Attachment 2 - DRAFT Evaluation Criteria.pdf

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Fixed Income Investment Services

Attachment 2: DRAFT Evaluation Criteria

1. General

a. Basis for Award. PBGC will award contracts resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offerors whose proposals, conforming to the solicitation, will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered.

PBGC anticipates making seven (7) contract awards but may award more or fewer than this as determined to be in the Government’s best interests.

PBGC may select for award offerors that do not offer the lowest prices if it finds their proposals to be technically superior to those of lower-priced competitors. It may also select for award offerors whose proposals are not considered to be technically superior, but who nevertheless provide better values by virtue of their lower prices.

PBGC may, at its discretion, incorporate any express promises contained within successful offerors’ proposals into their respective contracts.

b. Factors. The evaluation factors and rating methods that will be applied are summarized in the following table:

c. Importance of Factors. PBGC considers Factors 4 and 5 to be the most important. Non-price factors, when combined, are significantly more important than price. Although the price factor has no numerical weight or adjectival rating, it is a criterion in the overall evaluation of proposals. As proposals become more technically comparable, price will become increasingly important in the agency’s award decision.

Factor # Title Rating Method

1 Proposal Compliance Pass/Fail 2 Offeror Qualifications Pass/Fail 3 Offeror Capability Confidence Rating 4 Strength of Product Offering Confidence Rating 5 Price N/A (Price Analysis) 6 Offeror Facilities Confidence Rating 7 Personnel Expertise Confidence Rating

d. Evaluation Phases. PBGC will evaluate proposals in the following three phases:

i. Phase I – Pass/Fail Assessments (Factors 1 and 2): Offerors must meet the minimum criteria to proceed to Phase 2. Any offeror that does not meet the minimum qualifications will be removed from further consideration for contract award. PBGC will notify offerors of the Phase 1 results.

ii. Phase 2 – Technical and Price Proposal Assessments (Factors 3 – 5):

PBGC will provide offerors who pass Phase 1 an invitation to submit their technical and price volumes by dates to be specified at that time. Upon evaluating these volumes, PBGC will create a competitive range composed of the highest rated proposals. Any offeror excluded from the competitive range will be removed from further consideration for contract award. PBGC will notify offerors of the Phase 2 results.

iii. Phase 3 – Negotiations and Assessment of Offeror Facilities and Personnel (Factors 6 and 7): PBGC will invite offerors within the competitive range to participate in discussions (i.e., negotiations) at a mutually agreeable date and time. Discussions with non-incumbent offerors will occur in-person at the offerors’ facilities. Discussions with incumbent offerors may occur virtually or in-person, at the Government’s discretion.1

In addition to negotiating the contents of proposals, PBGC will assess the expertise and professionalism of offerors’ personnel and the state of offerors’ facilities and systems. PBGC will request revised proposals from offerors and establish a common cut-off date for final revisions. Upon considering the revised proposals against all evaluation factors, PBGC will select the awardees.

1 The reason for this distinction between treatment of incumbent and non-incumbent personnel in Phase 3 relates to the evaluation of Factors 7 and 8. Because PBGC already inspects incumbent contractors’ facilities and meets with contractor personnel in person on an annual basis, there is no need for PBGC to separately visit these contractors during evaluation unless their proposals indicate meaningful change in these areas.

2. Evaluation Methodology

In evaluating each factor, PBGC will consider the information described below.

a. Factor 1 (Phase 1) – Proposal Compliance. PBGC will assess proposal compliance at each phase with each new volume submission. This includes ensuring that:

i. The offeror is fully registered in the System for Award Management, has no active exclusions, and has completed all representations and certifications (www.sam.gov);

ii. For each volume there is a cover letter that includes the information found at Section 7.a. of Attachment 1 – Instructions to Offerors;

iii. The required volumes and supporting material folders are present;

iv. All required PBGC forms or templates are submitted; and

v. If an organizational conflict of interest (OCI) is identified in the cover letter, there is an OCI Risk Mitigation Plan (submitted only once, prior to or with the price proposal).

An offeror that fails to meet any of the above will be eliminated from the competition and not considered for award.

b. Factor 2 (Phase 1) – Offeror Qualifications. PBGC will ensure offerors have responded affirmatively to each prompt and that the required supporting documentation is present and supportive of the offeror’s responses. PBGC may conduct additional research to confirm the accuracy of offeror responses. If the agency’s findings conflict with an offeror’s responses, the agency may request clarification from the offeror before rendering a decision; however, the offeror will not be permitted to revise its response.

An offeror that fails to meet the criteria of the Offeror Qualifications Form or that meets the criteria for less than two (2) Product Qualifications forms will be eliminated from the competition and not considered for award. For offerors that remain in the competition after Phase 1, PBGC will continue to evaluate all proposed products, including any that do not meet the Factor 2 criteria. Each contract award will include all products proposed by that offeror at fair and reasonable prices. (See Section 2.f., below, for more on price analysis.)

c. Factor 3 (Phase 2) – Offeror Capability. PBGC will review responses to the Offeror Capability Form to assess the strength of the offeror’s business and its http://www.sam.gov/ ability to perform this work. Each offeror considered under this factor will receive a factor-level confidence rating.

d. Factor 4 (Phase 2) – Strength of Product Offering. PBGC will review responses to the Product Attributes and Past Performance Forms to assess the people, decision-making process, and features underpinning the proposed products; the total range of products offered; and the historical performance results of the proposed products. PBGC will first assess each proposed product based on its attributes and past performance. Once it has completed its assessment of each product, PBGC will then also consider the total range of products offered and determine an overall factor-level confidence rating.

e. Factor 5 (Phase 2) – Price. PBGC will evaluate price using two processes to achieve distinct objectives.

First, PBGC will analyze the undiscounted price per product to determine whether the proposed rates are fair and reasonable. To determine the price per product, the agency will apply standard hypothetical allocations to each product proposed by each offeror and analyze the resulting undiscounted fees for each contract year plus the six-month extension authorized by 52.217-8. (For purposes of evaluating the six-month extension, PBGC will halve the result of the tenth contract year.)

A product with undiscounted rates that are not fair and reasonable will not be considered for award unless PBGC includes the offeror in the competitive range and the offeror agrees to reduce its rates to a level that PBGC considers reasonable. Furthermore, if a product with rates that are not fair and reasonable lowers an offeror’s total product offering to fewer than two, that offeror will no longer be considered for award unless PBGC includes the offeror in the competitive range and the offeror agrees to reduce its rates to a level that PBGC considers reasonable.

Second, prior to selecting the contract awardees, PBGC will calculate an overall price per proposal that covers all proposed products. To do this, PBGC will begin by applying a standard hypothetical allocation to each proposal, which will be apportioned among proposed products based on the Government’s internal estimates of future investment levels.2 At this point, PBGC will calculate the average effective rate by product across all proposals, then each offeror’s variance from the product average for each product proposed by that offeror, and finally each offeror’s weighted average variance across all products proposed by that offeror. The result will be a single figure per proposal that will

2 Unlike under the first price evaluation, here PBGC will consider any discounts triggered by the selected investment levels.

enable PBGC to compare proposed prices regardless of the quantity or types of products proposed.

g. Factor 6 (Phase 3) – Offeror Facilities. PBGC will inspect the facilities and systems of offerors to confirm proposal details and otherwise ensure the offeror’s premises are conducive to providing an acceptable level of performance. Each offeror considered under this factor will receive a factor-level confidence rating. (For incumbent offerors, PBGC may rely on existing personal knowledge of the offeror’s facilities collected during in-person visits if the proposal does not indicate any substantive changes in this area.)

h. Factor 7 (Phase 3) – Personnel Expertise. While on offerors’ premises, PBGC will observe the offeror’s employees who are proposed to work under this contract to assess their financial knowledge and fluency, as well as their working relationships. Each offeror considered under this factor will receive a factor-level confidence rating.