36C26122Q0102.pdf

36C26122Q0102 Research Study Recruitment Services

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; quotes are being requested, and a written solicitation document will not be issued.

This solicitation is issued as a Request for Quotes (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2021-07 Effective 09-10-2021.

This solicitation is set-aside for 100% Small Business.

The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 541990, with a small business size standard of $16,500,000.

The FSC/PSC is R499.

The VA Palo Alto Healthcare System located at 3801 Miranda Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304 is seeking to purchase research study recruitment services. The recruitment services include developing and managing a social media advertisement campaign for a research study. This research study’s target audience are Gulf War Veterans across the US.

All interested companies shall provide quotations for the following:

Services – Price Line Item

Line Item Description Quantity Unit of Measure

Unit Price

Total Price

0001 Research study recruitment campaign design, management, and support services

12 MONTH

See Attachment 1 – Statement of Work for designated tasks and expected outcomes.

The purchase order period of performance is 01 January 2022 – 21 December 2022.

Place of Performance: All work shall be completed at the contractor’s facility.

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:

FAR 52.204-7 – System for Award Management (Oct 2018) FAR 52.204-16 – Commercial and Government Entity Code Reporting (Aug 2020) FAR 52.204-20 – Predecessor of Offeror (Aug 2020) FAR 52.204-17 – Ownership or Control of Offeror (Aug 2020) FAR 52.204-24 – Representation Regarding Certain Telecommunications and Video

Surveillance Services or Equipment (Oct 2020) FAR 52.204-26 – Covered Telecommunications Equipment or Services - Representation

FAR 52.212-1 – Instructions to Offerors–Commercial Items (Sep 2021)

FAR 52.212-3 – Offerors Representations and Certifications–Commercial Items (Feb 2021) FAR 52.222-22 – Previous Contracts and Compliance Reports (Feb 1999) FAR 52.222-25 – Affirmative Action Compliance (Apr 1984) FAR 52.252-5 – Authorized Deviations in Provisions (Nov 2020) VAAR 852.209-70 – Organizational Conflicts of Interest (Jan 2008) VAAR 852.252-70 – Solicitation Provisions or Clauses Incorporated by Reference (Jan 2008) VAAR 852.273-74 – Award without Exchanges (Nov 2021)

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 52.204-13 – System for Award Management Maintenance (Oct 2018) FAR 52.204-18 – Commercial and Government Entity Code Maintenance (Aug 2020) FAR 52.204-23 – Prohibition on Contracting for Hardware, Software, and Services

Developed or Provided by Kaspersky Lab and Other Covered Entities (Jul 2018) FAR 52.204-25 – Prohibition of Contracting for Certain Telecommunications and Video

Surveillance Services or Equipment (Aug 2020) FAR 52.209-10 – Prohibition on Contracting with Inverted Domestic Corporations (Nov

2015) FAR 52.212-4 – Contract Terms and Conditions–Commercial Items (Oct 2018)

FAR 52.212-5 – Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders (Sep 2021)

The following subparagraphs of FAR 52.212-5 are applicable:

(b)(14)(i) 52.219-6 Notice of Total Small Business Set Aside (Nov 2020) (b)(22)(i) 52.219-28 Post Award Small Business Program Representation (Sep 2020)

(b)(27) 52.222-3 Convict Labor (Jun 2003) (b)(29) 52.222-21 Prohibition of Segregated Facilities (Apr 2015) (b)(30)(i) 52.222-26 Equal Opportunity (Sep 2016) (b)(32)(i) 52.222-36 Equal Opportunity for Workers with Disabilities (Jun 2020) (b)(35)(i) 52.222-50 Combating Trafficking in Persons (Oct 2020) (b)(44) 52.223-18 Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging While Driving

(Jun 2020) (b)(58) 52.232-33 Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-System for Award Management

(Oct 2018)

FAR 52.217-8 – Option to Extend Services (Nov 1999) FAR 52.222-41 – Service Contract Labor Standards (Aug 2018) FAR 52.222-42 – Statement of Equivalent Rates for Federal Hires (May 2014) FAR 52.222-55 – Minimum Wages Under Executive Order 13658 (Nov 2020) FAR 52.222-62 – Paid Sick Leave Under Executive Order 13706 (Jan 2017) FAR 52.232-39 – Unenforceability of Unauthorized Obligations (Jun 2013) FAR 52.232-40 – Providing Accelerated Payments to Small Business Subcontractors (Dec

2013) FAR 52.233-3 – Protest after Award (Aug 1996) FAR 52.233-4 – Applicable Law for Breach of Contract Claim (Oct 2004) FAR 52.252-6 – Authorized Deviations in Clauses (Nov 2020) VAAR 852.203-70 – Commercial Advertising (Jan 2008) VAAR 852.232-72 – Electronic Submission of Payment Requests (Nov 2018) VAAR 852.270-1 – Representative of Contracting Officers (Jan 2008)

All quoters shall submit the following:

Quotes must be prepared in two parts consisting of a “Technical Approach” (Performance plan and Experience) and a separate section for “Pricing Information.” Each of the parts shall be separate and complete so that evaluation of each part can be accomplished independently.

Part One - Technical Approach:

(1) The technical approach must not contain any references to pricing. Resource information such as data concerning labor hours and categories, equipment, materials, subcontracts, should be included in so that the quoter’s understanding of the Scope of Work may be evaluated; however, any reference to pricing must not be included.

Pricing information will be submitted in a separate document.

(2) Factor 1 – Performance Plan – Provide the following:

a. Submit and explain a recruitment campaign or strategy that clearly addresses the deliverables in the Statement of Work and includes all the desired features outlined in the Statement of Work. Do not include general statements; general statements and promises may result in an unfavorable evaluation.

b. Submit evidence of meeting all the qualifications in the Statement of Work.

(3) Factor 2 – Experience – Provide the following:

a. Submit a maximum of five (5) contracts or projects that best demonstrates the quoter’s experience on recent, relevant contracts that are similar in size, scope, and complexity to this RFQ. Recent is defined as a contract that has been completed within the past five (5) years of the issue date for this RFQ or an ongoing contract or project where at least 6 months of performance has occurred. Relevant is defined as contracts or projects for marketing and recruitment services for research studies. Experience that is not recent or relevant will not be further evaluated.

b. The experience information shall include contract or project number, dates of performance, contract or project value, description of work, and point of contact information at a minimum.

Part Two - Pricing Information:

The pricing information will consist of the price schedule that includes a flat monthly rate. To submit the pricing information, fill out the price schedule located on Page 1 of this RFQ with the unit price and calculate the extended total.

Contractors must email their quote to Krystal Zoufaly at krystal.zoufaly@va.gov. Include the solicitation number in the subject line of the email. Any attachments must be readable using Microsoft Office or Adobe PDF. The size of the email is limited to 5 megabytes (MB) and multiple emails are allowable. Quotes must be submitted electronically and will not be accepted through fax or postal mail.

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.

The following are the decision factors:

1. Technical Approach - The quote will be evaluated to the extent to which it can meet or exceed the Government’s requirements as outlined in this RFQ and based on the required submission information.

2. Veterans Involvement - In accordance with Veterans Affairs Acquisition Regulation (VAAR) 852.215-70 (DEVIATION), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned and Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB) Evaluation Factors, the Government will assign evaluation credit for a Quoter (i.e., prime contractor) which is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) or a VOSB. To receive credit, an offeror must be registered and verified in Vendor Information Pages (VIP) database at time of quotation submission and at time of award (https://www.vip.vetbiz.va.gov/) and must meet federal small business size standards for the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this solicitation. Non-SDVOSB/VOSB quotations that use SDVOSBs or VOSBs as subcontractors will receive some consideration under this evaluation Factor. Quoters must state in their quotations the names of the SDVOSBs and VOSBs with whom they intend to subcontract and provide a brief description of the proposed subcontracts and the approximate dollar values of the proposed subcontracts. In addition, the proposed subcontractors must be registered and verified in the VetBiz.gov VIP database (https://www.vip.vetbiz.va.gov/) and must meet federal small business size standards for the NAICS code assigned to this solicitation at time of both quotation submission and at time of award.

3. Price – The Government will evaluate the total quoted price submitted in the price schedule; the price will be evaluated for fair and reasonableness.

The award will be made to the response 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 of your response shall be received not later than 5pm PT on 03 December 2021.

Any questions regarding this solicitation should be forwarded in writing via e-mail to the Point of Contact. Questions shall be received no later than 1pm PT on 23 November 2021.

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

Point of Contact

Krystal Zoufaly, Contract Specialist Email: krystal.zoufaly@va.gov