B08_Basis_for_Award_by_Tradeoff.doc

BASIS FOR AWARD BY TRADEOFF

Award Based on Best Value:

Basis of award will be based upon price and other factors.

Evaluation Factors:

(a) Quotes/Proposals (Offers) submitted in response to this solicitation will be evaluated based upon the following non-price or non-cost factors, which are of descending order of importance.

Factor (A) Technical Performance: Sellers must be established in the required services business. Sellers must provide a narrative, not to exceed (5) pages, describing their capabilities to perform the services described in the Work Statement. The narrative shall address the following aspects of the offeror’s laboratory services:

· Instrumentation and Facilities: This information will be evaluated by the overall availability of analytical instrumentation, and laboratory facilities to perform the required analytical services and to cover fluctuations in workload through instrumentation redundancy. This factor will be evaluated by the overall availability of up-to-date analytical instrumentation and laboratory facilities to perform the required analytical services and to cover fluctuation in workload through instrumentation redundancy.

· Experience, and Training of Personnel: Experience will be evaluated for the personnel that will be assigned and directly involved with this contract. Training requirements for chemists/bench analysts performing analyses specified for this contract will be evaluated. Extent of experience in providing analytical services for molecular analyses of environmental samples and/or DNA for projects of the same or similar magnitude and complexity for Federal Government, state, and local agencies and(or) commercial firms will be evaluated. This information shall contain the period of time and number of samples analyzed, as well as a brief description of the scope of work.

· Analytical Methods and Procedures: Capability and technical merit to perform analysis of USGS environmental samples using analytical methods and procedures specified in the Solicitation and meeting performance requirements specified in the Solicitation.

· Customer Service and Communication: The Offeror shall state their policy in regards to the speed/frequency of communication from the Offeror in response to a service request or inquiry (How many emails/calls does it take to elicit a response? Over what period of time?)

Factor (B) Offeror’s Quality Control Plan (QCP): The offeror shall include its QCP for evaluation. The QCP will be evaluated on the soundness of approach, completeness, and overall design and content that describes the offeror's proposed procedures to meet the performance requirements and data deliverables. Offeror’s QCP must describe all the required negative and positive controls, calibration controls, a transparent method summary, and whether a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) is in place to track submitted samples/projects. The QCP shall describe how the offeror will provide results that meet or exceed the quality standards and time standards in the work statement.

Factor (C) Past Performance: sellers shall submit not less than two references for services performed during the past three years. Each reference shall include: the company or agency name, address, contract or order number, point(s) of contract phone number and email address(es). References provided may be contacted by the Government. Their statements will be used in the evaluation of the offeror’s quotation. In addition, any information obtained by the Government from references outside of the offeror’s quotation may also be used, in a similar manner, in the technical evaluation of the offeror’s quotation to the extent appropriate. Past performance information provided by references, from Government records, or from other than the sources identified by the offeror may be used in the evaluation under any or all applicable evaluation factors. In addition to the foregoing, CPARS.gov will be used as a source of past performance information in the source selection process, in addition to any other past performance information required under this solicitation. All past performance information will be used for both the responsibility determination and the best value decision.

Factor (D) Use of Government Bank Card: Offerors shall describe their acceptance of Government Purchase/Charge/Bank Card for payment. Offerors with acceptable bank card use terms will be of greater value to the Government than offerors that do not accept bank card payment.

(b) Options. The government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option/s.

Award:

The award of this requirement shall be made using only the procedures found in Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 13. Award shall be made to the vendor whose offer, conforming to this solicitation, is determined to be the most advantages to the government, cost or price and the other non-cost or non-price factors listed above. In determining which offer offers the greatest value or advantage to the Government, overall non-price merit will be considered more important than price or cost. The degree of importance of price or cost as an evaluation factor will increase with the degree of equality in the non-price merits of the offers. Between acceptable offers with a significant difference in non-price merit, a determination will be made as to whether the additional non-price merit or benefits reflected by a higher price/cost warrants payment of the additional price or cost.

Offer Preparation The offeror is cautioned to study the Evaluation Factors stated above along with their relative importance. Offer package shall address each of these factors since these are the standards against which your offer will be evaluated. It is the offeror’s responsibility to include the appropriate documentation in its offer package to allow a complete technical/price evaluation. Failure to submit the appropriate documentation may result in the rejection of the offeror’s offer.