions specify 7 areas for the proposal structure (a-g), but the RFP M.2 Non-Cost Evaluation Factors do not specify point values for 4) Executive Summary or 5.c) Schedule. Will the Government clarify point values for either of these sections?

Answer: No, the Executive Summary and the Schedule are not assigned points. Only the

Evaluation Factors under SECTION M - EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD are assigned point values.

11. In reference to Performance Work Statement Task 5, would the federal government please provide a link to the current questionnaire? Answer: The questionnaire will be provided upon award of the contract. The state reports reflect the input received from the state surveys.

12. In reference to Performance Work Statement Task 5, would the federal government please provide a sample of the state reports, with a link to the preferred format?

Answer: https://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/townhallmeetings/stateprofiles/fullmap.aspx

13. In reference to Performance Work Statement Task 6, are the analytic papers intended to become the basis for the journal articles? Answer: The analytic papers are not necessarily intended to become the basis for the journal articles.

14. How many full-time equivalent staff are on the current contract? Answer: The offeror should propose based on the RFP Requirements.

15. Can the federal government please provide a copy of the transition plan for the current contract? Answer: No, the current contractor is responsible to carry out the transition plan and will work with the organization awarded this procurement.

16. On pages 42 and 45 of the RFP, it states that resumes don’t count against the page limit and should be in their own section with letters of commitment. Is this meant to occur within the Key

Personnel section? If so, should the resumes be paginated continuously or some other way?

Answer: No, the resumes and letters of commitment should be in their own section, separate from the Key Personnel. They can be placed at the back of the proposal.

17. Where in the tasks detailed in the Performance Work Statement does data analysis occur? This information is key for planning and budgeting. Answer: Data Analysis occurs in all tasks related to the preparation of the Report to Congress. This is inherent to the development of all report-related products.

18. Can budget worksheets in the business plan be submitted in landscape as opposed to portrait orientation? Our experience is that budgets have always been submitted in landscape https://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/townhallmeetings/stateprofiles/fullmap.aspx orientation for SAMHSA proposals. Answer: Yes, budget worksheets in the business plan can be submitted in landscape orientation.

19. For the State Report Questionnaire detailed is Task 5: Can we add questions to it or modify it with COR approval if circumstances require it? (That is, the original survey would be a core survey with additional questions or modifications added for emerging issues). Answer: The

Interagency Coordinating Committee may recommend modifications after discussion and review. Recommended changes are submitted for SAMHSA clearance, and subsequently OMB review and approval.

20. Do we need to use Survey Monkey for the State Report Questionnaire? Answer: Yes, this is the current platform. However, offerors may make the case for an alternative vehicle to deploy the state report questionnaire.

21. How do we address in-text references? Should we use footnotes or have an endnote reference page? Is there a specific reference format to be used? Answer: In-text references should be references using footnotes.

22. Attachment 1c appears to be the same document as Attachment 1a. Can you please provide

Attachment 1c: Delivery Schedule? Answer: This was provides in beta.sam as Amendment 1 on March 4, 2020.

23. Currently all documents are only available in PDF format. Will any of the business proposal documents, such as Attachments 13, 14, and 15 be available in Excel format, as they have in the past? Answer: Attachment 13 is not available in excel format. Attachments 14 and 15 will be provided in excel format.

24. For Subtask 1.3, what is the difference between the annual operational budget and the contract budget, is the operational budget limited to a set of specific tasks? Answer: There is no difference. They are the same item.

25. For Task 3, is the reference to an evaluation plan correct? Should this be a reference to a data collection plan? Answer: For the purposes of this procurement, they are the same.

26. The eCPS splash page does not have the STOP Act solicitation listed. Will respondents be able to access the solicitation on eCPS at some point during the application process? Answer: The STOP

Act Solicitation is now available on the eCPS splash page.

27. Under Task 4.9, it states that there are current reports that are not finalized. Is it known how many of these reports will be unfinished at the time of the award? Answer: The 2020 Report to

Congress is slated for submission to Congress by December 31, 2020. The deadline for

SAMHSA review of the 2020 Report to Congress is August 1, 2020. The 2020 Report to

Congress encompasses these three components: Report to Congress on the Prevention and

Reduction of Underage Drinking, State Performance and Best Practices for the Prevention and

Reduction of Underage Drinking, and 51 State reports.

https://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/resources/reporttocongress/rtc2018.aspx

Until all agency and departmental reviews are complete and reconciled, there will be additional work needed by the contract to prepare the Report for transmittal to HHS for delivery to Congress. In addition, work will have begun on the 2021 Report to Congress https://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/resources/reporttocongress/rtc2018.aspx before the end of the current contract, August 31, 2020. The same three report components identified above will be in development.

28. Can you please tell us the name of the incumbent and the value of the incumbent’s contract?

Answer: The Incumbent is The CDM Group, Inc. The value of that contract for 5 years is

$4,986,967 .