Q-A 1-40 Amendment 003 20210520.pdf

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

FA500021R0001

Mini-MACC

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The solicitation states that Past Performance as a Prime Contractor will be accepted. Sister Company Past Performance will NOT be accepted. Performance as a subcontractor will NOT be accepted.

Will it be accepted for a Company who is a JV member to use the Past performance of the JV’s Projects, when the JV’s projects were performed as a Prime Contractor?

The Government will only consider Joint Venture past performance if the same Joint Venture will be submitting the proposal as the Joint Venture.

Section M, Evaluation Factors for Award, Subsection D. Part III, Past Performance Factor, Part 2 states that “Past Performance as a Prime Contractor will be accepted. Sister Company Past Performance will NOT be accepted. Performance as a subcontractor will NOT be accepted.”

Will offers from joint ventures be accepted? If so, will past performance from each member of the joint venture company be considered for evaluation? Or will only past performance performed directly by the joint venture company be allowed?

The Government will only consider Joint Venture past performance if the same Joint Venture will be submitting the proposal as the Joint Venture.

Section L, Subsection D. General Information, Part 2.a states that a site visit was scheduled for April 21, however, the RFP was not published until May 3, 2021. Will the site visit be rescheduled?

Amendment 0001 posted 3 May 2021 changed the site visit to 11 May 2021 at building 5327. No additional site visits will be scheudled.

The bid guarantee under clause 52.228-1 is stated to be 100% of the Seed Project bid price. Is 100% correct for the bid guarantee?

Amendment 002 to the solicitation removes this clause. Bid guarantee will not be used.

Does the Government have a list of potential projects that may be released under the mini-MACC that you could send to us, along with the ROM??

Solicitation Section L, paragraph B,4 (f), (h) & (i) provides two SABER contract numbers, historical data, future workload estimates of typical task orders to allow a company to make a business decision. The government does not have a reliable list of future projects at this time.

Section L - Instrs., Conds., and Notices to Offerors (e) Provide a scanned copy of the bid guarantee for the seed project in this section of the proposal. Ensure it is completed according to FAR 52.228-1 (Section I of the solicitation).

Is a physical hard copy of the bid bond required? If so, by when is it due and to whom should it be delivered?

Amendment 002 to the solicitation removes this clause. Bid guarantee will not be used.

Part IIIc Past Performance Supplement (Attachment J-8). (d) Past Performance Information: Provide a summary of no more than five (5) completed relevant contracts /projects performed in an industrial/ residential environment similar in scope, magnitude and complexity to the current solicitation within the last three (3) years prior to the issuance date of the solicitation. (See Sec M-01, paragraph D.5) 1. Summary of each contract/project shall be limited to 2 pages per contract/project. Furnish the following information for each contract listed. Under which section should the two-page Past Performance Information Project Summary be included? Part IIIa? OR Part IIIc? There is reference to the two-page project summary in both sections.

Amendment 002 to the solicitation amends Solicitation Section L, paragraph B.4 (a) to reflect B.4.(d). The two page contract information is to be included in Part IIIa, Quality and Satisfaction Rating of Contracts.

Mini-MACC

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(a) Part IIIa, Quality and Satisfaction Rating of Contracts: Provide information requested in paragraph Section L-01B4(c) limited to 2 pages per project/contract, and any information currently available (letters, metrics, customer surveys, independent surveys, etc.) that demonstrates customer satisfaction with overall job performance and/or quality of completed contracts. Information must be provided for, and is limited to, all projects submitted as relevant contracts/projects for evaluation. In addition, explain corrective actions taken in the past, if any, for substandard performance and any current performance problems, such as cost overruns, extended performance periods, numerous warranty calls, etc. (See Sec M-01, paragraph D.6)?

Under which section should the two-page Past Performance Information Project Summary be included?

Part IIIa? OR Part IIIc?

There is reference to the two-page project summary in both sections. Please clarify letters, metrics, customer surveys, etc. Should CPARS be included in this section?

Amendment 002 to the solicitation amends Solicitation Section L, paragraph B.4 (a) to reflect B.4.(d). The two page contract information is to be included in Part IIIa, Quality and Satisfaction Rating of Contracts.

Letters, metrics, customer surveys, etc. is any information held by an offeror that they believe demonstrates customer satisfaction. Note that the 15 page limit for this section includes this information. CPARs, if reviewed, will be accessed by the government during evaluation of proposals.

SF 1442, Section 13 a. Please consider extending the bid date by one week. The current bid date of June 1 follows a federal holiday. This may be problematic when obtaining pricing from subcontractors.

Amendment 002 changed the proposal due date to 8 Jun 2021.

What is the anticipated notice to proceed date? Tentative date for award of the IDIQ Solicitation Attachment 3 FOPR Seed Project

20210503 provides when the notice to proceed will be provided to awardee.

Would the government consider adding FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iii) which provides that an Agency’s “evaluation (of a proposal) should take into account past performance information regarding predecessor companies, key personnel who have relevant experience, or subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement when such information is relevant to the instant acquisition.” Pursuant to the referenced FAR clause and GAO decision, Ecompex, Inc. B-292865.4; B-292865.5; B-292865.6, June 18, 2004, the KO may properly attribute the experience or past performance of an affiliated subsidiary and key personnel when evaluating experience and past performance.

The referenced FAR language is not a clause, it is part of the guidance for contracting by negotiation. The Contracting Officer has determined that such information is not relevant to the instant acquistion for this award.

The Government has determined not to evaluate predecessor companies and key personnel.

If the government adds the FAR clause 15.305, would they consider extending the due date to coincide with ensuring the timely submission of PPQs by the requested due date.

As noted for question 11; FAR 15.305 is not a clause.

The Bid Guarantee sections specifies the bid percentage to be 100%. Could you verify with the CO if this is in fact supposed to be 100% or if it is supposed to be either “20%” OR “20% or 3 million”

Amendment 002 to the solicitation removes this clause. Bid guarantee will not be used.

Item 13 of the FOPR states “Proposals shall remain valid through 1 June 2022”. Most of our vendors are only guaranteeing their pricing for 1 week with none of them going past 30 days. Not knowing how the current shortages across the entire spectrum of bldg. materials is going to play out in the next year, asking all the potential Contractors to assign a cost to this unknown will result in wild discrepancies in the proposal prices. Please reconsider.

The Government is aware of increased pricing due to the recent pandemic but as manufactures start ramping up productions prices should stabilize and the offeror should negotiate with their vendor to secure pricing.

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Solicitation Section C, Mission Essential Contractor Services Plan requirement: This paragraph requires the contractor to draft and submit the previous mentioned Plan. Please advise to what assumptions this plan can be based on. For example, how should a civilian contractor assume or define how access to a DOD facility can be maintained in the case of a Crisis. Realizing that in the case of a event, all rules, restriction and procedures will be defined and enforced by the DOD. The contractor would only “reacting” to any newly defined Threat Levels. Please offer an explanation to the intent of this plan and how it could or could not be implemented by a Contract Modification.

See amendment 002, Solicitation Section C revised language. Language changed eliminating the need for a plan.

Please define the role and expectations of the “Reserve Pool Vendors /On-Ramp pool”. If a contractor is defined as a “Reserve-Pool” vendor, a substantial monitory investment and expense will be required to maintain a staff and a state of readiness during the “wait and see” or standby period. Realizing this Pool of “On-ramp” contractor is sitting ideal in reserve, waiting to be contacted, it may not be sustainable, how or will the Government monitor or communicate with its pool of potential resources to ensure their “On Ramp” pool is available and positioned to be responsive?

Solicitation Section H paragraph 2.2 defines procedures on the process to on-ramp a contractor. The Government will determine time-line on whether to on/off ramp based on factors listed. Contractors will be notified at least 30 days prior to award after determining if the contractor is still eligible and past performance is maintained or improved. The government does not require or expect any offeror to maintain readiness to immediately begin performance. Also, there is NO guarantee that any offeror that does not receive one of the initial IDIQ contracts will ever receive a contract.

Please confirm the specific FAR BAA that will be applicable to this contract. Will this contract be administrated and executed under 52.225-9?

FAR clause 52.225-9 is not included in the solicitation and will not be part of any resulting contract. The solicitation does include clause 52.225-11.

Proposal due date is June 1st, 2021. Could the due date be pushed to June 4th to accommodate Memorial Day holiday?

See amendment 0002, Proposal due date was extended to 8 Jun 2021.

Attachment 7 of the RFP has a contract specific PPQ form. Please confirm that the submission of completed CPARS evaluations will be allowed as well as the provided form.

Offerors are not expected to provide CPARS reports. The government will access those during evaluations if desired.

Attachment 7 of the RFP has a contract specific PPQ form. Please confirm that the direct submission of a similar (NAVFAC/USACE Form PPQ-0) from a customer/client will also be an acceptable submission for a

PPQ.

The government has created a specific PPQ form with questions specific to this acquisition. Alternate forms will not be accepted and will make any resultant proposal not compliant with the requirements of the solicitation.

The RFP requires the submission of responses in Microsoft Office format. Please confirm that the submission in PDF format will also be allowed.

Unless the exception noted in the solicitation applies (for documents provided by the government as a PDF), PDFs will not be accepted and will make any resultant proposal not compliant with the requirements of the solicitation.

No format has been provided for the Part IIIa – Past Performance Quality as part of the RFP. Please confirm there is no specific format for projects under this section.

Correct. The contractor is to determine format which includes the past performance information required in solicitation Section L, B.4.(a) & (d) and complies with the file formats required in C.4.l.

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In regards to section: (l) All files must be in Microsoft Office format and must be able to be opened on Government computers. Documents provided by the Government in PDF format are exempt from this requirement and maybe submitted in PDF format. The same format used for the initial proposal shall be used for the final proposal resulting from any discussions and/or updates, if applicable. Offerors are advised to submit proposals in time to verify that the Government received the files and that the files can be opened and read. The Government is not responsible if files submitted are not readable or are in the wrong format. Replacement files will not be accepted after the deadline for submittal of proposals. All spreadsheets must be unlocked and all formulas must be included and readable by the Government.

Question: Will pdf be an acceptable format to use?

Unless the exception noted in the solicitation applies (for documents provided by the government as a PDF), PDFs will not be accepted and will make any resultant proposal not compliant with the requirements of the solicitation.

In regards to section: PART I:

TITLE: Summary and Misc. Data (File Name: Part I) Electronic copy: 1, Page limit N/A Page limit: Only required documents will be accepted (See B 2 Part I -Summary and Miscellaneous data)

PART II:

TITLE: Price (File Name: Part II) Electronic copy: 1 Page limit: Completed Attachment J-4 will be accepted (See B 3 Part II -Price Proposal) Question: Does this mean each part (PART I, PART II, PART IIIa, etc.) needs to be a separate file/file name/attachment, or does that mean each file/filename is labeled accordingly and the entire combined proposal, including all parts, can be one document?

Each part (PART I, PART II, PART IIIa, etc.) needs to be in their own separate file/file name/attachment, and not combined into one document.

In regards to section: (b) Part IIIb Past Performance Questionnaires: Past Performance Questionnaires (PPQs) shall be used by the offeror in obtaining and providing past performance information. The government requires the offeror send out a PPQ to each of the Points-of-Contact (POCs) identified in the Past Performance Proposal (paragraph (d) below). The offeror shall send out the PPQ (Attachment J-7), using the Past Performance Evaluation Cover Letter (Attachment J-6), to each of its references.

Question: If PPQ has been sent to the client, do you require anything from us in the Part IIIb Past Performance Questionnaire section?

No.

26 Will the Government accept CPARS in lieu of PPQs? No. PPQs are required.

Pg 5, Section C, Description/Specifications/Statement of Work, Blocks 11, 12a and 13b applies to the task order level. Please confirm that this is referring to SF 1442.

Yes.

28 Pg. 59,Section L, L-01 B2, Is the SF 1442 and any amendments required to be digitally signed? No. Can be signed digitally or hand written and scanned.

Pg. 60, Section L, L-01 B4, PART IIIb: If Past Performance Questionnaire (PPQ) is being submitted to Customer, completed and submitted by them directly to you. What is the Offeror supposed to submit in this section?

The contractor has no requirement to submit documents for this part.

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Pg. 1-2 Attachment 7, Past Performance Question, Please clarify is the first page of the Past Performance Questionnaire to be completed by the Contractor or the Customer?

The customer should be providing the necessary information. The offeror will need to identify to the customer which project or contract the PPQ is about.

Pg. 60, Section L, 60 Section L L-01.4(d) Past Performance Information: Where is the past performance information to be placed in the past performance volume? Does it fall under Part IIIa, Quality and Satisfaction Rating of Contracts?

Amendment 002, Solicitation Section L, paragraph B,4 (a) will be amended to reflect B.4.(d). The two page contract information is to be included in Part IIIa, Quality and Satisfaction Rating of Contracts.

Pg. 63, Section L, L-01C4(b) Solicitation states “Each Part shall contain Cross References”. Will Cross References be counted against the page limit?

No. Amendment 002 Solicitation Section L, L-01 C4(b) updates paragraph.

Pg. 63, Section L, L-01C4(I)(i) Each Part shall be complete in itself and shall not reference information contained in other Parts. Please define Cross References in L-01.C(b).)

If utilized, it is a simple matrix quickly linking the proposal instructions to evaluation criteria to the statement of work. The editable Word document includes the space to let the evalutor know where the requirement is addressed within your proposal.

Pg. 70 Section M, M-01.a Solicitation states that this is a competitive subjective tradeoff best value source selection. The Government reserves the right to award a contract to other than the lowest Total Evaluated Price. This contradicts Attachment 3+FOPR-Seed+Project+20210503+Amendment 1 Item 14. Award shall be made to the lowest priced offeror based upon the total construction cost for CLIN 0001 determined to have met the solicitation requirement and whose price can be determined fair and reasonable. Please clarify

These are not the same award and do not have the same criteria.

The IDIQ contract is a subjective tradeoff best value selection based on price and past performance to award to not more than four awardees.

The FOPR is for the seed project and will be awarded to the lowest price proposal from the four awardees.

Paragraph 4.7 in the SOW outlines required submissions with each price response. This seems excessive especially for short term low dollar projects. Will the FOPR for each task order list the required documents for submission? Is there a price threshold where all the listed items won’t be required? There are some different parameters that only apply to the seed project. Are all the requirements in 4.7 and its subparagraphs required for the seed project? Submission requirements in Section L 3. Part II indicate only the Attachment J-4 Price Schedule is to be submitted. Please clarify the submission requirements.

Mini-MACC SOW provides standardized specifications to be utilized in conjunction with the inidividual FOPR task orders. The only requested information for the seed project is a completed Attachment 4 Price Schedule.

Pricing for the seed project is due in early June 21. The Mini- MACC is indicated to not be awarded until early Oct 21. Assuming the TO cannot be awarded until all the main contract documents are in place, we are looking at early Nov 21 at the earliest, however the FOPR requires the contractor to hold the pricing until Jun 22. As we are all painfully aware material pricing and freight are extremely volatile right now and suppliers will not hold their pricing for that duration. Will the Government have in place an avenue to compensate contractors if there is an excessive price increase in materials from time of proposal to award?

Generally, for future TO submission what is the anticipated duration a contractor could expect from the date of submission to notice of selection?

The Government is aware of increased pricing due to the recent pandemic but as manufacturers start ramping up productions the prices should stabilize. Offerors should negotiate with their vendor to secure pricing.

Once the IDIQ is awarded TOs will typically be awarded within a few months of proposal submission.

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Section B indicates TO’s can have up to a maximum value of $2,000,000.00. Elsewhere in the documents it references TO’s cannot exceed $1,000,000.00. Please clarify.

The Government is unsure what "other documents" are being referenced, but if referring to Attachment 3 FOPR Seed Project paragraph 4 mentions $500,000 to $1,000,000 as it provides offerors the estimated "Magnitude of Construction" in accordance with FAR 36.204.

Documents indicate the Main contract will not start Until Oct 11, 2021. Will the selected contractors be notified prior to the that? What is the time table for notification?

The IDIQ contract start date is a tentative date and could be awarded earlier contingent on proposal evalautions being completed and award decisions being made earlier. Awardees will not be notified until the government is ready to award.

Referencing the FOPR dated 4/30/21, Item 13 states “Complete and submit the attached price schedule (Attachment J-4) with your proposals. Proposals shall remain valid through 1 Jun 2022.” QUESTION:

Currently, the escalation of certain materials in the United States is so volatile, that material suppliers are only quoting some materials for a period of 24 hours. This being said, does the government want our proposals to reflect prices as of May 28, 2021?

The Government is aware of increased pricing due to the recent pandemic but as manufactures start ramping up productions prices should stabilize and the offeror should negotiate with their vendor to secure pricing.

Is the prebid site visit sign-in sheet going to be posted to Beta-Sam? See Amendment 0002

Beta.SAM Amend 002 - 1-40