A40 Att 11 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors.pdf

HS0021-23-R-0016 Credit Reporting Services

Attachment 11 –Instructions to Offerors

52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors—Commercial Products and Commercial Services.

As prescribed in 12.301(b)(1), insert the following provision:

Instructions to Offerors—Commercial Products and Commercial Services (Nov 2021)

(a) North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and small business size standard. The

NAICS code(s) and small business size standard(s) for this acquisition appear elsewhere in the solicitation.

However, the small business size standard for a concern that submits an offer, other than on a construction or service acquisition, but proposes to furnish an end item that it did not itself manufacture, process, or produce is 500 employees if the acquisition—

(1) Is set aside for small business and has a value above the simplified acquisition threshold;

(2) Uses the HUBZone price evaluation preference regardless of dollar value, unless the offeror waives the price evaluation preference; or

(3) Is an 8(a), HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned, economically disadvantaged women-owned, or women-owned small business set-aside or sole-source award regardless of dollar value.

(b) Submission of offers. Submit signed and dated offers to the office specified in this solicitation at or before the exact time specified in this solicitation. Offers may be submitted on the SF 1449, letterhead stationery, or as otherwise specified in the solicitation. As a minimum, offers must show—

(1) The solicitation number;

(2) The time specified in the solicitation for receipt of offers;

(3) The name, address, and telephone number of the offeror;

(4) A technical description of the items being offered in sufficient detail to evaluate compliance with the requirements in the solicitation. This may include product literature, or other documents, if necessary;

(5) Terms of any express warranty;

(6) Price and any discount terms;

(7) "Remit to" address, if different than mailing address;

(8) A completed copy of the representations and certifications at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)

52.212-3 (see FAR 52.212-3(b) for those representations and certifications that the offeror shall complete electronically);

(9) Acknowledgment of Solicitation Amendments;

(10) Past performance information, when included as an evaluation factor, to include recent and relevant contracts for the same or similar items and other references (including contract numbers, points of contact with telephone numbers and other relevant information); and

(11) If the offer is not submitted on the SF 1449, include a statement specifying the extent of agreement with all terms, conditions, and provisions included in the solicitation. Offers that fail to furnish required representations or information, or reject the terms and conditions of the solicitation may be excluded from consideration.

(c) Period for acceptance of offers. The offeror agrees to hold the prices in its offer firm for 30 calendar days from the date specified for receipt of offers, unless another time period is specified in an addendum to the solicitation.

(d) Product samples. When required by the solicitation, product samples shall be submitted at or prior to the time specified for receipt of offers. Unless otherwise specified in this solicitation, these samples shall be submitted at no expense to the Government, and returned at the sender’s request and expense, unless they are destroyed during preaward testing.

(e) Multiple offers. Offerors are encouraged to submit multiple offers presenting alternative terms and conditions, including alternative line items (provided that the alternative line items are consistent with

FAR subpart 4.10), or alternative commercial products or commercial services for satisfying the requirements of this solicitation. Each offer submitted will be evaluated separately.

(f) Late submissions, modifications, revisions, and withdrawals of offers.

(1) Offerors are responsible for submitting offers, and any modifications, revisions, or withdrawals, so as to reach the Government office designated in the solicitation by the time specified in the solicitation. If no time is specified in the solicitation, the time for receipt is 4:30 p.m., local time, for the designated

Government office on the date that offers or revisions are due.

(2) (i) Any offer, modification, revision, or withdrawal of an offer received at the Government office designated in the solicitation after the exact time specified for receipt of offers is "late" and will not be considered unless it is received before award is made, the Contracting Officer determines that accepting the late offer would not unduly delay the acquisition; and-

(A) If it was transmitted through an electronic commerce method authorized by the solicitation, it was received at the initial point of entry to the Government infrastructure not later than 5:00 p.m. one working day prior to the date specified for receipt of offers; or

(B) There is acceptable evidence to establish that it was received at the Government installation designated for receipt of offers and was under the Government’s control prior to the time set for receipt of offers; or

(C) If this solicitation is a request for proposals, it was the only proposal received.

(ii) However, a late modification of an otherwise successful offer, that makes its terms more favorable to the Government, will be considered at any time it is received and may be accepted.

(3) Acceptable evidence to establish the time of receipt at the Government installation includes the time/date stamp of that installation on the offer wrapper, other documentary evidence of receipt maintained by the installation, or oral testimony or statements of Government personnel.

(4) If an emergency or unanticipated event interrupts normal Government processes so that offers cannot be received at the Government office designated for receipt of offers by the exact time specified in the solicitation, and urgent Government requirements preclude amendment of the solicitation or other notice of an extension of the closing date, the time specified for receipt of offers will be deemed to be extended to the same time of day specified in the solicitation on the first work day on which normal Government processes resume.

(5) Offers may be withdrawn by written notice received at any time before the exact time set for receipt of offers. Oral offers in response to oral solicitations may be withdrawn orally. If the solicitation authorizes facsimile offers, offers may be withdrawn via facsimile received at any time before the exact time set for receipt of offers, subject to the conditions specified in the solicitation concerning facsimile offers. An offer may be withdrawn in person by an offeror or its authorized representative if, before the exact time set for receipt of offers, the identity of the person requesting withdrawal is established and the person signs a receipt for the offer.

(g) Contract award (not applicable to Invitation for Bids). The Government intends to evaluate offers and award a contract without discussions with offerors. Therefore, the offeror’s initial offer should contain the offeror’s best terms from a price and technical standpoint. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct discussions if later determined by the Contracting Officer to be necessary. The Government may reject any or all offers if such action is in the public interest; accept other than the lowest offer; and waive informalities and minor irregularities in offers received.

(h) Multiple awards. The Government may accept any item or group of items of an offer, unless the offeror qualifies the offer by specific limitations. Unless otherwise provided in the Schedule, offers may not be submitted for quantities less than those specified. The Government reserves the right to make an award on any item for a quantity less than the quantity offered, at the unit prices offered, unless the offeror specifies otherwise in the offer.

(i) Availability of requirements documents cited in the solicitation.

(1) (i) The GSA Index of Federal Specifications, Standards and Commercial Item Descriptions, FPMR Part

101-29, and copies of specifications, standards, and commercial item descriptions cited in this solicitation may be obtained for a fee by submitting a request to- GSA Federal Supply Service Specifications Section

Suite 8100 470 East L’Enfant Plaza, SW Washington, DC 20407 Telephone (202) 619-8925 Facsimile

(202) 619-8978.

(ii) If the General Services Administration, Department of Agriculture, or Department of Veterans

Affairs issued this solicitation, a single copy of specifications, standards, and commercial item descriptions cited in this solicitation may be obtained free of charge by submitting a request to the addressee in paragraph (i)(1)(i) of this provision. Additional copies will be issued for a fee.

(2) Most unclassified Defense specifications and standards may be downloaded from the following

ASSIST websites:

(i) ASSIST ( https://assist.dla.mil/online/start/).

(ii) Quick Search ( http://quicksearch.dla.mil/).

(3) Documents not available from ASSIST may be ordered from the Department of Defense Single Stock

Point (DoDSSP) by-

(i) Using the ASSIST Shopping Wizard ( https://assist.dla.mil/wizard/index.cfm);

(ii) Phoning the DoDSSP Customer Service Desk (215) 697-2179, Mon-Fri, 0730 to 1600 EST; or

(iii) Ordering from DoDSSP, Building 4, Section D, 700 Robbins Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19111-

5094, Telephone (215) 697-2667/2179, Facsimile (215) 697-1462.

(4) NonGovernment (voluntary) standards must be obtained from the organization responsible for their preparation, publication, or maintenance.

(j) Unique entity identifier. (Applies to all offers that exceed the micro-purchase threshold, and offers at or below the micro-purchase threshold if the solicitation requires the Contractor to be registered in the

System for Award Management (SAM).) The Offeror shall enter, in the block with its name and address on the cover page of its offer, the annotation "Unique Entity Identifier" followed by the unique entity identifier that identifies the Offeror's name and address. The Offeror also shall enter its Electronic Funds

Transfer (EFT) indicator, if applicable. The EFT indicator is a four-character suffix to the unique entity identifier. The suffix is assigned at the discretion of the Offeror to establish additional SAM records for identifying alternative EFT accounts (see FAR subpart 32.11) for the same entity. If the Offeror does not have a unique entity identifier, it should contact the entity designated at www.sam.gov for unique entity identifier establishment directly to obtain one. The Offeror should indicate that it is an offeror for a https://assist.dla.mil/online/start/ http://quicksearch.dla.mil/ http://www.sam.gov/

Government contract when contacting the entity designated at www.sam.gov for establishing the unique entity identifier.

(k) [Reserved]

(l) Debriefing. If a post-award debriefing is given to requesting offerors, the Government shall disclose the following information, if applicable:

(1) The agency’s evaluation of the significant weak or deficient factors in the debriefed offeror’s offer.

(2) The overall evaluated cost or price and technical rating of the successful and the debriefed offeror and past performance information on the debriefed offeror.

(3) The overall ranking of all offerors, when any ranking was developed by the agency during source selection.

(4) A summary of the rationale for award;

(5) For acquisitions of commercial products, the make and model of the product to be delivered by the successful offeror.

(6) Reasonable responses to relevant questions posed by the debriefed offeror as to whether source-selection procedures set forth in the solicitation, applicable regulations, and other applicable authorities were followed by the agency.

(End of provision)

INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS (Addendum to 52.212-1)

1.1. This addendum to the solicitation tailors some of the terms and conditions contained in the provision at FAR 52.212-1—Instructions to Offerors—Commercial Products and Commercial

Services. Except as specified in this solicitation addendum, the offeror must submit all data and information required by 52.212-1 and this addendum. Non-conformance with the instructions provided herein or in any other part of the solicitation may result in elimination of the offer from consideration for award or an otherwise unfavorable offer evaluation.

1.2. This is for multiple award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts. There will be up to 3 IDIQ awards made. Offerors proposing less than the entire effort specified herein will be determined to be unacceptable. The contract is intended to be awarded for a 5-year base ordering period with 5 one-year options.

1.3. The proposal shall be clear, concise, and shall include sufficient detail for effective evaluation and for substantiating the validity of stated claims. The proposal should not simply rephrase, restate or merely parrot back the contractual requirements, but rather must provide convincing documentary evidence in support of any statements relating to promised performance. Offerors shall provide convincing rationale to address how the offeror intends to meet these requirements. Offerors shall assume that the Government has no prior knowledge of their operations and experience and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the offerors proposal.

1.4. Elaborate brochures or documentation, detailed artwork and/or other embellishments are unnecessary and not desired.

http://www.sam.gov/

1.5. Offer Acceptance and Validity Dates: Paragraph (c) of the provision at FAR 52.212-1 regarding the period during which the offeror agrees to hold the prices in its offer firm is amended to read 90 days vs. 30 days. The offeror shall make a clear statement in Volume I Cover

Letter that the offer is valid for 90 days after the RFP close date.

1.6. Tailoring of 52.212-1: FAR 5.212-1(e), Multiple Offers is hereby deleted from this solicitation and that paragraph is marked RESERVED.

2. OFFER/PROPOSAL VOLUME INSTRUCTIONS

2.1. General. Prospective offerors SHALL deliver proposals/offers in the following volumes:

Volume Description Number of Copies

I Cover Letter & Complete Technical proposal on Official Letterhead

Two (1 complete & 1 sanitized copy)*

II Pricing Two (1 complete & 1 sanitized copy)*

III

Reps & Certs One (1)

Section 508 Compliance One (1)

* The sanitized copy of the offer/proposal shall have all identifying information such as, company name, logos, POC/employee names, removed. The only identifying information allowed is that of your company’s cage code.

2.1.1. Proposals/offers shall be in the English language and all monies in US Dollars.

2.1.2. Volumes (i.e. files) shall be separated and easily identified (ex. Volume I, II, III).

2.1.3. Only the completed proposal/offer Cover Letter, Technical proposal to include examples and

ISA, Pricing information, Reps & Certs, and Section 508 Compliance will be considered part of the offeror’s proposal/offer. Additional documentation will not be considered.

2.1.4. Each page containing proprietary information should be marked as follows:

“SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION--SEE FAR 2.101 and 3.104

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY”

2.2. Instructions for Submission of Volumes

Part Page Limit

Volume I

Cover Letter 1 page

Technical 9 pages. There are no limitations on written agreements or report examples.

Volume II

Price Complete provided Price Workbook (Attachment 10)

Volume III

Section 508 1 Page

Reps and Certs IAW FAR 52.212-3

2.2.1 Volume I – This should be submitted in type which is no smaller than Times New Roman 12 Font, single spaced, 8x11 page size, must be saved as PDF, and with a maximum number of 10 pages (cover letter and any indexes included). Page limitations shall be treated as maximums. If exceeded, the excess pages will not be read or considered in the evaluation of the proposal. Offerors are also required to provide an identical sanitized version of offer/proposal. This sanitized version shall have any company name, logos, POC/employee names, and any identifying information removed. The only identifying information allowed is that of your company’s cage code.

2.2.1.1 Cover Letter – This is the only coversheet that should be included in the offerors response. The offerors coversheet for the proposal shall contain the following information:

1) Company name and mailing address,

2) CAGE code, Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number, and Taxpayer Identification

Number (TIN),

3) Company Size (Large or Small). If small, list any small business designations (i.e.

HUBZone, WOSB, 8(a), etc.),

4) POC Name, title, email, and phone,

5) Confirmation of understanding and an agreement to the terms and conditions of the solicitation, for which shows the offerors certification their offer is capable of meeting the specifications of the RFP,

6) Offeror is required to submit a signed attachment of FAR 52.204-24 “Representation

Regarding Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services or Equipment

(AUG 2020)”,

7) Signature of authorized company representative.

2.2.1.2 Technical – Needs to show offeror’s technical capability to meet the requirements of the PWS and must include the following Subfactors:

2.2.1.2.1 Subfactor #1 - Written agreements with each of the three credit bureaus in accordance with the PWS.

2.2.1.2.2 Subfactor #2 - Provide Sample Reports for Single and Tri-Merge as per example formats in the attachments of the PWS.

2.2.1.2.3 Subfactor #3 - Sub-Factor 3: Submit a Connectivity Plan for the Test and

Production environments on how the offeror plans to obtain connection to the

Mirador, PIPS, and National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) systems.

This is done by completing attachment 3, PWS ISA.

2.2.1.2.4 Subfactor #4 - Quality Plan. Plan should provide the following:

- The offerors approach for performing work on single and multiple orders;

- The offerors process and procedures for handling connection issues, PII data errors, formatting errors, incomplete reports, and other issues commonly encountered; and

- The offerors sample detailed billing summary that would be attached within the Wide Area Workflow (WAWF) invoice.

2.2.1.2.5 Subfactor #5 - Management Plan. Submit a Management Plan which explains the offerors capacity to fill multiple orders with varying quantities (i.e. 66k per day, 90k per day, or any amount under or over these examples) with a short suspense; i.e. on demand.

2.2.1.2.6 Subfactor #6 – Data Breach Risk Mitigation Plan. Submit a Data Breach Risk Mitigation

Plan which explains the offerors capacity to effectively operate in the instance data is breached.

2.3 Volume II – Pricing Information

Complete pricing information on IDIQ Pricing Workbook. Use of attachment 10, IDIQ Pricing

Workbook, is mandatory, but offerors must be cognizant that any use of formulas or auto-calculations within the worksheet are the sole responsibility of the offeror—this includes any values that are provided as a result of a formula or auto-calculation tool. The Government will not be responsible for any formula or calculation errors.

2.4 Volume III – Section 508 and Reps & Certs

2.4.1 Section 508 Complaince - Provide an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) for each commercially available Information and Communication Technology (ICT) item offered through this contract. Create the ACR using the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template Version 2.1 or later, located at https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat. Complete each ACR in accordance with the instructions provided in the VPAT template. Each ACR must address the applicable Section 508 requirements referenced in the Work Statement. Each ACR shall state exactly how the ICT meets the applicable standards in the remarks/explanations column, or through additional narrative. All "Not

Applicable" (N/A) responses must be explained in the remarks/explanations column or through additional narrative. Address each standard individually and with specificity, and clarify whether conformance is achieved throughout the entire ICT Item (for example - user functionality, administrator functionality, and reporting), or only in limited areas of the ICT Item. Provide a description of the evaluation methods used to support Section 508 conformance claims. The agency reserves the right, prior to making an award decision, to perform testing on some or all of the Offeror’s proposed ICT items to validate Section 508 conformance claims made in the ACR.

2.4.1.1 Describe your approach to incorporating universal design principles to ensure ICT products or services are designed to support disabled users.

2.4.1.2 Describe plans for features that do not fully conform to the Section 508 Standards.

2.4.1.3 Describe "typical" user scenarios and tasks, including individuals with disabilities, to ensure fair and accurate accessibility testing of the ICT product or service being offered.

2.4.2 Reps and Certs – This will be provided in accordance with FAR 52.212-3.

2.5 Submissions – Proposal submissions that are late, incomplete, or submitted at any other location may not be evaluated by the Government. Offeror shall be registered in the SAM prior to responding, at award, during performance, and through final payment. By submitting a proposal, the offeror is stating that all terms and conditions of the entire solicitation are accepted and applied to their proposal. Proposals shall be valid for at least 90 days and should be marked as such on all submitted documents.

It is the sole responsibility of the offeror to ensure that the electronic files submitted are virus free and can be opened and read by the Government. Documents shall not be locked, encrypted, or otherwise contain barriers to opening. The Government is under no obligation to seek clarification regarding electronic quotation submissions if submissions cannot be opened or accessed. It is the offerors responsibility to ensure its complete proposal is received by the date and time specified in the RFP. Proposal received after the time and date for which they are due, including those blocked or quarantined by a Government server, will be considered late and may not be evaluated.

http://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat