Amendment 5 Questions and Answers.pdf

1. CDC’s prior contemplated sole-source placement stated that Born Free USA would require approximately 12 weeks to construct additional enclosures, after which transportation would begin on a phased basis. Amendment 3 now requires completion of all transportation no later than three months after award. Please identify the factual, veterinary, operational, and market-research basis for the revised three-month completion requirement.

a. The three-month requirement was added to the revised SOW; there is now language identifying the ability for all offerors to propose an alternative if they wish to do so that will be evaluated. Any final changes to the SOW will be incorporated into the resulting contract.

2. CDC’s prior contemplated placement referenced transportation in cohorts of approximately 25 animals. Amendment 3 prices transportation as approximately five trips for approximately 132 animals. Please identify how CDC independently established the approximate five-trip assumption.

a. That was just an estimate for the government pricing information. CDC will entertain any proposed solution and resulting price.

3. Please identify the assumed number of animals per trip underlying the solicitation’s transportation pricing structure.

a. Based on the new number, this would mean an average of 25 animals would be shipped at a time. Again, this was an estimate that came from the initial establishment of the independent government estimate and CDC will evaluate all alternatives proposed.

4. May an offeror propose fewer than five trips if it can safely transfer the animals more quickly and at lower cost?

a. Yes, an offeror may propose fewer than five trips if it can safely transfer the animals more quickly and at lower cost. The Agency will review your proposal. The resulting contract can be modified to show the final negotiated terms.

5. May an offeror propose additional smaller trips if its veterinary and behavioral personnel determine that smaller cohorts would better protect animal welfare?

a. Yes, an offeror may propose additional smaller trips if its veterinary and behavioral personnel determine that smaller cohorts would better protect animal welfare. The Agency will review it during evaluation.

6. Will an offeror receive additional technical credit for having existing capacity to accept some or all of the animals substantially faster than the three-month maximum period?

a. No.

7. Section 10, “Minimum Contractor Qualifications,” does not list GFAS accreditation as a minimum contractor qualification. However, Section 2 requires performance within facilities compliant with standards set by GFAS and states that CDC prefers a GFAS-accredited facility. Please clarify whether GFAS accreditation is an eligibility requirement, technical evaluation consideration, source-selection preference, or none of the foregoing.

a. GFAS accreditation is no longer an eligibility requirement; it is a preferred technical evaluation consideration but will not be the basis for exclusion of a proposal. Should an organization provide proof of accreditation, that would be reflected in the narrative during the evaluation and could potentially result in earning a higher adjective rating.

8. Will a non-GFAS offeror receive any weakness, risk assessment, disadvantage, lower rating, or other unfavorable consideration solely because it does not hold GFAS accreditation?

a. No.

9. Please state whether AAALAC accreditation will be treated as a positive factor, negative factor, neutral fact, or irrelevant fact during evaluation.

a. The Solicitation describes the relative importance of all evaluation factors.

10. Please confirm that an offeror will not be penalized because it maintains AAALAC accreditation.

a. There is no penalty for having AAALAC accreditation.

11. Please confirm that an offeror will not be penalized because its broader organization conducts lawful biomedical research involving animals unrelated to the retired CDC macaques.

a. The Solicitation states all evaluation factors for award.

12. Please clarify whether the prohibition on experimentation applies solely to the CDC animals or to every animal maintained by the contractor’s organization.

a. The prohibition is only for the animals covered under this action.

13. Please clarify whether CDC’s preference for a facility that does not perform research applies solely to the facility housing the retired CDC animals or to the contractor’s entire corporate organization.

a. The CDC’s preference is for the entire structure so that the animals don’t get moved into the experimentation side of the operation. An offeror who has animals used for research or other purposes should describe how the animals covered under this action will not be mixed with other research animals.

14. If an organization-wide restriction is intended, please identify the animal-welfare and procurement basis for concluding that lawful activities involving unrelated animals at separate locations affect the welfare of the retired CDC macaques.

a. See answer to Question 13.

15. Please confirm whether an offeror may establish a physically, operationally, and contractually segregated retirement program within a larger organization that conducts unrelated lawful activities elsewhere.

a. The CDC is concerned how the animals will be retired and kept from another side of the business. It is up to the offeror to propose an acceptable solution.

16. The solicitation requests information concerning an “Executive Director.” Please confirm that a commercial corporation may provide the equivalent senior executive, such as its President, CEO, COO, Facility Director, or other responsible officer.

a. Yes.

17. Please confirm that an offeror will not be penalized for using a different corporate title.

a. The Solicitation describes the agency’s needs and evaluation criteria. It is an offeror’s responsibility to demonstrate equivalence.

18. The solicitation requests information concerning a board of directors or trustees.

Please confirm that privately held corporations and other entities without a board of trustees remain fully eligible to compete.

a. CDC is requesting information about a board of directors or trustees to the extent it applies to an offeror. If it doesn’t apply to your organization, you may describe your separate corporate structure.

19. Please confirm that nonprofit status is not an evaluation factor.

a. All evaluation factors are listed in the Solicitation.

20. Please confirm that tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code §501(c)(3) is not an evaluation factor.

a. All evaluation factors are listed in the Solicitation.

21. Please explain how CDC will evaluate financial stability across nonprofit sanctuaries, private corporations, universities, and other organizational structures using equivalent standards.

a. All evaluation factors are listed in the Solicitation.

22. Please identify the objective financial information or metrics CDC will use to determine whether an offeror has sufficient financial resources to satisfy the lifetime-care obligation.

a. All evaluation factors are listed in the Solicitation.

23. Please explain how the technical evaluation will remain blind when offerors must provide facility maps, photographs, land documentation, licenses, permits, organizational information, staff resumes, and other materials capable of identifying the offeror.

a. CDC intends to remove the identifying information before it reaches the evaluation team. This will include names, addresses, etc.

24. Will facility names, addresses, logos, document metadata, watermarks, staff names, board-member names, license numbers, and similar identifying information be removed before materials are provided to technical evaluators?

a. Yes, any identifying information will be redacted.

25. Will staff resumes be redacted to remove prior employment or other information capable of identifying an offeror?

a. If that is an identifying factor, the exact place of employment can be redacted, but the experience will remain.

26. Will property documents, licenses, permits, maps, and photographs that readily identify a particular facility be withheld or anonymized?

a. Anonymized.

27. Who will determine whether proposal materials have been adequately anonymized?

a. The Contacting Officer.

28. What procedure will apply if a technical evaluator recognizes an offeror from photographs, enclosure designs, maps, staff experience, facility characteristics, or other information?

a. The panel member will be replaced.

29. Must an evaluator disclose that he or she has identified or believes he or she has identified an offeror?

a. Yes.

30. Will an evaluator who recognizes an offeror be recused from evaluating that offeror?

a. Yes, the panel member will be replaced if the recognition occurs with information that is supposed to be kept anonymous.

31. Will all members of the technical evaluation panel disclose whether they participated in the prior contemplated sole-source placement with Born Free USA?

a. Yes.

32. Will any individual who participated in the prior decision to pursue placement with Born Free USA serve as a technical evaluator or source-selection official for the present competitive procurement?

a. No.

33. If so, please explain what safeguards CDC will employ to prevent prior knowledge or prior conclusions concerning specific offerors from influencing the current evaluation.

a. N/A; anyone who previously worked on the sole source is ineligible for the panel for this solicitation.

34. The solicitation permits consideration of extrinsic information. Please identify the categories of extrinsic information that may be considered.

a. Any information available to the general public or information that is only available to government employees, such as past performance evaluations.

35. Will information provided by Born Free USA during the prior contemplated sole-source action, market research, negotiations, site visits, or other pre-solicitation communications be considered during the present evaluation?

a. No. The offer is compared to the solicitation and only the solicitation. Offers will not be compared to each other, and no other information will be evaluated aside from additional past performance information.

36. If previously provided information concerning one offeror may be considered, will comparable supplemental information be requested from all competing offerors?

a. This question has been answered in Question 36.

37. Will any technical evaluator have access to information concerning Born Free USA that is not contained in Born Free USA’s submitted quotation?

a. Evaluators may consult with information outside of the submitted quotation such as past performance reports.

38. Will an offeror be informed before award if materially adverse extrinsic information that the offeror has not previously had an opportunity to address is relied upon in evaluating its quotation?

a. If the CDC chooses to conduct discussions, offerors will be given an opportunity to address deficiencies or significant weaknesses that have been identified.

39. Will the offeror be provided an opportunity to respond to such information?

a. See answer to Question 38.

40. Please clarify whether relevant past performance must consist specifically of third-party “contracts.”

a. The work being submitted to establish relevancy must show similar work to allow CDC to assess the probability of success in completing the work in the SOW. The Solicitation states how past performance will be evaluated.

41. Will directly operated macaque colonies, federally funded colony-management programs, grants, cooperative agreements, institutional animal-care programs, and other comparable experience be considered relevant?

a. Relevance will be evaluated as described in the Solicitation.

42. Will long-term care of substantial macaque populations be considered relevant where the animals were owned by the offeror rather than cared for pursuant to a sanctuary contract?

a. Relevance will be evaluated as described in the Solicitation.

43. Please define “similar in scope, size, and complexity.”

a. Similar in scope, size, and complexity are defined by their ordinary dictionary definitions.

44. Must relevant past performance specifically involve retirement of laboratory macaques?

a. Relevance will be evaluated as described in the Solicitation.

45. Will demonstrated experience managing hundreds or thousands of rhesus, pigtailed, or other macaques be considered relevant to the requirement?

a. Experience will be evaluated as described in the Solicitation.

46. Will the number of macaques previously managed and the duration of an offeror’s institutional primate-care experience be considered when determining relevance?

a. Relevance will be evaluated as described in the Solicitation.

47. The solicitation appears both to require demonstrated successful operation of similar contracts and to provide a neutral rating where an offeror lacks relevant past performance. Please clarify whether an offeror without three qualifying similar contracts remains eligible for award.

a. The evaluation of Past Performance is concerned with how well a contractor has performed previously, which is separate from prior experience. If an offeror has no prior experience, it will necessitate a neutral rating on past performance.

48. Please clarify whether the required five-year disposition information must include every animal housed by an offeror that died or was transferred during that period.

a. Yes.

49. If an organization has housed several thousand animals during the relevant period, must it submit individual records for every disposition?

a. See Answer to Question 48.

50. Will CDC permit mortality statistics, regulatory records, summaries, or representative records in lieu of thousands of individual disposition and necropsy records?

a. No.

51. Will mortality and adverse-event information be evaluated in relation to the number of animals or animal-years under care?

a. All evaluation factors are listed in the Solicitation.

52. Please explain how CDC will avoid disadvantaging a large facility merely because it cares for substantially more animals than a smaller facility.

a. This has been addressed in the evaluation criteria.

53. Please define “legal complaint” for purposes of the solicitation.

a. The CDC considers a legal complaint as a pleading filed by a plaintiff or prosecutor to initiate a civil or criminal lawsuit.

54. Please define “negative audit finding.”

a. Any audit findings that involve concerns with animal housing, husbandry, or care that were negative.

55. Will CDC distinguish between allegations and substantiated findings?

a. CDC will review information available in the government databases. Offerors can include any information they feel necessary in their proposal responses.

56. Will CDC distinguish between corrected administrative findings and unresolved findings materially affecting animal welfare?

a. CDC will consider all historical findings that are documented. Offerors can include any information they feel necessary in their proposal responses.

57. How will CDC compare facilities subject to frequent USDA, AAALAC, federal-agency, and customer inspections with facilities subject to substantially fewer external regulatory inspections?

a. All evaluation factors are listed in the Solicitation.

58. Section 2 states that “The facility must not buy, sell, or trade animals or sell or otherwise transfer animal byproducts.” Please define “facility” for purposes of this restriction.

a. Facility is defined by its ordinary plain meaning.

59. Does this restriction apply solely to the CDC macaques, to all animals physically maintained at the location housing the CDC macaques, or to every animal owned or maintained by the contractor’s broader legal organization?

a. This applies only to the animals covered under this contract.

60. May a contractor establish a physically, administratively, and contractually segregated retirement facility in which the CDC macaques are never bought, sold, traded, bred, transferred for research, or used experimentally while the contractor conducts unrelated lawful activities at separate facilities?

a. Yes.

61. If CDC intends the prohibition to extend beyond the CDC animals and beyond the facility actually housing them, please identify the Government’s minimum need requiring such an organization-wide restriction.

a. N/A

62. Please identify the market research supporting any conclusion that otherwise qualified private primate-care organizations must cease unrelated lawful animal transactions or research activities in order to safely and humanely retire the CDC macaques.

a. N/A

63. The SOW states that the animals shall remain at the contractor’s facility in perpetuity except where transfer is necessary for an animal’s health. The Animal Management and Safety Plan nevertheless requires a plan for release/reintroduction of animals. Please reconcile these requirements.

a. This has been removed.

64. The deliverables schedule requires the Introduction Plan 10 business days before first transport. Task 3 separately states that the plan is required before contract award and will not be due again after award as a contract deliverable. Please identify the controlling requirement.

a. Offeror misunderstood this. The first bullet in Task 3 is for the introduction plan. The second bullet in Task 3 is for the breeding plan.

65. The Care Plan is due seven business days before shipments begin, and CDC anticipates approximately seven business days for review. Does the contractor require CDC approval of the Care Plan before transportation begins?

a. The Care Plan is now due 10 days before first shipment.

66. The Basis for Award states that CDC will use the “tradeoff approach and methodology in FAR 15.202.” Under the HHS FAR Part 15 class deviation, the tradeoff approach appears at 15.103-1, while 15.202 addresses evaluation of competitive proposals. Please identify the provision CDC intends to reference.

a. CDC will utilize the trade-off approach as indicated in FAR 15.202(b)(2).

15.103-1 is the definition of trade-off.

67. Amendment 3 states that a rating below Acceptable renders an offer ineligible “until the deficiencies are corrected,” but also reserves the Government’s right to award without negotiations. Please explain whether an offeror rated below Acceptable will be provided an opportunity to correct deficiencies.

a. Not necessarily. The government can negotiate but reserves the right not to.

68. If CDC may award without providing such an opportunity, please clarify the meaning of “until the deficiencies are corrected.”

a. That would mean that if negotiations were held.

69. Will all similarly situated offerors be provided the same opportunity to address deficiencies, weaknesses, ambiguities, omissions, or mistakes?

a. If the agency decides to engage in discussions, and if an offeror is determined to be within the competitive range, then all similarly situated offerors in the competitive range will be provided the same opportunity to address agency concerns.

70. Appendix 2 states that 42 CFR §71.53 does not apply to the proposed transfer, but also states that CDC expects the selected sanctuary to comply with the regulation’s permitted scientific, educational, or exhibition purposes. Please clarify whether compliance with a permitted purpose under §71.53 is a contract requirement.

a. This is a misstatement. The text states:

CDC has no reason to believe, at this point, that the sanctuary selected would not comply with the permitted purposes, which are for scientific, education, or exhibition purposes as defined in the regulation, or engage in the prohibited purposes, particularly given the existence of a contract that will set forth the allowable purposes.

71. If §71.53 does not apply, please explain why the selected contractor’s compliance with one of its permitted purposes is relevant to this acquisition.

a. The organization enforcing 71.53 has determined it does not apply to the procurement.

72. Appendix 1 states that CDC identified two other NHP-retirement actions using NAICS 813312. Please identify those two actions by agency, solicitation or contract number, date, and awardee.

a. This is publicly available information and can be found on USASpending.gov

73. Please identify the number and types of potential commercial primate-care sources considered when CDC reevaluated the NAICS code for Amendment 3.

a. The full details of the consideration are found in the Solicitation.