PIH_REAC_Industry_Day_Questions_and_Answers_FINAL.pdf

PIH REAC

NSPIRE FULL-SERVICE INSPECTION REQUIREMENT

INDUSTRY DAY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. Will you be issuing a new procurement to replace and build the software for the NSPIRE protocol?

So on the HUD side for our pieces we have CIOs handling the software side on us, there will not be an associated a procurement related to this so for software the inspection vendors are using that’s a capability we expect them to have, so that’s not going to be separate HUD procurement that will says any inspector has to use this HUD selected related product platform so hopefully that answers the question.

2. For software vendors that have inspection software, are you releasing the requirements for the new protocols?

Yes, during the demonstration, we will make to the standards available as sort of those overarching requirements the data exchange standards I’d say we’re kind of early in that process but that yes obviously we will do that.

3. For the pilot, will you be procuring the services of inspection companies to help with the pilot demonstration from October to June, or will it be done internally?

So that’s a different solicitation than this one correct so we have Dennis Source Sought and I know some of the contractors here are aware of that it was on FBO and also on e-Buy this is a different it’s different from this and it’s called NSPIRE

DEMO.

4. Will the software that is being developed in the pilot be used in the full contract or will the Contractor bring their own software?

Contractor needs to bring their own system in the Full requirement the software we are developing as part of the DEMO, is for demonstration testing potentially small entities that at the property level not at the contractor level.

5. Will the results that you develop from the pilot be included in the full contract?

We except vendors who are in this line of business to have the capability to electronic inspections today right, so we aren’t giving software to do the inspection that is a capability of the vendors at the Full-Services level that’s part of Full-Services right. Yes, the actual efficiency standards the items and the way that data needs to be formatted absolutely.

6. What date is October 31st?

That’s a solicitation issuance of proposals. Correct.

7. The award is not until June 2020, why such a long period of time?

We go through the evaluation processes this is a huge contract so based what our standards are within our milestone plan we have a system that tells approximately how long we have to do certain things within this step now of course I didn’t mention everything but those are the big dates for a contractors to be aware of.

8. Please explain why the award is June 2020, but the pilot is going to run through 2021.

That is correct so that DEMO is one base year plus one option we may or may not exercise that option.

9. CTQ sounds like something in the unit failed the unit even though a high score is given in the inspection, have you reconciled how that is going to work or what that means?

Maybe I misspoke or wasn’t perfectly clear on how the scoring is conceptually changing so it’s not a fail one indicator fail the inspection its your unit one weights kind of like today right there’s an unit in spectral area if you didn’t get enough points there you can still get a good score right there currently they’re 30 percent so I could get a 65 in pass right under the math today so what we’re saying in the future you have to get at least some proportion of the unit points overall to have a passing inspection.

10. Will life threatening issue fail the unit?

It’s not based on the individual deficiencies it’s based on that aggregate score because it will still be a sampled inspection it’s not a 100 percent all units all areas of the property. It’s the unit area not the individual units so the collection of units that were inspected you have to get at least some proportion of the overall unit to score before you can have an acceptable property.

11. The sample size maximum is going to increase from 27 to 53, is that 53 taking the 27 and making it 53 or is it continuing down the scale so that larger properties are looking at more units?

It’s changing the statistical sampling rate, so we are checking sampling more units so that there’s a greater assurance that the findings are attributable to the property so yes on the math side if you’re dividing by more numbers more each thing can be progressively smaller that is partly why we are increasing overall area weight to account for that.

12. Will there be any exclusions if you are participating in the pilot that you can not participate in the ongoing inspection program?

No, there will not be any exclusions

13. Is there a date that the software standards for IT will available?

We don’t have the date for that yet.

14. Will this be a single award or multiple award?

Yes, right now we are in the process of doing Market Research we think it will be IDIQ but we cannot confirm that as to be determined based on the information we get between now through the through the entire Market Research process that’s when we’ll figure out exactly where we’re going we don’t know it’s going to be fixed price.

15. Will properties be assigned by HUD? Will the downloading of inspections be done by

HUD?

Yes, I will have to tell the vendors which properties to inspect over some period of time I mean because otherwise there would be no way to know.

16. Will Multifamily, Public Housing and service mortgages be the three repositories?

Not necessarily servicing mortgages because they are responsible for doing those inspections at this time.

17. Pertaining to the service mortgaging side, how will companies obtain the inspectors?

Where will that inspector source be, or will inspection companies provide the same service to the service mortgaging side?

That’s kind of outside of the scope of why we’re here today we can take that back it’s as an unrelated follow-up okay.

18. If each company has their own inspectors to do the inspections, will the service mortgaging have to set up their own protocols and training programs?

So as of now this contract does not include that population so some of those questions we can’t really answer.

19. Is HUD going to provide the software or will provide vendors with requirements for the software (to procure/develop) to meet NSPIRE protocol?

HUD will provide the vendors with the requirements, so they can procure or develop it themselves.

20. Will they be needing Microsoft Surface Pro tablets?

The new requirements will be more open allow the use of various types of hardware to conduct the inspections.

21. Will HUD provide software?

The inspections will be completed using the vendor’s software.

22. Is it consider to be conflict of interest if a company was awarded to both contracts?

THIS RESPONSE WAS NOT QUITE ACCURATE NO, there will not be any exclusions between the Demo (Pilot) and the Full-Service requirements but there will be an exclusion between the Standards Development vs. the Full-Service requirements…SEE BELOW

Since Industry Day HUD has brought this question to legal. Legal made the determination that the vendor who is awarded the Standards Development Contract will not be able to participate in the solicitation process for this requirement (NSPIRE Full-Service Inspection). Legal has stated that this scenario will create “biased ground rules” (Conflict of Interest) where a contractor sets the ground rules for another procurement which appears to skew the competition in favor of that contractor.

Emailed Questions from Contractors prior to Industry Day:

1. Section 1.4 Description of Services states that the Contractor must possess or be able to possess software and systems that are compatible with HUD systems and in section 3 Government-Furnished Property and Services states that the Government will furnish to the contractor a HUD provided software for inspections or IT requirements for contractor software to work with HUD systems Clarification: Is HUD going to provide the software or will provide vendors with requirements for the software (to procure/develop) to meet NSPIRE protocol ?

HUD will provide the vendors with the requirements, so they can procure or develop it themselves.

2. Section 4.2 Equipment: The Contractor shall furnish all necessary inspection equipment required to conduct physical inspections.

Clarification: Since the hardware requirement states windows 8.1 Operating systems – so assuming they will be needing Microsoft Surface ProTablets.

The new requirements will be more open allow the use of various types of hardware to conduct the inspections.

3. Section 5.3 Information Technology Requirements: 1) Inspections will be completed using either HUD provided software or using the Vendor's software to conduct NSPIRE inspections;

Clarification: Does the contractor has liberty to select a software on its own or have a binding to use HUD provided software?

The inspections will be completed using the vendor’s software.

4. HUD has another solicitation, Standards Development – NSPIRE, Solicitation Number: 86548B19R00004. Is it consider to be conflict of interest if a company was awarded to both contracts? Best practices for monitoring inspection quality –The Government may want to make a comment that when the Sources Sought is released, the contractors will have the opportunity to provide their approach to monitoring inspection quality This should be resolved by legal. The contractor would be developing the standards, while building a solicitation for the new inspection protocol standards.

5. Certification process for Inspectors (what are the qualifications and training necessary to become a HUD REAC certified inspector – Will the Contractor conduct the training?)

a. The Contractor is responsible for ensuring its staff are able to perform to the requirements contained within this contract. HUD will not be providing training to individual inspectors under this contract model. HUD expects the contractor to recruit, manage, and monitor its workforce.

b. HUD will use performance based test to certify inspectors?

HUD will continue to certify individuals prior to them performing inspections under this contract. Similar, HUD will decertify inspectors who demonstrate a pattern of unacceptable work performance. Decertified inspectors cannot conduct inspections under this contract.

c. Qualifications for general inspectors and expert inspectors are laid out in section 5.4.2 of the Full Service PWS. We are open to your feedback on whether these qualifications will meet the Government’s need for services of this type.

i. General Inspector

1. Minimum qualifications to be eligible for certification as a general inspector include:

2. Pass an annual physical, hearing, and visual exam;

3. Have a high school education or equivalent;

4. Meet one of the following levels of experience:

5. Two years of recent (within the last 4 years) full-time experience as a certified multi-discipline inspector (or similar certified position) by a national or government-recognized agency;

6. Two years of recent (within the last 4 years) full-time journeyman level experience in the plumbing, electrical, mechanical, or carpentry trade and completion of a recognized apprenticeship program in one or more of these disciplines (five years of varied recent, full time journeyman level experience in the plumbing, electrical, mechanical, or carpentry trade may be substituted for the apprenticeship program);

7. A Bachelor's degree in civil, structural, mechanical, or electrical engineering or architecture from an accredited college or university;

8. Possess general computer skills;

9. Completed 250 or more commercial building inspections;

10. No previous decertification by HUD for performance related issues;

11. Have no conduct-related issues substantiated by HUD;

12. Pass a background investigation that meets HUDs requirements;

ii. Expert Inspector

13. Minimum qualifications to be eligible for certification as an Expert Inspector include:

14. Meeting the minimum qualifications for a general inspector;

15. Two years of recent (within the last four years) full-time experience either supervising or conducting quality control reviews of multi-disciplined inspectors (or similar positions); AND

16. Currently holding two or more of the following certifications:

17. International Code Council (ICC) Commercial Building Inspector;

18. ICC Residential Building Inspector;

19. ICC Property Maintenance and Housing Inspector;

20. Either ICC or International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) Residential Plumbing Inspector;

a. Either ICC or IAPMO Residential Mechanical Inspector; OR

b. ICC or International Association of Electrical Inspectors Residential Electrical Inspector.

21. Alternative qualifications that the Contractor believes are equivalent to the above can be proposed and will be considered by HUD on a case-by-case basis. These requirements can be proposed for an entire class of individuals or on a per-person basis. Any individual requesting to use the alternative requirements must be approved by HUD prior to conducting field data collection activities.

6. IT infrastructure requirements that apply to the requirement (If any – This may also be a good time to reference the software that will be used to schedule the inspections)

a. The Contractor shall provide its own inspection software that will support the following:

b. Ability to conduct and submit inspections without HUD’s RAPID 4.0 inspection software;

c. Transmit inspection data via an API (e.g., XML or JSON);

d. Software satisfies HUD’s IT requirements and API standards and is updated with whatever HUD inspection standards are in effect at the time of inspection;

e. Contractor’s inspection software must be supported by documentation, is subject to auditing and testing by HUD, and must be capable such that:

i. An inspector in the field can identify and record all deficiencies and supporting information required as part of a HUD inspection; AND

ii. An inspector can perform inspections to any applicable protocols published by HUD.

7. Small Business vs. Large Business Discussion – What are the Governments concerns if the requirement is set-aside for Small Business?

a. Small business may lack the capacity to provide CONUS and OCONUS coverage at the volume of inspections required under this contract. HUD has properties that need inspection in remote, rural, or otherwise hard to access areas; however, those inspections must still be completed in the required timeframes.

b. Maintaining quality control on a nationwide scale requires well developed corporate management structures and back office functions that a small business may lack.

c. HUD anticipates there may be special inspection types that need highly specialized skills such as lead, moisture, accessibility or other testing. These inspections have evidentiary and chain of custody requirements for equipment and consumables.

d. Small business may not have the established networks to recruit and retain qualified staff capable of inspecting in all areas nationwide.

e. Small businesses that are not principally in the field of national property inspections may not have the wrap-around administrative services necessary to manage the scale of the requirement, such as keeping information technology up to date as HUD’s data elements change, scheduling on short or minimal notice, and keeping equipment managed.

8. Is it based on the complexity of the requirement?

Yes, the requirement is complex in that properties have all types, geographic, climactic, age, and other differences that can make it difficult to recruit and retain qualified employees. The requirement makes the contractor fully responsible for providing quality inspections. The contractors must train inspectors, develop IT solution to deliver inspections, and conduct 20,00 inspections CONUS and

OCONUS.

9. Is there a known capability disparity between Small vs. Large Businesses that do this type of work? Give specific examples preventing a Small Business to perform the standards of the requirement.

a. Many of the small business are operated by 1 person who is both the inspector and owner of the company.

b. Market research has shown that small businesses that are in this space do not also have a nationwide footprint.

10. Does the requirement have constraints that would affect a Small Business from performing this requirement?

There are no special constraints listed in the PWS’ constraints section. However, all inspections must be performed within 14 days or less of notification to the property. Also, all inspections within a task order must be completed, even those that are in geographically challenging or otherwise hard to inspect areas.

11. Identify any specific areas of this requirement that may restrict competition between Small and Large Businesses No, the nature of the services are such that HUD has concerns about ensuring that any vendor has the capacity to deliver quality inspection services.