ATTM X_ Proposal Instructions - Evaluation.pdf

RFP #24322625R0004

ATTACHMENT X

GENERAL PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS / EVALUATIONS

a) Refer to FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors – Commercial Items

b) Definitions:

• Proposal modification is a change made to a proposal before the solicitation’s closing date and time, or made in response to an amendment, or made to correct a mistake at any time before award.

• Proposal revision is a change to the proposal made after the solicitation closing date, at the request of or as allowed by a CO as a result of negotiations.

c) Amendments to solicitations – If this solicitation is amended, all terms and conditions that are not amended remain unchanged. Offerors shall acknowledge receipt of any amendment to this solicitation by the date and time specified in the amendment(s).

d) Proposal expiration date – Proposals in response to this solicitation shall be valid at least through June 30, 2025 (Addendum to 52.212-1(c)).

EXCEPTIONS, DEVIATIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS:

All offeror proposals shall be devoid of any exceptions, assumptions or deviations. Any stated exceptions, assumptions or deviations shall be considered ineligible for award. It is the offeror’s responsibility to seek clarification of any unclear requirements PRIOR to the closing date for the RFP by asking questions during the specified period. New questions cannot be asked or answered once the evaluation process has begun.

RESPONSIVENESS:

Only those proposals that fully meet all the requirements as outlined in this solicitation and respond in accordance with the instructions to offerors will be considered for award. Proposals that fail in any of the categories included, but not limited to those below may be considered ineligible for award:

• Failure to submit all required documents

• Failure to adhere to page limitations or font restrictions

• Failure to utilize provided templates when required

• Failure to follow directions on the Proposal Schedule regarding pricing

• Failure to submit documents in separate files as specified

The Government reserves the right not to seek replacement of missing documents. The Government reserves the right not to seek correction or resubmission of proposals or parts of proposals considered non-compliant. Non-compliant offerors may be eliminated from further consideration.

POTENTIAL AWARD WITHOUT DISCUSSIONS:

The Government reserves the right to award based on its evaluation of the proposals submitted without discussions.

FORMATTING AND WRITTEN PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS TO INCLUDE

PAGE LIMITATIONS:

All documents submitted in response to this solicitation shall use a minimum 11-point font size, and paragraphs shall be separated by at least one blank line. Documents shall include appropriate page numbering and identify the company name, solicitation number and date in either the header or footer of each page.

1. Page limits must adhere to the page count limits provided. The page limit includes all narratives, figures, tables, appendices, and all other ancillary materials. The following items do not count against the proposal page limitations: Proposal covers, title pages, divider pages, table of contents and list of acronyms.

2. Do not zip your files.

3. Email size limit is 5mb.

Any pages beyond the stated page limits will not be evaluated. Page limits are applicable to tables, graphs, drawings and any other attachments submitted with the proposals and not specifically excluded by the solicitation. Index, divider tabs, table of contents will not be counted toward the maximum page limitations.

SUBCONTRACTING:

The prime contractor shall demonstrate the capability of performing the required services, including at a minimum, the management and oversight. Management and oversight functions shall not be subcontracted. If the offeror intends to use ANY subcontractors, proposal responses SHALL provide details of the subcontracting plan.

For this solicitation, ALL subcontractors proposed regardless of business size of the prime or the subcontractor, SHALL as of the date of initial submission to the Government:

a) Be a U.S. owned company, doing business physically in the U.S. or its outlying areas, performing under this contract from within the U.S. or its outlying areas, and all employees supporting the performance of this contract shall be physically located within the U.S. or its outlying areas; AND

b) Disclose any previous company names / UEI, parent company or subsidiary, related to the current company (including but not limited to any mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, novation, or other changes in name, UEI number, or structure) for the past eleven (11) years, as well as any bankruptcies filed by any of those entities.

Subcontractors shall have had no bankruptcies under any company names or UEI used at present or for the past eleven (11) years (from the date of this solicitation).

Joint Ventures:

a) A Joint Venture (JV) is equivalent to a single entity and will be considered as one (1) company. Offerors proposing as a JV shall submit their JV agreement (exempt from page limitations) in addition to all other required documentation. Post-award changes to the JV agreement shall not be considered.

NOTE: Large (“Other than Small”) business offerors shall also submit a Small Business Subcontracting Plan using Attachment 9. Large businesses shall submit acceptable small business subcontracting plans to be eligible for award. Small business subcontracting plans shall reflect and be consistent with the commitments offered in the Small Business Participation Commitment Document (Attachment 7).

The Small Business Subcontracting Plan is not a requirement for evaluation, but rather, a requirement for award to a large business and will be incorporated and conformed into the resulting contract. Large / “Other than Small” Business Offerors that have commercial subcontracting plans shall still submit both Attachments 7 and 9.

SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION:

All offerors (regardless of business size) shall complete and submit a Small Business Participation Commitment Document (SBPCD). A template is provided for use as Attachment

7. The SBPCD will be evaluated on the extent of proposed participation/commitment to use of U.S. small businesses in the performance of this requirement (as small business prime offerors or small business subcontractors) relative to the objectives and requirements established. Refer to Evaluation Factors for further detail. If assistance is needed to locate small business sources, please contact the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Small business prime contractors are required to perform at least 50% of the work under the contract themselves, including the management and oversight, using the labor of their own employees before subcontracting any remaining portions. Management and oversight of the contract shall not be subcontracted, regardless of the business size of the prime or the subcontractor.

SUBMISSION OF DOCUMENTS FOR EVALUATION:

Offerors shall submit all required documentation by the dates and times specified by the Government.

CAUTION: DO NOT SUBMIT anything other than the items requested and specified as required for submission in response to this solicitation. Any extraneous items submitted in any format including but not limited to media clippings, advertisements, promotional video or audio will not be reviewed, may be considered an inappropriate activity and may result in the offeror’s removal from consideration for award.

The following documents are required, separated into the following sections. It is highly recommended that Offerors submit only one Section per email submission, as emails with large attachments may be rejected by the Government’s email server. Please reference the Section numbers below in the Subject line of each email. You may submit more than one email per section if files are particularly large, but please be sure to let the Contract Specialist know how many total emails to expect. Please keep attachment file names brief, but please include company name or acronym in file name.

All documents shall be submitted via email no later than 2:00 pm Eastern Time (ET) on Monday / May 26, 2025 to Matthew Manning via email box: Matthew.Manning@opm.gov.

PART ONE: BUSINESS CRITERIA (Pass/Fail). All offerors shall submit the following documentation in order to be considered in Part One for the PASS/FAIL evaluations.

• Criteria 1: Minimum Financial Viability

• Criteria 2: Bankruptcies

• Criteria 3: Minimum Experience

• Criteria 4: Exceptions & Assumptions

• Criteria 5: Subcontracting Compliance

• Criteria 6: Administrative

DO NOT include any additional documents in your Part One submission. They will NOT be reviewed.

PART TWO: TECHNICAL PROPOSAL and PRICE. Only the Offerors successful in PASSING Part One will be evaluated in Part Two. Please submit separate files for each Section as noted below and limit the number and size of attachments in each email. Use as many emails as necessary to safely transmit the various sections noted below.

• Please include a single page Cover Page or Letter with your company’s name, address, UEI, and important points of contact for communication in case a need for clarifications should arise. Be sure to note on this cover page how long the proposal is valid for, and ensure it is at least as long as required elsewhere in this solicitation.

Please include on the cover page, a statement which indicates acknowledgement of all amendments to the solicitation issued prior to the due date for Part Two Submission.

Reference to the most recent amendment by number and date is sufficient.

As previously stated, the Government may utilize multiple teams of evaluators to review and evaluate different factors. Evaluators for one factor may not have access to your entire proposal package, and as such offerors should ensure that any important information which needs to be evaluated as part of more than one evaluation factor is included in each of the appropriate sections below. The Offeror is responsible for ensuring the correct documentation is in the correct section. The Government will not search through other sections looking for required documentation and reserves the right not to ask for additional information to help locate certain portions of the proposal in order to address specific evaluation criteria.

mailto:Matthew.Manning@opm.gov

Section I of the Offeror’s submission shall include the following headings/subheadings and the narrative to accompany them (in no particular order):

• Factor 1: General Technical Approach (including all detail noted under Part Two Evaluation, Factor 1 below).

• Factor 2: IT Compliance & Technical Approach (including all detail noted under Part Two Evaluation, Factor 2 below).

• Factor 3: Management, Staffing and Supervision Plan (including all detail noted under Part Two Evaluation, Factor 3 below).

• Factor 4: Betterment Promises (refer to Part Two Evaluation, Factor 4 below).

The first four bullets above are limited to a total of twenty (25) pages maximum. Refer to Section 15 of this document for Formatting Limitations relative to Section I of your proposal submission package. The following shall also be provided in Section I, but are exempt from the stated page limitation:

• Small Business Participation Commitment Document (SBPCD), (use Attachment 7)

• Completed and signed IT & Security Affirmation (use Attachment 8)

• Dated, Signed resumes of all IT Key Personnel

• Dated, Signed resumes of all Non-IT Key Personnel

Section II: Price Proposal

Section II Price Proposal shall include ONLY the completed Quote Schedule (Attachment 2), which shall be submitted in Excel format. ALL TABS of the Quote Schedule Excel file are required. Refer to the Quote Schedule for further instructions.

Do not convert this file to any other format. Do not send a pricing proposal or other narrative document to accompany the Quote Schedule Excel file. DO NOT include any additional documents in Section II of your submission, they will not be reviewed.

Sections I of your submission shall be either Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file(s).

Section II shall be submitted in Excel (template provided) format as indicated above.

EVALUATION PROCEDURE and BASIS FOR AWARD:

In accordance with FAR 52.212-2 Evaluation – Commercial Items, the Government will award a SINGLE Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation is considered most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered.

In determining the most highly rated proposal, the Government will employ a Two-Part Evaluation Process which utilizes both Pass/Fail and Confidence Ratings. The Government may utilize multiple evaluation teams to evaluate different factors, and in doing so, these separate evaluation teams may not have access to an offeror’s entire proposal.

a) PART ONE - BUSINESS CRITERIA (PASS / FAIL):

In Part One of the evaluation process, the Government will utilize PASS/FAIL criteria to determine the offerors who meet certain minimum requirements. Following completion of the PASS/FAIL Evaluations only offerors who have PASSED all PASS/FAIL criteria will remain in consideration.

The following criteria will be evaluated with PASS/FAIL criteria:

• Criteria 1: Minimum Financial Viability

• Criteria 2: Bankruptcies

• Criteria 3: Minimum Experience

• Criteria 4: Exceptions & Assumptions

• Criteria 5: Subcontractor Compliance

In addition to part one evaluation criteria, the Contracting Officer/Contract Specialist will perform a responsibility determination in which includes verifying the SAM registrations of the PRIME, and Section 889 Compliance of the Prime. Non-compliance with SAM registration or Section 889 may be grounds to remove an offeror from further consideration regardless of the other criteria.

Part One Criteria will be evaluated as follows:

Criteria 1: Minimum Financial Viability The Government will use the Offeror’s UEI number (as provided in response to Factor 5 below) to obtain a Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) “Business Information on Demand” Report.

The Government will review five (5) pre-determined key elements from that report to determine whether the offeror meets a pre-established minimally acceptable level of financial capability to achieve either a PASS or FAIL rating. The five elements that will be reviewed in the Part One Minimum Financial Viability evaluation are:

• Overall Business Risk

• Paydex® Summaries and Risk

• Delinquency Predictor Score and

Risk

• Financial Stress Score and Risk

• Supplier Evaluation Risk

*Offerors which D&B rates as “LOW” “LOW-MODERATE” and/or “MODERATE” in these elements will PASS.

Criteria 2: Bankruptcies

Using the provided form, Offerors shall disclose any bankruptcies filed under their current name / UEI for the past eleven (11) years (from the date of this solicitation).

Offerors shall also disclose any previous company names / UEI, parent company or subsidiary, related to the current company (including but not limited to any mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, novation, or other changes in name, UEI number, or structure) for the past eleven (11) years, as well as any bankruptcies filed by any of those entities. *Only Offerors with no history of bankruptcy in the past 11 years in their current or any previous or affiliated company name will PASS (see Attachment 5).

Criteria 3: Minimum Experience Offerors shall have FSA Administration experience within the past 10 years, administering concurrent program(s) totaling at least 50% the number of current FSAFEDS participants and encompassing more than fifty (50) separate companies, agencies, or billing entities. (The current participation is approximately 520,000 employees). The Offeror shall use the template provided and include a detailed description of each effort, the services and support provided, an explanation of why the experience is relevant in demonstrating the Offeror’s capabilities for fulfilling the objectives stated in this RFP. *Only those with the recent and relevant experience of a significant size and complexity defined in this paragraph will PASS (see Attachment 5).

Criteria 4: Exceptions & Assumptions Using the provided form, Offerors must state that in submitting their proposal package, they have asked any questions as necessary to obtain a clear understanding of the requirements, and in submitting their proposal, take no exceptions to the stated requirements in the PWS, and make no assumptions about the requirements in their proposal (All assumptions must be clarified prior to submission of proposal).

*Affirmative response will PASS; any stated assumptions, exceptions or additional questions will FAIL (see Attachment 5).

Criteria 5: Subcontractor Compliance (No page limitation)

• The prime shall submit Ownership and Place of Performance Compliance Forms for

ALL proposed subcontractors.

• Do not have subcontractors submit these documents on their own, all submissions on behalf of subcontractors must come only from the prime offeror.

• Additionally, Criteria 6 of an “Other than Small Business” Offeror’s proposal shall include the completed Small Business Subcontracting Plan (Attachment 9). Small Business Subcontracting Plan is not evaluated for award but is incorporated in the award of the successful offeror. An “Other than Small Business” offeror’s proposal will be considered incomplete if the Small Business Subcontracting Plan is not provided. Although the two documents (SBPCD and Small Business Subcontracting Plan) contain much of the same data, both are required.

*If applicable, failure to submit will result in a Fail.

Criteria 6: Administrative This section of the Offeror’s submission shall include the Offeror’s responses to the following provisions:

• Compliance with FAR 52.212-3: Submit EITHER (1) a statement that the FAR

52.212-3 submission presently uploaded to SAM.gov is complete and accurate for this solicitation with no exceptions required, OR (2) a completed FAR 52.212-3 tailored specific to this solicitation. The current online Reps & Certs shall already include the NAICS code for this solicitation and the Offeror’s business size in relation to that NAICS code, otherwise the Offeror would need to submit separate Reps and Certs for this solicitation which address that specific NAICS code. Failure to submit either (1) the affirmative statement or (2) the completed FAR 52.212-3 may cause your proposal to be considered incomplete and non-compliant.

As stated throughout this solicitation, the Government reserves the right not to request replacement of missing documents, and missing documents may reduce the rating of a proposal. If all clauses / provisions listed above are already uploaded to SAM.gov and are applicable to the offeror’s proposal for this solicitation, please submit an affirmative statement to that effect.

There is no page limit on the Criteria 6 submission. DO NOT include any additional documents in Criteria 6 of your submission which belong in other sections of the proposal, or which are intended to address evaluation factors.

b) PART TWO – TECHNICAL CONFIDENCE RATED FACTORS:

In Part Two of the evaluation process, the Government will utilize BEST VALUE TRADE OFF to determine the best value among the offerors remaining in consideration after the PASS/FAIL criteria have been evaluated. Award will be made to the responsible offeror whose proposal provides the best value to the Government.

The Government will evaluate each technical proposal against the non-price evaluation factors described below. Offerors are cautioned that the award may not necessarily be made to the lowest priced Offeror.

All non-price factors are equally weighted and when combined are considered significantly more important than price. If there are no significant technical differences among two or more of the most highly rated offerors, and they are considered “technically equal,” then price will be the determining factor for selection.

Section 1 - Factor 1: General Technical Approach (Non-IT) Describe your General Technical Approach in detail and include ALL the following topics, clearly identified by headings and/or table of contents (in no particular order):

o Implementation (Start Up and Transition-In Plan) o Financial Management Plan (How you plan to segregate the FSAFEDS funds from other funds they handle for other clients) o Claims Administration (How the claims will be processed, and payments made to participants or providers) o Banking / Financial Institution (all financial institutions used to house participant accounts for FSAFEDS must be U.S. owned and have FDIC insurance, and the Offeror has provided names and addresses of the financial institutions along with the ownership status of same in their proposal) o Education, Marketing, and Enrollment Plan (how you will spread the word among federal employees about the value of the program and increase enrollment for the program) o Communications Plan (the Offeror’s proposal for how to best use the Communication Vehicles listed in Appendix C) o Customer Service (Your plan for how to deliver good customer service) o HIPAA Compliance (Offerors will describe, in broad terms, and without violating HIPAA regulations in the process, any compliance issues or violations noted, as well as describe how the concern was resolved / addressed.)

o Debit Card Implementation Process (Offerors are asked to detail their debit card implementation process.)

o End of Contract / Transition-Out Plan

Section 1 - Factor 2: IT Compliance Technical Approach Describe your IT Compliance & Technical Approach in detail and include ALL of the following topics, clearly identified by headings and/or table of contents (in no particular order):

o IT Systems and Systems Administration (Describe the systems you will use to perform the services, how you comply with Federal requirements, including security and anti-fraud requirements, and how changes to Federal requirements will be implemented) o Compliance with IT Clauses (evaluate the details of the proposal to determine if the proposal meets or exceeds the IT clause requirements based on detailed description of how you will comply with the IT Clauses/requirements) o Offeror’s plan for achieving FedRAMP compliance, if Cloud Computing will be utilized.

o Offeror’s plan for achieving initial ATO during start-up period, prior to December 31, 2025, in accordance with OPM Clauses 1752.239-76 and 78.

o Validation Certificate number referenced in OPM Clause 1752.239-84(b) o Diagrams depicting system boundaries and data flows.

o Qualifications of the IT Key Personnel (Offerors will provide signed dated resumes of all IT Key Personnel as an attachment to their proposal, as resumes are excluded from page limitations.)

Section 1 - Factor 3: Management, Staffing and Supervision Plan Describe how you will recruit, train, and retain qualified employees, how many employees you will need for each type of service, how employees will be trained for their positions, and any benefits offered to your employees to encourage recruitment and retention. Management of the contract also includes the intent and plan for subcontracting, if any. The prime offeror must perform management and oversight of the contract yourself, regardless of the business size of the prime.

o Offeror’s plan for recruiting, training, and retaining qualified employees.

o Offeror’s workforce plan for each type of service.

o Offeror’s pan for subcontracting.

o Qualifications of the non-IT Key Personnel (Offerors shall provide signed dated resumes of all non-IT Key Personnel as an attachment to their proposal, as resumes are excluded from page limitations.)

Section 1 - Factor 4: Betterment Promises

Describe whether your proposed solution will exceed any requirement of the PWS in a way that is meaningful for the Government. Provide information explaining the promise of the betterment and the betterment’s value to the Government. Vague statements will not be helpful.

Part Two Evaluation Section 1 - Factors 1 through 4 will use Confidence Ratings for evaluation as defined in the table below:

Rating Definition High Confidence The Government has high confidence that the Offeror understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, and will be successful in performing the contract with little or no Government intervention.

Some Confidence The Government has some confidence that the Offeror understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, and will be successful in performing the contract with some Government intervention.

Low Confidence The Government has low confidence that the Offeror understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, or will be successful in performing the contract even with Government intervention.

No Confidence The Government has no confidence that the Offeror understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, or will be successful in performing the contract even with Government intervention.

In Evaluation of Section II - Price, the Government will use a pre-determined level of effort / quantity for evaluation purposes only, as stated on the Pricing Proposal Schedule (see Attachment 2). The grand total of the ordering period will be evaluated using the sample quantities indicated. These estimated quantities do not establish a guaranteed minimum or maximum for the eventual contract award. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if prices are significantly unbalanced across all periods/options. The Government will determine pricing to be fair and reasonable in accordance with FAR Part 12. If there are no significant technical differences among two or more of the most highly rated offerors, and they are considered “technically equal,” then price will be the determining factor for award.

Reasonableness For a price to be reasonable, it must represent a price to the Government that a prudent person would pay in the conduct of competitive business. The Government will determine prices fair and reasonable using one or more of the price analysis techniques at FAR 15.404-1(b)(2).

Completeness The proposal will be reviewed to determine the extent to which all the price elements have been addressed. The Offeror’s proposed price and other information will be evaluated to ensure continuity and traceability of prices to the technical volume and between the initial proposal and any revisions thereto. The review will determine the adequacy of the Offeror’s proposal in addressing and fulfilling the RFP requirements.