36C79123R0005 0001.docx

DOCX document 25 KB Posted May 2, 2023

Attached to: 6515--Assistive Listening Devices Recompete (VA-23-00038299)
Solicitation number: 36C79123R0005
Issued by: Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration Veterans Integrated Service Network 19

About this file

Written by GovTribe AI · Dec 30, 2023

This solicitation seeks proposals for assistive listening devices and related products and services. The Department of Veterans Affairs intends to award multiple IDIQ contracts to responsible offerors submitting proposals meeting requirements. Awards will be made on a lowest price technically acceptable basis to proposals rated acceptable under evaluation factors for price, technical acceptability, and past performance. Price evaluation will involve reviewing pricing schedules for the base year and four option years to determine lowest total evaluated price by contract line item number. Technical evaluation will assess business documentation, product literature and warranties, and product samples against minimum requirements. The solicitation includes twelve contract line item numbers for categories of assistive listening devices, signaling systems, telephones, tinnitus devices, and related accessories. Proposals must be submitted by the closing date of May 5, 2023. Award is targeted for June 2023.

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Other files

File	Type	Posted
36C79123R0005 0002.docx	DOCX document	May 8, 2023
Attachment 4 - Key Points of Contact.docx	DOCX document	Apr 21, 2023
Attachment 1 - ALD Price Schedule 1 - Final.xlsx	XLSX spreadsheet	Apr 21, 2023
Attachment 9 -Box.com Download Example.png	PNG image	Apr 21, 2023
Attachment 5 - Quarterly Invoice Report Template.xlsx	XLSX spreadsheet	Apr 21, 2023
Attachment 8 _ Past Performance Questionnaire.docx	DOCX document	Apr 21, 2023
Attachment 7 - ALD QASP.docx	DOCX document	Apr 21, 2023
36C79123R0005.docx	DOCX document	Apr 21, 2023
Attachment 6 - Contractor Discrepancy Report.docx	DOCX document	Apr 21, 2023
Attachment 2 - Detailed Product Information for Contract Line Item.docx	DOCX document	Apr 21, 2023
Attachment 3 - Small Business Subcontract Plan.docx	DOCX document	Apr 21, 2023

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5. PROJECT NUMBER (if applicable)

CODE

7. ADMINISTERED BY

2. AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION NUMBER

CODE

6. ISSUED BY

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR

4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NUMBER

3. EFFECTIVE DATE

9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION NUMBER

9B. DATED

PAGE OF PAGES

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NUMBER

10B. DATED

BPA NO.

1. CONTRACT ID CODE

FACILITY CODE

CODE

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods:

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in Item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers

E. IMPORTANT:

is extended,

(a) By completing Items 8 and 15, and returning __________ copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted; or (c) By separate letter or electronic communication which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY is not extended.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA

(REV. 11/2016)

is required to sign this document and return ___________ copies to the issuing office.

is not, A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE CONTRACT ORDER NO. IN ITEM 10A.

15C. DATE SIGNED

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment you desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by letter or electronic communication, provided each letter or electronic communication makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER

Contractor

16C. DATE SIGNED

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION

16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in Item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER

16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER

15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR

STANDARD FORM 30

PREVIOUS EDITION NOT USABLE

Prescribed by GSA - FAR (48 CFR) 53.243 (Type or print) (Type or print) (Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible.)

(Number, street, county, State and ZIP Code) (If other than Item 6) (Specify type of modification and authority) (such as changes in paying office, appropriation date, etc.)

(If required)

(SEE ITEM 11)

(SEE ITEM 13)

(X)

CHECK

ONE

13. THIS ITEM APPLIES ONLY TO MODIFICATIONS OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS,

IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT

(Signature of person authorized to sign) (Signature of Contracting Officer) Department of Veterans Affairs Commodities & Services Acquisition Svc (003B6E) 555 Corporate Circle Golden

80401-5621 Department of Veterans Affairs Commodities & Services Acquisition Svc (003B6E) 555 Corporate Circle Golden

80401-5621 To all Offerors/Bidders

36C79123R0005 04-21-2023

X x x

The purpose of this amendment is to publish questions and answers to the interested parties that the VA has received so far.

All questions and concerns are due by close of business May 5, 2023 at 15:00 MDT.

All other solicitation language, terms, conditions, and provisions remain the same.

Bradley Geghan Contracting Officer

VA-OPAL-2023-0031

CONTINUATION PAGE

Questions and Answers 36C79123R0005 Date: 5/2/2023 *The answers to questions do not themselves change the terms of the solicitation and that any changes to the terms of the solicitation are expressly and separately indicated as such.

Will any preference or priority be given to SDVOSBs or other socioeconomic statuses when determining awards? If so, what is the preference and how will it be applied when determining awards?

VA has issued this solicitation as Full and Open competition, with Lowest Price Technical Acceptability, no other considerations will be given.

On p.5 of the solicitation, it states "Products will be ordered using the DLC's Remote Order Entry System (ROES) and will be shipped directly to the clinic or the Veteran." Similarly, on p. 44 it states “The government may issue orders requiring delivery to multiple destinations or performance at multiple locations.” Can you please clarify if the VA intends to move away from its current method of placing bulk orders for shipping to 1 location, and instead asking contractors to ship individual items directly to clinics and/or Veterans? The unit cost for contractors (and in turn the VA) to do this would be much higher, so we feel the need to clarify if we should be building that increased cost into the prices we quote.

In regards to the statement, "Products will be ordered using the DLC's Remote Order Entry System (ROES) and will be shipped directly to the clinic or the Veteran,“ this is an internal method of handling supplies and does not affect the offeror. VA intends to do bulk orders with awardees with shipping direct to the Denver Logistics Center located at 555 Corporate Drive, Golden, CO 80401. However, VA reserves the right to request shipping to a clinician or Veteran on rare occasions as required by program.

One of the minimum technical requirements for CLIN 0001 Radio Frequency TV Amplification Devices is "Minimum continuous listening on a single charge of at least 12 hours". We are aware of only 1 product on the market that can meet this spec as currently written and it is made in China. Because it seems unlikely anyone would want or need to watch TV for 12 hours straight without taking a break, we feel it would be in the VA's best interest to remove or amend this requirement. Leaving the requirement as is would completely eliminate competition in this category & lead to only 1 made in China product being awarded. Would the VA consider either removing this requirement or lowering the # of hours required to something like 8 in order to open up competition? If not, would a device that comes with 2 rechargeable batteries, where 1 is powering the device while the other charges, and those batteries combined offer more than 12 hours of listening time be considered by the VA to technically meet the requirement of offering 12 hours of continuous listening?

VA requires CLN 0001 Radio Frequency TV Amplification Devices and therefor this will not be removed from solicitation. VA has identified there are more than just Chinese made products.

One of the minimum technical requirements for CLIN 0001 Radio Frequency TV Amplification Devices is "Minimum continuous listening on a single charge of at least 12 hours". There are wireless TV speakers on the market that can actively be used while also being plugged in & charging, but that don’t “technically” allow for 12 hours continuous listening if you were to remove them from the charger. Since you can theoretically use the speaker for an indefinite period of time, would the VA consider this to technically meet the requirement of offering 12 hours of continuous listening?

VA requires the proposed item to meet the minimum technical requirement of section B.2.1.6. The offeror shall meet the minimum technical requirements.

Many of the minimum technical requirements mention "desired features" that aren't required. Since the basis for award is "Lowest Price Technically Acceptable" is there any advantage given to bids that offer items with desired - but not required - features?

VA requires proposed items to meet the minimum technical requirements per contract line item (CLN). Refer to Section E.2 for evaluation criteria on minimum technical requirements per CLN. There is no advantage given to proposals with desired features as this evaluation will be conducted using lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA).

If multiple items are submitted for evaluation under the same CLIN that meet the minimum technical requirements, but only 1 of those items is made in the US or a TAA country, will the VA then only consider awarding the item made in the US or TAA country? Or would the VA still award items not made in a TAA country in order to achieve its goal of having up to 4 awards per CLIN?

VA will evaluate in accordance to Section E.2. Offeror should review all clauses and sections E.10 p.92, E.11 p.93, and E.12 p. 95-96 to appropriately address the Buy American (domestic end products), and Trade Agreement Act (designated country end products) information in their proposal. Non-designated country products (i.e. China products), are ineligible for award unless there were no offers of U.S.-made or designated country-end products and a non-availability determination is issued.

What does a “Commercial Price List” need to include from a nonmanufacturer (distributor)? Would a list of items we are bidding and their MSRPs be sufficient? If not, can you provide more detail what exactly you mean by a “Commercial Price List” and what information would be required from a nonmanufacturer bidding items from multiple manufacturers?

Refer to E.1.1.4 Factor 1, Price: Offeror shall provide one copy of its current published Commercial Price List (dated or otherwise identified) commercial descriptive catalogs and/or pricelist from which discounts are offered that demonstrates the products are available commercially. If the product is provided on the Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) then submit a copy of the FSS product list. Manufacture Suggested Retail Price Lists are sufficient.

On Attachment 1, what is the purpose of the Summary tab? Will the Summary tab or individual CLIN tabs be used in the pricing evaluations? In instances where pricing for the same item doesn’t match on the Summary tab vs. CLIN tab have prices that don’t match, which pricing will take precedence?

The Summary Tab on Attachment 1, is a listing of the Contract Line Items to be proposed on. The following line items tabs is where the offeror will submit their products in reference to the summary tab. The offeror may have more than one product per line item tab. The offeror shall fill in the line items tabs appropriately to products proposed and then provide cumulative totals on summary tab CLNs.

On p.17 of the solicitation it states “Items supplied under the contract shall be individually commercially packaged with Serial Number indicated on the outer individual item box.” If an item is not normally serialized by the manufacturer, and that item is selected for award, does this requirement still apply? Will the manufacturer or distributor then have to begin serializing the item in order to meet this requirement?

VA requires the products to be serialized as stated in the solicitation under Section B.2.3.2 Shipping

Q10

On p. 97 of the solicitation it states “The Government will consider for award only offers of U.S.-made or designated country end products unless the Contracting Officer determines that there are no offers for such products or that the offers for those products are insufficient to fulfill the requirements of this solicitation.” In the event that both a U.S.-made product & designated country end product are both bid into the same CLIN, will the U.S.-made product be treated the exact same as the designated country end product in terms of evaluation & award? In other words, are these 2 designations treated equally or does a U.S.-made product carry more weight than a designated country end product?

A10

For evaluation and award, VA gives the same consideration to U.S. made products as to designated country end products.

Q11

We are trying to understand how 2 of the contractual requirements interact, and whether one takes precedence over the other. On p. 47 it states we must agree to “supply the product of a domestic small business manufacturer or processor” unless a waiver is granted. On several pages it also mentions that FAR 52.225-5 Trade Agreements is part of the solicitation. If we offer a product made in China and offered by a U.S. based domestic small business, and we separately offer a product under the same CLIN made in Mexico (TAA compliant) but offered by an international large business, how would both offers be treated in relation to one another?

A11

See response to answer number 6

Q12

We are confused by the separation of CLINs 002-004 and feel it would make more sense to combine into a single CLIN. If kept as separate CLINs, the VA may accidentally end up awarding multiple items that aren’t compatible with each other. CLIN 0002 won’t serve its function of alerting you to smoke and/or carbon monoxide unless you also have at least one compatible item from CLINs 0003 or 0004. Similarly, CLINs 00003 and 0004 are useless unless you also have a compatible receiver from CLIN 0002 that can actually alert you when those devices go off. The other issue relates to compatibility. For example the VA could award Brand X Tabletop/Bedside Receiver, Brand Y Smoke Detector and Brand Z Carbon Monoxide detector. In this case, none of the items would be compatible with each other. If the VA intends to always order CLIN 0002 together with CLIN 0003 and/or 0004, we highly recommend these CLINs be combined and then any non-required items would be listed as an accessory.

A12

VA will consider the recommendation.

Q13

Historically there has been a preference/priority given to SDVOSB’s (not as a set-aside) on the ALD contract – will any preference or priority be given to SDVOSBs or other socioeconomic statuses on this current RFP when determining awards?

A13

See response to question 1.

Q14

Attachment 1 for price proposals is a bit confusing. Where we have multiple products per category, should we duplicate the appropriate tab and duplicate the summary rows for the base year and all four option years?

a.This same information is then submitted on the pages (section B.3.1-12) in the appropriate volume for submission, duplicated for each product bid as needed, correct?

A14

Attachment 1 proposed items should match B.3 Schedule of Items. Duplication for each product is acceptable.

Q15

Where no products meet the BAA/TAA requirement in a specific category, will a waiver be granted or will the entire CLIN be eliminated?

a. For accessory lines, most parts are imported from China – will a waiver be granted for important accessories in order to best meet the needs of the VA and end users?

A15

VA will evaluate in accordance to Section E.2. If VA evaluates and awards a product that does not meet BAA or TAA, then a Non-Availability Waiver may be sought. VA reserves the right to not award a CLN.

Q16

CLINS 0003/0004 – Where multiple products are offered by one vendor in this category, how would you like compatibility identified? (i.e. Transmitter X (CLINS 0003/0004) will only work with Receiver Y (CLIN 0002) – systems are not cross-compatible) since these are not being bid as an accessory but instead a base product.

a. In the event of a multiple award in these categories, how will products be clearly labeled for use with X receiver to prevent avoidable issues in product satisfaction and customer complaints?

b. Historically the signaling category has had a base product (receiver + bed shaker) and all available transmitters listed as an accessory in order to manage this. Would you still like the smoke/carbon monoxide detectors included on the accessory lines of their respective receiver (base product on CLIN 0002)?

A16

VA asks that you identify in Attachment 2 - The Product Detail Form, which CLN and or sub CLN is compatible. A. Upon award VA will work with awardee to clearly identify product compatibility in ROES to prevent avoidable issues. B. Refer to Section B.2.1.6 Minimum Technical Requirements CLN 002 to CLN 004 are the same category. Complete Attachment 1 - CLN 004 Carbon Monoxide Detector/Alarm/Transmitter.

Q17

The submission requirements for Volume 1 include the QASP Attachment 7, however, that document does not have any fields that need to be completed and appears to outline the specifics of this new requirement – what specifically needs to be included for this requirement to be met for submission? Are you looking for a confirmation that we have read and agree to this program as it is outlined in Attachment 7?

A17

Refer to B.2.4.7 Quality Assurance and Surveillance Plan, the contractor is not required to submit or acknowledge the QASP at time of proposal.

Q18

For the commercial price list section, specifically referring to the FSS contract pricing, if an item being bid is on an FSS contract but is NOT a contract held by the offeror, does this information still need to be included in our bid? For example, if the manufacturer has an FSS contract that includes their product(s), and we, as a distributor, are bidding on their behalf – do we need to include their FSS pricing in our offer?

A18

See response to answer 7

Q19

Will the Bluetooth Pre-Loaded MP4 Player with speakers in pillow below the head quality as a Base Unit under category 7? The system has speakers below the head/below ear level – and is not an in the ear listening device which is literally at ear level. The player itself sits on the table top/night stand.

A19

See answer to question 5

Bradley Geghan Contracting Officer

File details come from the government source that posted it. Updated May 2, 2023.