NCESS Instructions to Offerors -Amendment 02.pdf

NCES COOPERATIVE STATISTICS SYSTEMS (NCESS)

INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS

The following instructions supplement the instructions in provision 52.212-1 Instructions to

Offerors – Commercial Items (FEB 2012).

The National Education Cooperative Statistics System (NCESS) is a single IDIQ contract to a single successful offeror, not a multiple-award IDIQ contract. Two Task Orders will be issued to the single successful offeror, at the time of contract award. The award will be made on the basis of best value to the responsible offeror whose offer conforms to the solicitation, has no deficiencies, and is the most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The Department (ED) may award a contract on the basis of the initial proposals received without discussions. Therefore, each initial offer should contain the offeror’s best terms from a technical and price standpoint. For this solicitation, all evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price. However, as two offers are competitively similar, price becomes the deciding factor. The source selection authority, the Contracting Officer, will determine whether the difference in quality is worth the difference in price.

Technical and Business proposals will be evaluated independently; therefore offerors must submit one Technical Proposal and one Business Proposal addressing the applicable periods of performance. In addition, include in the Business Proposal, the labor costs for the work described in the PWS during the Transition Period separately.

A complete proposal consists of three distinct parts: (1) Technical Proposal, (2)

Business Proposal, (3) Past Performance Report and completed Section K certifications

(found in the solicitation document). Offerors shall submit all three parts separately in spiral bound notebooks. The first notebook should contain the Technical Proposal, the second notebook should contain the Business Proposals for Task Order 1 and Task Order 2 separately priced for the base year and for each option year and the third notebook should contain the Past Performance Report. The work performed during the Transition Period should be priced separately from the base year and be included in the Business Proposal.

The technical proposal must not contain reference to cost or price; however, appropriate resource information, such as data concerning labor hours and categories, materials, subcontracts, etc., must be contained in the technical proposal so that your understanding of the scope of the work may be evaluated. The technical proposal must disclose your technical approach in sufficient detail to provide a clear and concise presentation that includes, but is not limited to, the requirements of the technical proposal instructions.

Offerors must submit proposals both electronically and in hardcopy on or before 12:00 p.m.

noon, ET July 31, 2012.

An electronic copy to:

Name: Jennifer Arthur

Email: Jennifer.Arthur@ed.gov

Telephone: (202) 245-7448

And cc to:

Name: Deila Johnson

Email: Deila.Johnson@ed.gov

Telephone: (202) 245-6183

One (1) original and Four (4) copies of your Technical Proposal, Business Proposal, and Past

Performance Submission may be Mail Delivered or Hand-Carried to:

U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Chief Financial Officer

Contracts and Acquisitions Management

LBJ Building, 400 Maryland Avenue S.W., Room BC102 Washington, DC 20202-4230

Attn: Deila Johnson –PCP 7116

Contact information: Mail Room Phone number: 202-401-0969 Hours: 7:00 am to 5:00 pm ET

In addition, the Department recommends that the delivery person provide and/or obtain a receipt for your proposal that gives the date and time the proposal enters the Federal facility and acceptance of the proposals.

Hand-carried proposals must be delivered by entering through the building and stopping at the

Guard's Desk. Offerors should indicate for which Solicitation they are submitting a proposal and should have proper identification. Offerors should consider this delay in meeting the time specified for proposal receipt.

The outside of the proposal packaging, the cover of each proposal and the header of each proposal page should contain the title ―ED-IES-12-R-0059 - National Cooperative Education

Statistics Systems Contract (NCESS).‖

Offerors must submit the technical proposal electronically in PDF format and the price and cost proposals electronically as an EXCEL WORKBOOK.

Offerors are encouraged to submit proposals on recycled paper with a high post-consumer waste content. Your proposal will become part of the official contract file. The solicitation does not commit the Government to pay any cost for the preparation and submission of a proposal. In addition, the Contracting Officer is the only individual who can legally commit the Government mailto:Jennifer.Arthur@ed.gov mailto:Deila.Johnson@ed.gov to the expenditure of public funds in connection with this proposed acquisition.

The proposal shall list the names and telephone numbers of persons authorized to conduct negotiations, and a statement to the effect that your offer is firm for a period of at least 60 calendar days from the date of receipt of offers specified by the Government.

ED will accept clarification questions until July 11, 2012. All clarification questions must be submitted by 12:00 p.m., noon, EST, July 11, 2012. After this date, ED does not guarantee that a response will be given. If an Offeror submits a clarification question prior to July 11, 2012, they will not receive a response until all questions have been received by the due date.

Clarification questions will be answered at the same time after July 11, 2012.

Oral explanations or instructions given by the Government before the award of the contract(s) shall not be binding. Any information given to a prospective Offeror concerning a solicitation will be furnished promptly to all other prospective Offerors if that information is necessary in submission of offers or if a lack of it would be prejudicial to any other prospective Offerors.

The Government may make awards without discussions in accordance with FAR 15.306 (a) and solicitation provision 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors – Commercial Items (FEB 2012).

Offerors are encouraged to submit their best offer, since offerors may not have an opportunity to revise their proposals. The Government may request an in-person negotiation of the technical and business proposal.

The government will not be obligated to provide any equipment or a work site.

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL

The Offeror must submit a complete technical proposal. The Technical Proposal should include a description of the offeror’s technical capability. Specifically, this should include a narrative detailing the offeror’s understanding of the issues, approaches and challenges involved with the work as identified in the PWS. The Technical Proposal should give a complete picture of the offeror’s experience with work described under the five broad categories in Section VI, Logistics

Support and Service Categories of the PWS, over the previous 3 years. These categories are

Technical Assistance; Training; Research, Development and Informational Support; General

Administrative Support; and Conferences/Meetings/Workshops Support. Bidders should include the amount of work (number of projects), breadth of experience (variety of projects) and quality of experience (any past performance reports provided by the agencies for which the offeror performed work). In addition, the Technical Proposal should describe which educational areas the offeror’s work has included. Potential areas of experience include: small-scale and large-scale meeting planning, research and development, elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education, and adult education. This list is not exhaustive. If offerors have experience in an educational area not listed, they should identify that as well.

The Technical Proposal for each PWS shall use a font no smaller than 12 point, Times New

Roman, no less than 1‖ margins and shall be no more than 30 double-spaced pages (front and back), excluding staffing charts and schedules of deliverables. Please do not enclose in binders or hardcovers.

The Offeror’s Technical Proposal shall contain the following sections:

Cover Page

Table of Contents

Technical Approach

Management and Staffing Plan

Personnel Experience

Organizational Experience

Current Contractual Obligations

Cover Page: A cover sheet with the name and address of the firm, email address and contact person for receipt of Task Order Requests, type of business, size of business, and signed by an officer of the firm.

Table of Contents: The table of contents shall include page numbers of the major sections.

Technical Approach: The offeror’s technical response for addressing the work as described in the PWS. Brief abstracts of each project should be included (no more than 1/2 page each). These should provide a brief description of the work performed, and a description of how the work performed relates to the five broad categories in Section VI.

Management and Staffing Plan: Offerors shall provide a discussion of the offeror’s staff qualifications (including both specific CVs for potential Task leaders and a more general description of the capabilities of the staff as a whole). Provide resumes for key personnel and staff that intend to work on this contract. Resumes shall include the following data, at a minimum:

Name and identifying data

Education: Academic and Professional

Status of current government security clearance

Summary of relevant/related work experience

Employment history, with dates

If replacement or additional personnel are needed after award, their resumes shall be submitted to the CO and COR for approval. The contractor shall ensure that the qualifications of these replacement or additional personnel are equal to or exceed the qualifications stated for each labor category. While you may not currently employ staff in each of the specified staffing categories or may not employ enough staff in some categories to fully staff the current tasks, provide evidence that you have prior experience successfully hiring staff in each staffing category and a description of your hiring plan for future hires.

Personnel Experience: Offerors should indicate the number of proposed hours for each staff person (including consultants and subcontractor employees) by task/subtask overall, and should describe the specific responsibilities of each proposed staff person; and a description of any sub-contractual arrangements including work to be done, responsibilities for tasks, reporting arrangements, and any other terms of the contract pertinent to the technical proposal.

Justifications shall be provided for the use of subcontractors or consultants on this project and the offeror shall assure that such entities or individuals are free of conflicts of interest that might bias their approach to the work.

Organizational Experience: Discussion of management issues, corporate commitment, and approaches to successful problem solving and communication; an organizational chart and a statement relating corporate experience to the task areas in this project; and a proposed timeline addressing the tasks and deliverables. A summary table should be included presenting critical milestones with dates. This table should include starting and ending dates of each major project task and activity. While the intent of each task is spelled out in the performance work statement, it is up to the offeror to propose the most effective method for carrying out these tasks. The task specifications contained in the solicitation are a starting point; the proposal is expected to build on them, providing examples, where appropriate, not simply repeating the language contained in the solicitation. Offerors are encouraged to suggest technical improvements to the work.

Current Contractual Obligations: Offerors are required to outline both federal and nonfederal contractual obligations existing during the course of this contract for all personnel who are assigned to this project. The offeror shall identify such organizations or agencies by name and indicate the percentage of time allotted to these other contractual obligations by personnel committed to the proposed project. The technical proposal shall become part of the contract and the legal responsibility of the contractor. Offerors shall also provide a complete list of the title, contract or grant number, award date, end date, and dollar amount of all contracts and grants with the U.S. Department of Education that are current or ended after September 1, 2009. This list shall be provided for any proposed subcontractors and consultants as well as for the proposed prime contractor. For contracts or grants directly relevant to this procurement—either as a basis for corporate qualifications or as a source of potential conflicts of interest—a brief summary of the contract or grant activities shall also be provided.

Any proposed changes to the scope of the work or to the deliverable dates shall be justified.

It is important that the offeror completely address all the tasks described in the performance work statement and provide enough detail on the offeror’s approach to each task to allow a review panel to adequately judge that approach. The quality of the information is significantly more important than the quantity. The panel will not make assumptions or guesses.

Proposals that do not conform to the length requirement shall be disqualified.

BUSINESS PROPOSAL

The Department anticipates awarding an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract that issues firm-fixed price task orders. This procurement is a Small Business Set-Aside and the applicable NAICS Code is 541611. All businesses that want to do business with the Federal

Government must register in the CCR. Businesses register in CCR for the types of work they can do by NAICS code. The NAICS code gives a business size or dollar limitation for that type of work.

This is a single IDIQ contract to a single contractor, not a multiple award IDIQ contract. One single contractor will be awarded the contract for both Task Orders and subsequent Task Orders issued under the contract.

The Offerors shall submit one overall response for proposed costs for each task order described in Appendix A and B, for the initial year and option years 2-5. There shall be one business proposal that prices the work proposed for Task Order 1 in Appendix A and for Task Order 2 in

Appendix B, separately, with total costs for each Task Order, keeping in mind the level of effort specified for each Task Order stated in Appendix A, Section 5 and Appendix B, Section 5. The proposed budget for each Task Order shall include the number of hours each staff person is expected to commit. Please provide labor rates for each task order for the applicable periods of performance. Offeror’s labor rate should be consistent with their current labor rates. Offerors are permitted to propose discounted rates to improve the competitiveness of their proposal. The labor mix and labor categories proposed should be consistent with the personnel proposed in the technical proposal.

An offeror may decide to partner or utilize subcontractors and/or consultants to respond to the work. There is no maximum daily rate that the Department allows contractors to pay for consultant services. The rate is based on a number of factors, including but not limited to the consultant’s salary history and available budget for consultants.

Offerors should submit proposed costs itemized for each task/subtask and optional tasks, as well as a total proposed cost for the entire work to be performed under the Task Order. The proposed budget for each task and subtask should indicate the number of hours being proposed for each staff person and breakdowns of direct charges for materials, supplies, consultants, equipment, telephone, copying, travel, and any other major budget items.

The offeror shall also provide a Pricing Schedule (Attachment B) that 1) Provides the price for each deliverable for Task Order 1 and Task Order 2 and 2) Labor rates for all labor categories listed in the PWS, Section XIV (Labor Categories/Staffing), for the initial year and the option years 2-5 that are not included in the technical proposal. Price will be evaluated to determine reasonableness and affordability. The prices for services set forth in the Pricing Schedule shall apply for future task orders issued under the resulting contract. The offeror may not charge the

Government for any services associated with the resulting contract at any prices or rates higher than those specified in the Pricing Schedule.

Offerors shall propose a payment schedule based on the deliverables required under the PWS for each line item on the Pricing Schedule.

Offerors shall submit price information for the period of performance and an additional six months that may be required by FAR 52.217-8, Option to Extend Services.

In addition, include in the Business Proposal, the labor costs for the work described in the PWS during the Transition Period separately.

For Task Order 1, your bid should be based on the following periods of performance:

Base Period : September 17, 2012 – December 31, 2012

Option Period 1: September 17, 2013 – December 31, 2013

Option Period 2: September 17, 2014 – December 31, 2014

Option Period 3: September 17, 2015 – December 31, 2015

Option Period 4: September 17, 2016 – December 30, 2016

For Task Order 2, the period of performance for the 12-month base and the four 12-month option periods, for a total of 60 months, will be for one year each.

Your bid should be based on the following periods of performance:

Base Period: September 17, 2012 – September 16, 2013

Option Period 1: September 17, 2013 – September 16, 2014

Option Period 2: September 17, 2014 – September 16, 2015

Option Period 3: September 17, 2015 – September 16, 2016

Option Period 4: September 17, 2016 – September 16, 2017

It is required that your business proposal contain enough information for a cost realism determination to be made. Offerors are expected to use their best business judgment in submitting the necessary information. The Contracting Officer can reject an offeror’s proposal if a negative cost realism determination is made, or if proposed prices are found to NOT be reasonable. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.404-1 states ―cost realism means the costs in an Offeror’s proposal are a) realistic for the work to be performed, b) reflect a clear understanding of the requirements, and c) are consistent with the various elements of the

Offeror’s technical proposal.‖

PAST PERFORMANCE REPORT

Offerors shall provide a statement relating corporate experience to the task areas in this project in the Past Performance Report. Offerors shall submit 4 copies of the Past Performance Report that are separately bound. The instructions below are supplemental to the instructions detailed in

Clause L.14 314-1 Past Performance Report (MAR 1996).

The Past Performance Report shall use a font no smaller than 12 point, no less than 1‖ margins and shall be no more than 10 double-spaced pages (front and back). Please do not enclose in binders or hardcovers.

In addition to providing the Past Performance Report, the "Past Performance Information‖ form

(Attachment E) should be used to collect past performance information from three (3) references.

Consideration of the offeror’s reputation in terms of quality, problem resolution, cost control, timeliness, business relations and customer service will be evaluated. Please submit 3 references

(Attachment E) for the prime and for each subcontractor and each consultant.

Each reference is to complete the form and return it to the Contract Specialist, as prescribed on the form. Completed forms from references are due on the same day as Technical & Business

Proposals under this solicitation. Request that the reference please return the completed form to

Deila Johnson by the due date on the form, to the following:

E-mail to: Deila.Johnson@ed.gov

The Government reserves the right to contact past performance references to verify the information provided. The Government also reserves the right to obtain past performance information from other sources.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST PLAN

Conflict of Interest Plans are to be submitted with offeror’s Business Proposal.

The Offeror shall submit a Conflict of Interest Plan, providing details on its policies and procedures to identify and avoid potential organizational or personal conflicts of interest (or apparent conflicts of interest). The Plan should also address procedures taken to neutralize or mitigate such conflicts, if they have not been or cannot be avoided. The Plan should indicate that such policies and procedures are operative throughout the period of performance of the contract or task order. The policies should address, at a minimum, gifts, outside activities financial interests, or other significant connections or identifications that would establish, or give the appearance of establishing, a conflict of interest. A method for periodically reviewing financial interests of employees, subcontractors and consultants, and their immediate families, in order to assess actual or apparent conflicts of interest should be included in the plan. In this clause, the term ―potential conflict‖ means reasonably foreseeable conflict of interest.

The thoroughness, completeness and effectiveness of the Plan shall be evaluated as part of the

Offeror’s overall proposal. The Plan will be incorporated into the contract or task order awarded to the successful Offeror.

mailto:Deila.Johnson@ed.gov

TASK ORDER TYPES

The Department anticipates that this contract will issue task orders that are Firm Fixed Price. In addition to the budget information described above, Offerors shall submit the following information based on task order type:

Firm Fixed Price Task Orders: Firm Fixed Price task orders shall include the total firm fixed price, schedule of deliverables, and a corresponding pricing and payment schedule, for all prices except travel expenses. Offerors shall include the price of each deliverable or task in the pricing and payment schedule. ED will pay for deliverables and tasks that have been accepted in the corresponding invoice.

Note: Propose all numbers in the proposal rounded to the nearest dollar.