Attch 6 Instructions_A0002.pdf

ATTACHMENT 6-A0002

INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS

The Government intends to make one award without exchanges with Offerors, but reserves the right to engage in exchanges if it is in the Government’s best interest. Furthermore, the Government reserves the right to ask clarification questions to Offerors. The Contracting Officer will determine the responsibility of each Proposal. A non-responsible Offeror and/or non-responsive Proposal will preclude an evaluation and subsequent award.

All Requests for Proposal (RFP) clarifications shall be submitted only via email to Patricia.Klimowicz@tsa.dhs.gov and Sam.Heim1@tsa.dhs.gov, no later than 12 p.m. local time (Washington D.C.) on 03/22/2023. Email messages must have RFP 70T01023R7670N018 in the subject line. Any objection to the RFP requirements must be communicated prior to delivery of a Proposal. Only electronic submission of questions and comments will be accepted. Offerors shall submit their questions using Attachment 9. Late questions/comments may not be considered. The Government will not provide any information concerning questions in response to telephone calls from Offerors. Answers to all questions submitted will be combined and publicized under the posting for this solicitation. Offerors are strongly encouraged to seek clarification on solicitation requirements prior to submitting a Proposal. The Government reserves the right to not answer questions submitted from Offerors.

TSA-INSTR: AVAILABILITY OF INTERNAL APPEAL PROCESS PER FAR 33.103

(MAY 2021)

In the event of receipt of the Contracting Officer’s final decision of an agency-level protest in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 33.103, the Offeror is hereby advised that an appeal process is available from within the agency. The Assistant Administrator of the Contracting and Procurement in the Transportation Security Administration is the independent appeal authority. All appeals must be submitted in writing and signed by a company official who is authorized to commit the company and contain the same elements required in FAR 33.103(d). as well as an explanation of the Contracting Officer’s decision (and copy of such decision). Appeals must be sent either in writing or via email to Transportation Security Administration, ATTN: APPEAL OF AGENCY PROTEST, Contracting and Procurement, 6595 Springfield Center Drive, Springfield, VA 20598-6025, or via email to TSAProcurementPolicy@tsa.dhs.gov. The subject line for the email should clearly indicate

“APPEAL OF AGENCY PROTEST”.

Submission Information

(a) All documents shall be submitted by email to Patricia.Klimowicz @tsa.dhs.gov and Sam.Heim1@tsa.dhs.gov so as to arrive in the email account by the date and time set for receipt of offers. All submissions shall include RFP 70T01023R7670N018 PROPOSAL FROM [OFFEROR NAME] in the subject line of the email.

(b) Offerors shall submit an electronic copy of their Phase I Proposal no later than 12:00 PM local time (Washington, D.C.) on 04/10/2023. TSA has a 5 MB limit on external emails.

If the Proposal must be divided into separate emails to comply with this requirement, the subject line should contain the number of the email and the total number of emails sent, e.g., “file 1 of 5”.

(c) Phase II Oral Presentations and Written Proposal: The Advisory Notices to Offerors will stipulate 30 days to provide Phase II written Proposal. Oral Presentations will occur within 2 weeks of receipt of written Proposal, however, Offerors will receive 5 days’ advance notice of the date, time, and location. The order in which Offerors are scheduled will be randomly selected by the Government.

Format for Proposal Submission (The following instructions are provided to assist the Offeror in understanding the requirements for a responsive Proposal submission)

(a) Proposals shall be presented in a clear, concise manner.

(b) Proposals must be prepared in accordance with the instructions and provide all required information in the format specified herein. Failure of a Proposal to comply with these instructions may be grounds for exclusion of the Proposal from further evaluation or award.

(c) Proposal must set forth full, accurate, and complete information as required by the Request for Proposal. There is a criminal penalty for making false statements.

(d) Offerors are advised that the use of generalized statements such as “the Offeror understands/the Offeror can and will comply with the requirements,” “standard procedures will be used,” “well known techniques will be used,” or statements that paraphrase the requirements of the SOW or RFP in whole or in part will not constitute compliance with the requirements concerning the content of responses, thereby rendering the Proposal non-responsive.

(e) The table in the section below identifies the contents of each volume. For all submitted documents (not to include graphics), the text font shall be Times New Roman 11-point type on standard 8 ½ inch by 11-inch paper with margins of at least 1” at the top, bottom, and both sides. 8-point font is only allowable in graphics/tables. Failure to fully adhere to the prescribed page and format restrictions may be grounds for exclusion of the Proposal from further evaluation.

(f) All Proposals must be submitted in Adobe PDF or Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) format(s). No pricing information shall appear in technical factors 1-4.

Each Proposal shall contain “Page X of Y Pages” numbering. The Proposal shall include the information identified in this Section and comply with the cited page limitations for each section. Page limitations identified refer to one side of a page. All Offerors shall use only one side of the page for Proposal submission. Offerors will only be evaluated on the information contained within the page limitations set forth for each section.

Additional information that exceeds the prescribed page limitations shall not be evaluated.

(g) Period of acceptance of Proposals: The Offeror agrees to hold the prices in its Proposal firm for 180 calendar days from the date specified for receipt of Proposals. Proposals shall be submitted in two (2) Volumes as referenced below. The initial submission for Phase I only consists of Volume I and Phase II consists of Volume II.

Proposal Submission

a) The Offeror shall submit a Proposal as follows—

Volume I (Phase I):

Factor 1 – Demonstrated Prior Experience (Written) (10-page limit)

Volume II (Phase II):

Factor 2 – Technical Approach (Oral Presentation) Factor 3 – Staffing Plan (Written) (Plan = 5-page limit; Resumes = 2-page limit each) Factor 4 – Past Performance (Attachment 8) (5-page limit) Factor 5 – Price (Written)(Includes Attachments 2-5 & 10) (no page limit)

b) Proposals must be prepared in accordance with these instructions and provide all required information in the format specified. The required format is designed to ensure submission of information essential to the understanding and comprehensive evaluation of the Offeror’s Proposal.

Phase I

Factor 1 – Demonstrated Prior Experience

The Offeror shall provide a written response that addresses Phase I – Factor 1 – Demonstrated Prior Experience. Written response content that extends beyond the page limits provided below will not be considered. The Government discourages Offerors from submitting generic “capability statements” or similar marketing materials as part of its response for Factor 1 – Demonstrated Prior Experience.

The Offeror shall provide sufficient information for TSA to evaluate its level of confidence regarding the Offeror’s experience as it aligns to the requirements of the solicitation based on an assessment of the Offeror’s response to the following items below at “Factor 1 – Demonstrated Experience (Written).”

For the Factor 1 – Demonstrated Prior Experience response, there is a total limit of 10 (ten) single-spaced pages, the text font shall be Times New Roman 11-point type on standard 8 ½ inch by 11-inch paper with margins of at least 1” at the top, bottom, and both sides. 8-point font is only allowable in graphics/tables. Failure to fully adhere to the prescribed page and format restrictions may be grounds for exclusion of the Proposal from further evaluation.

Apart from the advisory notification after Phase I, the Government intends to evaluate Proposals and proceed to Phase II without further communication with Offerors. The Government reserves the right to conduct communications if the Contracting Officer determines them to be in the best interests of the Government. In such a case, the Government reserves the right to communicate solely amongst the Offerors proceeding to Phase II.

Factor 1 shall be evaluated by the TET via an on the spot consensus using confidence ratings as detailed below.

Offerors receiving a rating of “Low No Confidence” for Factor 1 will be provided advisory notification advised not to proceed to Phase II as part of the Phase I Advisory Down Select.

As part of Phase I, Offerors are required to submit a Cover Letter. The Offeror’s Cover Letter will not receive a rating, but failure of a Offeror to provide all of the required information may result in a Proposal which is found to be nonconforming. This determination will be made by the Contacting Officer. The cover page shall include the following:

Offeror name or entity Address Unique Entity ID

CAGE

Current Facility Clearance Point(s) of Contact with email and phone number Institute of Higher Education (IHE) Confirmation

Volume I

Phase I Page Limit

Cover Page 1 Page

Factor 1: Written Response 10 Pages

Advisory Notification After the Government completes evaluation of Phase I submissions (Factor 1 and Cover Letter), Offerors will receive an advisory notification via email from the Contracting Officer. The advisory notification will inform the Offeror of the basis of the Government advisory notice and either that the Offeror will be invited to participate in Phase II or, based on the information submitted, they are unlikely to be a viable competitor with the basis for that opinion. The intent of this advice is to minimize Proposal development costs for those Offerors with little chance of receiving an award. This will be a recommendation only and discontinuing the pursuit of the requirement following the notification is voluntary. The advisory letter is the only notice the Government will provide after Phase I; debriefings will not occur at the end of Phase I.

Regardless of the Phase I advisory notice, all Offerors interested in participating in Phase II shall send an email to Patricia.Klimowicz @tsa.dhs.gov and Sam.Heim1@tsa.dhs.gov in accordance with the directions in the advisory notice, affirmatively stating their intent to participate in Phase II. Failure to provide this notification will preclude a Offeror from participating in Phase II.

Offerors are advised that their Factor 1 evaluation results will carry forward to Phase II and will be considered in the best value award decision.

Failure to participate in Phase I precludes further consideration of a Offeror. Phase II Offeror submissions will not be accepted from Offerors who have not submitted Phase I requirements by the due date and time provided for in this solicitation.

The advisory notification will include the Phase II due date and time which will be approximately 30 days from date of advisory notice.

Factor 1 – Demonstrated Prior Experience (Written)

The Offeror shall demonstrate the level of experience by providing the below as it pertains to the

SOW:

A. The Offeror shall demonstrate experience in developing curriculum that provides progressive academic study to address the needs of supervisors, managers and executives providing a multi-disciplinary approach to leadership issues.

B. The Offeror’s proposed experience shall provide:

a. Description of relevant projects developed for public or private organizations

b. Number of courses developed as part of the project

c. Length of time required to develop the full curriculum

d. Approach to delivering a progressive study program that builds on common themes and management approach

e. Approach to providing coaching

f. Mix of in-person and virtual learning

g. IHE Accreditation

Phase II

Volume II

Phase II Page Limit

Updated Cover Letter (Clean and Track Changes, if any) 1 page

Factor 2 – Technical Approach Oral Presentation

Factor 3 – Staffing Plan (Written) Staffing Plan = 5 pages Resumes = 2 pages each

Factor 4 – Past Performance (Attachment 8) 5 pages

Factor 5 – Price (Written)(Includes Attachments 2-5 & 10) No page limit

Updated Cover Letter (Clean and Track Changes) The Offeror may update and resubmit their Cover Letter as part of their Phase II submission. If an Offeror elects to do so, they must submit both a “clean” and “track changes” version of the Cover Letter showing all changes from the Cover Letter submitted during Phase I.

Oral Presentations

The Oral Presentation for Phase II is for Factor 2 –Technical Approach.

1. Oral Presentation Format: The Government will evaluate only the audio content presented during the Oral Presentation. Supplemental documentation such as a slide deck are not allowed and will not be evaluated.

2. Scheduling, Attendees, and Equipment: The Offeror’s attendees at the Oral Presentation must include the proposed IDIQ Manager and no more than 10 additional attendees. Within 5 calendar days of notice of the Oral Presentation Date, the Offeror shall provide the Contracting Officer with the names of the attendees. The Oral Presentations are anticipated to be held approximately 30 days after the advisory notifications are issued; however, the Government reserves the right to schedule or reschedule a presentation at its sole discretion. The order in which Offerors are scheduled will be randomly selected by the Government.

3. Location: Oral Presentations will be conducted through a virtual platform. The Government will provide a link for attendees to utilize. Offerors will be responsible for establishing a separate conference line for internal caucusing for the question and answer period. The Government may record the Oral Presentation. Offerors are not authorized to capture or in any other way record the video/audio presentation.

4. Proposal Documents: The Government will not accept for evaluation any additional documentation (such as procedures, manuals, administrative handbooks or guides, note pages, slide decks, etc.). No additional documentation shall be included by the Offeror with any Proposal submission other than as specified under Factors 1, 3, 4 and 5.

5. Oral Presentation Schedule: The Offeror will have a total of 90 minutes to cover their responses to Factor 2 Technical Approach (Oral Presentation) and shall follow the outline format set forth below. It is at the discretion of the Offeror how to manage the allotted time, but all elements must be addressed. Any set-up and remarks made by the Contracting Officer prior to the presentation will not count against the 90-minute time limit.

6. Question and Answer Period: The Government intends to engage in interactive dialogue for this requirement. Upon completion of the Oral Presentation, the Government will caucus for 15 minutes to identify any clarifications it may require to understand the presentation. The Government will also ask on-the-spot questions that are the same for each Offeror in addition to clarification questions that result from the Oral Presentation. The Government will have 10 minutes to present on-the-spot and clarification questions. The Offeror will then have 15 minutes to caucus and then 30 minutes to respond to the Governments questions. Any questions posed by the Government during the question and answer period will be for the clarification/amplification of information already presented during the Oral Presentation;

the Offeror may not revise any information presented, and the question and answer period does not constitute exchanges nor discussions. The Offeror’s attendees may not communicate with any other personnel for assistance during the Oral Presentation, including any communication through personal, electronic, or telephone means.

7. Oral Presentation Summary: The total Oral Presentation time, inclusive of set-up, caucus, and the question and answer period, is expected to last approximately two hours and 55 minutes. At the expiration of this time, the Offeror’s Oral Presentation will be considered complete. The schedule for the Oral Presentations is summarized in the table below:

Activity Party Time Set-up and Opening Remarks by Contracting Officer

Government 15 minutes

Presentation on Elements 2A and 2B Offeror 90 minutes Government Caucus for Questions; Offeror Break Government 15 minutes Government Presents On-The-Spot And Clarification Questions

Government 10 minutes

Offeror Caucus; Government Break Offeror 15 minutes

Activity Party Time Offeror Provides Answers to Questions to Government

Offeror 30 minutes

Total Time 175 minutes

Factor 2 – Technical Approach (Oral Presentation)

The Offeror shall demonstrate the strategy and capability of providing the below as it pertains to the SOW:

Course Design and Curriculum

a. The curriculum should be at the bachelor or graduate level of study, as applicable, and should provide a multi-disciplinary approach to leadership issues with emphasis on leading in a risk-based security environment and cultivating strong abilities in the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs).

b. Proposals should include a discussion of the instructional techniques to be used. The relative emphasis of case studies, lecture, simulation exercises, role-playing and application activities should be described. Contractors should only describe the instructional techniques that will be used for this effort and how they will be used.

c. The final curriculum will be developed in consultation with TSA upon contract award.

However, contractors should orally present a draft curriculum outline as part of their Proposal with each week’s agenda and proposed instruction modules. The Proposal should include the rationale for their approach and the justification for their design.

Oral Proposals should additionally include a schedule of study with the rationale for the particular schedule proposed. The schedule of study may be presented in a table format outlining each week and identifying the length of time between weeks, however, it must be concurrently spoken orally in order to be evaluated.

Program Learning Elements

a. The contractor shall design and implement the program using a mixture of the following elements. For all of the elements, the greatest emphasis should be placed on experiential learning in a risk-based security environment.

Classroom instruction Individual, Group/Team, Intact Work team Facilitated Peer Coaching Case studies/simulations Assessments of Participants, i.e., 360 assessments (pre and post) Application activities

Factor 3 – Staffing Plan (Written) (Plan = 5 page limit; Resumes = 2 page limit each)

The Offeror shall include a detailed description of the demonstrated and documented experience for all staff proposed.

The proposed staffing plan should include details that reflect the length and variety of experiences in similar educational programs.

The staffing plan shall be consistent with and meet or exceed all requirements under the Statement of Work section 3.1.

The Offeror shall furnish a resume for all proposed Key Personnel. Resumes must include experience, education, background, accomplishments, and other pertinent information.

Factor 4 – Past Performance (Written) (5 page limit)

The Offeror (Prime) shall list up to three (3) contract or subcontract references, using RFP Attachment 8, from current or prior customers that involve work of similar size, scope, and complexity that is being solicited by the TSA in this RFP. At a minimum, one (1) of the three (3) referenced contracts must be in support of a contract or order in which the Offeror was the Prime Contractor and not a sub-contractor. Offerors that are newly formed entities without prior contracts should list contracts and subcontracts in which key personnel proposed for this effort were directly involved. "Recent" is defined as work having been performed within the past five

(5) years.

Factor 5 – Price (Written)(Includes Attachments 2-5 & 10) (no page limit)

The Offeror shall provide a completed:

1. Signed SF 1449 “Solicitation/Contract/Order for Commercial Products and Commercial

Services.” This IDIQ contract includes contract line items with minimum and maximum ordering amounts and a total ceiling price of $10,000,000.00.

2. Offerors shall propose its unit prices at RFP Attachments 2–5.

3. Offerors shall input its proposed prices to the RFP Attachment 10 (sample task orders #1–5 and Total Evaluated Price).

4. Labor Category (LCAT) Price List (RFP Attachment 2) with proposed fully burdened hourly rates that become part of the IDIQ contact for issuing task orders if selected for award. Offeror to complete all spreadsheet tabs including Labor Category Descriptions with Title, minimum education, and qualifications.

5. Course Delivery Price List (RFP Attachment 3) with Firm-Fixed Price unit costs for course delivery based on cohort pay band categories.

6. Executive Coaching Price List (RFP Attachment 4) with Firm-Fixed Price unit costs for executive coaching based on cohort pay band categories.

7. Other Direct Costs Price List (RFP Attachment 5) with Firm-Fixed Price material costs per student for books and supplies.

8. Items 1–7 above shall be provided in its entirety in PDF format as the official price submittal.

9. Items 1–7 above shall also be provided in MS Excel format, when applicable, with working formulas intact.

10. This information provided at items 1–7 above should support and align with the information presented in the non-price factors. If there are discrepancies or inconsistences, or omissions of required information and/or documents it may lead to a non-compliance determination and make the Proposal ineligible for award.

11. Offerors shall provide the itemized list required by FAR 52.227-15 Representation of Limited Rights Data and Restricted Computer Software.

12. Offerors may also provide a narrative summary of all assumptions, conditions and exceptions (if any) to the terms and conditions of this solicitation in the pricing section. If not noted in the Proposal, it will be assumed that the Offeror proposes no assumptions for award, and agrees to comply with all of the terms and conditions as set forth herein. Each assumption, exception or dependency shall be specifically related to a paragraph and/or specific section of the RFP or associated clearly with an aspect of the pricing proposed. The Offeror shall provide a rationale in support of any noted assumption, exception or dependency, explaining its effect in comparison to the RFP.

13. In the event an Offeror is concerned that information submitted in response to this solicitation contains confidential financial and proprietary information, including trade secrets, then the information must be clearly marked. In the event an Offeror considers specific information to be confidential, it shall provide a written declaration to the Contracting Officer containing the supporting rationale for their contention that the information constitutes an exception to release under Federal Law.

14. The Offeror’s Proposal submittal for “Factor 5 – Price” shall not contain any technical (non-price) information that would otherwise be evaluated under Factors 1–4. Any technical (non-price) information submitted with Factor 5 written Proposal will be removed and will not be evaluated.

(End of Attachment 6)