2016VTCNotes.pdf

VIPR VTC NOTES

01/07/2016

1) REQUIRED REGISTRATIONS FOR CONDUCTING BUSINESS WITH THE GOVERNMENT

a) SAM: https://www.sam.gov – Be sure to keep your SAM registration active or the Forest

Service payment office can’t process a payment for your company.

b) eAuthentication: http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/eauth.php - A two-step process that must be accomplished for you to respond to a solicitation.

2) DISPATCH PRIORITY

a) Anne explained that all resources have certain attributes that have been given points (See

Exhibit J). Points are added, then divided by the price to determine ranking on the Dispatch

Priority List (DPL). Generally, the lower your price, the higher the ranking.

b) Kenan Jaycox from the Southwest Coordination Center (SWCC) explained the process SWCC uses when receiving orders from outside the Geographic Area (GACC). When another GACC needs resources they send the order to the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC), who passes on the need to SWCC or another GACC. Often, the orders are very specific requesting all federal resources, or fire departments. When orders arrive for contract resources, SWCC is able to view in the Resource Ordering and Status System (ROSS) all vendors who have the type of resource needed, where they are located, and their DPL ranking. Dispatchers try to spread the orders around to as many vendors as they can rather than go to just one dispatch center. He told contractors they could view the Dispatch Procedures on the SWCC website http://gacc.nifc.gov/swcc/. Click the Dispatch link for links to the DPL and ROSS (NAP). This is where contractors can apply for a ROSS account to self-status their resources.

3) HOW RESPONSES ARE EVALUATED – PART B.3

a) Reasonable price, operational acceptability, and past performance dependability risk will be the basis for the best value determination

b) Past performance Dependability Risk D.20 and Exhibit E (Performance Evaluation)

4) SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS & DPL ADVANTAGE – PART B.6 – Solicitation is setaside for HubZone, SDVOSB, and other Small Business under NAICS code 115310 with a size standard of $19.5 million.

HubZones and SDVOSB get a 5% price advantage that may be enough to give them a higher ranking on the Dispatch Priority List (DPL).

5) VIPR WEBSITE & VIPR VENDOR APPLICATION:

http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/vendorapp.php https://www.sam.gov/ http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/eauth.php http://gacc.nifc.gov/swcc/ http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/vendorapp.php

a) Vendor Help Desk: helpdesk@dms.nwcg.gov or 1-866-224-7677, Option 3

b) Overview for Using the Vendor App – Excellent document with screen prints to help vendors through the process. There is also a Help link at the bottom of most of the screens in the VIPR vendor application.

6) A SOLICITATION OVERVIEW (RESOURCE & PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS) – PART D

a) For a comparison of this year’s language to last year’s agreements, go to the VIPR website under

Solicitations http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/solicitations.php; scroll down until you see Solicitation Template Modifications and read the latest mod. Click on View Archive of

Updates to see any previous updates since the last time your agreement was modified.

b) Important to read through the entire section for equipment requirements and personnel training.

c) Part D.21.8 contains payment provisions. Be sure you understand how you are to be paid.

Forest Service jurisdiction fires will be paid by the Albuquerque Service Center. Large incidents will have a finance unit which will read your shift tickets daily and record them on an invoice. At time of demob, contractor or representative should leave the incident with copies of the completed, signed invoice and shift tickets. If on an incident that does not have a finance unit, be sure to get the name and contact information for whoever has you hand over your shift tickets. Also ask who will get those tickets to prepare your invoice. This is especially important if working on a non-federal incident such as a state jurisdiction fire. Some states process and pay invoices themselves and others tell contractors to take their shift tickets home to have someone else prepare the payment.

7) EXHIBITS – Read through all exhibits

a) VENDOR FIRE TRAINING D.3.1, Exhibit F, Exhibit I, Exhibit N, Exhibit O

b) US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (DOL) WAGE DETERMINATION (Exhibit D):

http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-sca.htm

8) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS—If vendors have further questions about specific contract requirements, they should submit them via e-mail to Anne Weiskircher for Water Handling

Equipment at aweiskircher@fs.fed.us. Questions may need to be elevated to equipment specialists or VIPR team.

Q: When will Water Handling inspections be scheduled?

A: Inspections are scheduled for March 7-11 in Tucson and March 14-18 in Albuquerque. Fire and Aviation Management personnel will send out a Doodle Poll for vendors to schedule their resources for inspection and the message will include the addresses and directions to the mailto:helpdesk@dms.nwcg.gov http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/solicitations.php http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-sca.htm mailto:aweiskircher@fs.fed.us inspection facilities. Vendors should schedule their resources early in the week so Friday will be available for any necessary re-inspections.

Q: One vendor asked whether there is an age restriction on contractors. He understood that when the employees pass their physical fitness test, all training, and have the ability to do their job, they shouldn’t be turned away because of age. That is age discrimination.

A: Vendor is correct. If someone tries to turn away a contractor or employee because of age, they should ask to see the IC or HR liaison and report it right away.

Q: A change was made to D.2.1.2(h) requiring all equipment inventory to be marked by etching or engraving. What needs to be on them? Company name, equipment ID, or what? How will that affect contractors who have to leave their hose lays and fittings behind? We may not have time to get new hose and fittings marked before reporting to the next fire. Or we could end up getting issued hose with FSS marked on it, and the ICPIs will think we stole FS property.

A: Marking doesn’t need to be fancy, just permanent. Contractors can purchase a simple etching tool from their local hardware store and put some sort of marking that identifies them or their company on their inventory. Read D.7.1.3. If a Contractor is required to leave his hoses and fittings behind, he will be issued an AD-107 for transfer of property to the Government.

Contractor should negotiate with Procurement Unit Leader or CO for amount of reimbursement which can be added to the invoice. If reassigned to a new incident, the AD-107 is presented to supply who will loan hoses and fittings to the contractor so he remains viable. If anyone questions why a contractor is using hoses marked FSS, show the documentation to prove it was loaned to you for that incident. Once the contractor returns to his dispatch point and replaces his hoses and fittings, he needs to etch or engrave them.

Q: The new training requirements don’t require S-231 Engine Boss (Single Resource). Is that correct?

A: That is correct. It can be taken as additional training. All training follows the requirements in PMS 310-1 (Wildland Fire Qualification System Guide).

Q: Do I need to have a separate ENGB for each resource that needs one?

A: Yes. For instance, if you have two engines, they must each have their own ENGB boss so both are available to be dispatched. We will be checking personnel quals during inspection.

Q: How will you compute the weight for water on our resources?

A: We’ll weigh your resource empty and full according to the provisions in D.16.1. The full weight cannot exceed the manufacturer’s GVWR or GAWR, which must be on the vehicle’s doorplate. You also can’t alter your tank by putting a drainage pipe part way up to keep the tank from filling completely.

Q: Do we have any more information on the requirement to have the P25 radios?

A: Part D.2.3 explains radio requirements and the list of approved radios can be found on the website in the solicitation http://www.nifc.gov/NIICD/docs/approved_radios.pdf. Basically, anyone who is replacing old radios should purchase only P25 radios.

Q: I thought the severity rate was paid at 75% of the daily rate for 8 hours or less, but the solicitation has been changed to 10 hours or less.

A: The 2013 solicitation had the same language. Severity rate has always been paid for 10 hours or less.

Q: How come other regions don’t inspect as thoroughly as Region 3? We go to fires in other regions and have to work side-by-side with equipment that isn’t in as good a shape as ours and hasn’t gone through a comprehensive inspection like we have. Some of them show their DOT inspections and they’re good to go.

A: We don’t have any control over what is done in other regions. Regions 1 and 6 have a Memorandum of Understanding with qualified inspectors who must follow the checklists and provide a report back to the CO. The vendors pay the MOU inspector directly.

http://www.nifc.gov/NIICD/docs/approved_radios.pdf