Atch_3_-_Instructions_to_Offerors.pdf

FA2263-19-Q-A026

Attachment 3

INSTRUCTIONS, CONDITIONS, AND NOTICES TO OFFERORS OR RESPONDENTS

1.0 General Instructions

(a) The offeror's proposal must include all data and information requested by this ITO and must be submitted in accordance with these instructions. The offer shall be compliant with the requirements as stated in the Purchase Description (PD) (Attachment 1, List of Attachments, to the RFQ) Non-conformance with the instructions provided in this ITO may result in an unfavorable proposal evaluation.

(b) The Contracting Officer (CO) has determined there is a high probability of adequate price competition in this acquisition. Upon examination of the initial offers, the contracting officer will review this determination and if, in the CO’s opinion, adequate price competition exists no additional data will be requested. However, if at any time during this competition the CO determines that adequate price competition no longer exists; offerors may be required to submit cost data to the extent necessary for the CO to determine the reasonableness and affordability of the price.

(c) The proposal shall be clear, concise, and shall include sufficient detail for effective evaluation and for substantiating the validity of stated claims. The proposal should not simply rephrase or restate the Government's requirements but, rather, shall provide convincing rationale to address how the offeror intends to meet these requirements. Offerors shall assume that the Government has no prior knowledge of their facilities or experience and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the offeror's proposal.

(d) Elaborate brochures or documentation, binding, detailed art work, or other embellishments are unnecessary and are not desired.

(e) Offers must be received no later than 26 August 2019 at 2:00 PM EDT. Offers must be submitted electronically via AMRDEC SAFE, https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/safe/Welcome.aspx, to kristie.christie@us.af.mil Offerors can submit under a guest account and upon email verification, the Contract Specialist can then download the files from the site. Please note that the uploaded files must be timestamped by the offer due date and time. Receipt date and time for determining timely submission will be based upon date and time AMRDEC SAFE shows the files were uploaded.

Offerors bare the risk for receipt of submitted offers being untimely. Any offer or modifications to the offer received after the exact time specified for receipt of offers/quotes may not be considered.

Offers submitted in forms other than through AMRDEC SAFE are not permissible and will not be considered. All responsible sources may submit an offer, which if received timely shall be considered by this agency.

https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/safe/Welcome.aspx

(f) The proposal shall be valid for 90 days from the RFQ closing date. The offeror shall make a clear statement in the proposal documentation volume that the proposal is valid through this date.

(g) In accordance with FAR Subpart 4.8 (Government Contract Files), the Government will retain one copy of all unsuccessful proposals.

1.1 General Information

1.1.1. Point of Contact

The Contracting Officer (CO) and Contract Specialist are the points of contact for this acquisition. Address any questions or concerns you may have to the CO and Contract Specialist. Written requests for clarification may be sent to the CO and Contract Specialist.

Contracting Officer’s Name: Kathryn Vaccaro Email address: kathryn.vaccaro@us.af.mil

Contract Specialist Name: Kristie Christie Email Address: kristie.christie@us.af.mil

1.1.2. Discrepancies

If an offeror believes that the requirements in these instructions contain an error, omission, or are otherwise unsound, the offeror shall immediately notify the CO in writing with supporting rationale as well as the remedies the offeror is asking the CO to consider as related to the omission or error. The offeror is reminded that the Government reserves the right to award this effort based on the initial proposal, as received, without discussion. This reservation includes matters of additional or substitute pages of the initial proposal.

1.1.3. Electronic Reference Documents

All referenced documents for this solicitation are available on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website at https://www.fbo.gov/. Potential offerors are encouraged to subscribe for real-time e-mail notifications when information has been posted to the website for this solicitation.

1.1.4. Communications

Exchanges of information between Government and offerors will be controlled by the CO.

Email may be used to transmit such information to offerors only if the email can be sent and received encrypted. In order to facilitate the sending and receiving of encrypted emails, offerors must use MS Outlook email configured to support encryption or a different email product that is S/MIME compatible and configured to support encryption. If you intend to submit your information via encrypted email, you will need to contact the Contracting Officer indicated on the face page of the solicitation prior to that first submittal in order to exchange certificates used for encryption. To insure the process is working correctly, send a test encrypted message first.

https://www.fbo.gov/

1.1.5 Funding

The Government reserves the right to cancel this solicitation, either before or after the closing date. In the event the Government cancels this solicitation, the Government has no obligation to reimburse any Offeror for any costs incurred in responding to this solicitation.

1.2 Organization/Number of Copies/Page Limits

The offeror shall prepare the proposal as set forth in the Proposal Organization Table (Table 1.2 below). The titles and contents of the volumes shall be as defined in this table, all of which shall be within the required page limits and with the number of copies as specified in Table 1.2.

The attachments listed in the table shall be separately identifiedThe contents of each proposal volume are described in the ITO paragraph as noted in the table below:

Table 1.2 - Proposal Organization

VOLUME ITO Paragraph Number

VOLUME

TITLE

COPIES PAGE LIMIT

I 2.0 Technical 1 Electronic Copy 40 II 3.0 Proposal

Documentation 1 Electronic Copy 75

1.2.1 Page Limitations

Page limitations shall be treated as maximums. If exceeded, the excess pages will not be read or considered in the evaluation of the proposal. Page limitations may be placed on responses to Evaluation Notices (ENs). The specified page limits for EN responses will be identified in the letters forwarding the ENs to the offerors.

1.2.1.1. Page Size and Format

A page is defined as each face of a sheet of paper containing information. When both sides of a sheet display printed material, it shall be counted as two pages. Page size shall be 8.5 x 11 inches, not including foldouts. Except for the reproduced sections of the solicitation document, the text size shall be no less than 12point. Tracking, kerning, and leading values shall not be changed from the default values of the word processing or page layout software. Use at least 1 inch margins on the top and bottom and ¾-inch side margins. Pages shall be numbered sequentially by volume. These page size and format restrictions shall apply to all volumes of the proposal.

1.2.2 Pricing Related Data

All pricing information shall be addressed in the Proposal Documentation volume, in of the RFQ. Information shall be limited to Contract Line Item Number (CLIN) or SubCLIN, or level pricing, including unit and extended pricing, as specified in of the RFQ.

1.3 Electronic Submission of Proposal

The offeror shall submit all proposal information in electronic format via AMRDEC Safe, https://safe.amrdec.army.mil. Offers submitted in forms other than through AMRDEC Safe are not permissible and will not be considered.

1.4 Timeliness

https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/

Offerors are required to submit proposals before the proposal deadline listed in Section 1.0(e) of the ITO. In accordance with FAR 52.212-1(f), any electronic copy that is received at the designated Government office after the exact time specified for receipt of proposals is “late” and will not be considered unless the CO determines that accepting the late offer would not unduly delay the acquisition.

1.5 RFQ Amendments

If this RFQ is amended, all terms and conditions, which are not amended, will remain unchanged and in full force and effect. Offerors shall acknowledge receipt of any amendment and provide confirmation upon submission of the Offeror’s proposal.

1.6 Proposal Revisions

If the Offeror submits proposal revisions, any changed pages that are submitted shall have changed information clearly marked by a vertical line in the left margin of the page identifying the changed content. The date of the revision and revision number shall be reflected on each changed page (preferably on, or next to, the vertical change line). The Offeror shall make spreadsheet revisions obvious by identifying cells that changed. The Offeror shall also provide a tracking list of all changes with references to the volume, page, and paragraph number, which will not be part of the page count. Offerors shall also clearly identify in the summary of changes any revisions which are material in nature.

1.7 DoD Rated Order

This will be a DO-A70 rated order. All prime contracts, subcontracts or purchase orders in support of an authorized program are given a priority rating. A DX rating is assigned to those programs of the highest national priority. Per DoD 4400.1-M, the Under Secretary of Defense for AT&L approves DO rated orders and nominates to the Secretary of Defense for approval of DX rated orders. An unrated order is a commercial order or a DoD order that is not ratable. A DX rating takes priority over a DO rating which takes priority over an unrated order. Rated programs are also given a program identifier symbol. A-70, Electronics and Communication Equipment, is the program identifier symbol for this acquisition. The program identifier symbol does not, by itself, indicate any priority.

2.0 Volume I - Technical Volume

2.1 Format and Specific Content

The Technical Volume should be specific and complete. Legibility, clarity, and coherence are very important. Your responses for the Technical Volume will be evaluated against the Technical Factor defined in Attachment 4, List of Attachments. All offerors shall provide in the Technical Volume descriptive literature, brochures, and a technical proposal response. The technical proposal response MUST include a written response to EACH paragraph of the Purchase Description (See Attachment 1) with sufficient supporting technical literature. Solely restating the paragraphs of the purchase description or limiting the response to a simple statement of compliance is not acceptable. Provide as specifically as possible the actual methodology you would use for accomplishing/satisfying each paragraph number in the Purchase Description. Where the technical literature demonstrates that the proposed unit meets the requirement of a specific purchase description paragraph, you may reference that page and paragraph of the technical literature in your technical proposal response in lieu of restating it.

All the requirements specified in the solicitation are mandatory. By your proposal submission, you are representing that your firm will perform all the requirements specified in the solicitation. It is not necessary or desirable for you to tell us so in your proposal.

3.0 Volume II – Proposal Documentation

3.1 Solicitation/Representations and Certifications

The purpose of this volume is to provide information to the Government for preparing the contract document and supporting file. The offeror's proposal shall be signed by an Authorized Offeror Personnel and include sections idenfitied in Sections 3.1.1 though 3.1.3 of the ITO.

3.1.1 Supplies or Services and Prices/Cost

Completed pricing information in the Schedule of the RFQ (pages 1 through 3) of the solicitation.

3.1.2 Contract Clauses

Completed clauses incorporated in full text of the solicitation.

3.1.3 Representations, Certifications, and other Statements of Offerors Completed representations, certifications, acknowledgments and statements. In addition, completed copy of Online Representations and Certifications shall be provided. This can be accomplished by registering in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov and completing the Online Representations and Certifications. All prospective awardees are required to register at SAM and to maintain an active registration during the life of the contract.

3.2 Exceptions to Solicitation Requirements

Offerors are required to meet all solicitation requirements, such as terms and conditions, representations and certifications, and technical requirements, in addition to those identified as evaluation factors. Offerors must clearly identify any exception to the solicitation terms and conditions and provide complete accompanying rationale. Each exception shall be specifically related to each paragraph and/or specific part of the solicitation to which the exception is taken.

Provide rationale in support of the exception and fully explain its impact, if any, on the performance, schedule, price, and specific requirements of the solicitation. This information shall be provided in the format and content of Table 3.2.

Table 3.2 - Solicitation Exceptions

Solicitation Document

Page/ Paragraph

Requirement/ Portion Rationale https://www.sam.gov/

PD, Model Contract, ITO, etc.

Applicable Page and Paragraph Numbers

Identify the requirement or portion to which exception is taken

Describe why the requirement can/will not be met

3.3 Other Information Required

3.3.1 Authorized Offeror Personnel

Provide the name, title, and telephone number of the company/division point of contact regarding decisions made with respect to your proposal and who can obligate your company contractually. Also, identify those individuals authorized to negotiate with the Government.

3.3.2 Company/Division Address, Identifying Codes, and Applicable Designations Provide company/division's street address, county and facility code; CAGE code; DUNS code;

TIN; size of business (large or small); and labor surplus area designation. This same information must be provided if the work for this contract will be performed at any other location(s).

3.4 Pricing

3.4.1 Price Reasonableness

The Government will review the pricing submissions for reasonableness, completeness and compliance with the ITO section of the solicitation. Note that unrealistically low or high proposed costs or prices, initially or subsequently, may be grounds for eliminating a proposal from competition either on the basis that the offeror does not understand the requirement or has submitted an unrealistic proposal. Additionally, unbalanced pricing poses an unacceptable risk to the Government and may be a reason to reject an offeror’s proposal. Offers should be sufficiently detailed to demonstrate their reasonableness and balance. The burden of proof for credibility of proposed prices rests with the offeror.

3.4.2 Price Data

Data beyond that required by this instruction shall not be submitted unless you consider it essential to document or support your position. All data relating to the proposed price, including all required supporting documentation, must be included in this section of the proposal. Under no circumstances shall this data and documentation be included elsewhere in the proposal.