5-RFP 26-10 - Controllers for Indirect Cost Plan Consulting Services - Scope of Work.pdf

Montgomery County, PA Controller

Request for Proposal (RFP): 26-10 Indirect Cost Plan Consulting Services

1. Introduction & Background

Montgomery County is located approximately twenty miles west of Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Governed by a three-member Board of Commissioners, the County government is a large diverse organization whose mission is to provide quality services in an efficient and cost effective manner.

Montgomery County with over 800,000 residents is the third most populated County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the population is larger than 4 states (Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, and North Dakota). Some of the services the County government provides its citizens include human services, a highly regarded community college, child welfare, an outstanding park and historic site system, mental health services, and a judiciary recognized as one of the Commonwealth’s finest.

2. Scope of Work The County wants administrative costs incurred on behalf of the federal programs operated by the County to be recovered to the maximum extent possible under current guidelines. To achieve this end, the County must adequately document these overhead costs, provide justification of their benefit to federal programs, and optimize allocation of overhead costs to County Departments with federal programs. Doing so requires the development and use of a Cost Allocation Plan (CAP) that is compliant with the principles and standards of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This will include the following steps.

RFP for Indirect Cost Plan Consulting Services

• Service Identification: Determine the nature and extent of central services provided to operating departments.

• Cost Identification & Classification: Identify all allowable central service costs to be included in the plan, distinguishing between billed and allocated costs.

• Methodology Development: Determine appropriate, auditable statistical data (e.g., headcount, square footage, usage hours) for allocating functional activity costs. Methodology should be tailored to the individual cost pool / item.

• Plan Preparation & Reconciliation: Prepare the document, including projections of future costs and reconciliation of actual costs to estimated costs from previous years.

• Review & Negotiation: Coordinate with the cognizant federal agency to negotiate and obtain approval for the plan.

• Documentation & Reporting: Produce a comprehensive report documenting the allocation process, supporting records, and final results for audit purposes.

3. Proposal Format Proposals must be submitted directly into the Bonfire (Euna) portal. The following items should be included in your proposal submission:

• Technical Proposal o Please describe your firm’s methodology to Central Services Cost

Allocation Plans (CAP).

o What information will you want Montgomery County to supply?

o Please provide information on who will be preparing the CAP and their qualifications.

o What is your firm’s technical expertise and experience with CAPs?

o Please provide your firm’s experience with CAPs for PA counties?

o What do you see as the possible issues and opportunities regarding a

CAP for Mongomery County?

o Please provide a list of similar government entities you have provided a CAP.

• Cost Proposal o Provide annual pricing for 5 years of service.

Do NOT include cost in your Technical Proposal. Technical and Cost Proposals should be submitted as separate documents.

4. Contract Details The period of the contract shall be for three (3) years commencing on date of contract execution. On the anniversary of the commencement of the contract, and each anniversary thereafter, this contract may be renewed, at the County’s sole discretion, for two (2) additional one (1) year periods of portions thereof, up to a cumulative total of five

(5) years (hereinafter referred to as the “Renewal Terms”). Any Renewal Term shall not commence or be effective unless and until such time as a notice of renewal shall be delivered from the County to the contracting party.

In the event of pricing changes due to changes in prevailing costs of labor and materials in the area, the successful contractor may submit a request for price adjustments in line with these changes for the duration of any Renewal Term(s). The County reserves the right to accept or reject said proposed adjustments.

5. Additional Information

Proposal Evaluation All proposals received by the specified date shall be subject to evaluation by a review committee. This is a "Best Value" solicitation. The County will award a contract to that responsible offeror who can accomplish the requirements set forth in the RFP in a manner most advantageous to the County considering all non-price factors described herein, and price. The County will select the offer that represents the best value to the County based on a comparative analysis and an integrated assessment of proposals against all source selection criteria in the solicitation. Firms that have performed similar services within Pennsylvania and/or have an office in Pennsylvania are preferred.

The County is concerned with striking the most advantageous balance between technical merit (“quality”) and cost to the Government (i.e., the price). All evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are more important than cost or price. However, the importance of price could become greater depending upon the equality of the technical proposals. If competing technical proposals are determined to be essentially equal, price could become the controlling factor. The County may award a contract to other than the lowest priced offer or other than the highest technically rated offer.

Liability of Errors While the County has used considerable efforts to ensure an accurate representation of information in this RFP, all prospective proposers are urged to conduct their own investigations into the material facts and the County shall not be held liable or accountable for any error or omission in any part of this RFP.

Further, the response shall undertake to provide appropriate assurances to the County that Service Provider’s conduct shall be risk-free to the County.

Submission and Questions Proposals will be submitted via the Bonfire (Euna) portal in two parts. (1) A Technical Proposal that will not include any cost/price. (2) A separate Cost Proposal as outlined in the scope and in the separate Cost Proposal Document. Costs should be addressed in the same format as identified. All questions are to be submitted via the Messages/Opportunity Q&A section directly through Bonfire (Euna). No verbal communications or questions should be made during while there is an active solicitation. All other additional required documentation will be submitted via the Bonfire (Euna) portal.