Amendment___2-_Responses_to_Questions-RFP__72030619R00007_(AEP).pdf

Amendment # 2- RFP 72030619R00007 (AEP)

Continued from Block 14.

1. The responses to the questions are provided below:

Question # 1: In Section L.6 Instructions for the Preparation of the Technical Proposal, for Annex G

Draft Mobilization Plan the instructions state “The Offeror must submit a Mobilization Plan as Annex I”.

Can USAID please confirm this should be Annex G?

USAID Answer # 1: Confirmed. It is Annex G. Please see revised RFP.

Question # 2. In Section C.V Operating Constraints and Cross-Cutting Requirements, under j) Gender

Equality and Women’s Empowerment it states “The Contractor must incorporate a Gender Action Plan into the Annual Work Plan…” Can USAID please clarify if offerors should include a Gender Action Plan as part of Annex E. Draft Year One Work Plan? Will the Gender Action Plan be in addition to the three pages allocated for Annex E?

USAID Answer # 2: Gender Action Plan must be included in Draft Year One Work Plan. The page limit for Annex E is increased to Five (05) pages.

Question # 3. Amendment number 1 to the RFP issued on March 23, 2019 references Section L.6 Annex

C and revises the page limit “not to exceed a total of Seven Pages”. Can USAID please confirm that this page limit is per Past Performance Questionnaire submitted?

USAID Answer # 3: Yes. Please see the revised Attachment J.2 entitled “Past Performance

Questionnaire.”

Question # 4: The activity results for AEP in Section C on page 18 of the RFP state “air exports increased by 30 percent” by the end of base period and “air exports increased by 50 percent” by the end of the base and option year combined. Can USAID please clarify whether the target of 30% and 50% increase in air exports will be measured by weight of air exports or the USD value of air exports?

USAID Answer # 4: The increase in air exports will be measured by volume but Offerors should also be tracking value. Please see updated RFP to indicate “volume” for this result.

Question # 5: In Section C, the base period activity results on page 18 of the RFP state “at least three new air service agreements opened between Afghan carriers and international destinations.” Can USAID please clarify if the offerors can propose air service agreements with foreign carriers for international destinations? Further do offerors need to propose air service agreements are for dedicated cargo routes or can cargo shipments on existing and new passenger routes also be counted towards this result?

USAID Answer # 5: Offerors can propose air service agreements with foreign carriers for international destinations for both dedicated cargo routes and passenger routes.

Question # 6: For Objective 3 in Section C, the first result relates to “increasing demand for internationally certified, high-end Afghan products that meet required standards for exports.” Can USAID please clarify if offerors should propose activities to directly engage with Afghan exporters to increase demand for products OR should offerors propose activities to assist firms to meet quality certifications for export products?

USAID Answer # 6: The goal is to have more certification of Afghan products but this Objective has to do with the enabling environment that makes certification difficult. Changed to: Increased number of internationally certified, high-end Afghan products that meet required standards for export. Please see the revised RFP.

Question # 7: On page 142, for the cost Annex 1 USAID states that 1420s must be provided for key personnel and other technical specialists. Can USAID please define what “other technical specialists” includes?

USAID Answer # 7: Other technical specialists mean those persons who are technical experts in their field.

Question # 8: Can USAID please confirm that the offerors do not need to provide 1420s for any personnel that are mapped to the NTA scale?

USAID Answer # 8: Correct. Please make sure Offeror(s) are in full compliance of NTA scale and step when mapping positions with into NTA grade and step.

Question # 9: The offeror would like to request USAID to simplify the “B.4 Contract Budget” into the following categories: Salaries and Wages, Fringe Benefits, Other Direct Costs, Total Direct Costs, Indirect Costs, Fixed Fee (if any) and Total Estimated Costs.

USAID Answer 09: USAID will not simplify the budget categories at this time.

Question # 10: In the Excel budget template, lines items for Shipment of HHE, UAB, POV, Storage of

HHE and Consumables are under Travel, Transportation and Per Diem in the budget template. May offerors move these lines items under Allowances?

USAID Answer # 10: Yes, please see attached revised J.15.

Question # 11: Can USAID please confirm if offerors can propose an exchange rate based on offerors estimating policies?

USAID Answer # 11: We recommend that offeror use the current exchange prevailed on the date of proposal submission.

Question # 12: Does USAID intend to transfer any Government Furnished Property from existing contracts to AEP? If so, can USAID please provide the list of items to be transferred?

Answer # 12: No, not at this time.

Question # 13: Can USAID please provide and anticipated start date of the project for offeror’s planning purposes and cost estimating?

USAID Answer # 13: On or about October 1, 2019.

Question # 14: Section H: Contractors are required in Section H.13 (page 49) to negotiate salaries of cooperating country nationals based on the national technical assistance (NTA) scale. However, biodata forms are required for key personnel and other technical specialists as part of Annex 1. The biodata form does not provide adequate information to determine a proper justification of the proposed NTA level and salary. Can USAID confirm that offerors are not required to submit Form 1420 for proposed Afghan staff whose proposed positions are determined using the NTA scale?

USAID Answer # 14: The offeror may propose NTA grade and step in the detailed budget and justify the proposed NTA grade and step in the Budget Narrative.

Question # 15: Section I: In Section I. 2. (page 68), the contract includes FAR 52.216-24 Limitation of

Government Liability. Per the prescriptive language of the clause, this clause should be inserted when a letter contract is contemplated. It is our understanding that USAID does not intend to issue a letter contract under this solicitation, so we suggest that USAID remove clause FAR 52.216-24 from Section I.

2.

USAID Answer # 15: Removed FAR 52.216-24. Please see revised RFP.

Question # 16: Section L: In Section L.6 (page 134), the RFP states that the cover letter/title page should not exceed two pages. Can USAID confirm whether this is separate from a proposal cover (which includes proposal title, offeror, etc.) or if a cover is the same as a title page?

USAID Answer # 16: The cover page is the same as the title page.

Question # 17: Section L: In Section L.6 (page 135), the heading describing Annex A states that key personnel resumes should not exceed six pages, yet in the sentence below it, it states that resumes should not be longer than three pages. Would USAID please clarify its preferred length for key personnel resumes?

USAID Answer # 17: Key personnel resumes should not exceed SIX (6) pages. Please see the revised

RFP.

Question # 18: Section L: In Section L.6 (page 135), the Annex A instructions request offerors to submit a resume and three references and a letter of commitment for each key personnel candidate. Additionally, offerors are instructed to “include the job title, the minimum requirements for the position including skills, education, experience, and accomplishments, the position description, including how the position will assist the Offeror to implement the Activity, achieve the results, and meet the indicator targets proposed in the PWS, and justify how the proposed candidate meets the minimum requirements of the position.” Could USAID please clarify whether offerors should include this additional content in the resumes of key personnel or should offerors include a separate narrative in Annex A in addition to resumes and letters of commitment?

USAID Answer 18: It should be a separate narrative but a part of Annex A. The requirements identified should be independent of the candidate being proposed.

Question # 19: Section L: In Section L.6 (page 136), Annex L is identified as “Organizational Conflict of Interest Mitigation Plan,” yet its description states it should be submitted as “Annex M.” Can USAID please confirm that the OCI Mitigation Plan should be Annex L?

USAID Answer 19: Correct. Please see revised RFP.

Question # 20: Section L: We appreciate USAID’s clarification and revision in Amendment 01 to

Section L.6 Annex C. Can USAID further clarify whether the seven-page allotment for this annex should include PPRs for the offeror and any major subcontractors, quality awards and certifications, as well as performance using small business concerns?

Additionally, Section L.6 (page 141) requires that offerors “must use the Past Performance Questionnaire

(PPQ) Sheet to present the above requested information.” Yet the PPQ attachment does not include sections for each of the evaluation criteria listed in this section. May offerors provide an additional narrative covering these requirements, outside of the seven-page allotment for this section?

USAID Answer # 20: PPR limit is seven (7) pages and additional information is included in the PPQ sheet. Please see the revised Attachment J.2.

Question # 21: Section L: In Section L.6 (page 141), the RFP asks offerors to “provide a list of recent

(past five years) awarded contracts or task orders for which you submitted subcontract reports to the eSRS and a copy of any similarly recent subcontracting reports if they were not submitted to eSRS.” Our subcontracting reports for the past five years that were not submitted to the eSRS (i.e., our SF-294s) total to more than 800 pages and comprise more than 40 MB. In addition to the hardcopy SF-294s for projects not registered in the eSRS, we have submitted individual subcontracting reports through the eSRS for registered projects. Instead of submitting the electronic files totaling 40 MB with 800 pages of SF-294 reports and a listing of eSRS reports, may we submit only a list of 10 relevant eSRS reports and a copy of

10 SF-294 forms that are not duplicated on the eSRS? Further, can USAID confirm that this requirement for Annex C is excluded from the seven page limit?

USAID Answer # 21: Please provide a list of ten (10) relevant eSRS subcontract reports and copies of ten (10) SF-294 forms that are not duplicated. In addition, eSRS is not included in seven (7) page limit.

Annex C is amended accordingly. Please see revised RFP.

Question # 22: Section L: In Section L.7.2.11, regarding payment of fixed fee (page 149), USAID states that the “Contractor will be paid in proportion to the level achieved of the annual target per deliverable.

For example, if the Contractor is to increase Indicator 1 by 20% in Year 2, but only achieves 10% at the end of Year 2, then the contractor will receive only 50% of the potential fixed-fee amount in Year 2 for

Indicator 1.”

We appreciate USAID’s clear description of the expected deliverables and results. However, the RFP’s current fee payment mechanism as described in Section L may remove the flexibility both USAID and the contractor need to reprogram activities, respond to stakeholder needs, capitalize on windows of opportunities, and achieve greater results. Since AEP is a cost-plus-fixed-fee (CPFF) type contract structured to incentivize the contractor to meet certain targets while also maintaining flexibility to adapt implementation to achieve these results, we request that USAID modify B.8 to state that “the fee schedule may be modified based on the annual work plan and changes in underlying assumptions.” As USAID uses annual work plans to manage a contractor’s progress towards completing a contract, adjusting the fee payment schedule with each annual work plan allows the contractor to readjust and reallocate effort and resources as needed to achieve the most results attainable within the total estimated cost.

USAID Answer # 22: Response: USAID agrees and has added this language into the RFP. Please see the revised RFP.

This is end the of questions period for RFP 72030619R00007. No further questions will be answered.

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