RFP L.pdf

U.S. Department of Transportation Section L: Instructions, Conditions, and Notices to Offerors Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration RFP 693JK320R0005

SECTION L – INSTRUCTIONS, CONDITIONS, AND NOTICES TO

OFFERORS

L.1 FAR 52.252-1 SOLICITATION PROVISIONS INCORPORATED BY

REFERENCE (Feb 1998)

This solicitation incorporates one or more solicitation provisions by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. The offeror is cautioned that the listed provisions may include blocks that must be completed by the offeror and submitted with its quotation or offer. In lieu of submitting the full text of those provisions, the offeror may identify the provision by paragraph identifier and provide the appropriate information with its quotation or offer. Also, the full text of a solicitation provision may be accessed electronically at this/these address(es):

https://www.acquisition.gov/far/ http://farsite.hill.af.mil/

(End of Clause)

L.2 FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (48 CFR CHAPTER 1)

CLAUSES

CLAUSE # TITLE DATE

52.204-6 Unique Entity Identifier Oct 2016 52.214-34 Submission of Offers in the English Language Apr 1991 52.214-35 Submission of Offers in U.S. Currency Apr 1991 52.215-2 Audit and Records – Negotiation Oct 2010 52.215-20 Requirements for Certified Cost or Pricing Data and Data Other Than

Certified Cost or Pricing Data Oct 2010

52.246-25 Limitation of Liability – Services Feb 1997

L.3 FAR 52.216-1 TYPE OF CONTRACT. (Apr 1984)

The Government contemplates award of Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) resulting from this solicitation.

L.4 NOTES

NOTE 1: Proposals must be submitted via beta.SAM.gov.

NOTE 2: Until a formal notice of award is issued, any communication by the Government either written or oral is not a promise that an award will be made.

NOTE 3: The Contracting Officer is the only individual who can legally commit or obligate the Government to the expenditure of public funds. No cost chargeable to the proposed contract can be incurred before receipt of a fully executed contract or specific written authorization from the Contracting Officer.

L.5 INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARATION OF PROPOSALS

1. Responsive Submission https://www.acquisition.gov/far/ http://farsite.hill.af.mil/

Proposals must reference PHMSA RFP 693JK320R0005 and must include the following four sections.

Each of the sections should be submitted as separate attachments.

a. Section I: Administrative Information

1. Summary Page including the following information:

2. Name of Contractor (Quoter)

3. DUNS

4. TIN

5. Quote Validity Period

6. Exceptions Taken

7. Points of Contact (Name, Email Address, Phone Number)

8. Subcontractor Names & DUNS (if applicable)

9. Signed SF 1449 Form

10. Signed Amendments, if any are issued. [Note: If you are not sure if PHMSA issued any amendments, send an e-mail to brandon.beyer@dot.gov and ask]

b. Section II: Proposed Approach (Technical, Management, and Staffing) for Both the Overall IDIQ and the First IDIQ Order This section should address the following subjects:

i. Plan/approach for accomplishing the Parent IDIQ SOO & Order work description;

Identification of Key Personnel.

ii. Ability to staff the active order quickly;

iii. Ability to quickly replace a resource should an issue arise;

iv. Include summarized resumes of select personnel. Proposals may provide no more than four resumes. The resumes of Key Personnel should be among the four resumes. (Each summarized resume must be limited to 2 pages.)

(Section II must be limited to 18 pages. Pages beyond 18 will not be evaluated.)

c. Section III: Past Performance This section should describe the contractor’s experience providing services similar to those required in the Parent IDIQ SOO & Order work description.

Offerors must provide at least three, references (customers) who received similar services from the contractor within the past five years. For each reference, offerors should provide:

organization name, contact name, e-mail address, telephone number, a summary of specific services performed, and dates of performance.

(Section III must be limited to 7 pages. Pages beyond 7 will not be evaluated)

c. Section IV: Price The contractor must provide labor categories and rates for the base year and the option year. The offeror must use the attached pricing worksheet, filling in all boxes highlighted in yellow.

Offerors must submit proposed labor categories, number or hours, and fully-loaded labor rates.

Offerors may provide additional explanations to this worksheet so long as all boxes highlighted in yellow are completed. Completion of this worksheet will provide the Government with parent IDIQ rates for all labor categories for headquarter and regional offices and pricing for current actual needs. [Note: PHMSA requests a soft-copy submission in Microsoft Excel.]

Labor rates for the actual resources must conform with requirements of the Service Contract Act (SCA) set by the Department of Labor. With their prices, offerors must also provide hourly rates (not fully-loaded) paid to its employees in each of the labor categories into the pricing worksheet. The base rates will also be used for the option period to help determine any allowable Price Adjustment, if any, to comply with FAR 52.222-43, Fair Labor Standards Act and Service Contract Act—Price Adjustment (Multiple Year and Option Contracts).

Offerors must also submit Department of Labor Wage Determinations for each labor category offered for each location highlighting the corresponding labor category and rate. Starting hourly rates (not fully-loaded) may not be less than rate minimums set by the Department of Labor.

Offeror must also provide these values for each of its proposed subcontractors.

Price must not be mentioned by the offeror in the Technical Capability and Past Performance sections of the proposal.

2. Evaluation of Proposals:

All offers received will be reviewed by the Acquisition Services Division to determine whether the proposals received comply with the instructions in the RFP and contain all the necessary elements required for review prior to being forwarded for technical review.

** INCOMPLETE OFFERS WILL BE DETERMINED “NON-RESPONSIVE” AND WILL NOT BE

EVALUATED. **

In evaluating proposals, PHMSA will consider the offerors entire approach as a whole. PHMSA will look at the proposed management approach, technical approach, staffing approach, as well as past performance on work of similar scope.

The award will be made to the responsible offeror whose proposal conforms to the RFP and offers the Best Value to the Government, in accordance with FAR 15.101 and 15.3. The Government will use tradeoff analysis when making the best value determination and award, based on the following below three elements. Evaluation Factor 1 (Section II: Proposed Approach – Technical, Management and Staffing on Capabilities) is more important than Evaluation Factor 2 (Section III: Past Performance).

Evaluation Factors 1 and 2, when combined, are significantly more important than Evaluation Factor 3 (Section IV: Price).

Proposals will be evaluated using the following evaluation criteria:

Evaluation Factor 1 - Proposed Approach (Technical, Management and Staffing):

The Government will assess the following items as they relate to the requirements outlined in the Parent IDIQ SOO and Order work description:

1. The contractor’s understanding of the requirements as stated in the SOO and IDIQ Order work description;

2. Strategy to develop and maintain a consistent pool of qualified personnel;

3. Ability to staff the active order quickly and replace a resource should an issue arise;

4. Contractor’s management style;

5. PHMSA will evaluate if the qualifications and experienced of the proposed personnel, particularly key personnel, align with the needs of the parent IDIQ and the IDIQ Order.

Evaluation Element 2 – Past Performance:

The Government will evaluate the offeror’s past experience providing services similar to those required in the Parent SOO and Order. Although not limited to the following items, the evaluator(s) may consider responses from references, quality of work, customer service, compliance with performance schedules, period of performance length, contract value, and contractor’s cost control on those contracts.

The Government will also query the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS). At the evaluator’s discretion, the evaluator may review other Government data sources.

**NOTE**

Prior to issuing any award, the Government will perform a search of Active Exclusions in the System for Award Management (SAM) to ensure that the prospective awardee is not on the list of parties excluded from receiving federal contracts and sub-contracts.

Evaluation Factor 3 - Price:

PHMSA will evaluate Offeror’s proposed prices for price reasonableness of proposed rates, as well as for the appropriate mix of labor category(ies). Specifically, for the IDIQ Order, PHMSA will evaluate the feasibility and reasonableness of proposed labor mix, the hours proposed for each labor category, and the price reasonableness of total price.

***PHMSA reserves the right to request additional discounts.***

5. Contractor Responsibility Determination To be eligible for award, the Contracting Officer must determine that the Quoter/Offeror is responsible according to the standards of FAR 9.1, “Responsible Prospective Contractors.” Prior to issuing any award, PHMSA will review SAM, CPARS, and FAPIIS information to ensure that the prospective awardee is not excluded from federal procurement and is current on all federal taxes. PHMSA will also consider an Offeror’s/Quoter’s termination history when determining contractor responsibility.

6. Changes, Modifications, and Interpretations:

Any changes in the resulting award will be mutually agreed upon in writing between the award winner, the Government Project Manager/COR, and the Government Contracting Officer (CO). Change in the work under the resulting award will outline in details, the exact nature of the changes and /or modification. No oral statement by any person will be interpreted as modifying or otherwise affecting the terms of the resulting award.

7. RFP QUESTIONS:

Questions regarding the RFP must be received by Brandon P. Beyer (brandon.beyer@dot.gov), copying Loni Chinn (loni.chinn@dot.gov) and Mahua Mazumdar (mahua.mazumdar@dot.gov) via email by 11am Eastern Standard Time, December 9, 2019. Questions must be submitted utilizing the attached Question Submission Spreadsheet (Section J.2). PHMSA will consolidate all questions and issue response(s) to questions on beta.SAM.gov. Do not contact any other PHMSA personnel during the RFP (pre-award) phase.

8. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS:

Proposals must be received via email by Brandon P. Beyer, copying Loni Chinn and Mahua Mazumdar, no later than 11am Eastern Standard Time, January 3, 2020.

*Offerors please note, DOT email inboxes have size restrictions. Offerors are advised to email their proposal attachments no greater than 10MB in size or risk delivery errors. The burden of ensuring and proving timely receipt of all sections of the proposal by the Government is on the offeror.

[END OF SECTION L]