Attachment 0003- JAIC TE BPA Instructions and Eval Criteria 11Feb21.pdf

JAIC T&E BPA Solicitation: W52P1J-21-R-0029 Instructions and Evaluation Criteria 11 February 2021

The following is included as an addendum to FAR 52.212-1.

INSTRUCTIONS TO PREPARE PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS

1. Proposal Submission Information

Proposal submissions to this solicitation shall be received no later than 12:00 p.m. Noon Central Time (CT), 05 March 2021. Proposal submissions received after this time will not be considered. All proposal submissions shall be submitted via email to the addresses below:

Mark Martinez, Contracting Officer Army Contracting Command - Rock Island (ACC-RI) Mark.martinez2.civ@mail.mil Kristine Pennock, Contract Specialist

ACC-RI

kristine.s.pennock.civ@mail.mil

2. Questions

All questions related to the solicitation shall be submitted via e-mail to the Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist listed above. The subject of the e-mail must be titled:

Questions re: Solicitation W52P1J-21-R-0029.

All questions must be submitted in writing via e-mail not later than 12:00 p.m. Central Time (CT), 19 February 2021. For any questions received after this date and time, the Government reserves the right not to respond. Questions should be written in a manner that enables clear understanding of the Offeror’s questions or concerns. Statements expressing opinions, sentiments, or conjectures are not considered valid inquiries and will not receive a response. Further, Offerors are reminded that the Government will not address hypothetical questions aimed at receiving a potential “evaluation decision.”

Offerors shall not provide propriety or sensitive information as the questions in their entirety will be released along with the corresponding answer.

Offerors must cite the relevant solicitation section, attachment (if applicable), page number, and paragraph. Offerors shall submit questions in a Microsoft (MS) Excel (compatible with MS Excel 2013) file attachment.

All answers to questions or requests for clarifications will be provided as soon as possible. Answers to questions may require a formal Amendment to this solicitation. If the Government issues an Amendment to the solicitation, Offerors must acknowledge the Amendment(s) within the timeframe specified in the Amendment, to be considered responsive to the solicitation.

Government responses to questions will be provided to all Offerors.

3. Instructions to Offerors

These instructions are a guide for preparing a proposal submission in response to this solicitation. These instructions describe the type and extent of information required, and emphasize the significant areas to be addressed in the proposal submission. Offerors shall examine this solicitation in its entirety and ensure that its proposal is complete and contains all necessary information and documentation required as instructed by this solicitation.

The information requested and the manner of proposal submission is essential to permit prompt evaluation of all proposal submissions on a fair and uniform basis.

3.1 General

In order to be eligible for a BPA, Offerors must provide a proposal submission consisting of the following four sections:

Section Item Associated Attachment (if applicable)

1 Cover Letter N/A 2 JAIC T&E BPA Questionnaire 1 3 Support Documentation per JAIC

T&E BPA Questionnaire N/A 4 Signed and Completed SF1449 N/A

a. Proposal submissions must be complete, clear, coherent, and prepared in sufficient detail for effective evaluation. Proposal submissions shall assume that the Government has no prior knowledge of Contractor experience and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the Offeror’s proposal submission. The Government will not use any outside information not present in the proposal submission in its evaluation;

therefore, the Offeror shall ensure it provides all documentation to support statements made.

b. Any part of the Offeror’s proposal that it considers proprietary shall be marked as so.

c. All information submitted in response to this solicitation shall be formatted as described below in “3.2 Specific Instructions by Section.”

d. Each Offeror shall submit only one proposal. Offers shall not contain classified data.

Alternate proposals will not be accepted. The use of hyperlinks in offer documents submitted in response to this solicitation is prohibited.

3.2 Specific Instructions by Section

Section 1: Cover Letter. The Cover Letter shall be limited to two (2) 8.5x11 inch pages, single-spaced with 1-inch margins, using Arial size 12-point font with each page numbered. Tables and illustrations may use a reduced font size, no less than Arial size 8 point, if necessary. The Cover Letter shall be submitted in PDF, entitled: Section 1 Offeror Name Cover Letter. The Cover Letter shall include the following information:

1) Solicitation number

2) A statement that the proposal is valid for 120 days after proposal submission date of proposal

3) Contractor name

4) DUNS number

5) CAGE code

6) Teaming arrangements and/or subcontractors name

7) Business size and socioeconomic status of prime and any teaming arrangements (if applicable)*

8) Complete business mailing address

9) Point(s) of Contact (POC) designated to represent the Offeror in this acquisition (Name, title, e-mail address, and phone number)

10) Date and signature from the POC authorized to enter into an agreement with the Government

11) Acknowledgement of any Amendment to this solicitation, to include signed copies attached to the Cover Letter (Will not count against the two-page limit.)

12) Acknowledgement of any representations and certifications required (Will not count against the two-page limit.)

*Note: The business size and socioeconomic status of each teaming partner in the cover letter shall be identified based upon self-certification at the time of solicitation closing. The Contracting Officer will compare the self-certification against the designation within System for Award Management (SAM). In the event of a conflict, the Contracting Officer may refer any final Small Business determinations to the Small Business Administration. If the size status listed in the Offeror’s proposal submission is different from the size status in SAM, this difference should be explained in narrative form. Call Order Contracting Officers may, at their discretion, allow recertification for individual Call Orders but are under no obligation to do so.

Section 2: Completed JAIC T&E BPA Questionnaire. The JAIC T&E BPA Questionnaire shall be completed on the document provided as Attachment 1 with this solicitation. It shall be submitted as a word document, entitled: Section 2 Offeror Name JAIC T&E BPA Questionnaire. The format shall not be altered.

Section 3: Support Documentation per JAIC T&E BPA Questionnaire. The requested documentation, by question, in the JAIC T&E BPA Questionnaire shall be submitted as a single PDF, entitled: Section 3 Offeror Name Support Documentation. Each support document within this PDF shall have a Cover Page stating the name of the support document, and the question number it supports. The Cover Page of each support document shall be limited to one (1) 8.5x11 inch page, single-spaced with 1-inch margins, using Arial size 12-point font. The support document itself can be provided in its current format, if already produced. Otherwise, it shall be provided using 8.5x11 inch page, single-spaced with 1-inch margins, using Arial size 12-point font. Tables and illustrations may use a reduced font size, no less than Arial size 8 point, if necessary.

Support documentation must not exceed 12 pages. The Cover pages will not count against the page limit.

Section 4: Signed and completed SF1449. All information on appropriate clauses as stated in the solicitation shall be filled-in on the SF1449. For any fill-ins that are not applicable, the Offeror must acknowledge by indicating “N/A”. The SF1449 shall be submitted as a PDF, entitled: Section 4 Offeror Name SF1449.

3.3 Additional Information:

AMC-LEVEL PROTEST PROGRAM

If you have complaints about this procurement, it is preferable that you first attempt to resolve those concerns with the responsible Contracting Officer. However, you can also protest to Headquarters, AMC. The HQ, AMC-Level Protest Program is intended to encourage interested parties to seek resolution of their concerns within AMC as an Alternative Dispute Resolution forum, rather than filing a protest with General Accounting Office or other external forum. Contract award or performance is suspended during the protest to the same extent, and within the same time periods, as if filed at the GAO. To be timely, protests must be filed within the periods specified in FAR 33.103. Send protests (other than protests to the Contracting Officer) to:

Headquarters U.S. Army Materiel Command Office of Command Counsel-Deputy Command Counsel 4400 Martin Road Rm: A6SE040.001 Redstone Arsenal, AL 35898-5000

Fax: (256) 450-8840 E-mail: usarmy.redstone.usamc.mbx.protests@mail.mil

The AMC-level protest procedures are found at:

http://www.amc.army.mil/amc/commandcounsel.html

If Internet access is not available, contact the Contracting Officer or HQ, AMC Office of Command Counsel to obtain the AMC-Level Protest Procedures.

EVALUATION METHODOLOGY

1. General

a. The Government intends to execute multiple BPAs resulting from this solicitation to the responsible Offeror(s) whose proposal submission conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government. The Government intends to execute multiple BPAs to the most highly qualified Offerors (See Evaluation Methodology 2. BPA Selection Process).

b. The Government intends to execute agreements based on initial proposal submissions. It is the Government’s intent to award agreements without exchanges with Offerors; however, exchanges may be required. If exchanges are held, they may be in the form of written or oral questions. Initial proposal submissions should contain Offeror’s best terms for this work.

c. Proposal submissions that do not respond to all requirements in the solicitation may be rejected without further evaluation, deliberation, or discussion. The Government may reject any proposal submission that does not include sections 1-4 as listed above in Section 3.2.

d. The Cover Letter (Section 1 of Offeror’s proposal submission) and Signed and Completed SF 1449 (Section 4 of Offeror’s proposal submission) shall be submitted as described in paragraph 3.2 “Specific Instructions by Section.” However, these Sections will not be evaluated. Instead, the Government will complete a compliance review to ensure they are submitted per the solicitation instructions. The JAIC T&E BPA Questionnaire and Support Documentation will be evaluated as described below in the BPA Selection Process section.

2. BPA Selection Process

a. The Government will utilize Offeror’s completed JAIC T&E BPA Questionnaire (Section 2 of Offeror’s proposal submission) containing questions focused on Test and Evaluation Services support to determine the most highly qualified Offerors for the BPA pool. The responses to the questions will be used to assess the Offeror’s capabilities.

It is the responsibility of the Offeror to answer each question in its entirety prior to proposal submission. The burden of proof is the responsibility of the Offeror. The Government will determine BPA awardees based on Offeror’s responses.

b. To be eligible for the selection process, Offerors shall submit a completed Questionnaire with responses to all questions. Each question is a “gate” which the Offeror must receive an “acceptable,” in order to proceed to the next question/”gate” and continue to be considered for BPA award. If an Offeror receives an “unacceptable” for any question/gate, the Government will not evaluate any further questions and the Offeror will no longer be considered for award of an agreement.

For Questions 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, the Government will conduct a corporate experience review based on the contract numbers/references and support documentation submitted. The contract numbers/references and support documentation will be reviewed to determine if the referenced contracts have comparable scope to what is being asked in the corresponding question. If the Offeror states that it possesses fewer than two example contract/references, their corporate experience will be rated as Unacceptable.

The following ratings and definitions will be used to evaluate each Offeror’s response to the BPA Questionnaire:

Acceptable: Meets the requirements of the solicitation. Two, but no more than three example contracts/references are provided and have comparable scope.

Unacceptable: Does not meet the requirements of the solicitation. (1) Less than two example contracts/references are provided, and/or (2) the example contracts/references do not have comparable scope.

For Question 4, the Government will review to ensure the Offeror submitted nationally recognized methodologies. If the Offeror did not identify any nationally recognized agile methodologies for the development and implementation of projects used by its company, the Offeror will receive an Unacceptable rating and will not be further evaluated.

For Question 7, the willingness to incorporate responsible AI methodologies, such as the DoD’s AI Ethical Principles is a “Yes” or “No” answer. The Government will consider “Yes” answers acceptable and “No” answers Unacceptable. The purpose of the question is to build awareness for DoD’s AI Ethical Principles and to begin incorporating aspects of the principles in future call orders. Please see Attachment 0005 for a summary of the DoD’s AI Ethical Principles.

Although the Government anticipates 15 to 25 BPAs, the Government reserves the right to make more or less than the intended number of awards, if warranted by the quality and quantity of proposal submissions.