RFI Questions and Responses 1 - 36C25524R0071.pdf

Colmery-O’Neil Veterans’ Administration Hospital

Topeka, Kansas

Project: 36C25524R0071 Topeka JOC

Government’s Response to RFI’s

1. Page 21 of the solicitation, 3. Content of Proposals states “……..in addition, offerors are to provide proof of bonding capacity in the form of a letter from their surety indicating bonding capacity per task order and aggregate (in addition complete attachment 3).” Box 13b of the 1442 states that an offer guarantee “IS” required. Please clarify.

The Government is requiring the Prime Contractors to submit a letter from a surety provider that provides assurances to the Government that the entity submitting the letter has been underwritten and is pre-approved for a bonding capacity necessary to cover each individual task order up to $500,000.00 and the cumulative of the JOC as a whole up to $20,000,000.00.

2. Will the task orders issued under the JOC be eligible for tax exempt status? Yes, tax exempt certificates will be issued for task orders under this JOC contract. FAR 52.229-3: Federal, State and Local Taxes:

Offerors are hereby notified that under Kansas Stat. Ann. 79-3606, all sales of tangible personal property or services purchased by a contractor for construction projects for the government of the United States, its agencies or instrumentalities, that would be exempt from taxation if purchased directly by the government of the United States, its agencies or instrumentalities is exempt from state and local sales tax or compensating tax. Therefore, the contractor’s purchase of such building and construction materials within the State of Kansas to be incorporated into buildings or other projects belonging to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are exempt from Kansas Sales and Compensating Tax. To take advantage of the tax exemption, the VA will furnish to the contractor at award a Project Exemption Certificate for the project involved, and the contractor may present this certificate when it purchases materials for incorporation into such project.

Notwithstanding FAR 52.229-3, all bids received in response to this solicitation are presumed to reflect this tax exemption, and therefore should not include Kansas State or Local sales tax or Compensating tax on sales of materials for incorporation into a VA project under this contract.

3. Factor 4 (a) states, “Contractors may submit completed Past Performance Questionnaires in support of this evaluation factor.” Can you clarify if PPQs are either not required as the contractors “may” submit is specified as opposed to “shall” submit OR is the criteria that PPQs are required, but the contractors “may” submit past PPQs not specific to this solicitation for evaluation? Past Performance Questionnaires (PPQs) are not required. The Government is stating that contractors are permitted to submit/use completed PPQs to demonstrate relevant past performance history for this factor.

Acceptable PPQs shall be specific to this solicitation for evaluation.

Please reference Factor 4: Past Performance (c), The submitted construction projects must be relevant to medical center construction projects. In assessing relevancy, the Government will evaluate an offeror's references for similarity of the construction methods to be completed under the scope of this solicitation, multi-discipline or specialized areas, the scope/type of contracts/projects, and the cost magnitude of projects as it relates to price……

4. If PPQs are required, can CPARS be utilized in their place? This question has been answered in response #2.

5. If PPQs are required, Would the VA consider the submission of previously completed PPQs in lieu of obtaining a new one from our clients who have completed them for us on multiple occasions? No

6. Can additional pages be added to the Volume 2 above the 50 pages? Some required documents such as Reps and Certs make the page limit difficult to comply with. Can the limit move to 75 pages? Please reference section 2. Format of Proposals (c) Proposal Limitations, which states, The proposal shall not exceed the limits stated above (50 pages). If the page limits are exceeded, the proposal may be determined as non-responsive and cannot be considered for award. The Government will not accept any changes to the contractor’s proposal after the closing date of the solicitation (See FAR 15.208 for further information regarding late proposals).

Page limits include: All appendices, charts, graphs, diagrams, tables, photographs, drawings, etc.

Page limits do not include covers for volumes, tables of contents, indices, title pages, cross reference indices, and section dividers/tables if they are inserted solely to provide ease to the reader in locating parts/sections of the proposal. They will be counted if they contain any other information, i.e., diagrams, extraneous data, etc.

Pages marked “This page intentionally left blank” will not be counted.

In the event an Offeror creates an ambiguity in their numbering of pages, the Government may exercise its own discretion in counting pages.

7. Is the Vets 4212 required to be submitted within the document package? This solicitation is amended to state that the Vets 4212 is required to be submitted within the document package for consideration of contract award in accordance with Clause 52.222-37 Employment reports of Veterans of this solicitation.

8. The current due date listed is 10/6/2024, which is a Sunday. Can you confirm since the due date falls on a Sunday, the proposal is due on 10/7/2024 by 2 PM CDT? This solicitation is amended to change the proposal due date from 10/6/2024 to 10/7/2024 by 2:00Pm central standard time, since the initial due date falls on a Sunday.

9. Page 29 of 34 indicates ...provide "..projects which started within the last three (3) years that are construction complete" The other areas in the RFP indicate "performed in the last 5 years". Please confirm the allowable age of the projects featured in Factor 3.

Prime Contractors are required to submit construction projects which started within the last three (3) years that are construction complete and which closely match the nature of work described in the statement of work to demonstrate relevant experience for Factor #3.