Answers_RFQ 72030621Q00001-02 .pdf

Attachment 1 to Amendment #2 of the RFQ Solicitation # 72030621Q00001

Questions and Answers on RFQ 72030621Q00001

1. General: Due to the winter holidays and need to collaborate with in-country personnel for a complete response, could USAID please extend the proposal submission deadline to January 15th?

USAID response: Refer Amendment #1 of the Solicitation

2. General: For each audit, could USAID/Afghanistan please specify whether there was a cost-sharing/matching requirement?

USAID response: Some or all awards to be audited might have a cost share/matching requirement.

3. General: For each audit, could USAID/Afghanistan please specify whether the auditee possesses a NICRA?

USAID response: Some or all auditees might possess a NICRA.

4. Section C.4: The current audit scope language indicates that the audits must be performed in accordance with the Guide, GAGAS, IAASB, and ISSAIs. Would USAID/Afghanistan please specify that the audits may be performed in accordance with the Guide, GAGAS, IAASB, and/or ISSAIs, as applicable?

USAID response: Performed in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Government Audit Standards (GAGAS).

5. General: Could USAID please clarify whether one audit per group per organization is expected or if each award is expected to have a separate audit conducted? For example, Group B includes four auditees but six awards. Is USAID seeking four audit reports (one per auditee) or six audit reports (one per award)?

USAID response: One audit per organization, inclusive of all awards.

6. Group B: There are no costs shown as being subject to audit for Chemonics International and the DABS award no. 306-IL-15-56-09. Will these audits remain in scope or be excluded from the bid?

USAID response: Cost will be determined at the signing of the contracts.

7. What is the difference between the Total Estimated Costs and the Amount to be Audited listed for each award?

USAID response: The “Amount to be Audited” for each award is what needs to be audited under this RFQ as opposed to the “Total Estimated Costs” which is the anticipated cost for the total life of the award.

8. Group C: The FHI 360 GHSC-QA audit shows a negative amount to be audited. Could

USAID please clarify whether this audit will remain in scope or be excluded from the bid?

USAID response: This is a DC based award and will be determined at the award date.

9. Group C: The amount to be audited for ICF Macro is presented as $0. Could USAID please clarify whether this audit will remain in scope or be excluded from the bid?

USAID response: ICF will be removed from the bid

10. Groups A, B, C, and D: The location of records is listed for two of the awards subject to audit. Could USAID/Afghanistan please provide the location of records for the remaining awards?

USAID response: The location of records will be discussed during the entrance conference.

11. Section B. Fund Accountability Statement: Footnote 1 indicates the opinion on the Fund Accountability Statement must comply with SAS No. 62 (AU623). Based on the audit periods prescribed, the clarity standards would apply to each audit requested by USAID. Would USAID please revise the footnote to indicate that the opinion must comply with the applicable auditing standards pertinent to special purpose frameworks?

USAID response: USAID/Afghanistan will be following USAID Guide for Financial Audits.

12. Pricing, Pages 76/111 and 99/111: Would USAID consider replacing the requirement for loaded daily rates and days in the pricing proposal template with loaded hourly rates and hours, respectively? Such a replacement would allow for proposals to mirror the presentation of GSA rate schedules (i.e., presentation of hourly rather than daily rates).

USAID response: USAID will be following the GSA Schedule rates.

13. Management Approach, Page 74/111: The RFQ does not appear to define the positions USAID/Afghanistan considers to be key personnel positions. Is USAID/Afghanistan requesting the respondents to identify the personnel or positions they consider to be key personnel?

USAID response: Refer to Amendment #2.

14. Past Performance, Pages 74 – 75: Would USAID accept CPARS reports in lieu of providing the detailed information in the past performance information form?

USAID response: No.

15. Past Performance, Pages 74 – 75 and Past Performance Report Form: Given the time of year, a number of organizations and agency personnel are out of the office and potentially not checking email thus limiting the likelihood of references returning past performance reports. Given this, would USAID be amenable to substituting the requirement for the return of past performance reports and instead permitting the provision of references’ contact information?

USAID response: No.

16. Will USAID/Afghanistan be evaluating price prior to the completion of oral presentations?

USAID response: Yes

17. Please confirm that travel to Kabul from the US or other countries will be allowable as well as the per diem and related visa costs, etc.. Section B.7 (a) is a little confusing.

USAID response: Yes.

18. In section C.1 on page 5 of the RFQ, it refers to three contractors. Please confirm that this wording is not a limitation under this Task Order.

USAID response: See Amendment #2.

19. In section C.1, Group A has five (5) organizations to be audited and only AUAF has it’s records location identified. As the location of the records for the other four (4) organizations could have an impact on how the audits are staffed, is it possible to identify where the records are for the other organizations? This is especially important for the ABT and ARD audits which are closeouts and the staff that worked on the projects may no longer be accessible.

USAID response: Record location will be discussed during the Audit Entrance Conferences

20. In section C.1 Group B, would it be possible to identify where the records can be accessed?

USAID response: Records location will be discussed at the Audit Entrance Conference.

21. In section C.1 Group B, the Chemonics project ran for five (5) years yet the Total Estimated

Cost (TEC) was only $176,568, with no indication of the amount to be audited. As this is a Close Out audit, can you please indicate the nature of these costs?

USAID response: This is a Close out audit.

22. In section C.1 Group B, the DABS project finished in 2016 with $5 million of expenditure, yet there is no indication of an amount to be audited. As this is a Close Out audit, can you please indicate the nature of these costs?

USAID response: Expenditures will be discussed during the Entrance Conference.

23. In section C.1 for Groups C and D, is it possible to indicate where the records can be located?

USAID response: Records location will be discussed at the Audit Entrance Conferences

24. As COVID is still active in many parts of the world, can these audits be performed remotely if there can be found an acceptable way to observe physical assets for verification purposes?

USAID response: Audit fieldwork can be performed remotely, given the current pandemic. Alternative procedures must be performed for physical asset verification, either photos etc.

25. As per section K.4 under Other Audit Responsibilities, can you please indicate if there were any sub-recipients that needed to be audited and if so, were those audits completed?

USAID response: No. Sub-recipients will not be audited. This is the prime’s responsibility.

26. Would USAID consider extending the RFP submission deadline to January 12th in consideration of the question’s submission deadline to USAID by December 26th and to allow Offerors review of responses by USAID upon posting.

USAID response: See Amendment #1 to the solicitation.

27. Solicitation, Section C – Description/Specifications/Statement of Work, Page 5: For

Award information for Associates in Rural Development, under Group A, can USAID please confirm that the period of performance ending date is March 31, 2021? If this is the correct, would USAID please consider making Deliverable #2 due within 220 days from Task Order start date.

USAID response: It will depend on the contract signing date.

28. Solicitation, Section C – Description/Specifications/Statement of Work, Pages 6-7: For

Award information for CCCI under Group B. Can USAID please confirm that the period of performance ending date is April 27, 2021? If this is the correct, would USAID please consider making Deliverable #2 due within 220 days from Task Order start date.

29. Solicitation, Section C – Description/Specifications/Statement of Work, Pages 6-7: For Award information for DAI, SHAHAR under Group B. Can USAID please confirm that the period of performance ending date is March 31, 2021? If this is the correct, would USAID please consider making Deliverable #2 due within 220 days from Task Order start date.

30. Solicitation, Section C – Description/Specifications/Statement of Work, Pages 6-7: For

Award information for Group B, can USAID please provide the amount to be audited for Chemonics International Inc. and DABS?

USAID response: Amount to be audited will be provided upon the signing of the contract or during the entrance conference.

31. Solicitation, Section C – Description/Specifications/Statement of Work, Pages 7: For

Award information for Group C, can USAID please provide the amount to be audited for ICF

MACRO INC?

32. Solicitation, Section F – Deliveries or Performance, Page 41: Deliverable #2 is within 110 days from the Task Order start date. With the task order award covering a twelve (12) month base period and the final approval is due within 320 days from Task Order start date; would USAID please consider making Deliverable #2 due within 220 days from Task Order start date.

33. Solicitation, Section F – Instructions to Offerors, Page 76: “Offeror must provide a detailed travel plan and budget with the price proposal for evaluation (Attachment J.6).” Will the Government please provide the location of records for all the Auditees included within this solicitation as the list reported in Section C excludes the location of records?

34. Section L.4.1 confirms that technical proposals are limited to six pages. If an audit firm wishes to propose for more than one of the four audit packages, which would then have different Entrance/Exit Conference and Reporting requirements, etc., should they submit multiple technical and financial proposals? Or, can there be separate, 6-page technical proposals for each audit package?

USAID response: Auditors must submit separate, 6-page technical proposals for each audit package.

35. (L.4.3, Price Proposal Instructions, Pages 75 and 76) The RFQ states “the plug dollar number provided for Travel & Per Diem must be used” (page 75) and “all plug dollar figures provided shall be used in the Offeror’s price proposal” (page 76). We understand $90,000 is a plug number USAID inserted to the budget for administrative purposes. We would like to confirm that USAID intends for the Offerors to submit their best estimate travel cost for each Group (Group A – D) on a group by group basis via our best estimate travel cost and not use the plug dollar figure of $90,000 in our LOE/Budget and detailed travel plan/budget.

USAID response: The amount of $90,000 is for all groups.

36. (C.3A, Audit of USAID Funds, Page 9) As presented, the one objective noted below could potentially require an audit of entity wide financial statements. Could USAID please: 1) Clarify whether it is USAID’s intent to have Offerors propose to provide quotes for entity wide Financial Statements and 2) Identify which entities in Groups A – D IPs would require audits of entity wide financial statements given the significant impact on level of effort estimates.

● For a non U.S. Organization, perform an audit of the indirect cost rate(s) if the contractor has been authorized to charge indirect costs to USAID using provisional rates. If so, the fund accountability statement should be reconciled to the USAID funds included in the general purpose income statement by a note to the fund accountability statement. If the contractor does not have a USAID authorized indirect cost rate, this fact must be disclosed in the report.

● For a non U.S. Organization, if the recipient has been authorized to charge a provisional indirect cost rate, then perform a financial audit of the recipient’s organization-wide general-purpose financial statements.

● The audit of the general purpose financial statements must be performed in accordance with GAGAS. The objective of this audit is to express an opinion on whether the general purpose financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the results of its operations for the year then ended, in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.

USAID response: USAID/Afghanistan is seeking to conduct financial and closeout audit services, including a review of compliance with vetting procedures, specifically to awards issued in Afghanistan. These are project/activity specific awards and we are not interested in entity-wide financial statements. None of the audits would be entity-wide audits.

37. (L.4.2, Evaluation Criteria, Page 74) The RFQ states for past performance the Offerors “must provide the information using the Past Performance Report Template Short Form”. Could

USAID please clarify whether the past performance annex is included or excluded from the six page technical proposal limit?

USAID response: The past performance information doesn’t count towards the six-page limit.

38. (C.1, Background, Page 5) In order to properly estimate audit efforts and travel costs, please provide the record location for the following IPs:

· Group A - ABT Associates Inc., ARD, CARE International

· Group B – Chemonics International Inc., DAI

· Group C – ICF Macro Inc., International Medical Corps, JHPIEGO Corporation

· Group D – John Snow Inc., KNCV, Red Orange North America Inc., Texas A&M Agrilife Research

39. (C.1, Background, Page 5) In order to properly estimate audit efforts, please provide the estimated amount to be audited for the following IPs:

· Group B – Chemonics International Inc., DABS (Award 306-IL-15-56-09)

· Group C – FHI 360 (estimated audit amount is shown as negative), ICF Macro Inc.

40. (B.4, Firm Fixed Price, Page 3 and F.8, Period of Performance, Page 44) Please clarify whether the Task Order period of performance will be six (6) months or twelve (12) months base period from the contract/task order start date.

USAID response: The audit report must be submitted within six months of the date of execution of the contract while the period of performance of the contract will be one year.

41. (C.8, Terms of Performance, Page 31, F.1 Reports and Deliverables, Page 41 and F.5, Terms of Performance, Page 42) Please clarify the deliverables schedules for the following:

· Deliverable #2 – 110 days (shown in schedule, Page 31) or 120 days (shown in paragraph, Page 31)

· Deliverable #3 – 160 days (shown in schedule, Page 31) or 180 days (shown in paragraph, Page 31) or 320 days (shown in schedule, Page 41)

· In addition, the terms of performance, Page 42 states the final audit report is to be presented within 360 days.

USAID response: See Amendment #2 to the solicitation.

42. (C.1, Background, Page 5) Can USAID clarify expectations on audit performance/completion for certain Group IPs that have audit periods in future dates and not yet completed? For example, the audit period end date for ARD under group A is 3/31/2021 and for Checchi and DAI-SHAHAR under group B are 4/17/2021 and 3/31/2021, respectively. Because the audit period end dates are in March and April 2021, the IPs per our past experience will not be able to provide the final financial PBCs and FAS until they close their books which takes several months after the audit period ends (typically 60 days after the audit period ends).

USAID response: The timeline for submitting the final reports for above mentioned implementing partners/activities will depend on when the audit contract is signed.

43. General: The USAID Mission Order 201.06 about vetting non-US awardees and sub-awardees does not specifically mention the term “vendors” who are not sub-contractors nor subrecipients that are subject to the vetting requirements. Although the practice is that all non-U.S. vendors are vetted, IPs have questioned whether non-US vendors that are paid over $25k be vetted? Please clarify.

USAID response: USAID/Afghanistan does not distinguish vendors from other sub-awardees.

The Mission's Vetting Support Unit consistently applies the same policies, procedures, and rules to vendors as it does to other sub-awardees.

44. General: We understand that all USAID IPs in Afghanistan must follow the NTA salary scale and guideline as the compensation plan for their local national employees. Please clarify if the NTA salary scale is applied to contracts and cooperative agreements? We noted that an USAID Agreement Officer indicated in an audit finding determination letter that the NTA salary scale applies to contracts and not to agreements as follow:

· “Where the award type is a contract, the NTA must be used for the evaluation of the reasonableness of proposed employee compensation of both U.S. and non-U.S.

organizations operating in Afghanistan. Conversely, where the award type is assistance, the awardee is not required to adhere to the rates delineated in the NTA.”

USAID response: USAID contractors operating in Afghanistan are required to adhere to the NTA as the compensation plan for Cooperating Country Nationals (CCNs) in Afghanistan.

45. (C.4, Audit Scope, Page 13) Please clarify how the following auditing standards listed under the Audit Scope section are applicable while at the same time the audits will be performed in according with U.S. GAGAS and USAID Financial Audit Guide?

· International Standards on Auditing issued by the International Auditing and

Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), in conjunction with GAGAS; and,

· The International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAIs) issued by the

International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) for public-sector audits, in conjunction with GAGAS.”

USAID response: Performed in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Government Audit Standards (GAGAS).

46. General: Would USAID consider extending the RFQ closing deadline by two (2) weeks or an extended date acceptable to USAID in consideration of the U.S. holidays for year-end/new year and offerors time to review and take into account USAID responses upon posting?

USAID response: Refer to Amendment #1 of the solicitation.