CASS Pre-Solicitation Conference Slides.pdf

CONTRACTING AND ACQUISITION

SUPPORT SERVICES (CASS)

Stephani Preusser July 30, 2024

Improving Health and Building Readiness. Anytime, Anywhere — Always

AGENDA

• Introductions

• Format

• Top 10 Comments/Feedback

• Closing Comments

CASS

This is a pre-solicitation conference.

The solicitation is being finalized shortly.

Current Locations

San Diego, CA

San Antonio, TX

Aurora, CO Colorado Springs, CO

Dayton, OH Falls Church, VA

Data Label 1 28%

Data Label 2 16%

Data Label 3 19%

Data Label 4 23%

Data Label 5 14%

Data Label 6 23%

Caption

Data Label 1

Data Label 2

Data Label 3

Data Label 4

Data Label 5

Data Label 6

Top 10 Issues Raised In

Response to DRAFT

Solicitation

10. Incumbent Name & Contract Number

• Task Orders HT0005-19-F-0001 and HT0050-19-1-F-0002

• Amyx, Inc. has been performing both task orders since 2019 which were both issued off GSA OASIS contract #s GS00Q14OADS103 and

GS00Q14OADS114.

• Contract expires on 14 Aug 24 – it has a potential to be extended for up to 6 more months with the inclusion of the FAR 52.217-8 clause.

9. What vehicle are we using to solicit?

Single Award IDIQ published on SAM.gov.

8. Why is GFE List blank?

We expect to be issuing a standard Government Owned laptop to every worker that the awardee will be providing to the Government under this contract. We don’t want to publish, to the world at large, details of the equipment (such as brand name, model, serial number and so on) being issued to the contractor. Doing so may increase vulnerability of the DHA to cybercrime. Details will be provided to the awardee upon award.

7. Past Performance – Will relevancy be evaluated in the aggregate?

How much confidence the Government will have that an offeror will successfully complete the contract if awarded is, by its very nature, Subjective. We’ll look at the Past Performance as a whole. Yes, we’ll look at the various bits of work you have done to see how recent (or even ongoing) it is. We’ll look to see how close it is to the work we need done.

Plus, we will look at how well (or how poorly) you have done the work. We can weight the more recent and more relevant work more heavily than the less recent and less relevant. It is subjective. There is no, nor should there be, a mathematical formula.

7. Past Performance (Continued) – Can CPARS be substituted for PPQs?

You don’t have to submit any PPQs or CPARS. You can submit CPARS or PPQs. It’s your choice. We already have access to CPARS. However, if submitted, PPQs may help us in forming an assessment of how likely it would be that you would successfully perform our effort. There is no requirement to submit any, but it might not be a good strategy for success.

Bear in mind that the Government is planning on doing a Past Performance Price Tradeoff, with Past Performance being Significantly more important than price. The Government having no idea as to whether you would, or would not, perform is better than the Government having a low (or no) expectation that you would perform, but worse than the Government having the reasonable expectation (or better yet) high expectation that you would perform.

6. Technical – define Acceptable and Unacceptable or assign adjectival ratings.

Acceptable – The proposal will work Unacceptable – The proposal will not work (RFP Attachment 3, paragraph 1)

• This will be a Past Performance Price Tradeoff. Other than acceptable and unacceptable there are no adjectival ratings. That also means, no strengths or weaknesses.

• We want a contractor that will gives us confidence that they will successfully perform the work and we’ll be willing to pay more (within reason) for the vendor that gives us greater confidence that they will successfully perform the work.

5. Remote and Telework.

Space will be provided for all full-time employees unless otherwise noted (San Diego, CA and Aurora, CO do not currently have office space available). Remote work and telework are site specific. Most locations allow telework and report to offices on the same in office work schedules as Government employees. Approval of remote/telework is location specific and is based on parameters set by that location and trust placed in the employee along with their ability to work independently. (PWS Sections 1.7.1 and 1.7.4). Because it is site specific, we have no further information to provide.

4. What are the Key Personnel?

• The only Key Personnel is the Contract Manager

• The Contract Manager shall not function in any other capacity/role on this contract (PWS Section 1.10.8).

3. Clearance requirements.

• There will be a few number of personnel (currently only 1 position) that will require a SECRET clearance (PWS Section 1.14.2).

• All Contractor employees will be required to pass a ‘Public Trust’ clearance.

• All Government information shall be stored and processed on Government owned equipment (Government Laptops). No Government information is permitted to be stored or processed on Contractor equipment of any type, at any time for any reason.

2. Performance Metrics.

• Please see PWS Section 6.0 for the Service Summary. These are the performance metrics.

• Having the positions filled in a timely manner by qualified workers is very important to the Government. Low turnover, rapid refill, and low vacancy are also very important.

• Note that the Contractor will only bill for, and the Government will only pay for, the time the positions are filled.

1. Organizational Conflict of Interest.

1. Organizational Conflict of Interest (Con’t).

• The awardee will be a very special Contractor that DHA will use and grant access to a vast amount of highly procurement sensitive information. The Contractor will have the ability to influence acquisitions for DHA enterprise-wide. The Government will be placing substantial reliance and trust in the awardee. The Government is unwilling to entertain the risk that its contractor supplied workforce may be influenced by how its work may affect the contractor (including contractor’s affiliated entities.) The Government is unwilling to entertain the risk that it may be unable to use its contractor supplied workforce, for some or all future work, due to an existing, or future, Conflict of Interest.

The Red Pill

• The awardee will be ineligible to performing (or seeking) work on any other DHA work for the period of the contract plus 12 months. [The awardee will be able to compete for the follow-on (if any) contract to this contract.]

Points of Contact for CASS

Pam Bryerton at pamela.j.bryerton.civ@health.mil

And

Stephani Preusser at stephani.n.preusser.civ@health.mil mailto:pamela.j.bryerton.civ@health.mil mailto:stephani.n.preusser.civ@health.mil