Attachment B - QASP VISN 4 Court Reporting.pdf

Contract Description: Contractor shall provide court reporting stenography transcription services to the VISN 4 Department of Veteran Affairs facilities.

Contractor’s Name: To Be Determined

The contractor will be evaluated in accordance with the following:

1. PURPOSE

This Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) provides a systematic method to evaluate performance for the stated contract. This QASP explains the following:

• What will be monitored?

• How monitoring will take place.

• Who will conduct the monitoring?

• How monitoring efforts and results will be documented.

This QASP does not detail how the contractor accomplishes the work. Rather, the QASP is created with the premise that the contractor is responsible for management and quality control actions to meet the terms of the contract. It is the Government’s responsibility to be objective, fair, and consistent in evaluating performance.

This QASP is a “living document” and the Government may review and revise it on a regular basis. However, the Government shall coordinate changes with the contractor through contract modification. Copies of the original QASP and revisions shall be provided to the contractor and Government officials implementing surveillance activities.

2. GOVERNMENT ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The following personnel shall oversee and coordinate surveillance activities.

a. Contracting Officer (CO) – The CO shall ensure performance of all necessary actions for effective contracting, ensure compliance with the contract terms, and shall safeguard the interests of the United States in the contractual relationship. The CO shall also assure that the contractor receives impartial, fair, and equitable treatment under this contract. The CO is ultimately responsible for the final determination of the adequacy of the contractor’s performance.

Assigned CO: To Be Determined Organization or Agency: Network Contracting Office (NCO) 04, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

b. Program Point of Contact (POC) – The POC is responsible for technical administration of the contract and shall assure proper Government surveillance of the contractor’s performance. The POC shall keep a quality assurance file. The POC is not empowered to make any contractual commitments or to authorize any contractual changes on the Government’s behalf.

Assigned POC (Temporarily): Will be determined after award Organization or Agency: VISN 4 Department of Veteran Affairs

c. Project Manger (PM) – The PM will be responsible for ensuring compliance with all contract requirements. They will manage the contract files and work with the POC and contracting if any issues are reported.

Assigned PM: Will be determined after award.

Organization or Agency: VISN 4 Department of Veteran Affairs

3. CONTRACTOR REPRESENTATIVES

The following employee(s) of the contractor serve as the contractor’s program manager(s) for this contract.

Primary: To Be Determined

Alternate: To Be Determined

4. PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

The contractor is responsible for performance of ALL terms and conditions of the contract. POCs will provide contract progress reports quarterly to the CO reflecting performance on this plan and all other aspects of the resultant contract. The performance standards outlined in this QASP shall be used to determine the level of contractor performance in the elements defined. Performance standards define desired services. The Government performs surveillance to determine the level of Contractor performance to these standards.

The Performance Requirements are listed below in Section 5. The Government shall use these standards to determine contractor performance and shall compare contractor performance to the standard and assign a rating. At the end of the performance period, these ratings will be used, in part, to establish the past performance of the contractor on the contract.

5. METHODS OF QA SURVEILLANCE

The methods of surveillance listed below shall be used in the administration of the QASP.

Contractor supplied certifications – Contractor shall supply proof of required certifications for all personnel to be assigned to any of our cases.

Invoice Review – When invoices are received by the POC he will verify that the contractor assigned transcriptionist has the required certification on file.

Contractor Quality Checks – Quality Checks shall be conducted as specified in Table 1.1 below. These reviews shall be conducted by contractor staff. They shall not be conducted solely by using software or other electronic review technology. This process will be detailed by the contractor in their quality assurance plan.

Requests from Presiding Official for any case– If errors or discrepancies are presented by the presiding official on any case that require corrections the standard listed in Table 1.1 below will need followed.

Program POC Feedback – The Program POC will advise the Project Manager at any time the general requirements in table 1.1 below are not met. These can be sent in the form of an email from the POC to the PM. The PM will notify contracting and keep a summary log of all formally received complaints/ incidents as well as a copy of each complaint email in a documentation file.

Customer Feedback – Customer feedback may be obtained from random customer.

complaints. Customer complaints, to be considered valid, must set forth clearly and in writing the detailed nature of the complaint, must be signed and forwarded to the POC. The POC shall forward to the Project Manager who will notify contracting and maintain a summary log of all formally received customer complaints/incidents as well as a copy of each complaint in a documentation file.

Task ID Indicator Standard Acceptable

Quality Level

Method of Surveillance Incentive/Penalty

General Requirements

Sect 2 Program POC and Presiding Official

The Contractor shall ensure they have the personnel, equipment, software, and scheduling capabilities to meet all listed requirements. They shall ensure all formatting requirements are followed. They shall ensure transcripts are received within the time frame specified.

100% Program POC Feedback and Customer Feedback

Negative past performance rating and may not continue services.

Corrections Para.

2.f & 2.g

Contractor Personnel

Contractor shall ensure that if the presiding official for any case determines there are errors or discrepancies require corrections that they supply them in the timeframe specified in the requirements.

100%

Requests from Presiding Official for any case

Contractor will be given the first right to make the corrections requested at no charge to the VA.

If the contractor is unable to make the corrections or re-perform the VA or VA designated 3rd party can do so at the contractor’s expense.

Negative Past Performance Rating for failure to comply.

Certifications / Invoices

Para.

3.e, 6.b, 6.c

Contractor shall supply proof of required certifications prior to any services being rendered.

Contractor supplied certifications.

Invoice Reviews

If we do not have the certification for the assigned transcriptionist payment will be held until the required proof of certification is provided.

Negative Past Performance Rating for Failure to Comply

Post Recording of Sworn Testimony

Para.

4.2

Contractor shall provide transcripts within requested time

100% Program POC Feedback and Customer Feedback

Price Reduction per Para 4.2

Negative Past Performance Rating for Failure to Comply

Quality Control

Para.

Contractor shall provide reviews and quality checks necessary to ensure no transcripts will be forwarded to the government until the quality checks reveal full format, conformance, clarity, and freedom of error.

Contractor Quality Checks

Negative past performance rating and may not continue services.

6. RATINGS

Metrics and methods are designed to determine rating for a given standard and acceptable quality level. The following ratings shall be used:

EXCEPTIONAL: Performance meets contractual requirements and exceeds many to the Government’s benefit. The contractual performance of the element or sub-element being assessed was accomplished with few minor problems for which corrective actions taken by the contractor were highly effective.

VERY GOOD: Performance meets contractual requirements and exceeds some to the Government’s benefit. The contractual performance of the element or sub-element being assessed was accomplished with some minor problems for which corrective actions taken by the contractor were effective.

SATISFACTORY: Performance meets contractual requirements. The contractual performance of the element or sub-element contains some minor problems for which corrective actions taken by the contractor appear or were satisfactory.

MARGINAL: Performance does not meet some contractual requirements. The contractual performance of the element or sub-element being assessed reflects a serious problem for which the contractor has not yet identified corrective actions. The contractor’s proposed actions appear only marginally effective or were not fully implemented.

UNSATISFACTORY: Performance does not meet most contractual requirements and recovery is not likely in a timely manner. The contractual performance of the element or sub-element being assessed contains serious problem(s) for which the contractor’s corrective actions appear or were ineffective.

7. DOCUMENTING PERFORMANCE

a. The Government shall document positive and/or negative performance. Any report may become a part of the supporting documentation for any contractual action and preparing annual past performance using

CONTRACTOR PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT REPORT (CPAR).

b. If contractor performance does not meet the Acceptable Quality level, the CO shall inform the contractor.

This will normally be in writing unless circumstances necessitate verbal communication. In any case the CO shall document the discussion and place it in the contract file. When the POC, PM and the CO determines formal written communication is required, the PM shall prepare a Contract Discrepancy Report (CDR), and present it to the POC and CO. The CO will in turn will review and present to the contractor's program manager for corrective action.

The contractor shall acknowledge receipt of the CDR in writing. The CDR will specify if the contractor is required to prepare a corrective action plan to document how the contractor shall correct the unacceptable performance and avoid a recurrence. The CDR will also state how long after receipt the contractor has to present this corrective action plan to the CO. The Government shall review the contractor's corrective action plan to determine acceptability. The CO shall also assure that the contractor receives impartial, fair, and equitable treatment. The CO is ultimately responsible for the final determination of the adequacy of the contractor’s performance and the acceptability of the Contractor’s corrective action plan.

Any CDRs may become a part of the supporting documentation for any contractual action deemed necessary by the CO. See Sample CDR below.

CONTRACT DISCREPANCY REPORT

1. CONTRACT NUMBER 2. REPORT NUMBER FOR THIS

DISCREPANCY

3. TO: (Contracting Officer) 4. FROM: (Name of POC)

5. DATES

a. CDR PREPARED b. RETURNED BY

CONTRACTOR:

c. ACTION COMPLETE

6. DISCREPANCY OR PROBLEM (Describe in detail. Include reference to PWS Directive; attach continuation sheet if necessary.)

7. SIGNATURE OF POC Date:

8. SIGNATURE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER Date:

9a. TO (Contracting Officer) 9a. FROM (Contractor)

10. CONTRACTOR RESPONSE AS TO CAUSE, CORRECTIVE ACTION AND ACTIONS TO

PREVENT RECURRENCE. (Cite applicable quality control program procedures or new procedures. Attach continuation sheet(s) if necessary.)

11. SIGNATURE OF CONTRACTOR REPRESENTATIVE Date:

12. GOVERNMENT EVALUATION. (Acceptance, partial acceptance, reflection. Attach continuation sheet(s) if necessary.)

13. GOVERNMENT ACTIONS (Acceptance, partial acceptance, reflection. Attach continuation sheet(s) if necessary.)

14. CLOSE OUT

NAME TITLE SIGNATURE DATE

CONTRACTOR

NOTIFIED

POC

CONTRACTING OFFICER

8. FREQUENCY OF MEASUREMENT

a. Frequency of Measurement. The frequency of measurement is defined in the contract or otherwise in this document. The government (POC, PM or CO) will periodically analyze whether the frequency of surveillance is appropriate for the work being performed.

b. Frequency of Performance Reporting. The PM shall work with the POC to complete an annual performance report at the end of each funding period (or if POC and PM determine if the amount of issues warrant additional reporting) to be submitted to CPARS.

9. PM, POC AND CONTRACTOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF QASP

SIGNED:

Program Point of Contact (POC)

Project Manager (PM)

Contractor Representative