Government Response to Questions.pdf

No. Solicitation Section Page Solitation Language Reference Question Government Response

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.2.2

"This support could be in the form of the payments for the salaries of the Core Team."

Q. Would you expect the interim procurement agent to process the payroll for Core

Team salaries or hire a third-party to process Core Team salaries and payroll?

Processing Core Team payroll will not be an IPA task. Conducting, on behalf of the Core Team, the procurement process for contracting the services of a Fiscal Agent is likely to be a specific responsibility under

C.3.1.

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.1.3.

"Historically, American firms are the largest beneficiary of these contracts as MCC evaluation methodology is based on the "best value procurements"."

Q. Why does the evaluation methodology tend to exclude non-U.S. firms?

The evaluation methodology does not tend to exclude non-U.S. firms.

The statement merely reflects that, under "best value procurement"methodologies, U.S. firms have historically been competitive.

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.1.3.

"Historically, American firms are the largest beneficiary of these contracts as MCC evaluation methodology is based on the "best value procurements"."

Q. If a non-U.S. firm bid, with employees and contractors based globally with offices in Europe and the U.S., assuming their proposed personnel and cost structure were competitive, could they be eligible?

This requirement is unrestricted.

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.1.3.

"Historically, American firms are the largest beneficiary of these contracts as MCC evaluation methodology is based on the "best value procurements"."

Q. Are American firms given explicit or implicit preferential treatment during proposal evaluation?

No

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.2.1.

"This solicitation will be used as a pilot to test the concept of the support from an IPA to one country, and this assignment will be divided into one 12 months base period, to be extended for four 12 months option period each."

Q. Can MCC confirm, should the IPA be directed to provide support in one country they would still be eligible to bid on a procurement agent contract in another country should the opportunity arise during the base period and/or option years?

Yes, as the IPA contract would be new requirement. The CO for the new requirement may require a conflict of interest statement if applicable.

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.2.1.

"The IPA or its team members will not be eligible to win the contract for the permanent PA in the country the IPA is supporting as well as not win any contract in any sector in that country for two years after the completion of its IPA contract to avoid any conflict of interests."

Q. Can MCC confirm that the conflict of interest restrictions regarding “any contract in any sector in that country“ in Section C.2.1 of the RFP refers to specifically those contracts funded by the MCC only.

The intended meaining of the referenced C.2.1 statement is "any MCC-funded contract in any sector in that country."

C.2. SCOPE OF THIS SOLICITATION, C.2.1

and

Section L - Instructions, Conditions and

Notices to Offerors L.1. TYPE OF AWARD and

M.3 BASIS FOR AWARD

C.2.1. The scope of this solicitation is to hire one or more firms to assist the Proc PG in supporting its partner government counterparts as

Interim Procurement Agents, or IPAs, during the late stages of Compact development and early implementation until the MCA's Procurement

Agent is hired and mobilized.

C.2.3. These options are not ideal, and lead to putting extensive workload on the Proc PG. To streamline these functions MCC would like to retain the services of one or more firms with expertise in procurement to provide these services to the CT in different countries.

L.1. TYPE OF AWARD , “The Government contemplates award of a Time and Materials (T&M) single award resulting from this solicitation”.

A single award will be made to the responsible Offeror whose proposal offers the best value to the Government, utilizing the tradeoff process described in FAR 15.101-1. The Government also reserves the right to make no award if doing so is in the best interest of the Government, or if no offers are deemed technically acceptable.

Q. Does the MCC intend to award more than one T&M contract in response to this solicitation?

Q. If so, what is the maximum number of contracts the MCC is authorized to make in response to this solicitation?

The Government intends to award a single contract, but may award 2 contracts based on CLINS 0001 and 0002.

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.2.5

"Depending upon when the Contractor is contracted and its staff is trained on MCC procurement practices, the IPA's support may be needed in Lesotho, Tunisia, Indonesia or East Timor."

Q. Can the MCC provide any further information on when and where IPA support will be needed and expected? Specifically, where might the contractor might be expected to perform the work during the base year and option year 1.

All currently known information is provided in Section C.

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.2.2

"Hire one or two local or internationally recruited individual procurement experts for a short duration—usually six months to two years—to support the Core Team"

The labor hours included in B.4.1 Base Year do not appear to be sufficient for a 6-24-month deployment, especially if multiple experts are deployed at the same time.

Q. Would the one or two local or internationally recruited individual procurement experts be procured for the MCA as part of the IPA's performance of the scope of work and therefore be in addition to the personnel directly proposed by the IPA?

Q. Or, should the offeror assume that if the MCA requires the IPA to provide additional labor hours, in excess of the total labor hours available for the base year, that the MCC would modify the task order to increase the hours available to support the MCA.

C.2.2 describes approaches taken previously, not what is envisioned under this IPA approach. One of the primary efforts to be undertaken by the IPA is likely to be the procurement of the "permanent PA." The ceiling resulting from the estimated labor hours by period represents

MCC's estimate of a sufficient total level of effort for an assignment.

Flexibility between labor categories is provided for, within the overall ceiling. Should the parties agree that additional total level of effort would be required, that could be effected by a contract amendment if authorized by the Contracting Officer.

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.2.2

"Hire another donor agency, like the United Nations Development

Program (UNDP), to work as the IPA"

Q. Were hiring a public international organization to be required, should the contractor assume the acquisition would be done in line with the deviations provided for in the FAR?

C.2.2 describes approaches taken previously, not what is envisioned under this IPA approach. It is not envisioned that another donor agency would be engaged as IPA in the same scenario as an IPA contracted through this procurement.

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.2.9

"The IPA will be required to fully update itself with all MCC procedures, training programs, policies, and guidance notes, so be ready to provide hands-on support to the CT"

Q. Will any of the hours the IPA spends fully updating itself with MCC procedures, policies, and guidelines be billable to the task order or contract that results from the

RFP?

The successful offeror is expected to be capable to perform on the date of award.

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.3.1.5

"The cost of the logistics for these events will be paid separately by the

Core Team"

Q. Does the Core Team have a budget to support the costs required to train interested bidders?

The cost of the effort provided by the IPA in support of these activities -including preparation of materia for such outreach, presentation at such events, and follow-up afterward - would be performed and the hours invoiced under this contract. The "cost of the logisitcs for these events" mentioned in C.3.1.5 is referring to such costs as payment to an event venue, payment to a printing service for presentation materials, or to local media for advertising. Such payments to those third parties would be outside the scope of this contract, though the effort of planning, organizing, and arranging would be within that scope.

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.3.1.9

"Assist the CT in finalizing the contracts with the already-identified IT and MCA-MIS contractors."

Q. Could the contractor also be required to procure IT and MIS contractors?

The "already-identified IT and MCA-MIS contractors" mentioned in

C.3.1.9 are MCC-directed sole source providers of the MIS solution developed by MCC for use by all MCA Entities implementing MCC

Compacts. The IPA may also be required to procure basic IT equipment during the MCA Entity start-up phase.

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.3.1.5

Section C -

Description/Specifications/Work

Statement, C.6.1.1

"The cost of the logistics for these events will be paid separately by the

Core Team."

"Pursue economies in the procurement process that may be obtained through aggressive marketing of the procurement opportunity"

Q. Does logistics include advertising and marketing costs for market outreach events, advertising in local media, printing of materials related to these events, etc.?

Yes. See the response to question 12 above.

15 F.2 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE 19

"While performing services in MCC eligible countries, the Contractor shall be responsible for arranging temporary office space as would be required for work not taking place with project stakeholders."

Q. Are the costs of temporary office space billable to the contract?

Q. Should the contractor assume that the fixed amount included for ODCs is expected to be sufficient to cover temporary office costs?

Q. Given the uncertainty of the duration of field-based work the contractor and its procurement agents may be required to perform, which could extend from 6-24 months, should the contractor assume that the MCC will modify the task order to ensure there is sufficient funding to pay for temporary offices, specifically if the field-based work is for an extended period and the hours for the procurement agents exceed those allocated to the base year.

The costs for temporary office space are considered overhead and not directly billable.

16 Section H - Special Contract Requirements 27

"Personal services contractors (PSCs) and contract employees including those working for subcontractors shall be subject to and abide by all

MCC safety and security policy and procedures while on MCC premises, and satisfy applicable requirements for fitness to perform work for or on behalf of MCC, personnel security, and obtaining an MCC Photo

Identification (ID) Badge."

These requirements may be difficult if not impossible for non-U.S. non U.S.

permanent resident citizens to satisfy.

Q. Will the contractor’s proposed personnel, key and non-key, required to perform the scope of work, be considered subcontractor personnel and therefor be required to meet the applicable requirements for fitness to perform work for or on behalf of

MCC, personnel security, and obtaining an MCC Photo Identification (ID) Badge to meet security requirements require access to MCC Headquarters, MCCNet, Sensitive

But Unclassified (SBU), Foreign Government Information (FGI) or any other designated sensitive information?

Q. Do the proposed personnel, key and non-key need to be U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or have been residing, working and/or attending an educational institution in the U.S. for at least three, years?

Q. Does the residency, work, and education experience need to be current, meaning the proposed individuals must be presently residents of the U.S. and have maintained residency for at least the past three years?

Subcontract means any contract, as defined in FAR subpart 2.1, entered into by a subcontractor to furnish supplies or services for performance of the prime contract or a subcontract. It includes, but is not limited to, purchase orders, and changes and modifications to purchase orders.

If personnel are not employees of the offeror and are employed by a different firm under a subcontract, then the employee is a subcontractor.

Personnel must be eligible for a MCC badge.

17 Section H - Special Contract Requirements 27

"The following are requirements for a PSC or contractor employee who works under this contract and requires access to any of the following:

MCC Headquarters, MCCNet, Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU), Foreign

Government Information (FGI) or any other designated sensitive information"

Q. Will the proposed personnel, key and non-key, require access to MCC

Headquarters, MCCNet, Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU), Foreign Government

Information (FGI) or any other designated sensitive information to perform the services of this contract?

See 16 immediately above.

18 Section H - Special Contract Requirements 29

"Contractor employees and PSCs not directly compensated by MCC without a national security eligibility or interim eligibility at least at the level required for the position, duties, or work activities specified as requiring such eligibility, including that for access to classified national security information and occupy a sensitive position (as defined in 5

CFR 732), by this contract are prohibited from rendering services under this contract."

Q. Do the key and non-key personnel required by this contract required security clearance?

Q. Will the proposed personnel, key and non-key, require access to MCC

Headquarters, MCCNet, Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU), Foreign Government

Information (FGI) or any other designated sensitive information to perform the services of this contract?

See 16 immediately above.

Section J - List of Documents, Exhibits, and other Attachments 38 "Reference J.1: Past Performance Questionnaire"

Q. Can the MCC please direct us to a Past Performance Questionnaire template?

There does not seem to be anything attached to the RFP or solicitation online.

Provided in Amendment 0001

20 L.2. INQUIRIES / QUESTIONS 53

"The Offer must be submitted no later than August 11, 2020 at 12:00 pm Eastern Time. Late Offers will not be accepted."

Q. Will the MCC respectfully consider granting an extention and changing the submission date from August 11, 2020 to August 31, 2020?

See Amendment

L.8. OFFER FORMATTING, TABLE B – Page

Limitations:

"A. Transmittal/Cover Letter

Executive Summary

10 Pages

B Subfactor 1: Personnel Qualifications

C Subfactor 2: Technical and Management Approach

D Subfactor 3: Corporate Capability and Experience

15 Pages"

Q. Will the MCC consider changing the page allocation as follows:

Reduce Section A Length to 6 pages

A. Transmittal/Cover Letter and Executive Summary

And Increase BCD to 19 pages

B Subfactor 1: Personnel Qualifications

C Subfactor 2: Technical and Management Approach

D Subfactor 3: Corporate Capability and Experience

See Amendment

22 L.10. TECHNICAL VOLUME SECTIONS 56

"L.8.3. All electronic submissions should comply with the FAR in regards to timeliness. The electronic submissions of Offers shall state the solicitation number in the subject line and shall be in the following format:"

Q. Will the MCC please consider allowing contractors to submit the tehnical volume in PDF?

Readable/Searchable PDF submittals are acceptable.

Section L - Instructions, Conditions and

Notices to Offerors, L.9. TECHNICAL

VOLUME INSTRUCTIONS

L.9.1. Offerors are encouraged to be succinct and economical in their presentation. Excessive volume and elaborate presentation are unnecessary. Tables of contents, and works cited and the Technical

Appendices are not included in the page count.

Q. Is the table of acronyms included in the page count? A table of acronyms may be provided as an appendix.

24 L.10. TECHNICAL VOLUME SECTIONS 57

"L.10.1.1. TRANSMITTAL AND COVER LETTER 13. Offeror Summary

Table: The Offeror shall complete the table below. The Offeror should include all subcontractors and team members who will be involved with the performance or management of the program work and should list all sites where the work will be performed."

Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Crown Agents personnel are ordered to work remotely and are authorized to work from locations of their choosing to best meet individual and family needs, while still being able to seamlessly perform their required work duties.

Q. Given how unlikely it appears that the situation will allow employees to safely work from the Crown Agents offices, at least not during the base year, would MCC consider removing the requirement to include sites where the work will be performed?

The Contractor shall perform services at their own offices and any MCC eligible country as needed by MCC. MCC may also require the

Contractor to travel to MCC offices in Washington, DC, from time to time to perform services.

Offeror shall submit the corporate address of the offeror.

25 L.10. TECHNICAL VOLUME SECTIONS 57

"L.10.1.1. TRANSMITTAL AND COVER LETTER 13. Offeror Summary

Table: The Offeror shall complete the table below. The Offeror should include all subcontractors and team members who will be involved with the performance or management of the program work and should list all sites where the work will be performed."

Q. If indicating the sites where the work will be performed is indeed required, is it acceptable for Crown Agents to include the office(s) where the proposed personnel are based even though they are not at present performing the work in these offices?

Same as 24 above.

Section L - Instructions, Conditions and

Notices to Offerors

L.10.2. TECHNICAL FACTOR

L.10.2.1. CRITERION 1: PERSONNEL

QUALIFICATIONS

"Provide brief resumes for Offeror identified key personnel only. Letters of Commitment are required for all proposed subcontractor staff.

(Resumes and letters of commitment are limited to a total of three (3) pages)"

Q. Does the MCC require the Contractor to submit a Letter of Commitment for the person proposed to fill the key personnel program manager position?

A Letter of Commitment is required for any proposed key personnel who is not an emplyee of the Offeror.

Section L - Instructions, Conditions and

Notices to Offerors

L.10.2. TECHNICAL FACTOR

L.10.2.1. CRITERION 1: PERSONNEL

QUALIFICATIONS

"Provide brief resumes for Offeror identified key personnel only. Letters of Commitment are required for all proposed subcontractor staff.

(Resumes and letters of commitment are limited to a total of three (3) pages)"

Q. Will the MCC accept if the Contractor includes brief resumes for non-key personnel in Technical Annex F Resumes and Letters of Commitment?

I defer to CGM, though I assume the asker means "in addition to"

(rather than "in lieu of") key personnel resumes.

Section L - Instructions, Conditions and

Notices to Offerors

L.10.2. TECHNICAL FACTOR

L.10.2.1. CRITERION 1: PERSONNEL

QUALIFICATIONS

"Provide brief resumes for Offeror identified key personnel only. Letters of Commitment are required for all proposed subcontractor staff.

(Resumes and letters of commitment are limited to a total of three (3) pages)"

Q. Does subcontractor staff include proposed personnel who are not full-time employees of the Contractor and if so should the Contractor include Letters of

Commitment therefore for consultants, staff engaged by the Contractor as contractors rather than full- or part-time employees?

Yes

Section L - Instructions, Conditions and

Notices to Offerors

L.10.2. TECHNICAL FACTOR

L.10.2.1. CRITERION 1: PERSONNEL

QUALIFICATIONS

"Submission of the matrix will be in accordance with Section L.8 Table B and submitted separately in MS Excel Format."

Q. In addition to the separate MS Excel format for the matrix of the entire team, will the MCC accept if the Contractor also includes this Personnel Qualifications Matrix as an Appendix to the Technical Volume?

Yes

Section L - Instructions, Conditions and

Notices to Offerors

L.10.2. TECHNICAL FACTOR

L.10.2.2. CRITERION 2: TECHNICAL AND

MANAGEMENT APPROACH

"This section shall be formatted as presented in the SOW for ease of correlation. Each response to a paragraph will use similar paragraph numbering systems as the specification, and shall be self-sustaining without reference to any other response or literature for support;"

We sincerely apologize, but we are unclear about how the MCC wants the

TECHNICAL AND MANAGEMENT APPROACH section of the Technical Volume to be organized.

Q. Can the MCC confirm that to be responsive to L.10.2.2. the Contractor is expected to lay out the TECHNICAL AND MANAGEMENT APPROACH as follows:

1. Introduction

2. Contractor’s Response to the Scope

3. Overall Responsibilities

4. Procurement Rules, Procedures, Requirements and Best Practices

5. Approvals

6. Value for Money

7. Bid Challenges

8. Contract Administration

9. Access, Audits, Reviews and Reports

10. Monthly Status Report

11. Personnel Qualifications

Offerors are free to organize the narrative of this factor in a way that it believes logically responds to Section C of the RFP provided it follows the MCC's approach to paragraph numbering in the RFP.

Section L - Instructions, Conditions and

Notices to Offerors

L.10.2. TECHNICAL FACTOR

L.10.2.2. CRITERION 2: TECHNICAL AND

MANAGEMENT APPROACH

Section L - Instructions, Conditions and

Notices to Offerors

L.10.2.3. CRITERION 3: CORPORATE

CAPABILITY AND EXPERIENCE

Section M - Evaluation Factors for Award

M.4 TECHNICAL EVALUATION CRITERIA

M.4.3 SUBFACTOR 3: CORPORATE

CAPABILITY AND EXPERIENCE

This section shall be formatted as presented in the SOW for ease of correlation. Each response to a paragraph will use similar paragraph numbering systems as the specification, and shall be self-sustaining without reference to any other response or literature for support;

1. The Offeror must demonstrate it has the necessary capability and commitment to perform this contract. The Offeror must provide information concerning the corporation's origin, operational philosophy, facilities, resources (fiscal and physical), services and experience. The Offeror must specifically describe the impact on its capabilities in terms of resources, experience, expertise and organization structure in the event the Offeror is awarded this contract.

The Government will evaluate the Offeror's the experience and background to demonstrate that the Offeror has the capability in terms of facilities, and personnel required to accomplish the proposed work.

Q. Can the MCC confirm that to be responsive to L.10.2.2. the Contractor is expected to lay out the TECHNICAL AND MANAGEMENT APPROACH as follows:

1. General description, key features, and benefits of the proposed solution.

2. The SOW as analyzed by the Offeror.

3. Anticipated major difficulties and problem areas, and recommended approaches for their resolution

4. Description of management and status reporting approaches.

Or, is the Contractor free to organize the narrative of this factor in a way that we believe logically responds to Section C of the RFP provided we follow the MCC's approach to paragraph numbering in the RFP?

We are concerned that in order to be responsive to the RFP and specifically to articulate our company’s fiscal resources could risk information about our company’s finances, notably our ability to secure fiscal resources through lines of credit and other types of working capital facilities we have in place, being described in the technical volume.

Q. To avoid financial information, which the MCC expects to be excluded from the

Technical volume and which per section M, Section M - Evaluation Factors for

Award, M.4.3 SUBFACTOR 3: CORPORATE CAPABILITY AND EXPERIENCE will not be evaluated, we respectfully request the Government to consider removing the references to fiscal resources from Section L - Instructions, Conditions and Notices to

Offerors L.10.2.3. CRITERION 3: CORPORATE CAPABILITY AND EXPERIENCE of the

RFP?

Pricing information for the current requirement is not to be included in the technical volume.

32 L.6.4. 54 for relevance, "recently is defined as performance within five years of the date of the proposal" May offerors bid with only one MCC agent experience in the past five years?

Neither the reference nor the question has anything to do with L.6.4.

Per L.10.2.3 (Corporate Capability and Experience), #5, "The Offeror shall provide a minimum of one (1), with a maximum of three (3) examples of relevant contracts or task/call orders for similar experience in procurement and contract administration projects of similar size and nature."

33 L.11.3 Page 61 "Past Performance" consider up to 10 years.

May we interpret this to mean we may bid with MCC agent experience within 10 years?

Per L.11.3, "A maximum of five (5) performance references shall be submitted for contracts performed or completed within the past ten (10) years." If such MCC agent experience is relevant, it may be included with such performance references.

34 L.10.23 page 60 Item 5 refers to 1-3 examplesof relevant procurement experience May offerors provide examples from up to the past ten years at the time of the proposal submission?

Yes

35 L.11.4 61

"For contracts with the Federal Government, indicate whether the government has evaluated the contractor and past performance information is available through CPARS or whether the reference will be providing information via the past performance questionnaire (see

Attachment J.1)

Can the Government please provide Attachment J.1? Provided in Amendment 0001

36 L.10.2.1 58-59

"The Offeror shall provide information on proposed staff experience identical to, similar to, or related to the Federal Sector, and less applicable, the private sector to be assigned to the Contract…."Identify key personnel and other key managerial and technical staff. Provide brief resumes for Offeror identified key personnel only. Letters of

Committment are required for all proposed subcontractor staff."

Can the Government please clarify this requirement? If the Program Manager is the only Key Personnel required (H.1.6 page 31), the Offeror is not required to submit resumes for other key managerial and technical staff, e.g. Procurement Agents

(Section C.11.2)? For the factors for award, the "Personnel Qualifications" will be determined by the resume for the Program Manager and the matrix for the team?

See Amendment

37 F.2; F.7; H.A and H.B 19, 21, 27

F.2 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE; F.7 CONTINGENCY PLANNING AND

PREPAREDNESS; SECTION H "MCC 52.204-70 SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

FOR CONTRACTOR PERSONNEL - FEBRUARY 2019"

Can the Government clarify whether the requirements stipulated in Section H Part B mean that the Offeror's proposed Program Manager and critical team members must be U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents?

The Offeror's proposed Program Manager and critical team members do not need to be U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents.

38 C.2.1 and L.6.7 10 and 55

"The IPA or its team members will not be eligible to win the contract for the permanent PA in the country the IPA is supporting as well as not win any contract in any sector in that country for two years after the completion of its IPA contract to avoid any conflict of interests."

Can the Government clarify whether the requirements stipulated in Section C and

Section L also apply to an individual employed by the Contractor or "team member" who leaves their employ during the Period of Performance of the Contract?

This restriction applies to the IPA and to the identified members of the

IPA team.