Response_to_NCSC_for_Clarifications_(2).pdf

Response to Request for Clarifications – National Clean Slate Clearinghouse

Solicitation DOL-ETA-16-R-00075

1. Budget--Can the DOL provide some guidance on the level of detail offerors should submit in their budgets and whether offerors should submit an accompanying budget narrative?

Answer: Offerors should submit sufficient detail in their budgets so the Department can determine how the resources will be used. Offerors may submit a budget narrative.

2. Project Staffing--Does the DOL assume that all the positions listed in the solicitation on pages 21 and 22 are 100% devoted to this project or is the offeror to specify what portion of each position’s FTE will be allocated to this contract? Can the offeror assign more than one staff member or contractor to any or all of the 13 positions described on pages 21 and 22?

Answer: The offeror should indicate what percentage each staff person will devote to the project. One staff person should be 100% dedicated to the project for coordination purposes.

The offeror may use a staff person for multiple positions. However, each staff member may not be devoted to more than 100% of their time to the project. In addition, the offeror must indicate the percentage of time devoted to each position.

3. Pricing--Can the DOL provide an explanation of the following phrase? “The offeror should provide ‘other than cost and pricing data’ detail on the establishment of its prices in order to facilitate equitable cost adjustments under any resulting contract.”

Answer: DOL will remove this phase as it applies to only Cost type contracts. This requirement is for a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Contact.

4. Past Performance Questionnaires--Can the DOL offer any guidance on what, if any, pieces of the Past Performance Questionnaire an offeror should complete before sending it to an agency with whom the Offeror has worked in the past 3 years?

Answer: Complete the entire questionnaire as provided in Attachment A.

5. Statement of Qualifications—What importance does an Offeror’s previously submitted

Statement of Qualifications have for contracting decisions?

Answer: Your submission to our RFI will not be evaluated or considered. Offerors are invited to include any information in their proposal.

6 a. Website Hosting--Assuming the contractor designs the website, is the contractor also responsible for hosting the website on a private server or will it be on a government server?

Answer: The website will be housed on a government server.

b. Are there compatibility requirements for the data and platform? That is, is it anticipated that the data will be directly integrated with other federally-funded resources?

Answer: The data and platform will be integrated with other federally-funded resources and further technical direction will be provided once the contract is awarded.

7. Project Staffing Descriptions--In the Technical Proposal are offerors to describe qualifications for: 1) only the 3 key personnel listed under D.2.3—Project Director, Project

Manager, Senior Subject Matter Expert; 2) The 3 key personnel listed and any others for which the offeror would like to provide qualifications; or 3) All project personnel listed on pages 21 and 22 of the solicitation?

Answer: Qualifications should be submitted based on the staff identified from the list on p.

21-22 that you are proposing for this project.

8. D.2.2. Deliverables Task 3: Website Development: Requires the vendor to “c) Submit a plan reflecting where the site will be hosted and how it links and connects to other complementary federal resources.” The deliverable does not state that the vendor will be responsible for the development of the site. Please clarify the role of the contractor in development/programming of the site.

Answer: The offeror will be responsible for the development of the site, but they will not be hosting the site so please respond to the deliverable with the following deletion and addition: . “c) Submit a plan reflecting how the website content including links connects to other complementary federal resources.”

9. D.2.2. Deliverables Task 3: Website Development: Requires the vendor to “c) Submit a complementary federal resources.” How will the website plan as described in the solicitation be deployed and what is the timing for deployment (e.g. base year, option year 1 or 2)?

Answer: Please see response to question 8 above. The website will be housed on an existing federal government platform. We expect the website to be operational in the base year, so linkages and connections to other federal resources will be a part of that with additional linkages and connections to be added and maintained during the option years.

10. D.2.2. Deliverables Task 3: Website Development: Requires the vendor to “c) Submit a complementary federal resources.” Is DOL’s Office of Information Systems and

Technology (OIST) responsible for the site build or is the vendor?

Answer: The vendor is responsible for the content and design of the site – see task 3.

11. D.2.2. Deliverables Task 3: Website Development: Requires the vendor to “c) Submit a complementary federal resources.” What content management system does DOL intend or prefer to use for the website?

Answer: The offeror should propose a system.

12. D.2.2. Deliverables Task 3: Website Development: Requires the vendor to “c) Submit a complementary federal resources.” Who is the target audience for the website? How many individuals should the site reach?

Answer: The target audience is any and all organizations that work with justice-involved individuals, specifically, legal aid attorneys and front-line staff working with this population. The offeror should assist with identifying additional appropriate audiences. Site is open to the public and national in scope so we believe that there will be significant traffic to the site.

13. D.2.2. Deliverables Task 3: Website Development: Does the Site have any security or access requirements such as PII involved in the data/info? Are there other security access needs?

Answer: No

14. D.2.1.5. Deliverables Task 5: Communities of Practice. Who is the target audience for the

CoP? How many individuals should be engaged with the CoP?

Answer: The target audience is any and all organizations that work with justice-involved individuals. The offeror should assist with identifying audience members. The COP will be the primary mechanism for training legal aid attorneys and front-line staff working in organizations that serve justice-involved individuals. The Department plans on using the existing Reentry Employment Opportunities COP to deliver training content and webinars.

15. D.2.1.5. Deliverables Task 5: Communities of Practice- please clarify the minimal number of deliverables to meet the needs of this task, including:

a. Webinars

b. Presentations at conferences

c. Conference calls

d. National Training events

e. Other deliverables

Answer: The offeror should specify based on their knowledge of their organizations abilities. At a minimum, the offerer should be prepared to offer at least 1 webinar a month in the option years for training purposes, 2-3 presentations at conferences in the option years, weekly conference calls with the federal team (or as needed) and monthly conference calls with the TWG (or as needed), two national training events in option year 1 and 2 to ensure maximum participation and best value.

16. D.2.2. Deliverables Task 6: Sustainability. “Develop a plan and submit to the federal team for review and approval.” Who will maintain the site after the period of performance?

Answer The applicant need only worry about developing a sustainability plan for the content on the site, and not the site hosting and maintenance.

17. B.2. Price Schedule. What is the ceiling on this RFP by each year of the contract?

Answer: The Offeror shall use their business decision in establishing their proposed ceiling. The Government will not disclose its estimate.

18. D.2.3. Key Personnel. The proposal lists a variety of position descriptions required for the proposal. Can the government provide the estimated level of effort (hours by month or year) by position description?

Answer: Offeror should indicate their need based on the abilities of their organization. See above responses 2 and 7 related to percentages.

19. Is this contract subject to an $11.0M size standard, or is it open to all qualified bidders, regardless of their NAICS – determined size standard?

Answer: This is a full and open solicitation regardless of NAICS determined size standard.

20. Please confirm that this is an open solicitation.

Answer: This is a full and open solicitation.

21. Section B.2, Price Schedule, (page 4) and Section E.1.4, Instructions for Pricing Response and Past Performance, (page 36) each refer to a “Summary Pricing Table”, although no such table is provided in Section B.2. Can DOL please provide the format that should be used for this summary, if this is required?

Answer: This is an anticipated FFP contract, therefore, the format is broken down as one

CLIN, aside from the Travel Clin, as shown in B.2.

22. (Page 32) Can DOL kindly confirm that offerors may submit the written portions of Volume

II, Business Proposal, in PDF, accompanied by the required Excel file?

Answer: Confirmed

23. (Page 32) Please confirm that the Technical Proposal can be submitted in a word-searchable

PDF?

Answer: Confirmed

24. Can you provide the LOE associated with the base period and option periods 1 and 2 per the price schedule indicated on pages 4-6?

Answer: The offeror should provide the LOE associated with the base and option periods per the price schedule indicated on pages 4-6.

25. Also, can you please clarify the reference of “12” in the column marked “quantity”?

Answer: This refers twelve (12) months as shown in the column labeled “Unit” and

“Quantity”.

26. Task 3 (Section D.2.1.3 on page 18) is described as “Website Development”. Can you please confirm that this task should include “going live” with the website and the budget should reflect all costs associated with going live and website maintenance in Years 2 and

3?

Answer: The contractor should only be concerned with the maintenance of the content on the site. Not sure what is meant by ‘going live’ tasks but content on site should be ready for rollout at end of year one.

27. Task 4 (Section D.2.1.4 on page 18) is described as “Training Plan for Organizations that

Serve Individuals with Juvenile and Criminal Records”. Can you please confirm that the objective for this task is limited to designing a plan for training and user friendly tools but does not include the implementation of training to relevant organizations and/or the legal community?

Answer: The task should include the actual training. The offeror should propose a complete plan for training these organizations including how they will implement the training. Please review Task 4 for more details on the training.

28. Task 5 (Section D.2.1.5 on page 18) is described as “Community of Practice”. Suggested formats for developing a community of practice includes “development of a national training event that builds the network of professionals in this area”. Please confirm that this activity is intended to be limited to the development of a curriculum for a national training but does not include the implementation of a national training. If the former, does DOL also want a plan for how the national training event would be conducted?

Answer: The task includes the development of curriculum for the training and the implementation of the training event. We do not expect a detailed plan for the training event although we would imagine it would be referenced in the training plan.

29. Can DOL provide guidance on the expected delivery date for each of the deliverables identified on pages 19-21?

Answer: Offeror should propose dates for deliverables based on the capacity of your organization.

30. For the list of deliverables on pages 19-21, Task 4: Training, indicates “submit a plan reflecting where the site will be hosted and how it links and connects to other complementary resources.” Can you confirm whether or not this deliverable is relevant to this task?

Answer: Yes, it is relevant because the resources and tools (which are to be developed as part of this contract) on the site will be a part of the training that is delivered. We want legal aid attorneys and front-line staff to understand the resources and tools available to them and how to use them.

31. For the list of deliverables on pages 19-21, Task 4: Training, indicates “Based on input from

DOL/DOJ National Office staff provide technical assistance to local legal aid programs, public defender offices and reentry service providers…” Can you confirm if the contractor is to provide the technical assistance or develop a plan for technical assistance as implied in

Section D.2.1.4 on page 18?

Answer: Both.

32. Per Section D.1.2 (The Need), the RFP states “This contract will have a Base Year plus two one year options. The first year is expected to include all necessary implementation and start-up activities, include a planning period and an implementation phase, which includes the delivery of all required activities. In years two and three the contractor shall be expected to provide ongoing website maintenance and resource development as directed by

DOL/DOJ staff. Can DOL confirm if Task 4: Training and Task 5: Community of Practice are to be conducted during Year 1 of the project or if they may occur during Year 2 and

Year 3?

Answer: Option Years.

33. Are non-profit organizations eligible for this RFP?

Answer: This is a full and open solicitation. Non-profit organizations are eligible to participate in this procurement.

34. In the solicitation on page 19/Deliverables it says that the TWG will be created within 30 days and convened TBD but on page 18 in the description of Task 1: Managing and

Convening, it says “The TWG should meet within one month of contract award and monthly during the first year of contract award. The contractor shall submit bios for each of the proposed TWG members.” Can you please clarify if you intend the TWG to be named with bios as part of this application or whether the TWG can be named/established within the first 30 days of contract award?

Answer: Yes, we would like bios and names of potential TWG members as part of the application. Given the tight timing of the first TWG meeting, we believe this will help us understand who the applicant is thinking about proposing and ensure we can start work together quickly.

35. On pages 4, 5, and 6 regarding pricing and budget the travel amts of (0002) $10,000, etc. Is this just an example or are you suggesting that all travel for this contract should not exceed these amounts? Sorry I just want to be clear; obviously some of the tasks would likely require additional travel beyond these amounts.

Answer: Travel will not exceed travel amounts on pages 4, 5 and 6, respectively. Travel is reimbursable for actual costs incurred as indicated in Travel CLIN

36. Regarding Attachment A, Past Performance Evaluation: The Center has worked on many federal government grants and contracts similar to size and scope of this one for many, many years but for whatever reason we are not in the PPIRS system (we are in the

DUNS/SAMS system). Should we send Attachment A to federal monitors in other agencies (Justice, for example) to complete and provide to you? If yes, what do you recommend regarding the number of evaluations we have sent to you?

Answer: Yes.

37. Does the Combined Synopsis/Solicitation under Solicitation DOL-ETA-16-R-00075 contain requirements similar to a current contract? If so, please provide the current contract number, or is this a new requirement for the Government.

Answer: This is a new requirement for the Government.

38. I am wondering if an incumbent exists for the National Clean Slate Clearinghouse requirement and if so, could you please provide the vendor and the corresponding contract number?

Answer: This is a new requirement for the government; therefore, no incumbent exists.