TOC Solicitation 693JK423R600003 Amendment No. 1 in PDF.pdf

Amendment No. 1

To

Transportation Operations Center (TOC) Solicitation No. 693JK423R600003

This Amendment No. 1 provides the following numbered answers to the following numbered questions posed by prospective offerors:

Question 1. What is the name of the incumbent contractor-company, and what is the identifying number of that incumbent’s current TOC contract?

Answer 1: The incumbent’s current TOC contract bears the identifying number 693JK418C500025. The incumbent contractor’s company-name and address are as follows:

Countermeasures Assessment and Security Ex

110 Quigley Boulevard

New Castle, Delaware 19720-4104

Question 2: Please provide clarification regarding the type or types of “clearances” that must be possessed by the staff-members who serve on the contract resulting from this Solicitation. And please also state the date on which each such staff-member must possess her or his needed clearance(s).

Answer 2: The subject procurement’s program office needs for the contemplated new TOC-support-contract’s staff employees to have a minimum of an active SECRET clearance to be able to work on the

TOC watchfloor, beginning at the starting-date of this procurement’s resulting new TOC-support-contract (October 1, 2023). The contract-awardee-company must also understand that each employee must be working towards eventually obtaining a TOP SECRET/SCI (TS/SCI) level clearance (which may take several months depending upon the individual’s background and foreign contacts), and must understand that such a TOP SECRET (TS / SCI) level clearance must be obtained by each contractor-employee at a cost which shall be paid by the contract-awardee-company, and which shall not be billed directly to DOT. Again, it is the proposal company’s responsibility and cost for the contact support staff to eventually work towards, obtain, and maintain TS/SCI level clearances for the contractor’s staff.

Individuals who already possess an active TOP SECRET or TS/SCI level clearance, at the time an offeror’s proposal is submitted to DOT in response to this Solicitation, are highly desirable. However, the TOC will accept an individual who only possesses an active SECRET clearance as of the starting-date of the new contract resulting from this Solicitation. The DOT TOC cannot accept anyone working on its watchfloor with anything less than an active (un-expired) SECRET level clearance. Offerors are instructed to read the foregoing answer numbered 2 in conjunction with answer numbered 3 given below.

Question 3: The Solicitation states 'Contractor employees will be required to obtain security clearances (i.e., Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret). National Security work designated “special sensitive,” “critical sensitive,” or “non-critical sensitive,” will determine the level of clearance required for contractor employees.' Is there any differentiation in the level of clearance required for the given Labor Categories? There is no differentiation in the levels for each labor category.

Answer 3: All prospective offeror-companies are advised to read the following answer numbered 3 in conjunction with answer numbered 2 given above. Each offeror-company and its employees who are proposed to serve on this TOC project should now be working towards obtaining a full Top Secret / SCI clearance, if such a clearance has not yet been attained. At a minimum, all employees proposed by an offeror-company to serve on the subject Solicitation’s resulting new contract will need to possess a secret-level clearance to begin working in DOT’s

TOC on or before the staring-date of that new contract, while the appropriate paperwork is submitted by the company for a full TS / SCI clearance.

Question 4: The Solicitation states that the Contractor must 'manage and utilizes Information

Technology (IT) systems, as well as all contact and distribution lists for the TOC.' Is the Crisis

Management System (CMS) one of the systems the Contractor is required to maintain?

Answer 4: Yes. The DOT TOC currently utilizes CMS platforms as well as equivalent TS/SCI audio/video platforms for redundancy and testing.

Question 5: Are there any IT systems the Contractor is required to utilize which are not listed in the solicitation, and if so, would the government be willing to provide a list of the systems?

Answer 5: DOT’s TOC maintains standard 24/7 operations center assets such as land-line telephones, mobile telephones, facsimiles, video-teleconference systems, and email systems at the unclassified, secret, and top secret levels. DOT’s TOC also utilizes a number of standard emergency management telephone systems that would be present in a Federal 24/7 operations center.

Question 6: The Solicitation states that the Contractor must 'Host Departmental customers by providing access to unclassified and classified information for the Department, to include unclassified and classified audio/video systems.' What is the frequency of these meetings, and are any Departmental customers expected to be international parties?

Answer 6: Meetings vary based on the needs of the Departmental customers of DOT’s TOC.

Meetings can vary from one per day to several per day during normal business hours and as needed during nights, weekends, and holidays in the event of an emergency or needs of executive decision-makers. As for international parties, DOT’s TOC maintains and utilizes multiple unclassified and classified systems in order to communicate between shared transportation routes (airspace / railway / highway / maritime) and the Departmental customers of DOT’s TOC.

Question 7: The Solicitation states 'Each offeror’s initially-submitted written proposal shall include, as to the prime-offeror itself, at least three Past Performance Questionnaires completed by organizations for which the prime offeror has performed or is performing work.'

Would the government be willing to accept a CPARS report in lieu of a Past Performance

Questionnaire?

Answer 7. DOT will not accept a CPARS report in lieu of a completed Past Performance

Questionnaire. But DOT would accept a CPARS report in addition to a completed Past

Performance Questionnaire.

This Amendment No. 1 provides no further answers or clarifications concerning the subject TOC procurement.

James H. Mowery III

Contracting Officer

Acquisition Services (M-63)

Office of the Secretary

U. S. Department of Transportation

April 28, 2023