IFB Instructions to Bidders 3.08.2021.pdf

E.14 INSTRUCTIONS, CONDITIONS, AND OTHER STATEMENTS TO BIDDERS

1. CONTRACTING OFFICER POC:

Lissette Fernandez Email – lissette.fernandez @va.gov

2. CONTRACT SPECIALIST POC:

Lissette Fernandez

3. PRE-BID CONFERENCE / SITE VISIT:

a. An organized pre-bid conference and site visit have been scheduled for:

March 17, 2021 1:00 pm California time at the following facility and location:

LONG BEACH VA HEALTH CARE SYSTEM (LBVAHCS):

5901 East 7th Street, Bldg 164 Long Beach, CA 90822

b. Meeting Place: Building 5C – Police Station

600 Long Beach VAHCS MAP_.pdf

c. Badging: Badges shall be issued at this location and worn while on campus at all times. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early with anticipation of a large attendance and the badging processes.

d. Facilitator/Escorting - Mr. Janice Figueroa

e. Attendance is not mandatory; however, all interested bidders are encourage and expected to attend. No further site visits shall be scheduled.

f. Potential Offerors are responsible for reviewing the solicitation in its entirety prior to site visit. If the estimated POP is not feasible, attendees are encouraged to submit an RFI to the solicitation.

g. This site visit is NOT a Question and Answer Session. The Facilitator and VA employees DO NOT have the authority to answer verbal questions posed during the site walk.

See paragraph 4, for instructions for submitting RFI’s.

h. Pictures are authorized at the direction of the Facilitator/Escort only. Offerors shall not take photos in any patient or restricted areas.

i. All attendees are required to follow CDC guidance and social distancing guidelines with regards to COVID-19 prevention. Attendees are required to wear masks at all times at their own expense while on campus. With exception for medical justification, the attendees shall obtain prior approval a week before the site visit date.

j. The Site Visit Sign-In sheet will be published as an SF 30 Amendment.

mailto:justin.hicks@va.gov

k. Contractors are responsible for requesting access to intervening spaces or segments as needed. Government shall make access to interstitial available as applicable.

l. Attendees shall follow all directions given by Contracting and the COR/Facilitator while on this Site Visit.

4. REQUEST FOR INFORMATION:

a. All Requests for Information (RFIs) regarding this solicitation shall be received no later than: March 24, 2021, 12:00 p.m. PST.

b. ALL RFI’s shall be e-mail to Lissette.fernandez@va.gov.

c. Contracting reserves the right to respond to RFI’s at the Government’s discretion. The Government also reserves the right to consolidate questions and responses. Responses to RFI’s will only be accomplished through SF 30 amendments to the solicitation.

d. Zero solicitation RFI/questions via telephone calls or voicemails shall be considered or returned.

e. No questions shall be asked during this solicitation to the COR or any VA personnel other than the Contracting POC’s listed in this solicitation.

See paragraph 1 and 2.

f. Government emails are “For Official Use Only” (FOUO) – zero marketing/spam emails will be reviewed and may be blocked by Gov’t network systems.

5. BID CONTENTS:

Shall include the following:

a. Standard Form (SF) 1442: From solicitation with blocks 14-20c fully completed and endorsed. Bidder shall not fill in any blocks from “Award” section - blocks 21 on down.

b. Statement of Bid Items with Additives: Bid amount shall list at a minimum Material cost, Labor cost, Overhead, Profit and list in a separate line a Grand Total. This information is required and will be used for possible future modifications. The bids will be evaluated based on the Grand Total amount only.

See section A.4 to annotate bid offer.

c. Bid Guarantee/Bond SF 24: With a current version fully executed SF 24 Bid Bond document. See paragraph 8 for further details.

d. SF 30 Amendments: Posted with same solicitation with signing/acknowledging all solicitation SF 30 amendments. See paragraph 10 for further details.

e. Safety or Environmental violations and Experience Modification Rate (EMR): All Bidders shall include with their Bid, a complete past Safety and Environment record and current Experience Modification Rate. See paragraph 11 for further details.

f. VETS-4212 - Federal Contractor Veterans’ Employment Report: Bidders are required to provide a current verification of their annual submission VETS-4212 -mailto:dena.hallaren@va.gov

Federal Contractor Veterans’ Employment Report.

See paragraph 20 for further details.

g. All bid contents shall be combined into one single Adobe PDF file document in the order listed in paragraph 11, a-f. Bidder shall ensure to reduce the file size if larger than five (5) megabytes.

6. BID DUE DATE:

a. Submit One (1) digital copy of Bids contents no later than:

April 13, 2021, 12:00p.m. AZ Time.

b. Due to COVID-19 CDC GUIDANCE all bids shall be emailed

c. Bids shall be emailed directly to Lissette.fernandez@va.gov

d. Bids received after the time and date specified above, shall be rejected as late.

e. Due to Gov’t server security protocols and large bid attachments security/virus screening; bidders are responsible for submitting a timely bid per FAR definition to contracting POC’s email inbox by prescribe closing time.

7. PUBLIC BID OPENING:

a. Will be held on April 15, 2021, 1:00p.m. AZ Time

b. Bidders may join via MS TEAMS invite:

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting Or call in (audio only)

1-872-701-0185 - Phone Conference ID: 256 073 954#

8. OFFER GUARANTEE (BID BOND):

a. Referencing FAR 14.404-2(j) “When a bid guarantee is required and a bidder fails to furnish the guarantee in accordance with the requirements of the invitation for bids, the bid shall be rejected”.

b. Electronic/Digital Copies of the Bonding will be acceptable for bid opening so long as all other elements of the executed bond are present. See paragraph 12 for Bid Due Date and POC email for electronically submitting Bonding.

c. Further instructions for mailing the physical copy of the actual bonding, with the raised seal shall be provided at the time of pre-award phase. If apparent low bidder is unable to provide electronic and/or physical copy of Bonding, bidder will be ineligible for award.

d. Current SF 24 downloadable form can be located at:

https://www.gsa.gov/forms-library/bid-bond

9. PAYMENT AND PERFORMANCE BONDS:

If the contract will exceed $150,000 (see FAR 28.102-1 for lesser amount), the bidder to whom award is made will be required to furnish two bonds, a Payment mailto:Lissette.fernandez@va.gov https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_Y2IwYmFkNTMtY2JkZC00NGIxLWE2ODEtYWZhZjg4ZGY3NmQx%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22e95f1b23-abaf-45ee-821d-b7ab251ab3bf%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2253a55a55-fa1e-45ec-bf76-354dd43a8e41%22%7d https://www.gsa.gov/forms-library/bid-bond

Bond, SF 25A, and a Performance Bond, SF 25, each in the penal sum as noted in the solicitation.

10. AMENDMENTS:

All Amendments to the solicitation shall be acknowledged in the space provided in Block 19 of the SF1442 & SF 30 amendments by returning a signed copy of the amendment with the bid on the bid due date.

11. SAFETY OR ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATIONS AND EMR

a. All Bidders shall submit a complete past Safety and Environmental record.

“Complete” means the past Safety and Environmental record should include information from all states in which the bidder conducted business. Provide safety violations which have not been abated regardless of date of identification of the violation. The information will be reviewed such that the bidder has no more than three (3) serious, or one (1) repeat or one (1) willful Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or any Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violation(s) which have not been abated.

https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.html

b. All Bidders/Offerors shall submit a complete past Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Enforcement and Compliance History record (ECH). Provide all open ECH violations regardless of date of identification of the violation.

The information shall contain a self-certification that the bidder/offeror has no more than three (3) serious, or one (1) repeat or one (1) willful OSHA or any EPA open (which have not been abated) violation(s) in the past three years. The term “past three years” means three years prior to the time of bid submission. If such certification cannot be made, a Bidder/Offeror shall explain why and submit as much information as possible regarding the circumstances of its past safety and environmental record, including the number of EPA violations and/or the number of serious, repeat, and/or willful OSHA violations, along with a detailed description of those violations.

https://echo.epa.gov/facilities/enforcement-case-search/results

c. All Bidders/Offerors shall submit information regarding their current Experience Modification Rate (EMR). This information shall be obtained from the Bidder’s/Offeror’s insurance carrier and be furnished on the insurance carrier’s letterhead. If a Bidder/Offeror’s EMR is above 1.0, Bidder/Offeror shall submit a written explanation of the EMR from its insurance carrier furnished on the insurance carrier’s letterhead, describing the reasons for the elevated EMR and the anticipated date the EMR may be reduced to 1.0 or below.

d. Self-insured contractors or other contractors that cannot provide their EMR rating on insurance letterhead shall obtain a rating from the National Council on Compensation Insurance, Inc. (NCCI) by completing/submitting form ERM- 6 and providing the rating on letterhead from NCCI. Note: Self-insured contractors or other contractors that cannot provide EMR rating on insurance letterhead from the states or territories of CA, DE, MI, NJ, ND, OH, PA, WA, WY, and PR shall obtain their EMR rating from their state-run worker’s compensation insurance rating bureau.

https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.html https://echo.epa.gov/facilities/enforcement-case-search/results Kegowicz, Kimberly A. (OGC) I think we should further define “open” in this paragraph – does it also mean that it has not been abated as in the paragraph above? Also we should further define “past three years”….

e. Failure to submit the information required in this section shall result in a finding of bid non-responsiveness.

12. REPRESENTATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS:

a. This solicitation requires registration with the System for Award Management

(SAM) pursuant to applicable regulations and guidelines. All bidders shall also complete an electronic annual representations and certifications.

Registration information can be found at www.sam.gov. Bidders are strongly encouraged to check the SAM Gov website frequently to update as needed their SAM profile information and to ensure their firm’s information is current and not expired.

b. Bidders are required to provide a current annual verification of their submission of the annual form VETS-4212, Federal Contractor Veterans’ Employment Report. This verification shall be a copy of the DOL’s emailed confirmation of receipt notification sent to the bidder after successful submission of your firm’s report. Instructions and form can be located at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/vets/programs/vets4212

c. This solicitation is 100% Set-Aside for Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). Public Law 109-461, 38 USC Sec. 8127 provides SDVOSB and VOSB Set Aside authority to the VA. Businesses shall be registered and verified in the VIP database at Vendor Information Pages (VetBiz).

13. PAYMENT VENDOR FILE

Prospective Offerors are notified that verification of VA Form 10091 and the W-9 sent directly to the paying office in Austin, TX, shall be submitted with the offer unless the offeror has previously submitted these forms to VA Austin and provides certification of previous work. The FMS Vendor File Update form needs to be submitted in all cases to the Contracting Officer as part of the offer or proposal. Prior information sent to the VA Payment Center in Austin does not preclude submittal of the FMS Vendor File Update form.

Failure to include this information could preclude the offeror from consideration for award or considerably delay award.

Reference Section D.1 attachments.

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http://www.sam.gov/ https://www.dol.gov/agencies/vets/programs/vets4212