Addendum 1 - Q and A 5-22-24.doc

Cully M. Johnston Procurement Specialist 3

FMPS

Procurement Department

Argonne National Laboratory

9700 South Cass Avenue, Bldg. 201

Lemont, IL 60439

(630)252-7049 cjohnston@anl.gov

5/22/24

TO ALL PROSPECTIVE OFFERORS:

Subject:

Q&A Request for FORMDROPDOWN No. 4-B148-P-00032-00 Addendum No. 1 Attached herewith for your information and use in preparing your proposal for subject project is one (1) copy of Addendum No. 1.

Kindly acknowledge receipt of this Addendum by signing and returning one (1) copy of this letter.

Please email receipt to Procurement at cjohnston@anl.gov or include a signed copy with your proposal.

Sincerely, Cully Johnston Procurement Specialist IV Procurement Department

Receipt Acknowledged:

Company:

By:

cc:

File

CF

Addendum No. 1

TO

REQUEST FOR FORMDROPDOWN

4-B148-P-00032-00

FOR

Argonne National Laboratory

BLDG. 201 OCF

9700 S. Cass Ave.

Lemont, IL 60439

5/22/24 This addendum is being issued to modify the subject Request for FORMDROPDOWN as follows:

Questions submitted by potential offerors are indicated with “Q:”. Argonne’s responses are indicated with “A:”. Certain questions have been aggregated as they were asking essentially the same thing.

Q: Who is the incumbent providing these services today? Under what contract number?

A: Argonne does not disclose this information.

Q: Part II—Technical Proposal, A. 2. Can the subcontractor's Past Performance be utilized as part of the 3 references? If yes, will it be evaluated with the same weight as the prime contractor's Past Performance? For an unpopulated Joint Venture (JV) submitting a proposal as a prime, can references can be provided by the Joint Venture and Team Members?

A: The Laboratory requests references from the company that it will be contracting with.

Q: Is there any backup documentation required for our proposed pricing?

A: None is required, though you may include it if you think it will demonstrate added value.

Q: If an offeror has not completed a FOCI but has a Top Secret Facility clearance and no Foreign interest or control, are they eligible for an award? Is there a preference for companies that already possess a facility clearance?

A: As stated in the Evaluation Criteria: "While lack of an existing DOE or DOE Facility Clearance will not by itself preclude any offeror from an award, possession of a FOCI clearance will weight the rating of this criterion more heavily against offerors who do not have such clearance." The lack of a clearance may negatively affect the adjectival rating and may increase the assessed risk. If an offeror has a Top-Secret Facility Clearance, they have by corollary completed a FOCI review. The exception would be if you’re talking about an individual with a clearance rather than the company having a clearance.

Q: Our organization does not have an active facility clearance. Will we be sponsored to obtain a facility clearance if we are awarded?

A: If the selected awardee does not have an active clearance, Argonne will assist them in following the standard procedure to obtain FOCI/Facility Clearance.

Q: Can Argonne extend the proposal deadline?

A: No, unfortunately the deadline cannot be extended.

Q: Was there a pre-solicitation meeting for this one? If so, are the Q&A and other information available? Will the winner need to have an office at the ANL site?

A: No, n/a, and no.

Q. Please provide clarification on whether or not we may be able to respond to specific labor categories only (PT & PA), or if it is required that all bidders respond to all 3 categories (RD, PT, & PA).

A: The Laboratory intends to award a single contract to one offeror who can cover all categories. If you specialize in certain categories and cannot fulfill this requirement but would like to be considered for future requirements in more limited/specialized categories, please fill out our Prospective Supplier form here:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=haH8DPcl40mK53BNUybihUYa-Z0jHjlLnTzf7eufzVVURTJYV1RESUM2NThZWEZVMVA2RzFJWkVDNy4u&wdLOR=cF6E6472F-EACD-44EA-8088-1D7FA7B4439F

Q: Based on the solicitation documents, there is an incumbent providing the required services. Is the incumbent eligible to bid?

A: Any Small Business Concerns without active exclusions are eligible to bid.

Q: Can you provide the current rates?

A: Argonne base pay bands are included as exhibits to the Statement of Work.

Q: We have not worked with a national laboratory before but have been serving Fortune 500 high technology leaders since 2001. Would high-tech industry experience be considered equivalent?

A: Please refer to the Evaluation Criteria.

Q; Is this a single award?

A: Yes.

Q: The Contractor must be able to accept or provide qualified replacements for an existing population of approximately 300-350 contract workers employed under the incumbent contract. Could you please explain the breakdown of which categories (R&D, Professional Technical (PT) and Professional administrative (PA), and seniority levels the 300-350 contractors fall under?

A: There are workers from every level represented in the current worker population. About 20% of this population work in lab operations while the remaining 80% work in the lab’s scientific directorates.

Q: What is the anticipated volume of new workers annually?

A: Overall headcount has remained about the same across all years of the contract.

Q: Is there a pain point or an area where the incumbent fell short throughout the contract term?

A: No.

Q: Since the position titles are “Sample Job Types” in the RFP, it isn’t clear how to price what real positions will be required. Can you give insight how that should work? Can we use a multiplier-based solution?

A: Please see the SOW for descriptions of PA1-PA6, PT1-PT6, and RD1-RD6, along with current Argonne Base Pay ranges for these positions. You're asked to provide your fully loaded rates for each of the labor categories. You can use any method you'd like to develop those rates.

Q: What is the total page count?

A: Please reference enclosure 1, Part II:

"Unnecessarily elaborate brochures or other presentations beyond that sufficient to present a complete and effective proposal are not desired and may be construed as an indication of the offeror's lack of cost consciousness. Elaborate artwork, expensive visual and other presentation aids are neither necessary nor wanted. Proposals should be prepared with maximum economy, consistent with this particular procurement, to ensure that the resources of both offerors and Laboratory evaluators are efficiently utilized."

Q: Is there a current ceiling price? Please confirm the projected value is $8-$10M annually.

A: Please reference Enclosure 1, first page: " For informational purposes only the amount spent for this requirement in the first two years of the incumbent contract was approximately $8M from July 2021 – June 2022 and $10M from July 2022 – June 2023. It should be understood that there is no guarantee and this RFP neither commits nor obligates the Laboratory to purchase any services under this RFP or its resulting agreement."

Q: Will the winner need to have an office space at your site before an award is made for the work?

A: No, the awardee will be expected to work remotely. Contract workers may work remotely or on-site as outlined in the SOW.

Q: Please confirm the term of a resulting award is 2 years.

A: Confirmed.

Q: Do the incumbents currently have benefits? Can you provide details?

A: While Argonne takes retention policies into consideration at the time of evaluation, contract workers' individual pay and benefits are between the worker and the contractor.

Q: Is it acceptable to subcontract to other companies? Does a Total Small Business Set Aside mean that none of our subcontractors can be large business concerns? Are we allowed to use 3rd party company for billing hours and timekeeping?

A: As long as all terms and conditions regarding subcontracts/subcontractors, including but not limited to 64. FAR 52.244-2 – SUBCONTRACTS (OCT 2010) , are satisfied, yes, it would be acceptable to utilize subcontractors. However, technical evaluators will consider whether heavy utilization of subcontractors is likely to delay your response time.

Subcontractors are not required to be small business concerns.

Q: How many incumbents are there under the existing contract?

A: Enclosure 1, Part II, Section D: “The Laboratory will expect a large number (300-350) of existing contract personnel to be transitioned or replaced with qualified replacements as part of the transition process.”

Q: Is 100% of the work considered part-time or full-time? If part-time, how many hours are worked on average?

A: There’s a wide range, from 10-20 hours/year to 40/hours a week. Each specific assignment will indicate the total allotted hours for the assignment, which should not be exceeded without a modification of the specific assignment.

Q: Is prescreening (drug screens and background checks) a requirement for incumbents?

A: No, current workers will not need to undergo a new screening.

Q: Are payrolls paid by your company weekly to our company if we are chosen for the contract?

A: Contractors should invoice the Laboratory no more frequently than weekly and no less frequently than monthly.

Q: What is the normal procedure?

A: Enclosure 1, Part II, section C: “1. Identify the procedure you propose for invoicing with respect to the requirements specified in Appendix “B”, Argonne National Laboratory, Statement of Work. Explain your billing process in detail, including specifics on the software program(s) used and how those systems can segregate project codes. 2. Provide a detailed description of your process for employee timecard entry and Laboratory timecard review.”

Q: Instructions for Preparation for Proposals, Part II, (A), (2), states “Provide references from three (3) clients…” Please clarify if the references need to be provided for three separate end customers or if three separate contracts for similar customers can satisfy this requirement.

A: References from three separate clients are requested. Three separate contracts with the same client will not fulfill this requirement.

Q: Pricing: Enclosure C of the SOW states that the ranges are “Argonne Pay Range (Hourly).” Please confirm that the rates included in this table are fully burdened through fee.

A: Per Enclosure 1, Part III, Section A: “Argonne’s historical base pay rates have been provided as SOW enclosures as a reference.” The SOW enclosures are base pay ranges for Argonne Employees, not fully loaded rates.

Q: Instructions for Preparation for Proposals, Part II, (E): For the Employee Roster & Demographics Report, is the list of information stated here the full list that will need to be provided or will there be additional information required?

A: You will be evaluated on your ability to produce reports that accurately report the information requested in the Instructions as written.

ALL OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE ABOVE-REFERENCED RFP REMAIN THE SAME.

U. S. Department of Energy laboratory managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC