36C10A-19-R-0008-030.pdf

QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES

RFP 36C10A-19-R-0008

August 20, 2019

1. How can the Offeror be responsible for operating and maintaining the existing SATCOM system when the incumbent is under contract to provide those services through 30 November 2019?

a. Who is responsible for providing SATCOM services through Phase One? While the PWS suggests the Offeror would have O&M responsibility, this ignores the Incumbent who is under contract to provide those services until 01 December 2019, and more importantly the fact that the incumbent will still have supplier agreements in place with carriers through that date.

Response: There is no ambiguity. The incumbent is under contract until December 1, 2019. The new awardee will be under contract, and per the PWS, be responsible from date of award as well. Accordingly, both contractors will be responsible for operating and maintaining the existing SATCOM system during the period of overlap from date of award until December 1, 2019.

b. If the incumbent is under contract through 30 November 2019 and the incumbent submits a proposal they are at a financial advantage as any other offeror’s price must reflect SATCOM services in their offer while the incumbent offeror already has those services paid for under the incumbent contract and therefore their price for this effort will be less.

Response: Should you be aware of any aspect of incumbency to this requirement that reflects improper action or preferential treatment, please advise. However, it is well settled that an offeror may possess unique information, advantages, and capabilities due to its prior experience under a government contract--either as an incumbent contractor or otherwise and the government is not necessarily required to equalize competition to compensate for such an advantage, unless there is evidence of preferential treatment or other improper action. See FAR § 9.505-2(a)(3); Lovelace Sci.

& Tech. Servs., B-412345, Jan. 19, 2016, 2016 CPD ¶ 23 at 12; Signature Performance, Inc., B-411762, Oct. 19, 2015, 2015 CPD ¶ 321 at 5. The existence of an incumbent advantage, in and of itself, does not constitute preferential treatment by the agency, nor is such a normally occurring advantage necessarily unfair. (see Matter of Millennium Corporation, Inc., B-412866; B-412866.2, June 14, 2016.)

c. The Government should remove any ambiguity suggesting a requirement for the Awardee to provide existing services currently offered by the incumbent as the incumbent could be unwilling to negotiate to offer existing satellite and teleport services to the awardee thus creating a transition problem for the Government.

Response: The incumbent remains under contract until December 1, 2019. Failure to perform under the requirements of that contract could result in multiple adverse consequences for the incumbent, and would be a matter for resolution between VA and the incumbent. To the extent that conduct impacts a potential new awardee, that conduct will be taken into account in addressing any failure to perform under the new contract.

2. The PWS gives no transition from incumbent to Offeror or exit criteria to let the Offeror know when they are ultimately responsible for the SATCOM system.

a. What is the transition criteria?

Response: For the Awardee to have a functional VSAT network with all functional terminals operational.

b. We assume the incumbent has an affirmative requirement to support the transition and provide the necessary access to the SATCOM system infrastructure in order to ensure a smooth transition.

Response: Per the incumbent’s contract and PWS, the incumbent is required to work closely with incoming Contractor(s) to work out any transitioning topics required to help kick start the future contract. Failure to do so would be failure to perform on the part of the incumbent which could result in multiple adverse consequences for the incumbent.

3. There is no mention of or access to the past reports including Monthly Progress (5.1.2), Monthly Help Desk (5.4.2), Quarterly Enterprise SatCom Inventory, Quarterly Hub Failover Test or Quarterly Change (5.4.2) reports supporting the incumbent’s Phase Out Plan (5.1.6.2) to assist in planning and assuming operational control of the VA network.

Response: To the extent such documents or similar documents exist, VA will provide a copy of the documents after award. Some reports in the new PWS are not required in the current contract.