Infrastructure_RFP_QA_7-8-15.docx

Infrastructure RFP Questions and Answers Solicitation A15064 / 15PR-TDP-0386

1. Can you please provide any additional information as to the range of available funding for this solicitation?

Treasury’s budget amount for the contemplated contract is in the six figures (greater than $100,000, but less than the $650,000 procurement threshold)).

2. Please confirm that cover letters, tables of contents, attachments and appendices are not included in the 25 page limit. Will the Government consider adding additional page count for the technical response and/or allowing key personnel resumes to be included outside of the page count as an appendix?

Treasury’s intent with the page limit is to obtain concise, substantive technical information that will allow the agency to efficiently make a source selection decision. Information that is non-substantive in relation to technical factors (e.g. cover letters, tables of contents, and fill-in completion of Treasury’s contractor representations) will not count towards the page limit.

3. In section C.3, Paragraph 4, the RFP states, “Identified projects must generally be practical in nature and potentially feasible from the standpoint of demand, engineering/construction, permits/approvals, and overall cost, and will ideally have been proposed or considered by a federal, state, or local government body or authority.”

Can the government please confirm that identified projects “will ideally have been proposed or considered by a federal, state, or local government body” restricts the scope to include only projects from an existing official plan? (e.g. Statewide Transformation Improvement Program, STIP)?

The government believes that identified projects will ideally have been proposed or considered by a federal, state, or local government body, but does not intend to restrict the scope to include only projects from an existing official plan if the contractor can delineate a sound and reasonable methodology by which other proposed projects should be considered and evaluated.

4. Are foreign contractors eligible to submit proposals?

Treasury will abide by U.S. law, regulations, and international agreements (e.g. free trade agreements) in evaluating proposals from foreign contractors. Special terms and conditions may apply. One example of a special requirement for foreign contractors is that Federal Acquisition Regulation Clause 52.229-6 – Taxes Foreign-Fixed Price Contracts would apply.

5. Will Treasury be providing input on global, macroeconomic trends, projections, or scenarios, or expect the consultant to perform such in defining high priority projects?

Treasury expects the consultant to perform such analysis.

6. What information does Treasury already have in hand and available for analysis by the winning proposer – for example, recent government lists or databases, input or recommendations from stakeholders (e.g., academics, concerned citizens, industry groups), relevant analyses performed by Treasury or other government agencies?

Treasury does not have information available relating to the most significant proposed infrastructure projects based on net economic impact. Treasury is seeking the expertise of an independent team to collect and analyze the requisite information.

7. On the Milestone 1: Early Draft Analysis implies approximately half of the total list of projects have the economic impact analysis completed. This goes counter to a method of casting a wide net to narrow down after light review. Can proposers suggest a different approach?

Yes, proposers (offerors) may suggest a different approach. Note that pursuant to the inclusion of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Clause 52.232-32 in the solicitation Treasury intends to utilize performance based contract payments. Performance based contract payments are measured by objective, quantifiable methods or accomplishment of defined events. Offerors are cautioned that Treasury is generally prohibited from agreeing to advance payments (before any services are rendered). Also note the language in Section M prohibiting unbalanced pricing.

8. How active is the collaboration between the winning team and Treasury in selecting the final 50 projects for the final report?

The winning team will keep Treasury abreast of the progress that it is making in selecting the projects, but the winning team and Treasury will not collaborate on choosing/deciding which projects are selected.

9. Will the scope include projects planned or based upon the potential to lease fully-owned federal assets (e.g., hydro power)?

Yes, the scope may include such federal assets.

10. Are projects that are 100% privately funded – such as the Texas Central HSR project – acceptable for the final list?

Yes.

11. Within water/wastewater projects, you indicated dams are included – to further clarify, would hydroelectric power projects be viewed as part of water/wastewater as well?

Yes.

12. On the funding issue, obviously many US projects are stuck. We imagine that the winning team will be identifying funding options for each of the 50 projects. However, is there a scope here for creating the kind of funding solution that would both facilitate the development of these projects, and serve as an attractive force for a whole new generation of transformational projects – for example, innovative PPP solutions?

If the consultant believes that an eventually completed project’s net economic impact will be such that it warrants inclusion in the list (even if it is currently “stuck”), then Treasury expects the winning team to include that project in the list and identify what, if anything, is acting as an obstacle to that each proposed project from moving forward; for certain projects, this obstacle may be a lack of available funding. The report may include information on PPPs to the extent that a PPP is determined by the winning team to be a potential solution for a particular project’s lack of available funding. The report is meant to identify specific projects, not showcase any proposed financing models that can potentially be generalized to different projects.

13. What are the expected methods to promote, disseminate and distribute the final report?

Treasury reserves the right to promote, disseminate, and distribute the final report, if at all, as it sees fit.