Modification 2 Final RFP Questions and Responses.pdf

Modification 2: SEAM II Final RFP Questions and Responses

# Reference Page No. Question Response

1 General Question

N/A Does NASA have representative work and/or potential programs and associated FYs to execute the work identified to reflect an intent to leverage the SEAM II contract?

The Government has provided Sample Task Orders that demonstrate representative work performed under Task Category D from the SEAM I contract. Please note that these Sample Task Orders are representative of prior use and are not indicative of specific work required for

SEAM II.

In addition, per L31.2. PRICE FACTOR- VOLUME II, the Government has provided “Pricing for IDIQ RFP Specified Resources (SR)” as an estimate of the value that will be utilized for each Task Category for price evaluation purposes. However, due to the uncertainties involved with IDIQ work and with each Task Category requirements, Offerors are cautioned that this estimate does not reflect actual requirements for future task orders that will be issued under each Task Category and is not a guarantee of future work.

2 General Question

N/A What alternative contract vehicles does NASA have currently or plans to pursue that may conflict with the SEAMS II IDIQ contract?

(What other contracts are similar to SEAM or what about the SEAM contract makes it unique such that the offeror has confidence in its use on the SEAM II vehicle?)

NASA does not have plans to pursue other contract vehicles that conflict with SEAM II Statement of Work (SOW).

SEAM II is a "specialized engineering" contract, designed to acquire a wide range of engineering services and solutions to design, develop, test, and evaluate new hardware, address system and component obsolescence and support the sustainment, alteration, and improvement of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL), Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF), Mission Control Center (MCC), Space Station Training Facility (SSTF), mock-ups, trainers, aircraft, aircraft programs, projects, activities, and other JSC and NASA projects.

3 Section L31.1 Past Performance - Volume I, Paragraph (a)

L-L-14 Question: The Section L instruction states "Offerors shall list up to one company, the prime or a major subcontractor, per critical capability."

The Relevant Past Performance Matrix (Attachment L32.1) allows offerors to describe a maximum of 3 tasks per critical capability as evidence of relevant past performance.

QUESTION: Does the Government intend to require that all three tasks for a critical capability be that of either the prime or a major subcontractor, but not allow a combination of prime and major subcontractors' tasks?

Offerors for the SEAM II requirements can better demonstrate the full capabilities of their teams from collective past performance experience if the 3 tasks for each critical capability were not restricted to either a prime or a subcontractor but, instead, from any combination of prime and major subcontractors.

Yes, the Government requires that all three tasks for a critical capability be that of either the prime or a subcontractor.

However, the Government will revise the RFP to remove all references to “Major Subcontractors” and replaced said references with the less restrictive word “Subcontractor.” Further, Section L.31.1(a) will be revised to include the following guidance:

“Offerors shall complete Attachment L.32.1 (Relevant Past Performance Matrix) for each Task Category proposed. Offerors shall list up to one company, the prime or a subcontractor, per critical capability. For purposes of the Past performance evaluation, the prime may have no more than three subcontractors per Task Category. As stated in Section M, the past performance of the prime Contractor will be weighted more heavily than any subcontractors or combination of subcontractors in the overall past performance evaluation.”

4 General Question

N/A Does the JSC Procurement Office have a list of SEM II interest parties, names and e-mail contact info.

An Interested Vendors List has been enabled in Beta.sam.gov for both the SEAM II Pre- Solicitation Synopsis and the SEAM II final RFP.

Postings. This allows contractors the option to register for the interested parties list as well as view other contractors that have signed up for the list. The Beta.sam.gov learning center provides the following instructions on how to register and view the interested parties list once registered:

• To register for the interested parties list, a contractor must have an account in Beta.sam.gov that is associated with your entity’s DUNS number from its registration in the System for Award Management

(SAM). If the notice has an interested parties list, a link will be present on the left as the last section in the opportunity. Click “Add Me to the Interested Vendors List” to be added to the list. Please note that clicking the same button again will remove you from the list.

• Selecting the Interested Vendors List section located in the table of contents (to the left of the screen) will allow you the option to view the list for the desired posting. Please note that you can only view this list online, as a download feature is not available. Also, note that you can only see the interested parties list if you are logged in and your account is associated with an entity.

For access to the Beta.sam.gov learning center please view the link below:

Beta.sam.gov Learning Center

5 L.31.3.G – Responsibility Considerations

– Vol. III

For purposes of this requirement, major subcontractor is defined by this solicitation as a company that the offeror anticipates providing at least as a subcontractor proposed to accomplish 25% of the value the proposed work priced in the proposal for each of the five years

L.32.1.A – Past Performance Vol I (excerpt) A subcontractor is considered major if they are proposed to provide three or more critical capabilities in a single task category under SEAM

II.

1. Is the government’s intent to limit the number of major subcontractors to two or less, even though the actual work and makeup is currently unknown?

The Government will revise the RFP to remove all references to “Major Subcontractors” and replaced said references with the less restrictive word “Subcontractor,” which included the following definition of a major subcontractor on page L-L-26:

“Note: For purposes of this requirement, major subcontractor is defined by this solicitation as a company that the offeror anticipates providing at least as a subcontractor proposed to accomplish 25% of the value the proposed work priced in the proposal for each of the five years.”

Further, Section L.31.1(a) will be revised to include the following guidance:

https://beta.sam.gov/help/contract-opportunities

2. Would the government consider removing the 25% minimum for major subcontractors?

“Offerors shall complete Attachment L.32.1 (Relevant Past Performance Matrix) for each Task Category proposed. Offerors shall list up to one company, the prime or a subcontractor, per critical capability. For purposes of the Past performance evaluation, the prime may have no more than three subcontractors per Task Category. As stated in Section M, the past performance of the prime Contractor will be weighted more heavily than any subcontractors or combination of subcontractors in the overall past performance evaluation.”

Therefore, based upon this guidance, it is the Government’s intent to allow up to three subcontractors per Task Category.

6 Pre-proposal Conference Charts and the Final RFP

Section L31.1.c References (pg.241) and Past Performance Questionnaire (pg.242).

In the Q&A you released, question #4, states the govt will modify the RFP to allow offers to provide up to 10 contracts to demonstrate past performance. The RFP Section L31.1.a (pg.240) does in fact reference ten contracts, however in the pre-proposal conference slides I believe we saw you reference six (6). In addition, we’ve identified reference to six (6) contracts in Section L31.1.c References (pg.241) and Past Performance Questionnaire (pg.242).

Can you please confirm that up to 10 contracts per task category is correct?

All references in both the Pre-Proposal charts and the Final RFP have been modified to reflect an ability to provide up to ten contract references per Task Category.

7 Section L.31.4

– Model Contract (Volume IV) and Section L.30.2(b), Table L-3 – IV Model Contract Format

L-L-28 – L-L-29 and L-L-11

RFP Requirement:

• L.31.4 states, “Offerors shall also submit with its proposal, in Volume IV, the Model Contract (all pages in Sections A-1 through K-14) in its entirety (basic and any amendments) per the instructions below.”

• L.30.2(b) – Table L-3 states the Model Contract (Volume IV) must be provided in MS Word format.

The Government will provide an updated version of the Final RFP in which the cover page is provided as a separate document, which will allow Offerors to export from PDF to Microsoft Word.

Concern: Offeror’s are unable to make changes to the Final RFP Adobe PDF released on 09/02/2020. Unable to export Sections A-K to MS Word in order to provide Model Contract with proposal submission.

Question: Would the Government consider releasing a MS Word version of the Final RFP? If not, please re-release the Final RFP Adobe PDF without the signed cover letter.

8 Section

L.31.1(a) L-L-14 Page L-L-14, Section L.31.1(a) specifies

“Offerors shall list up to one company, the prime or a major subcontractor, per critical capability.”

As a prime, we only have a minor subcontractor (no major subcontractor). Therefore, we would recommend that Section L.31.1(a) be changed to “Offerors shall list up to one company, the prime, a major subcontractor, or a minor subcontractor, per critical capability.”

The Government will not revise the language at L.31.1(a) to allow minor subcontractors to be proposed for a critical capability.

However, the Government will revise the RFP to remove all references to “Major Subcontractors” and replaced said references with the less restrictive word “Subcontractor.” Further, Section L.31.1(a) will be revised to include the following guidance:

“Offerors shall complete Attachment L.32.1 (Relevant Past Performance Matrix) for each Task Category proposed. Offerors shall list up to one company, the prime or a subcontractor, per critical capability. For purposes of the Past performance evaluation, the prime may have no more than three subcontractors per Task Category. As stated in Section M, the past performance of the prime Contractor will be weighted more heavily than any subcontractors or combination of subcontractors in the overall past performance evaluation.”

9 B5 “IDIQ

MINIMUM

AND

MAXIMUM

B-1 Please clarify Clause B5 on the IDIQ maximum NTE amount of $9.5M. Is that $9.5M maximum on each awarded contract (e.g., the single award Category A winner), or $9.5M maximum across

The Government confirms that the $9.5 maximum NTE amount provided within Clause B5 is the maximum cumulative value for all SEAM II contracts.

ORDERING

LIMITS”

all contracts awarded for all 4 Task Categories (4-5+ winners)?