MOD 3 Phase II GOVERNMENT RESPONSES 10 24 2023.pdf

Phase II- Question Government Responses Solicitation No: 75F40123R00132

1.

Question: Per RFP instructions, bidders “shall provide the completed IDIQ LCAT Price Template and the Sample Task Order Price Template”. We assume that we need to provide Mod 2 Attachment 9 – Pricing Schedule and Attachment 8 – Task Order Template. Are any other attachments, such as attachment 5 – Labor Hour Rates IDIQ required?

Government Response

Completion of Attachment 5 will be required to be submitted as part of the Business Volume.

The RFP will be modified to reflect this change.

2.

Question: In Mod 2 attachment 9, VISA rates were removed. Should VISA rates be removed from Attachment 8 – Task Order Template and Attachment 5 – Labor Hour Rates IDIQ (if required)?

Government Response

Visa Rates were re-inserted. Attachment 9 will be modified to include VISA rates throughout the worksheets.

3.

Question: If VISA Assistance rates are required, will the Government consider providing nominal rates or a percentage for evaluation purposes only?

Government Response

The Government will revise the RFP, Instructions for Pricing, to state that VISA rates shall not exceed 2% over the non-VISA rates.

4.

Question: In Volume I I – Bus iness /Pr i ce Evalua t ion Cr i te r ia , the government s t a tes they wi l l on ly eva lua te the non-v isa ass i s tance labor ra t e . Wi l l the government cons ider de le t ing the VISA ass i s t ance ra te co lumns in a l l p r ic ing a t tachments (5 ( i f requi red) and 8) , i f i t i s no t go ing to be eva lua ted .

Government Response

No the Government will not be deleting the VISA rates. The VISA rates must be no more than 2% increase of their non-VISA rates.

5.

Question: Page 128 under Technical Factor 1, paragraph has task areas 4.1 – 4.5, but not task areas 4.6 and 4.7. Does the government require the contractor to provide a narrative of task areas 4.6 and 4.7?

Government Response

The Contractor is not required to provide a narrative for task areas 4.6 and 4.7.

6.

Question: W o u l d t h e F D A c o n s i d e r a n e x t e n s i o n ? T h e n e w A t t a c h m e n t 1 1 – S a m p l e T a s k O r d e r R e s o u r c e M a t r i x , r e q u i r e s b i d d e r s t o p r o v i d e n a m e d r e s o u r c e s , g i v i n g t h e i n c u m b e n t c o n t r a c t o r a n a d v a n t a g e .

Government Response

The Government will update the RFP to provide an extension to Tuesday, October 31, 2023, 2 p.m. (eastern time) as due date for Phase II proposals due.

7.

Question: The Sample Task Order Resource Matrix – Attachment 11, labor category levels, don’t match the Sample Task Order Pricing template – Attachment 8. For example, the Resource Matrix references Mid and Jr. level categories and the Task Order Pricing template and Pricing Schedule references category levels I – IV. Please provide category levels I – IV so all bidders are bidding on the same levels, for evaluation purposes.

Government Response

The Sample Task Order Resource Matrix - Attachment 11 will be modified to align labor category levels with the Sample Task Order Pricing template - Attachment 8.

8.

Question: In Appendix 1: Labor Categories and Descriptions, there are several labor categories that repeat years of experience. Will the government update Appendix 1 with updated years of experience for the labor categories below:

1. Engineer, General (Chemical, Mechanical, Electrical, Environmental, Biosystems, Food) II and III

2. Quality Assistance Specialist II and III

3. Programmer III and IV

Appendix 1 will be modified to reflect distinction in years-of-experience for Engineer, General II and III; Quality Assurance Specialist II and III; Programmer III and IV.

9.

Question: Can the government amend Section L requirements regarding the Task Order Resource Matrix to match the requirements in Attachment 11 asking for the individuals’ names to be listed.

Government Response

Attachment 11 will be modified and will conform with Technical Factor 4 and the Task Order Resource.

Question: Can the government please confirm and update the RFP and attachment to reflect the answers to questions provided on September 15, 2023, i.e. Instructions to Offerors for both Phase I and II, Technical Proposal Evaluation Criteria, and Overall Basis for Award.

Government Response

The Government affirms there are no changes to the RFP based on the Government answers to the Contractor's questions on September 15, 2023.

Question: Item 11 CBER provides no LCAT names in column B for the support required. It lists only “Scientific Support”. To better understand how the CBER plans to use the labor categories in Tab 2, and to be consistent across all Center estimates, we request that the government provide details on the labor categories that are encompassed in “Scientific Support”.

Attachment 9 will be revised to reflect "Scientific Data Analyst III" as the LCAT for CBER.

Question: The period of performance is described as one 48-month ordering period. The pricing schedule has tabs showing 4 individual ordering periods. Can the government clarify if there is a single 48-month ordering period or 4 shorter ordering periods?

The Government affirms this IDIQ is a 48-month ordering period (48 month award period).

Question: The period of performance in 7.0 is stated as a 48-month ordering period with a 60 month performance period. The additional 12 months are not being added using FAR 52.217- 8 or FAR 52.217-9. We request that the government add a fifth year of labor rates to the pricing schedule to cover all years of contract performance.

The Government will not add a fifth year of labor rates.

Question: Hours are only provided for 48 months of performance. Request that the government provide an estimate for hours for the contract performance period covering 12/1/2027-11/30/2028.

Government Response

The Government will revise Attachment 9 to include a 6-month option beyond the 48-month period. Vendors will input rates for the possible 6-month option to extend services.

Question: The Section for Centers/Offices 2-11 includes a header for the rates titled “Both Sites - Govt/Con Rate”. The rate sheet lists Non-Visa and Visa Assistance. Which rates are supposed to be reflected in Column F?

The spreadsheets will be revised to reflect VISA and non-VISA rates.

Question: The responses to questions 46, 58, and 67 in Attachment 10 stated that Visa Status/rates were being removed. Visa status rates were added to Attachment 9 released with Mod 2. A new Attachment 5 was not released.

Are Visa Assistance Rates to be submitted?

As Visa Assistance rates were added to Attachment 9 Tab 2, is Attachment 5 still required in the pricing response? Attachment 5 appears to duplicate the requirement in Tab 2 of the

Pricing Schedule.

Visa status/rates were re-inserted.

Visa Assistance Rates are to be submitted.

Completion of Attachment 5 will be required to be submitted as part of the Business Volume.

The RFP will be modified to reflect this change.

Question: C o u l d t h e g o v e r n m e n t a d d t h e F A R 5 2 . 2 1 7 - 8 6 - m o n t h e x t e n s i o n r a t e s t o T a b 2 ?

Government Response

Yes, the Government will revise Attachment 9, Tab 2 to include a column for rates for the possible 6-month option period.

Question: According to Phase I Q&A #40, the government is requesting a Program Manager IV at the IDIQ level and Project Manager III at the task order level.

However, in the revised Mod 2 Phase II solicitation instructions, Program Manager IV LCAT is listed for both IDIQ and task order Key Personnel.

Can the government please confirm that they would like a Project Manager III at the task order level as Key Personnel?

The Government will revise the RFP (IDIQ SOW) to delete reference of a Project Manager

III.

Question: D i d t h e g o v e r n m e n t i n t e n d t o i n c l u d e t h e T a s k O r d e r K e y P e r s o n n e l ( P r o j e c t M a n a g e r I I I o r P r o g r a m M a n a g e r I V , p e n d i n g c l a r i f i c a t i o n t o t h e p r e v i o u s q u e s t i o n ) t o t h e T a s k O r d e r R e s o u r c e M a t r i x a n d T a s k O r d e r t e m p l a t e f o r p r i c i n g o f t h e S a m p l e T a s k O r d e r ? I f s o , w i l l t h e g o v e r n m e n t p l e a s e p r o v i d e r e v i s e d A t t a c h m e n t s 1 1 a n d 8 ?

The Government did not intend for a Project Manager III as a Task Order Key Personnel.

Question: According to Phase I Q&A, Questions 43, 46, 58, and 67 Attachments 5, 8 & 9 would be revised and posted on Monday, September 18, 2023, to SAM.gov to remove all references of Visa Status. Can the government please clarify that Visa status should be removed and if so to please provide revised attachments?

Government Response

Question: Within the updated Mod 2, Attachment 9 posted on 10/13/23 and Phase I Q&A Question 46, Tab T.2 continues to list both columns and the subsequent tabs (i.e., Tab T.3 and all ordering periods), Column F has “Non-Visa” for CDER OTS and “Both Sites -Govt/Con Rate” for all other Offices. Can the government please clarify that Visa status should be removed and if a Single Rate is expected for both government and contractor sites?

Government Response

Question: Within Tab T.3 and all ordering periods in subsequent tabs, row 120 “Scientific Support” is listed with 25 FTEs. Can the government clarify which Tier(s) (I-V) make up the mix of the 25 FTEs based on the new LCAT provided on 10/13/23?

Attachment 9 will be revised to reflect "Scientific Data Analyst III" as the LCAT for CBER.

Solicitation Section/Subsection Number:

Question: There are some inconsistencies between labor categories within the three referenced documents specifically as follows: (1) Attachment 9 and Appendix 1 have the labor categories “Database Administrator I through V” and Attachment 5 has “Data Administrator I through V,” would the government please confirm these are the same; (2) Attachment 5 and Appendix 1 have the labor category “Lead Quality Assurance Specialist” whereas this labor category does not appear in Attachment 9, please confirm if this labor category should be added to Attachment 5 or removed from Attachment 9 and Appendix 1; and (3) Attachment 5 has not been updated to include the new labor categories introduced in Mod 2 for “Scientific Admin Support I through V,” would the government please confirm if an updated Attachment 5 will be provided?

Attachments 5 and 9, and Appendix 1 will be revised to resolve LCAT inconsistencies.

Question: Please confirm that the government will be using the Pricing Schedule, Tab T.1 Cover Page, Section 3 Overall Cost/LOE Summary as the basis to evaluate the total price among each proposed vendor.

Yes, the Government would be using Attachment 9, Tab 1. Cover Page and Section 3, Overall Cost / LOE summary as areas to evaluate total price of each vendor.

Question: May a Business proposal narrative be provided for Volume II- Phase II in addition to the price schedule? This will allow vendor to provide assumptions and/or other clarifications, as mentioned in the evaluation criteria.

Attachment 9 will be modified to include an Assumptions tab.

Question: Would Government consider adding additional detail on requirements to the Statement of Work?

No additional requirements will be added to the IDIQ SOW.

Question: Can the government please clarify the offeror’s organization certification requirements.

The RFP states that the offeror must have CMMI level II or higher, ISO 9001, and ISO 20000.

Inferring, a pass/fail for all three (3) certifications. However, in the Q&As the answers changed this requirement. Most Q&As (4, 11, 22, 37, 38, 39, 47, 49, 50, 53, 60, 61, and 65), clarified that the Prime must only hold the two ISO certifications (ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 20000-1:2018)… leaving it open to interpret that a subcontractor could hold the CMMI certification.

In prior decisions the GAO has taken the stance that Q&As, if provided to all parties, is considered an amendment to the solicitation whether or not the Contracting officer explicitly called it an amendment.

As stated by the Government in the Phase I Q&A, the Prime contractor must possess all certifications (ISO and CMMI); not the sub-contractor.

Question: Will the government please consider an extension to the phase II submission. This will allow all prospective parties to fully incorporate Q&A responses into our submission.

The Government will update the RFP to provide an extension to Tuesday, October 31, 2023, 2 p.m. (eastern time) as due date for Phase 2 proposals due.

Question: Instructions state that “The written IDIQ Technical Proposal is limited to 15 pages.”

As the Offeror must also provide a technical response to the Sample Task Order in addition to the IDIQ Technical Proposal, would the government consider extending the page limit to 20 pages to adequately cover all Factors (1-4)?

The RFP will be amended to reflect a 20-page limit for the Technical Volume.

Question: Can the government please confirm that citations may be included as an appendix and will not count against page count?

Citations will be included in the page count.

Question: Can the government please confirm that acronyms may be included as an appendix and will not count against page count?

Acronyms will be included in the page count.

Question: Will the government confirm that Public Trust approval will be initiated at task order award?

Yes, this is confirmed. Staff Public Trust approval will be initiated at the TO level.

Question: The RFP states “provisions and clauses must be completed by the offeror and must be submitted with the offer if not available on SAM.gov.”

Can the government confirm that provisions and clauses must be completed by only the Prime Offeror and not subcontractors?

The Government confirms the provisions and clauses must be completed by only the Prime Offeror.

Question: The government omitted the Lead Quality Assurance Specialist labor category in ATTACHMENT 9 Pricing Schedule. However, the Lead Quality Assurance Specialist labor category does exist in Appendix 1 FDA wide scientific support labor cat, ATTACHMENT 5 Labor hour rates IDIQ, and MOD 2 FDA SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT IDIQ RFP 9 5 2023.docx 10 12 2023.pdf. Will the government consider adding the Lead Quality Assurance Specialist labor category to ATTACHMENT 9 PRICING SCHEDULE?

Yes, Attachment 9 will be revised to include the Lead Quality Assurance Specialist LCAT.

Question: In ATTACHMENT 5 - Labor hour rates IDIQ, it includes Order Periods of 1 – 4 plus 6-month extension worksheets (tabs).

In MOD 2 FDA SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT IDIQ RFP 9 5 2023.docx 10 12 2023.pdf 2 55 pm, under Section 7.0 Period of Performance, it states “the period of performance for this IDIQ contract consists of one (1) four-year (48-month) ordering period” but does not include the 6-month extension.

Also, in MOD 2 FDA SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT IDIQ RFP 9 5 2023.docx 10 12 2023.pdf 2 55 pm , there is a table In Section 2. – Pricing and Ordering Services that includes Table 6

MONTH EXTENSION: PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: 6 MONTHS

Can the government confirm the exact period of performance?

The Government will revise Attachment 9 to include a 6-month option beyond the 48-month period. Vendors will input rates for the possible 6-month option to extend services.

Question: If there is a 6-month extension period will the government allow rate escalations in the 6-month extension period?

The Government will allow rate escalation in the 6-month option to extend services.

Question: In Section 3. Pricing Schedule, the base period of performance is 11/30/2023- 11/29/2024 whereas in Section 9, the base period of performance is September 30, 2023, to September 29, 2024. Can the government confirm the exact period of performance?

Attachment 7 will be updated to reflect Base Period of 12/01/2023 - 11/30/2024; and the two (2) Option periods, 12/01/2024 - 11/30/2025, and 12/01/2025 - 11/30/2026 respectively.