RFP.pdf

DJJI-13-RFP-0817 QAS Support

June 07, 2013

SECTION B - SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES/COSTS

B.1 General

(a) The Contractor shall provide to the Department of Justice (DOJ) all resources necessary to furnish Quality Assurance Support on an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity task order basis as defined in this contract.

(b) The proposed contract is expected to include a base period and four (4) option periods as described below:

Contract Term

Base Period 08/1/13 thru 07/31/14

Option Period I 08/1/14 thru 07/31/15

Option Period II 08/1/15 thru 07/31/16

Option Period III 08/1/16 thru 07/31/17

Option Period IV 08/1/17 thru 07/31/18

(c) The anticipated date of award for the proposed contract is August 01, 2013. Full performance of the contract is expected to commence by September 01, 2013. Currently, some quality assurance work is being performed by Analytic Focus, LLC, under Contract DJJ07-C-1570. Because the continuing provision of support services is essential to continuity of the program, it is critical that the phase-in of Contractor personnel and the assumption of ongoing tasks is accomplished in a well-planned, orderly and efficient manner, utilizing the Transition Plan provided by the contractor in accordance with Section L.3.2.3(8) of the solicitation.

(d) The performance of all work under this contract shall be initiated by the issuance of task orders by the Contracting Officer as discussed in Sections C.4.1 and H.2. Task orders may be issued on a firm fixed-price, labor-hour, or time-and-materials basis, or any combination thereof.

B.2 Minimum and Maximum Quantities/Amounts

(a) The estimated annual quantities for each contract line item number (CLIN) are contained in Unit Price Table B-1 of this Solicitation (Attachment (1)). Those quantities represent the Government's best estimate of Quality Assurance activity as it relates to contract support and do not necessarily represent actual, or budgeted/funded needs. There is no guarantee that the estimates for each CLIN/contract period as contained in the Solicitation will accurately reflect actual quantities ordered in the performance of the contract awarded under this Solicitation.

(b) The Government will order a minimum amount of $50,000.00 under the awarded contract.

The Department will have the entire term of the contract (to include all options) to fulfill the contract minimum. The specific CLINs and quantities will be identified in the task order(s) issued under this contract. The exercise of the renewal options (see Section F.2) does not re-establish the contract minimum. During the life of this contract, the Government may order items in any quantity up to the maximum amounts specified in paragraph (c) below. If the minimum amount has not been ordered, the Department will exercise the option for the next year.

(c) There are no maximum quantities/amounts for each individual CLIN or contract period. The maximum aggregate amount of all task orders issued under the contract awarded under this solicitation shall not exceed $9,500,000.00 for the entire term of this contract, including all options which may be exercised.

B.3 Pricing Table

(a) All contract unit prices and multipliers (applied to other direct cost items) shall be as specified in Pricing Table B-1. The general structure of the pricing table is intended to differentiate between the labor hour based fixed-unit-prices for various labor categories (CLIN Series 1100 and 1200);

and, the category of supplies/services for which reimbursement is allowed, (CLIN Series 1300 and 1400), priced as other direct costs times a multiplying factor. It is anticipated that all QAS performance will take place in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, or be based from the Washington, DC area if occasional travel is needed.

(b) The basic contract line item number (CLIN) structure includes a prefix and a 'core' number, as shown below:

X-XXXX

● The single digit prefix is used to indicate the contract period, i.e., “0" indicates the contract base period, “1" indicates Option Period 1, etc.

● The four digit 'core' number is used to segregate the various Section C requirements for that Table. The first two digits are constant for each requirement and the last two digits are reserved as the 'unique identifier' for each Contractor furnished support service and/or other direct cost item.

(c) The following definitions apply to the pricing table:

(1) Labor Hour Based Support Services (CLIN Series 1100 and 1200): General QA and IT based work requirements whose extent and duration cannot be fully defined in advance due to unknown variables, such as the quality and type of deliverables to be inspected.

(2) Other Direct Costs (CLIN Series 1300 and 1400): Classes or categories of supplies and services which are not included in the unit price of the Support Services CLINs but are required to complete a given task order.

(3) Fixed Hourly Rate: The billable rate for hourly personnel, or the billable hourly rate for salaried personnel. This rate shall include all costs for overtime hours worked

(defined as hours worked in excess of a forty hour workweek, unless otherwise defined by State law). Less than 10% of the hours ordered may require overtime work.

(4) Multiplier (CLIN Series 1300 and 1400): The factor to be applied against the estimated or actual cost of an "other direct cost" item to cover administrative handling expenses.

(5) Washington, DC Area Place of Performance: The portion of the Washington, DC metropolitan area that is defined by the appropriate DOL Wage Determinations for Washington, DC (2005-2103, Rev. 12).

(d) CLIN Series 1100 and 1200: The fixed hourly rates shall (1) include all cost basis, including, but not limited to salaries/wages, report/documentation preparation, fringe benefits, overhead, general and administrative expenses, and profit/fee; and (2) comply with the requirements of the Service Contract Act where applicable.

(e) CLIN Series 1300 and 1400:

● These CLINs delineate the groups or categories of costs which are considered allowable and allocable other direct costs (ODC). The Government will use these CLINs to authorize and track actual or estimated ODC expenditures under this contract. The reasonableness of these costs shall be subject to the mutual agreement of the parties.

● The fixed multiplier for each CLIN shall include all administrative handling costs associated with the CLIN. The multiplier is to be applied against the actual cost of the item for which reimbursement has been authorized.

● The billable amount shall be limited to the actual cost of the item plus the amount resulting from the application of the appropriate multiplier identified for the specific CLIN (e.g., actual cost of item is $100.00, and multiplier for the CLIN is 1.02, the total billable amount is $102.00).

● For subcontracted items/services, the multiplier shall only be applied one time.

For example, a subcontractor might be required to purchase some emergency supplies. It is not permissible for the subcontractor to apply a markup to the supplies in billing the prime contractor, and then for the prime contractor to apply another markup when billing the Government. The multiplier may only be applied once, and must be applied to the original cost of the item.

● The multipliers for CLIN Series 1300 and 1400 are not subject to the FAR Price

Adjustments clause included in Section I.3 of this solicitation/contract.

B.4 Other Direct Costs

B.4.1 Supplies and Services

(a) Supplies and services procured on behalf of the Government under this contract will generally be exempt from State and local taxes. The Contracting Officer will provide a completed Standard Form 1094, U.S. Tax Exemption Certificate where appropriate (see FAR Part 29).

(b) If in the Government's interest, the Contracting Officer may issue a letter(s) to the Contractor authorizing the Contractor to utilize Government sources of supply (e.g., General Services Administration supply schedules, see FAR Part 8) for supplies and services procured on behalf of the Government under this contract (see FAR Part 51) for the authorization procedures.

B.4.2 Travel

(a) As a general rule, LOCAL travel expenses will not be reimbursed under this contract. An example of local travel which will not be subject to reimbursement is travel to and from normal job site;

personnel temporarily working at a (not Contractor) site or alternative facility will consider such facility his/her normal job site. A second example is supervisory personnel traveling to a (not Contractor) site or alternative facility to oversee operations. Such supervisory local travel may occur quite frequently -several trips per week per site would not be unusual. Another example is non-supervisory personnel traveling several times per week in the middle of the day to (not Contractor) sites or between (not Contractor) sites to perform assigned tasks.

(b) All NON-LOCAL (e.g., travel requiring air transportation, or long haul ground trips) travel shall be approved in advance by the COR. Reimbursement for actual (approved) travel costs incurred during the performance of support services shall be in accordance with Part 31 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations and the Federal Travel Regulations. Travel requirements under this contract shall be met using the most economical form of transportation available. If economy class transportation is not available, the Contractor must submit (to the COR) a request for advance approval to utilize higher class travel. All travel should be scheduled sufficiently in advance to be able to take advantage of offered discount rates. Individual "travel authorization letters" may be provided to the Contractor (for all Contractor personnel who are required to travel) which may allow Contractor personnel to receive Government rates when on long distance travel.

B.5 Price Adjustments Under the Service Contract Act

B.5.1 General

(a) A large portion of this contract is subject to the Service Contract Act (SCA) of 1965, as amended (see Section I.1, clause 52.222-41). For Support Services CLINs, applicability of the SCA is limited to those "non-exempt" CLINs as delineated in paragraph (b). The Government will not be liable to the Contractor for any additional/increased sums/costs for which the Contractor may become liable to its employees as a result of a failure by the Contractor to properly conform or exempt its employees to the labor classifications stated in the applicable Department of Labor (DOL) Wage Rate Determination 2005- 2103, Revision 12, dated 06/13/12, for the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Final determinations as to the proper conformance or exemption of Contractor employees under the SCA will be the responsibility of the DOL.

(b) The following table classifies each hourly rate labor category as one of the following:

Exempt. Employees performing in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity as defined in 29 CFR 541 are exempt from the SCA. These labor category CLINs will not be subject to price adjustment.

Non-Exempt. Employees other than those employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity as defined in 29 CFR 541 are subject to the SCA.

These labor category CLINs will be subject to price adjustment as described in this section.

Labor Category Classification Table

Labor Category

Federal Grade

Equivalent

DOL SCA/WD

Category

Class. Code

QA Manager N/A Exempt

Sr. Quality Performance Monitor N/A Exempt

Sr. QA Reviewer N/A Exempt

QA Reviewer GS-4 General Clerk III 01113

QA Clerk GS-3 General Clerk II 01112

QA Statistician N/A Exempt

Sr. QA Computer Analyst GS-9 Computer Programmer

III

14074

QA Computer Analyst GS-7 Computer Programmer

II

14073

(c) No price (i.e., fixed-unit-price) adjustments will be made during the base period of this contract to any CLINs except as may be allowed and appropriate under Section B.5.2 and the SCA for non-exempt, hourly rate based positions. See the FAR Price Adjustments clause at Section I.3.

B.5.2 Option Periods

(a) For any option periods which are exercised by the Government, all price adjustments shall be limited to, and in accordance with FAR Clause 52.222-43, entitled "Fair Labor Standards Act and

Service Contract Act - Price Adjustment (Multi-year and Option Contracts)", incorporated by reference into Section I of the contract.

(b) Contract CLINs subject to price adjustment under Clause 52.222-43 are limited to those non-exempt categories listed in Section B.5.1(b).

(c) The Government will utilize the supporting data contained in the Contractor's proposal to verify any increase or decrease in the contract fixed unit price(s) which may be claimed by the Contractor as a result of a revised wage determination for any option period which may be exercised by the Government. The hourly rates will be adjusted to reflect the Contractor's actual increase or decrease in applicable wages and fringe benefits to the extent that the increase is made to comply with or the decrease is voluntarily made by the Contractor as a result of the DOL wage determination applicable at the beginning of the option period. For example, the prior year wage determination required a minimum wage rate of $15.00 per hour. The Contractor chose to pay $15.50. The new wage determination increases the minimum rate to $15.60 per hour. Even if the Contractor voluntarily increases the rate to $16.00 per hour, the allowable price adjustment is $.10 per hour. As stated in Clause 52.222-43, any adjustment will be limited to increases or decreases in wages and fringe benefits as described in the clause, and the accompanying increases or decreases in social security and unemployment taxes and workers' compensation insurance, but shall not otherwise include any amount for general and administrative costs, overhead, or profit.

SECTION C - STATEMENT OF WORK

C.1 Introduction

C.1.1 Quality Assurance Contract and the Automated Litigation Support Program

(a) The Department of Justice has an Automated Litigation Support (ALS) program already in existence. Most of the work in this program is performed by contractors under ALS contracts awarded, administered, and monitored by the Department.

(b) A separate solicitation for Mega 4 ALS services (DJJI-12-RFP-0783) was issued by the Department and is expected to result in multiple contract awards. Primary users of the resulting contracts will include the Civil Division, the Civil Rights Division, the Criminal Division, the Antitrust Division, the Environment and Natural Resources Division, the Executive Office for U. S. Attorneys, and the Tax Division; other Departmental components and other Federal agencies may also make use of the resulting contracts. The ALS solicitation may be found at www.fedbizopps.gov.

(c) The purpose of the Quality Assurance program is to (1) ensure that ALS Contractor deliverables are in compliance with ALS Contract specifications; and, (2) provide the basis for Government acceptance or rejection of ALS Contractor deliverables, in accordance with Contract specifications and requirements. Quality Assurance Services (QAS) will be provided chiefly to the Civil Division, but may also be ordered by other primary users of the ALS contracts, by other DOJ components, or by other Federal agencies.

(d) The Quality Assurance contractor must be fully competent in automated litigation support as it is currently practiced in the current marketplace, including especially the litigation support pipeline and electronic discovery; must have substantial experience with QA programs and techniques; must be capable of developing new approaches and procedures for performing QA work, as required by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR), including creating or modifying IT tools; must be able to create or appropriately modify statistical sampling programs; should have few conflicts of interest with the many cases that the Civil Division will be litigating and supporting.

C.1.2 Quality Assurance Contract and Other Government Programs

In addition to quality assurance functions for the ALS contracts, the QAS Contractor shall provide quality assurance services for several other Civil Division contracts, including the Civil Division's contract for maintenance of its CASES Case Management system and related activities (Section C.5.3), and the Civil Division's contract for operation of its Centralized Records Management Program (Section C.5.4).

http://www.fedbizopps.gov./

C.1.3 Background and Mission

Background and mission information for the Civil Division, the Criminal Division, the Civil Rights Division, the Antitrust Division, the Environment and Natural Resources Division, the Executive Office of the U.S. Attorneys, and the Tax Division is provided via the Department of Justice World Wide Web Site, http://www.usdoj.gov. Once in DOJ’s home page, simply click on “DOJ Agencies” on the left side of the screen to get a complete listing of all DOJ components.

C.1.3.1 Information Systems

(a) One component of litigation support services is making automated litigation support tools available to attorneys and to support staff. Access to these tools is through the JCON system, whether the tools are desktop PC-based, or server-based, or browser or Internet based.

(b) Each Division has its own approach to providing automated litigation support services, based on the specific needs of the litigators in the Division, and on the resources available within the Division.

The Divisions make use of different software packages, for example, and different host platforms.

C.1.3.1.1 Civil Division

(a) The Civil Division's office automation network is a component of the Justice Department's JCON office automation network. It is currently a Windows 2008 R2 Active Directory based network with virtualized Windows 7 user workstations. Most user workstations are VMWare-driven Samsung thin clients. The chief applications available to Civil Division users are the Microsoft Office 2010 suite, Summation, Case Map, Time Map, Concordance, Trial Director, and Tree Age Pro. Also present are attorney timekeeping and case tracking databases, litigation support databases, and commercial legal research services. Internet access is via the Department's internet server.

(b) The Division's litigation support databases are created and maintained by contract personnel for the Office of Litigation Support. The databases reside on a variety of operating systems platforms and hardware configurations, and are located in a number of contractor-staffed computer centers. The databases are typically very large document indexing databases with associated OCR text and document images; many smaller and more specialized databases and other applications are supported as well. The primary database management systems presently employed are: SQL, Oracle, Concordance, and Summation. Some databases are accessed through proprietary, web-based interfaces (which employ technologies such as iConnect, Recomin, Relativity) such as CACI's OMEGA, Labat’s La-Web, and Lockheed-Martin’s M-Port. All software is commercially licensed. Summation and Concordance are also made generally available to Division users as a self-help database management system.

(c) The Office of Litigation Support also supports a number of special-purpose databases and automated litigation support software. Its software lending program lends out single-user copies of PC-based database management software such as Summation, Case Map, Time Map, Concordance, Trial Director, Tree Age and others as needed.

http://www.usdoj.gov./

C.2 Contract Objective

The objective of this contract is to obtain nonpersonal, professional Quality Assurance Services.

These Quality Assurance Services will be applied to the products of the Automated Litigation Support program provided to various components within the Department of Justice. The QAS contractor will assist the Government with the evaluation, acceptance, and improvement of ALS products and services.

C.3 Scope of Contract

This contract will be used to provide Quality Assurance Services to the Department of Justice and to other Federal agencies on an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity task order basis. Individual task orders issued under this contract may support any Department of Justice organization or Federal agency on a local and/or nationwide basis. Services may be required anywhere in or outside of the United States and its territories.

C.4 General Work Requirements

C.4.1 Task Orders

(a) Quality Assurance services will be initiated through issuance of a Task Order for these services. Task Orders may be issued for a particular case or case family, but may also be issued to cover a major block of activity. For example, a task order might be issued to cover all QA services required for a particular Division for an entire fiscal year. It is normal for a Task Order’s initial estimate of CLIN quantities required for a block of activity to change during the performance of the Task Order. This change could be the result of work conditions or shifting priorities; for example, more clerical hours may be required than initially estimated, but fewer QA Reviewer hours.

(b) Within a maximum of three (3) working days after issuance of the Task Order (or even sooner in emergency situations), the Contractor shall be available to meet with the COR and/or any other Government litigation representatives to discuss the specifications and to assure a thorough understanding of the project and/or Task Order requirements. The precise date and time for the meeting shall be as mutually agreed upon.

(c) The Contractor shall be responsible for ensuring that all support product(s)/service(s) delivered/performed under this contract conform to the appropriate performance standards set forth in Section C and the delivery time specified in the Task Order.

C.4.2 Contractor Resources

This section describes required contractor resources and functional responsibilities. Unless specifically stated to the contrary, none of the resources or support functions described in this section is separately billable.

C.4.2.1 Overall Contract Management

(a) The Contractor shall be responsible for providing contract and corporate level resources for performing all work ordered under this contract, including management of those resources. High quality management of the contract is of paramount importance to the Government, and is essential to the Contractor's ability to perform under the contract.

(b) The Contractor shall provide an unbillable overall contract management structure for the contract and for contract work for each of the primary user Divisions as delineated in the Contractor's proposal. The unbillable contract management structures should be flexible so as to accommodate varying levels of activity and volumes of work.

C.4.2.1.1 Management, Administrative, and Logistical Functions and Responsibilities

(a) The Contractor shall provide all management, staffing, planning, scheduling, procuring, pick-ups and deliveries for all items/services required by the contract. This shall include, but is not limited to:

(1) All activities associated with recruiting and hiring staff, such as advertising, screening applicants, interviewing, reference checking, etc.

(2) Screening and processing prospective contract staff to ensure all Contractor employees used under this contract meet personnel hiring and employment security approval requirements (See Section H.5).

(3) Planning, scheduling, and procuring airfare, lodging accommodations, and ground transportation for all approved travel by Contractor personnel. The Contractor shall ensure that invoiced travel costs are itemized in accordance with the Government travel guidelines in effect at the time of travel. See Part 31 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations and Section B.4.2.

(4) Planning for and making all necessary arrangements to ensure that Contractor personnel performing field work have all necessary supplies and equipment in advance of or simultaneous with their arrival at the site.

(5) Providing occasional courier pick-ups and deliveries of media and contract correspondence to and from the COR, and other DOJ locations in Washington, DC, as specified by the COR. Specified locations will include Contractor management offices;

Contractor headquarters offices, if any; subcontractor offices; Washington, DC Document Centers; as well as various DOJ offices. The Contractor shall provide both courier and transportation for this service.

(6) Assembling billing data and billing back-up materials, including all time and materials needed for preparing any responses to Government billing rejection letters. Generating, distributing, and tracking invoices, including generating reports, responding to inquiries, tracking which deliverables and/or units have been invoiced and which have not, etc.

(7) Tracking and reporting on Government furnished materials, including equipment, furniture, as well as Government furnished hardware and software to be maintained and used by the contractor as reference material for an extended period of time. The Contractor is responsible for adequate care and safekeeping of all Government furnished materials, including inventorying, tracking and reporting, etc. The Contractor shall reimburse the Government for any Government furnished materials lost or stolen while in the Contractor's safekeeping (see Section H.12).

(8) All activities associated with managing subcontractors, such as identifying and qualifying them, negotiating subcontracts, obtaining Government approval for their use, reviewing invoices, ensuring compliance with the security and other requirements of this Contract, etc. Work ordered by the Government may require the Contractor to subcontract portions of the work which it (the prime Contractor) is not qualified to handle.

(9) Overall Contract Management and support staff for management, such as clerical, secretarial, and administrative support.

(b) The items in paragraph (a) above are not separately billable. The Contractor should describe how it intends to staff, organize and perform these functions, including names and duties for specific positions.

C.4.2.2 Staffing/Training

(a) The Contractor shall be responsible for providing trained, experienced staff for performing the work ordered under this contract, and for continuously monitoring, managing and controlling the work. The Contractor shall make its best efforts to retain staff members who have gained experience on the current contract, and to minimize staff turnover. All staff assigned to perform work under this contract who will have access to DOJ facilities or IT systems shall be United States citizens.

(b) The Contractor shall train its own staff so as to ensure that all personnel are able to perform their duties under each Task Order satisfactorily. For example, the Contractor shall train its own staff in quality assurance review requirements and procedures for electronic file processing, image scanning, document indexing/coding, data loads, documentation, and for other quality assurance areas of review.

This may require staff training in the specific technology areas such as image scanning, for example, or database integrity. The Contractor shall also provide training for its staff should any hardware or software upgrades occur. The Contractor will furnish the COR with formal documentation of the training provided to each labor category under the Contract as requested by the COR, including testing tools, documentation of training provided (certifications, etc.), and demonstrations that individual employees have achieved competence in their labor categories. Except where specifically approved by the COR, training is not separately billable. Specialized training requested by the COR beyond that which would normally be required to perform under the contract may approved by the COR as billable.

(c) In addition to job-specific or professional training, the Contractor shall ensure its employees on this contract are trained on "contract-specific" issues such as DOJ ethics, standards of conduct, individual conflicts of interest, confidentiality requirements, DOJ security requirements (including both facility and computer security), understanding of litigation processes and terminology, understanding of the function of reporting, and the importance of quality control and quality assurance. In addition, Contractor managers shall be educated in the terms and conditions of the contract.

(d) The Government will be responsible for providing training on the primary DOJ computer-assisted legal research system (such as WestLaw), and on the JCONV office automation systems and their successors. Contractors shall submit training requests for specific individuals to the COR for approval on an as-needed basis.

C.4.2.3 Facilities

(a) The Government will provide secure, furnished, and equipped work space for this work.

Access to such space will be restricted to Government staff, to Contractor and Subcontractor employees who have been granted employment security approval by DOJ, who have signed appropriate confidentiality agreements, and who are authorized to have access to the documents, and to other personnel approved by the Government. Contractor and Subcontractor personnel shall comply with all applicable Department of Justice and Division security regulations (See Section H.5).

(b) Physical separation of materials from other Government contracts, and between DOJ component users under this Contract, is required.

(c) Although most of the work ordered under this contract will be local to Washington, DC, work may occasionally be required outside the Washington, DC metropolitan area, or even outside the United States. This work will generally be fairly brief in duration. Travel expenses for these assignments will be paid to the Contractor on a cost reimbursable basis, under the Government travel regulations in effect at the time of travel. See Part 31 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations, and Section B.4.2.

(d) The Contractor shall maintain files of deliverable QA products and reports as well as contract status, progress, and management reports, for the life of the contract. Files shall be maintained in the government facility.

C.4.2.4 Management Reports

(a) The Contractor shall be responsible for reporting progress on each task and subtask for each case and project it is working on. The COR may require a wide variety of daily, weekly, and monthly progress and status reports. Examples include QA pipeline reports for image scanning, document processing, OCRing, and database loading, as well as daily, weekly, and monthly progress and financial status reports and monthly narratives of accomplishments. Actual reports required for individual cases will vary with the needs of the case; the Contractor shall modify all reports to accommodate the needs of the individual cases. The Contractor should note that this may require tailoring of reports produced from the Contractor's pipeline tracking and other management systems, particularly on large and complex projects.

(b) All reports must be generated in a timely fashion; for example, weekly reports will generally be due by COB Monday following the week covered in the report. Report deadlines will be specified by the COR. Fiscal reporting must conform to the Government's fiscal year.

(c) All reports described in this section are considered part of overall Project Management, and are not billable.

(d) The Contractor shall, at a minimum, establish and maintain appropriate tracking systems, which shall enable it to prepare and submit the management reports required.

(e) Other reports which may be required by the COR include the following:

(1) Contractor Personnel Security Status Report. The purpose of this report is to maintain current and accurate records of the hiring and related clearance status of all Contractor personnel who have submitted security clearance packages. This report may be requested on a weekly or monthly basis, or both, and shall be delivered to the COR on a day to be specified by the COR following the close of the reporting period.

(2) Government Owned Property Report. The purpose of this report is to maintain current and accurate records of the property type, location, identification number, and quantity of any property furnished to the Contractor by the Government or acquired by the Contractor on behalf of the Government for use under this contract.

C.4.2.5 Government Management and Tracking Systems

Instead of, or in addition to, the Contractor-supplied management and tracking systems required for the Contractor to provide the reports described above, the COR may require the Contractor to establish and/or update and maintain Government tracking systems to facilitate the Government's management of its Automated Litigation Support programs. For example, the Civil Division has established a variety of systems for tracking and recording information about past cases, image CD locations, and detailed information as to Government-owned equipment. Updating and maintenance of these systems is billable to the Government.

C.4.2.6 Acceptance/Rejection of Quality Assurance Contractor Work

(a) One of the purposes of Quality Assurance activities is to provide the Government with a basis for acceptance or rejection of Litigation Support Contractor, or other vendor, deliverables/completed tasks. It follows that QA work must, by its very nature, be performed within strict time constraints. This applies particularly to imaging, coding, database integrity, and data accuracy reviews. QA review of these batches must be completed quickly enough to allow the COR adequate time to review the results and to decide whether to accept or to reject the deliverables. The Quality Assurance Contractor must understand the "drop dead" nature of this time frame. Repeated failure by the Contractor to meet the COR's turnaround requirements for QA work may be cause for termination of the QA Contract.

(b) All work performed under the QA task must be independently verifiable by the COR. Should the COR determine that the QA work has not been performed correctly, or is otherwise unacceptable, the Contractor shall redo the work to the COR's satisfaction, at no additional expense to the Government and subject to the same throughput and turnaround requirements as any other QA work. Examples of work performed incorrectly include QA results for document coding which are based on an incorrect application of the coding instructions and conventions, and QA reports based on incorrect population sizing - character counts or words per page - or incorrect calculations.

(c) All work performed under this contract shall be performed in accordance with the standards provided in Section C.5 and associated Attachments (2) through (9). Work failing to meet these standards will be rejected, and the Contractor shall perform the work again at no additional cost to the Government.

(d) The importance to the Government of quality work cannot be overstated. The Government is committed to the production of deliverables that meet the contract specifications when first presented to the Government; the Government will reject work failing to meet contract quality standards and will require resultant re-work to be done at the Contractor's expense. Repeated failure to deliver acceptable work may result in contract termination.

C.4.2.7 Security

(a) Each Contractor employee must clear the Contractor Personnel Security Process with a favorable outcome before beginning work under the contract.

(b) The Contractor is responsible for screening all prospective employees for suitability for work on this Contract, including credit check screening.

(c) When beginning a new project for a particular Division, the Contractor must supply suitable, appropriately cleared employees without depleting existing staff already supporting other Divisions.

(d) The Contractor shall retain all personnel security files for all individuals who perform work under the contract for the life of the contract. File retention and storage costs are not separately billable.

(e) The Contractor shall be responsible for providing a number of reports relating to personnel security, usually on a monthly basis, to the COR. These will include, for example:

(1) Security status for all Contractor employees working on the contract during the month.

(2) Contractor employees who are overdue for a background reinvestigation or who will be due for reinvestigation within the next three months.

(3) Security status for all Contractor employees who received security waivers more than

30 days ago but whose employment security approvals have not yet been completed.

C.5 Quality Assurance Services

C.5.1 Task Management and Implementation Planning

(a) Upon COR request, the Contractor shall provide documentation that addresses task management and implementation for each QA task initiated under the contract. Such documentation shall include any revisions or corrections to these documents requested by the COR. At a minimum, these documents shall provide the following information in a clear and concise format:

(1) Sampling Methodology, including the statistical basis for the sample size selected.

Samples must be of a size so as to be statistically valid when the sample results are applied against the population sampled, and must be such as to yield a minimum confidence level of 90% and a maximum acceptable margin of error of 5% for all populations.

(2) Sampling Procedures and Forms, including detailed, step-by-step instructions for the generation of the random sample, for examining the sample for accuracy and/or defects, and for recording and calculating the results. These procedures shall include detailed instructions on how errors and/or defects are to be counted and rules governing transposition of characters or field values, incorrect determination of document composition, and other pertinent procedural information.

(3) Reporting Procedures and Forms, including same-day daily reporting of QA results, and timely weekly and monthly reporting on work accomplished and funds expended, including cumulative totals, as directed by the COR.

(4) The overall staffing level proposed in order to meet the requirements of the task.

(5) Implementation schedule.

(b) Note that the procedures proposed shall need to take account of the relatively quick turnaround required on most QA results; this quick turnaround shall be required in order to stay within the acceptance periods for ALS Contractor deliverables.

C.5.2 Quality Assurance Functions for Automated Litigation Support

(a) The Contractor shall provide thorough and fully effective quality assurance for current and future automated litigation support functions and deliverables. The Contractor must be capable of developing techniques and procedures for functions and deliverables that may arise in the future. Current Contractor requirements include, but are not limited to, QA reviews of the following:

(1) Electronic file processing including images, native files, and loadable files;

(2) Database integrity including Web-Based Databases;

(3) Elimination of system files and other excluded files;

(4) Deduplication Identification;

(5) Near duplication identification;

(6) Image capture, including digital image scanning;

(7) Document indexing/coding;

(8) Documentation (case manuals, procedures, and instructions);

(9) Training Sessions;

(10) Specialized areas; and

(11) Litigation support processes and procedures.

(b) Government-furnished materials for Automated Litigation Support QA include all source materials to be sampled, such as images, data files, databases, as well as access to all documentation, training, instructions, and procedures used by the Litigation Support Contractor. The Government will provide the Contractor with all relevant manuals, procedures, and other documentation developed under the predecessor QA contract.

C.5.2.1 Electronic File Processing (EFP)

Increasingly, the Government receives electronic files instead of hard copy/paper documents as part of document production from other government agencies or from opposing counsel. These files can be delivered in various formats such as image files, word processing files, email files, and database files.

These files may be received on diskettes, CDs, tapes, DVDs, thumb drives, hard drives, etc. The automated litigation support contractors may be required to process, convert, enhance, reformat, and/or load these files. The Contractor shall verify the accuracy and completeness of this process.

C.5.2.1.1 Processing /Conversion of E-media Image Files

(a) The Contractor shall verify the accuracy of file format conversion and compare the image files received to the processed/converted/enhanced image files. This QA may include verification of any required endorsement on the converted images.

(b) Examples of this QA process are provided below:

Example 1: The Government may require a litigation support contractor to convert multi-page PDF image files in a given CD/DVD to a single page TIFF image file format. The Contractor must verify that the CD/DVD has been converted completely and correctly and the conversion has met the Government’s request and specifications.

Example 2: The Government may require a litigation support contractor to endorse numbers on each image page of a given CD/DVD. The contractor will be given a specific format/criteria to use for the endorsement task. The Contractor must review the endorsing criteria and verify that the numbers have been applied correctly on image pages.

Note that each CD/DVD may contain 10,000 to over 100,000 image files.

(c) The Contractor shall provide results of any such specialized QA requirements on a weekly report, or more frequently, as required by the COR.

C.5.2.1.2 Processing/Conversion of Native Files

(a) The Contractor shall verify the accuracy and completeness of converted files and assure that the number of converted files match the number of files loaded into the database. The Contractor may build file listings or a simple directory from the source media to check against the converted files and their attachments/embedded files.

(b) For example:

(1) The Government may require an automated litigation support contractor to extract

(unzip, restore) email files and all their attached files (such as spreadsheets or word processing files), convert them if necessary, remove duplications (de-dupe), generate images for them and load them to a given database.

(2) The Contractor must verify that these files and their related attachments have been correctly processed and loaded to the database and no attachment files are missing. The QA task for this product may be performed on a sampling basis. In addition, the Contractor may compare the loaded records to the records on the original source media (i.e., CD, DVD). Each conversion project will follow specific written criteria, which will be provided to the Contractor prior to the QA task. The Contractor shall also examine metadata in the source media against the exported/loaded metadata in the litigation support contractor database. At the direction of the COR, the ALS Contractor may create image files for the processed native files. In such circumstances, the Contractor must compare and make sure the image files are linked to the correct native files. Attachment

(2) provides a sample E-Media Completeness report.

(c) At a minimum, the Contractor shall furnish weekly results of any such specialized QA requirements.

C.5.2.1.3 Processing/Conversion of Data and Loadable Files

(a) The Contractor shall verify load processes by comparing e-media files to the number of records processed/loaded to the database. Since most of these database files accompany related images and OCR text, the Contractor may cross-check load files to verify that the image and OCR contain the same document boundaries and that image and OCR were imported correctly for each data record. The Contractor shall provide a method for completeness checking as well as provide a sample method for load accuracy checks.

(b) Population for this QA activity is generally based on the data population delivered within the source media.

(c) At a minimum, the Contractor shall provide the results of any specialized QA requirements on a weekly basis.

C.5.2.2 Database Integrity, including Web-Based Databases (Completeness Check)

(a) The Contractor shall verify that all document records designated for database entry have been loaded into the specified database. The Contractor shall verify the correctness, completeness, and consistency of the data after it is loaded into the database. The Contractor shall check the loaded data against the source documents, themselves, and identify errors introduced in coding, keying, or load processing. The Contractor shall identify any gaps, overlaps, and non-standard formats within a unique document identifier, such as “document number” and/or “QA number” range.

(b) When verifying the accuracy of data entered in databases, the Contractor shall review not only document databases, but other case-related databases such as case files and case management, witness management, and exhibit tracking databases, as well. Databases may reside on the Office of Litigation Support network as well as databases installed on a web site maintained by ALS contractors.

(c) Most databases contain images and OCR text for each record. The Contractor shall cross-check database records to linked images and OCR text to ensure that they match.

(d) Populations for database integrity review will generally be one batch of documents, ranging in size from 500 to 20,000 records. The Contractor shall review completed document records following notification from Mega 4 ALS contractor that a loading process of a batch of documents has been completed.

(e) The Contractor shall ensure that the accuracy of data extracted from designated documents, e-media, or other source materials conforms to the specifications detailed in Attachment (3), Accuracy Standards.

(f) The Contractor shall provide the results of each database integrity and data accuracy review on a weekly basis. These reports shall include any discrepancies found in the link between that data and its related image/OCR files. These reports shall be accompanied by samples of errors supporting any defects identified, and logs used in the review. A sample of reporting for database accuracy is shown in Attachment (3(a)).

C.5.2.3 Elimination of System Files and other Excluded Files

In processing electronic files, the Government does not expect to attempt to process program executable files, system configuration files, or other files that are inappropriate for electronic conversion and processing. The COR may add other file types to the exclusion list at the commencement of the project. The Contractor shall verify that all files identified for exclusion are in fact excluded by comparing the total number of files within the original media to the total number of files loaded to the respective database.

C.5.2.4 De-duplication

De-duplication may be required within a single container, across several physical media (e.g., several CDs), or sometimes across an entire collection. An ALS contractor performing de-duplication will be required to create and maintain a log or database, depending on volume, of files determined to be duplicates. ALS contractors will be required to track and demonstrate why files were flagged as duplicates and either removed or retained for processing. The Contractor shall verify the completeness of ALS contractors’ de-duplication process by comparing the end result to the de-duplication report produced by the ALS contractor.

C.5.2.5 Near-duplicates

One common practice in the Forensic community is to identify duplicate files (files that have the exact same content) using hashing algorithms. MD5 and SHA-1 are two popular algorithms that are commonly used in both Forensic and eDiscovery case management. The hash value of a file remains unchanged until the content of the file is modified. Due to its predictability and size (only a few bytes long), the hash value is a quick way to run comparisons between case artifacts (file content, emails, meta-data, etc.).

Near‐duplicate documents are documents that contain contextually similar phrases or content, but are not exact matches.

There are 3 recognized categories of near‐duplicate documents:

(a) Emails that grow as they go back and forth between two or more recipients.

(b) Duplicate scanned documents.

(c) Multiple document revisions.

When an ALS contractor is required to identify and/or eliminate near-duplicate documents from a given document collection, the Contractor may be required to review the elimination criteria and compare the list of tagged/eliminated files produced by the ALS contractor to ensure the accuracy of the tagging/elimination process.

C.5.2.6 Digital Image Capture

(a) The Contractor shall perform quality assurance on images captured as digital image files.

Such image files will be provided by a Mega 4 ALS contractor in a variety of digital storage devices, such as CDs or DVDs. Specifications for digital image capture may be found in the Statement of Work for the Mega 4 ALS contracts.

(b) The Contractor shall provide the results of each QA imaging review on a weekly basis. These reports shall include box/container identifier, image range, listing of image pages sampled with page by page results and comments, and results of overall box/container review and comments. These reports shall be accompanied by the images themselves and supporting hard copy printouts (blowbacks) demonstrating any defects which have been identified. A sample of an image QA review form is shown in Attachment (4).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA1

C.5.2.7 Document Indexing/Coding

(a) The Contractor shall perform quality assurance on document coding to include any documents which have been coded for entry into a database in accordance with the specifications for…