Attachment 3- Section L.docx

Attachment 3: Section L – Notice to Offeror

Section L – Instructions, Conditions, & Notices to Offerors

A. Proposal Questions:

All proposal questions shall be submitted to the Contracting Officer, Mary DiAngelo via email at diangelome@state.gov no later than 5 pm CDT on March 15th. The offeror shall separate technical and price questions and clearly identify each question with a reference to the section of the solicitation.

B. Proposal Submission.

1. The proposal shall be submitted electronically via email to the Contracting Officer (CO), Mary DiAngelo at diangelome@state.gov in the format and per the guidelines outlined in this document. The offeror shall be responsible for ensuring the electronic submission is successfully submitted and received by the CO via email by the proposal due date and time. When submitting proposals to the CO via email, the offeror shall request read receipts to ensure the CO receives the offeror’s proposal.

2. An offeror’s complete proposal and all attachments shall not exceed 40MB in total. If an offeror submits multiple emails containing a proposal, the offeror must clearly identify in the email subject line the following:

“Subject: Vendor Name, Title, Volume number, and Email number (i.e., 1 of 2 or 2 of 2…etc.).”

3. Proposals are due no later than 10 a.m. CDT on March 31st.

4. The offeror is cautioned against “parroting” of the Technical requirements or the Statement of Work (SOW) “Parroting” is defined as imitating the words of the technical requirements or the SOW without articulating a clear understanding of the requirements or capability to perform. Offerors are responsible for including sufficient details to permit a complete and accurate evaluation of each proposal. Proprietary information shall be clearly marked.

B. Proposal Organization.

1. The Offeror’s proposal shall consist of two (2) volumes. The volumes are: Volume I – Technical Proposal, Volume II – Price Proposal. Files shall not contain classified data/information. The use of hyperlinks in proposals to outside documents is prohibited.

2. Each electronic file shall be clearly labeled with its title and volume number.

3. The following volumes of material shall be submitted:

Contents shall be compatible to Microsoft Office products in order to be viewed properly.

**The title page, table of contents, table of figures, list of tables, glossary of abbreviations & acronyms, manpower charts, small business subcontracting plans (if applicable), resumes, and commitment letters do not count against page count limitations. All pages shall be numbered and single pages shall not exceed a total of 30 pages. Pages that exceed the required page limitations above will not be evaluated. Pages over the maximum pages allowed shall be marked unacceptable and not be read or evaluated by the Government.

4. Each volume in each set shall be labeled clearly displaying only the following information:

· Company name, Contract Number, Volume Number and Title shall be listed on the front of each binder, along with Offeror’s Point of Contact information which must include: Name, Individual’s Title, Mailing Address, E-Mail Address and Phone Number.

· Each volume shall have a Table of Contents with page numbers.

· Each page shall be numbered and have a “header” with the Company Name, Solicitation Number, Volume Number and Volume Title. Sample as follows:

Company A

19AQMR22R0012

Volume 1 – Technical

C. Proposal Format.

1. All files, except for the price tables shall be in MS Word or Adobe. Printing should be single spaced. A standard, 12-point minimum font size applies. Arial or New Times Roman fonts are required. Tables and illustrations may use a reduced font size no less than 8-point and may be landscape.

2. MS Word (doc) files shall use the following page setup parameters:

3. All price breakdown information to aid in the price evaluation shall be submitted in the Attachment 2 Pricing Template provided. If additional subCLINs are needed to show pricing categories not covered by the existing subCLINs, the contractor may add rows beneath each CLIN. All calculations and formulas shall be unprotected and accessible in electronic submission documents. Pricing must be filled out on all tables and both tabs in the pricing spreadsheet, as indicated.

D. Content Requirements.

1. All information shall be confined to the appropriate file. The Offeror shall confine submissions to essential matters, sufficient to define the proposal in a concise manner, to permit a complete and accurate evaluation of each proposal. Each file of the proposal shall consist of a Table of Contents, Summary Section, and the Narrative discussion. The Summary Section shall contain a brief abstract of the file. Proprietary information shall be marked clearly.

2. If the proposal is not received in accordance with these instructions, it may be considered unacceptable and rejected. The penalty for making false statements is prescribed in 18 USC 1001. Failure to furnish current and complete information may cause a proposal to be rejected.

3. Assumptions:

(a) Offeror shall state, explain, and justify any deviations, exceptions, or conditional assumptions taken regarding any of the instructions or requirements of this contract in the appropriate volume of the offer. For example, technical assumptions shall be covered under the "Technical" volume, and price assumptions under "Price" volume.

(b) Failure to explicitly state price assumptions may result in removal from the consideration.

5. The following shall be included in the Narrative discussion for each respective volume:

a) Volume I – Technical Proposal. This volume shall be organized into the following sections and include:

(1) Technical specifications for the required veterinary equipment listed in Appendix A, to include unit prices per part and color photos of each item.

(2) Proposed delivery plan and importation plan indicating how the offeror will meet contract requirements and milestones for when each task will be accomplished within the specified timeframe.

(3) Terms of the warranty and maintenance services offered. If the deliverables include a commercial warranty, the offeror shall provide the terms of the warranty included.

b) Volume II: Factor 2– Price Proposal. This volume shall consist of all information, required to support prices. All prices shall be in United States dollars. The contractor will utilize the Attachment 2 template provided to show the price buildup by CLIN. The contractor will also provide a narrative explanation of proposed rates included in the pricing template.

1) The Government will evaluate price to ensure that the awarded price is fair and reasonable. The Government intends to use one or more of the proposal analysis techniques identified in FAR 15.404 when evaluating price proposals. As part of its evaluation, the Government will verify, when included, the applicable provisional billing indirect cost rates, the fully burdened hourly labor rates or a discount of these rates, the proposed profit percentage(s), the proposed fee percentage(s), and the not-to-exceed (NTE) unit prices or a discount of these unit prices.

2) The information submitted in this volume shall comply with FAR 15.4, Contract Pricing and the requirements set forth herein. Offerors shall fill in their proposed pricing in Attachment 2.

3) The offeror shall submit a detailed price narrative supporting each price/cost proposed in the entire pricing spreadsheet (Attachment 2). The price proposal narrative must provide a thorough explanation and rationale for all proposed prices and be clearly traceable to the pricing table.

Failure to explicitly state cost/price assumptions in Volume II, Cost/Price proposal may result in removal from consideration.

The Government provided Attachment 2, Pricing Spreadsheet which contains pre-populated formulas in which the offeror should incorporate pricing. The pre-populated formulas automatically calculate the CLIN Total and Total. However, the offeror should verify the arithmetic accuracy and make any corrections if necessary.

CLINS:

1) Veterinary Equipment: The contractor shall propose all items listed in Appendix A at the delineated quantities. The unit price shall be fully burdened, exclusive of VAT, if applicable. Material will be billed on a FFP basis per item.

2) Other Direct Costs: The contractor shall propose all other direct costs necessary to support shipping the equipment to each designated location, as well as any necessary warehousing storage for up to 8 weeks. due to delays in the donation process. ODCs will be billed on an FFP basis per subCLIN, as indicated in the pricing file.

3) Value Added Tax: In the event that the contractor sources items from Mexico, VAT may be charged on a cost reimbursable basis. The contractor should propose VAT on this CLIN and not as part of the total cost of the materials.

4) Warranty: The contractor shall propose costs for a one-year warranty for each item, as specified in section 7.2 of the Statement of Work. If a commercial warranty is included in the base price of the item, the offeror shall specify this in Volume II - Pricing. Warranty costs will be billed on a Firm Fixed Price basis.