36C24224Q0891_1.docx

Combined Synopsis-Solicitation for Commercial Products and Commercial Services

GENERAL INFORMATION

SET-ASIDE

Network Contracting Office (NCO) 2 2875 Union Road Suite 3500 Cheektowaga NY 14227

POINT OF CONTACT*

Contracting Officer Janelle Bonafede Janelle.Bonafede@va.gov 716-862-7461 ext. 24570

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

130 W. Kingsbridge Rd.

Bronx NY

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

DESCRIPTION

The James J. Peters VA Medical Center is requiring the brand name or equal to purchase of dry ice deliveries to process and maintain sample integrity. Reliable and timely delivery of dry ice in large quantities is an essential requirement of the MIRECC/NIH Brain and Tissue Repository Department. This will be a requirements contract with 5 Ordering Periods as follows:

9/17/2024 to 9/16/2025 9/17/2025 to 9/16/2026 9/17/2026 to 9/16/2027 9/17/2027 to 9/16/2028 9/17/2028 to 9/16/2029 Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Notice Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Notice

Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Notice

STATEMENT OF WORK

1. Background:

Dry Ice - Biomedical research often requires collection of samples, sample preservation and sample storage at very low temperatures (-80 centigrade). These samples are precious in that they are resource-intensive to generate and often are irreplaceable. Their preservation requires the use of dry ice to maintain sample quality during processing before being moved to long term storage.

Dry ice is an essential tool in sample preservation and processing. Due to the nature of dry ice and the speed at which it evaporates, the Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC)/NIH Brain and Tissue Repository requires deliveries of large quantities of dry ice on a regular, but unpredictable schedule in quantities that vary. Generally single orders of dry ice vary from 200lbs – 900lbs per delivery. Order frequency is also variable, with a historical average of 1-2 orders per week.

The sensitive nature of the samples and the standard preservation process requires speedy delivery. The MIRECC/NIH Brain and Tissue Repository requires no more than 1 business day between ordering dry ice and delivery to the laboratory.

2. Objectives:

An annual contract is required for dry ice deliveries in order to process and maintain sample integrity. Reliable and speedy delivery of dry ice in large quantities is an essential requirement of the MIRECC/NIH Brain and Tissue Repository.

3. Performance Period:

SOW Freezer Service Contracts Base year: Option Year 1:

Option Year 2:

Option Year 3:

Option Year 4:

9/15/2024 to 9/14/2025 9/15/2025 to 9/14/2026 9/15/2026 to 9/14/2027 9/15/2027 to 9/14/2028 9/15/2028 to 9/14/2029

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4. Place of Performance:

The location of work performance during periodic maintenance visits and service calls will be:

James J. Peters VA Medical Center 130 W. Kingsbridge Rd.

Room 5F-34 Research Building Bronx, NY 10468

5. Scope of Work or Tasks:

The contractor shall respond to requests for service by telephone or email within three (3) hours during normal business hours. Delivery of dry ice should be the next business day or on an agreed upon delivery day with the VA staff placing the order. Any expected delivery delays or product shortages should be brought to the attention of the VA as soon as possible and alternative solutions should be offered, ie. Another company provides delivery as a subcontractor of the contracting company.

6. Government-Furnished Property, Material, Equipment. or Information (GFP, GFM, GFE, or GFI):

No Government-Furnished Property will be provided to the contractor.

7. Security Considerations:

Field service technicians will be escorted by staff of the MIRECC/NIH Brain Tissue Repository or the Research Service.

8. Travel:

Service technicians are required to travel to equipment locations.

9. Special Material Requirements:

In the case of an industry wide dry ice shortage every effort must be made to find an acceptable supply of dry ice from an alternate vendor or delivery of a different quantity than ordered.

10. Any Other Requirements unique to the solicitation:

The contractor shall demonstrate a track-record of high-quality work in this field.

11. Information Security: The C&A requirements do not apply. A Security Accreditation Package is not required.

Description This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 12.6, “Streamlined Procedures for Evaluation and Solicitation for Commercial Items,” as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotations are being requested, and a written solicitation document will not be issued.

This solicitation is a request for quotations (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular FAC_2024-05 5-22-2024.

This solicitation is set-aside for: Unrestricted

The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 325120, with a small business size standard of 1,000 employees.

The FSC/PSC is 6830.

The James J. Peters VA Medical Center is requiring the brand name or equal to purchase of dry ice deliveries to process and maintain sample integrity. Reliable and timely delivery of dry ice in large quantities is an essential requirement of the MIRECC/NIH Brain and Tissue Repository Department. This will be a requirements contract with 5 Ordering Periods as follows:

This is a brand name or equal to requirement with the following specifications:

Specifications include:

· See FAR 52.212-1, “Instructions to Offerors–Commercial Products and Commercial Services” (Sep 2023)

The contractor should deliver dry ice by the next business day or on an agreed upon delivery day with the VA staff placing the order unless delayed by unforeseen circumstances.

Place of Performance/Place of Delivery

130 W. Kingsbridge Rd.

Bronx, NY

The full text of FAR provisions or clauses may be accessed electronically at http://acquisition.gov/comp/far/index.html.

The following solicitation provisions apply to this acquisition:

1. FAR 52.212-1, “Instructions to Offerors–Commercial Products and Commercial Services” (Sep 2023)

· The contractor shall respond to requests for service by telephone or email within three (3) hours during normal business hours.

· Delivery of dry ice should be the next business day or on an agreed upon delivery day with the VA staff placing the order.

· Any expected delivery delays or product shortages should be brought to the attention of the VA as soon as possible and alternative solutions should be offered, ie. Another company provides delivery as a subcontractor of the contracting company.

· Dry ice is required in pellet pieces sized ½ - ¾ inch per piece.

· Generally single orders of dry ice vary from 200lbs – 900lbs per delivery. Order frequency is also variable, with a historical average of 1-2 orders per week.

2. FAR 52.212-3, “Offerors Representations and Certifications– Commercial Products and Commercial Services” (Feb 2024)

Offerors must complete annual representations and certifications electronically via the System for Award Management (SAM) website located at https://www.sam.gov/portal in accordance with FAR 52.212-3, “Offerors Representations and Certifications–Commercial Items.” If paragraph (j) of the provision is applicable, a written submission is required.

The following contract clauses apply to this acquisition:

· FAR 52.212-4, “Contract Terms and Conditions– Commercial Products and Commercial Services” (Nov 2023)

· FAR 52.212-5, “Contract Terms and Conditions Required To Implement Statutes or Executive Orders—Commercial Products and Commercial Services” (Feb 2024)

The following subparagraphs of FAR 52.212-5 are applicable:

(a) The Contractor shall comply with the following Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) clauses, which are incorporated in this contract by reference, to implement provisions of law or Executive orders applicable to acquisitions of commercial items:

52.203-13, Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct (Nov 2021) 52.216-5 Price Redetermination-Prospective.

9/16/2025 12 Months 60 Days, 30 Days First month 52.216-18, Ordering (AUG 2020) 9/17/2024 through 9/16/2029 52.216-19, Order Limitations (OCT 1995) $2,000.00 $2,400.00 $100,00.00 180 days 3 days 52.216-21, Requirements (OCT 1995) 9/16/2029 52.222-3, Convict Labor (June 2003) 52.222-19, Child Labor-Cooperation with Authorities and Remedies (Feb 2024) 52.222-21, Prohibition of Segregated Facilities (Apr 2015) 52.222-26, Equal Opportunity (Sept 2016) (E.O.11246) 52.222-35, Equal Opportunity for Veterans (Jun 2020) (38 U.S.C. 4212) 52.222-36, Equal Opportunity for Workers with Disabilities (Jun 2020) (29 U.S.C. 793) 52.222-50, Combating Trafficking in Persons (Nov 2021) 52.223-18, Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging While Driving (Jun 2020) (E.O. 13513) 52.225-1, Buy American-Supplies (Oct 2022) (41 U.S.C. chapter 83) 52.225-2, Buy American Certificate (Oct. 2022) 52.232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer- System for Award Management (Oct 2018) 852.212-71 Gray Market and Counterfeit Items (Feb 2023) 52.225-2 Buy American Certificate.

Buy American Certificate (Oct 2022)

(a)(1) The Offeror certifies that each end product, except those listed in paragraph (b) of this provision, is a domestic end product and that each domestic end product listed in paragraph (c) of this provision contains a critical component.

(2) The Offeror shall list as foreign end products those end products manufactured in the United States that do not qualify as domestic end products. For those foreign end products that do not consist wholly or predominantly of iron or steel or a combination of both, the Offeror shall also indicate whether these foreign end products exceed 55 percent domestic content, except for those that are COTS items. If the percentage of the domestic content is unknown, select ‘‘no’’.

(3) The Offeror shall separately list the line item numbers of domestic end products that contain a critical component (see FAR 25.105).

(4) The terms ‘‘commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) item,’’ ‘‘critical component,’’ ‘‘domestic end product,’’ ‘‘end product,’’ and ‘‘foreign end product’’ are defined in the clause of this solicitation entitled ‘‘Buy American—Supplies.”

(b) Foreign End Products:

[List as necessary]

(c) Domestic end products containing a critical component:

Line item No.

[List as necessary]

(d) The Government will evaluate offers in accordance with the policies and procedures of part 25 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

All quoters, shall submit the following: 1 (one) copy.

All quotations shall be sent to Janelle.Bonafede@va.gov.

Award will be based upon a comparative evaluation of quotes in accordance with the Simplified Acquisition Procedures of FAR 13. Comparative evaluation is the side by side pairwise comparison of quotes based on factors resulting in a Contracting Officer decision for the quote most favorable to the Government.

52.212-2 EVALUATION

Comparative Evaluation Per FAR 13.106-2 Evaluation of quotations or offers, a comparative evaluation based on price and other factors will be conducted. Please provide such factors as warranty information, availability of expedited delivery, or any other factor differentiating your proposal from others that you believe should be considered and taken into account in comparing with other offers.

Additionally, if you’ re offering items that are not the brand name stated in this RFQ, please explain how your offered product meets or exceeds the capabilities of the brand name so those features can be fully considered and taken into account in comparison to any brand name offers.

Technical and past performance (responsibility check), when combined, are significantly more important than price.

Responsibility Check Prospective offerors are hereby notified that past performance will be evaluated via a “responsibility check” from any or all of the following:

· Federal Data Check (FedDataCheck)

· SAM.gov

· Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS),

· Dun and Bradstreet (D&B)

· Any other sources deemed appropriate to determine the Offeror’s ability to fulfill the requirements in this solicitation.

The following are the decision factors:

Award shall be made to the quoter, whose quotation, offers the best value to the government, considering technical capability, past performance, and price. The government will evaluate information based on the following evaluation criteria: (1) technical capability factor meeting or exceeding the requirement, (2) past performance, and (3) price.

The award will be made to the offer most advantageous to the Government.

Responses should contain your best terms, conditions.

To facilitate the award process, all quotes must include a statement regarding the terms and conditions herein as follows:

"The terms and conditions in the solicitation are acceptable to be included in the award document without modification, deletion, or addition."

OR

"The terms and conditions in the solicitation are acceptable to be included in the award document with the exception, deletion, or addition of the following:"

Quoters shall list exception(s) and rationale for the exception(s), if any.

Submission shall be received not later than 1300 hours EST 09/05/2024 to Janelle.Bonafede@va.gov. To be eligible for award, submissions must include a signed Buy American Certificate, including a statement that items are made in America and a signature. If items are not made in America, please fill out certificate accordingly and sign (see 52.225-2 Buy American Certificate in this document).

Late submissions shall be treated in accordance with the solicitation provision at FAR 52.212-1(f). e-mailed quotes will be accepted.

Any questions or concerns regarding this solicitation should be forwarded in writing via e-mail to Janelle Bonafede at Janelle.Bonafede@va.gov.

Point of Contact Janelle Bonafede Contracting Officer Network Contracting Office (NC02), Supply Team 1 Appletree Business Park 2875 Union Road Suite 3500 Cheektowaga, NY 14227 Office: 716-862-7461 ext. 24570 E-mail: Janelle.Bonafede@va.gov

Effective Date: 03/15/2023 Revision: 01