Amendment 4 - Cover Letter - Amended RFP.pdf

U.S. General Services Administration

1800 F Street, NW

Washington DC 20405-0002 www.gsa.gov

May 10, 2023

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is pleased to provide the attached amended

Commercial Platform (CP) solicitation to those offerors who previously submitted a proposal under

Request for Proposal (RFP) 47QSCC23R0002.

The program seeks to provide commercial B2B online shopping capabilities for agency Government

Purchase Card (GPC) holders for the purchase of routine, commercial items. The solicitation package closely aligns with the Request for Proposal released on December 12, 2022, and strengthens a few key areas.

GSA strongly supports the AbilityOne program and its mission to create quality employment opportunities across all economic sectors for people who are blind or have significant disabilities. GSA has a collaborative relationship with the AbilityOne Commission and with the two Central NonProfit

Agencies (CNAs) designated by the Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) Act: the National Industries for the

Blind (NIB) and SourceAmerica. (Title 41 of the United States Code, Sections 8501- 8506)

In response to a protest filed by a coalition of plaintiffs led by NIB, GSA has decided to amend the solicitation and add an evaluation preference for companies that offer block and substitute or other means of preventing the sale of ETS. This action aligns with the core policy objectives of the

Commercial Platforms program:

● Maintaining GSA’s strong support of the AbilityOne program, including promoting agency compliance with the JWOD Act;

● Carrying out Section 846 of the FY18 NDAA, which mandates the CP program procurement occur, to the maximum extent practicable, under the standard terms and conditions; and

● Continuing helping agencies better manage their open-market spend through improved visibility, new commercial features, and actionable data insights.

The changes to the RFP include the following:

● AbilityOne and “Essentially the Same” (ETS) is broken out as a single / separate subfactor as part of the Statement of Objective (SOO), entitled “Promoting JWOD Act Compliance,” and will be addressed in the offeror’s Performance Work Statement (PWS) submission.

● The PWS clearly describes how the offeror will promote buyer compliance with the JWOD Act, http://www.gsa.gov/ which requires an entity of the Federal Government to procure procurement list items from a qualified nonprofit agency for the blind or a qualified nonprofit agency for other severely disabled, in accordance with regulations, and not those items considered ETS.

● The offeror’s PWS must address the Promoting JWOD Act Compliance subfactor as well as the additional 11 areas in the SOO (and outlined below), contained within Section 4: Program

Outcomes and Objectives.

● Those offerors who offer block and substituting (a proven approach per NIB and AbilityOne to ensuring JWOD Act compliance), or some other blocking mechanism to prevent the purchase of

ETS, receive an automatic ‘Excellent’ in the Promoting JWOD Act Compliance subfactor.

○ For those offerors who do not offer block and substitute, or some other ETS blocking mechanism, fully documented capabilities are required so the Government may adequately assess how those features will promote JWOD Act compliance.

○ Offerors who receive an Unacceptable in this subfactor are automatically removed from the evaluation process.

● Evaluation of the PWS moves from an Acceptable / Unacceptable scoring schema to an

Excellent / Acceptable / Unacceptable schema.

● NOTE: Any additional line edits or updates since the December 2022 solicitation package are included as redline changes within the RFP and related attachments.

The solicitation will remain open until June 12, 2023 at 10:00 AM Eastern Time to allow ample time for proposals to be updated and resubmitted. Given that only a few areas of the solicitation package have been updated, offerors are encouraged to review their previous submission for Phase I and make adjustments, as necessary, and highlight any new changes, as applicable. We appreciate industry’s continued support and engagement as the program works to expand and broaden opportunities for participation in this program.

Sincerely, Dominic Lackey

Contracting Officer

Attachments:

● Commercial Online Platform Acquisition Request for Proposal (RFP)

● Attachment 1 – Commercial Online Platforms with Business-to-Business (B2B)

Capabilities - Prospective Offeror Requirements

● Attachment 2 - Statement of Objectives

● Attachment 3 – Live Test Demonstrations Guidance

● Attachment 4 - Manage Your GHG Emissions Slip Sheet

● Attachment 5 - SCRM Basic Safeguarding Questionnaire