36C10X19Q0054-0001002.pdf

Questions & Answers 36C10X19Q0054 February 11, 2019

PWS Section Question Answer

PG 2, 3.1.6 At the request of the Government at any time during the lifecycle, the Contractor shall supply up to an approximate eighteen (18) bins at no additional cost.

Please describe in greater detail - at “no additional cost”

1) no additional cost for the VA to utilize the awarded contractors extra six (6) 95-Gallon?

2) Please describe about the Bi-weekly shredding charges for the additional six (6) 95- Gallon bins, will the same charge be used as the contract states for the initial (12) 95-gallon bins?

1) On occasion bins are full prior to bi-weekly pickup. In these cases, the contractor must provide replacement bins for the full ones.

Shredding will still take place on the scheduled day.

2) The pricing schedule has been updated to reflected the additional bins.

P.2, 3.1.6 At the request of the Government at any time during the lifecycle, the Contractor shall supply up to an approximate eighteen (18) bins at no additional cost.

Please clarify what is meant by “at no additional cost” in this sentence so it’s clear if we are to bid on providing and servicing 12 95-gallon bins or a total of 30 95-gallon bins. If not the latter, will the potential 18 bins be added by amendment and priced for servicing at that time?

See answer above. The pricing schedule has been amended to account for the additional bins.

P.3, 4.6 CONTRACTOR

FURNISHED PROPERTY

The Contractor shall furnish all personnel, supervision, facilities, materials, equipment, and services necessary to fulfill the requirements of this purchase order.

Contractor shredding equipment must meet NIST 800- 88 cut size requirements.

The particle size requirement of NIST 800-88 is 1x5 mm. This is unnecessarily onerous and expensive to the point of being cost prohibitive and no one can shred to the 1x5 mm particle size using a mobile shredding truck. If a contractor claims they can, they are misrepresenting their process and the final product. Additionally, even if it were possible to achieve that particle size on site, the material would be reduced to essentially dust, becoming an explosion and fire hazard, and impossible to recycle. Therefore the material would have to be landfilled, which is contrary to VA policy.

The industry standard and that deemed appropriate by NAID and many federal government agencies is to shred non-classified material to be “unrecognizable and unreconstructable” (Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs) or “reasonably” render the information “practicably unreconstructable” (Federal Trade Commission). Specifically, VA Directive 6371, published on April 9, 2014, defines “Final Document Destruction” as:

“The process through which temporary paper records are pulped, macerated, shredded or otherwise destroyed to a degree definitively ensures that they are not readable or reconstructable to any degree.”

We agree that NIST 800-88 is not possible for mobile shredding. The contractor must shred at the location and then can transport to another location to comply with the NIST 800- 88 requirement. The PWS has been revised to properly document the requirements.

Questions & Answers 36C10X19Q0054 February 11, 2019

If the VA wants to shred materials beyond the standard of “unrecognizable” and “unreconstructable” the VA must articulate a legitimate need to do so. Without a justifiable, articulated agency need the restrictive requirements should be removed from this solicitation because they exceed those detailed in VA Directive 6371.

Please either articulate the need, or remove the restrictive requirements.

P.3, 5.0 Deliverables,

3.1.1 Provide and

deliver twelve (12) lockable bins on wheels

To request delivery of containers NLT than two business days post-award is an unreasonable time frame, particularly as the kick-off meeting may not occur until five days post-award. Could this timing please be adjusted, perhaps to say “as soon as reasonably possible after the kick-off meeting”?

Bins should be delivered to the Hines, IL location five (5) business days after kick-off meeting.

P.4, 7.1 CONTRACTOR

PERSONNEL SECURITY

REQUIREMENTS

Would you kindly clarify the level of background check required for this work?

With the sensitivity of the material being shredded, a minimum of a criminal background check required.

RFQ P.36, E.3, 3 Could you please define what you need to see regarding a monthly payment schedule? Do you need a specific date, or some other information?

This has been eliminated from the pricing requirements.

General Question Is there a current contract for the work being solicited? If so, please provide that awarded contract number (NOT the incumbent GSA contractor number). Also please provide the name of the incumbent contractor and the contract amount.

Is the level of effort being performed under the current contract fundamentally the same as what will be required to fulfill #36C10X19Q0054?

The current contract is VA101-14-F-0076 awarded to Allways Shred, Inc. in the amount of $32,400.00. The level of effort is similar to the current requirement.