DTNH22-09-R-00220.doc

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

IMPROVING THE GENERAL DETERRENCE EFFECTS OF SOBRIETY CHECKPOINTS

SOLICITATION # DTNH22-09-R-00220

Question

1. Part of this project involves telephone surveys. It is not clear if the surveys must be done in-house, or can be sub-contracted to a professional survey firm. According to the solicitation, the Contractor shall have sufficient resources and expertise to complete 1,500 10-minute interviews, inclusive of over-sampling and cell phone sub-samples, within a 3 week period. The Contractor shall carry out all preparatory activities needed to conduct the surveys, including programming the questionnaire into a CATI system, debugging the program, and training the interviewers.

Answer

The telephone surveys can be sub-contracted. The specification that the Contractor shall have sufficient resources means that the Contractor has to be able to bring to the project all resources needed to carry it out in a successful manner. It is not a restriction to in-house resources. Offerors may combine resources from various sources in their proposal if they so choose. Offerors also may choose what if any tasks they would like to sub-contract.

Question

2. The Solicitation requires the Offeror to subcontract with local law enforcement agencies in order to conduct field tests of alternative strategies to improving the general deterrence effects of sobriety checkpoints. Based on the understanding that NHTSA has entered agreements contemplating similar services in the past, please advise as to what procedures are in place to protect the offeror from liability associated with the actions of local law enforcement agencies.

Answer

The agency has not developed any special procedures that address the liability issues of working with law enforcement units. Under the solicitation, the offeror is responsible for the selection of the demonstration sites (with appropriate input from the agency), and the development of subcontractor relationships with the law enforcement units at those sites. The offeror should resolve issues of liability in its subcontractor agreements with the law enforcement units involved.

Question

3. Similarly, since the Solicitation requires the offeror to subcontract with local law enforcement agencies, compliance with a small business subcontracting plan that provides significant opportunities to a various types of small businesses is problematic. Will NHTSA remove the FARS applicable to the submittal and compliance with a small business subcontracting plan for this engagement?

Answer NHTSA will not be removing the FAR clauses applicable to the submittal and compliance with a small business subcontracting plan for this engagement. Offerors should submit a plan describing their utilization of small business participation under this requirement.

Question

4. FAR 52.216-7 requires offerors to pay subcontractors prior to the offeror submitting an invoice for payment to the Government. Ordinary practice between offerors and subcontractors is "paid when paid." Will NHTSA remove 52.216-7 from this Solicitation?

Answer NHTSA will not be removing FAR clause 52.216-7 from this solicitation. The subcontractor arrangements are outside of the governments’ control. Prime Contractors are responsible for paying the subcontractor in accordance with their term and conditions with their subcontract.

Question

5. The FBO website states the proposal is due July 29th, while SF33 states July 30th. Please clarify the date and time the submission is due.

Answer Proposals are due 07/30/2009.

Question

6. What address and to whom do we submit the proposal?

Answer Office of Acquisition Management, DOT/NHTSA/NPO-320, W51-121, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20590, Attn: Sherese Gray, Contract Specialist Question

7. Are hard copies of the technical or business/management proposal required?

Answer

See pages 49-50, L.6.2 and L.6.3 Question

8. Please clarify where you would like SF33, Section K, and the Conflict of Interest statement included.

Answer

See pages 48-49, L.6 (Proposal Content), L.6.1 Question

9. Does Section K and the Conflict of Interest statement need to be completed by both the prime and subcontractors or just by the prime?

Answer The statements only need to be completed by the prime.

Question

10. On page 25 of the RFP there is nothing following the statement "The Key Personnel under this Contract are:” Please clarify if this supposed to be completed with a list of names provided by the Contractor or if NHTSA neglected to include a list of required skills to be provided by the Contractor.

Answer This is where the contractor provides their key personnel.

Question

11. Regarding the interview survey, is it the intention of the RFP to conduct 6,000 separate interviews or to re-interview previously selected participants?

Answer

The Contractor will conduct 6,000 separate interviews. No re-interviewing of respondents across waves will occur.

Question

12. Is a geographic component part of the interview candidate selection process where there is a high likelihood that the interviewee will have been exposed to the checkpoint and signage during the test?

Answer NHTSA will determine criteria for the population size of the sites. That size will be specified as a range in the hundreds of thousands. For example, the criteria may be for a community size anywhere between 300,000 and 500,000. The sites will most likely be counties, although other configurations are possible. If, for example, a site is selected having a defined population of 400,000 living in that (county), then all persons age 18 and older within that population of 400,000 would be eligible to participate in the survey. That would be the geographic component in the selection process. There is no intent to restrict the interviewing to respondents living immediately surrounding the checkpoints and message boards.

Question

13. At the sites selected for this effort, who will be responsible for the selection of individuals to be interviewed? Contractor? NHTSA? Both?

Answer The Contractor will be responsible for the selection of the individuals to be interviewed.

Question

14. What is the rationale for requiring three message boards at each intervention site?

Answer

The purpose of the message boards is to see if they significantly increase awareness of the concurrent checkpoint activity. They are intended to be placed in locations having high levels of traffic flow; areas where it would be ill advised to set up checkpoints, particularly at the earlier hours required in the project. The rationale for setting the requirement at 3 message boards was that it was deemed an appropriate balance between the intent to expose a large number of persons to the signs and project resources.