Amendment 0001 Questions and Answers.pdf

Document Section Question Answer

AFSTS Scope and Ordering Guide

Section 4.3

The RFP states "Awarded AFSTS vendors are only allowed to receive two (2) marginal technical proposal ratings during the five

(5) year ordering period. After receipt of the second marginal technical rating, the vendor will be off ramped (removed) as an AFSTS IDIQ vendor and will no longer be able to propose on future task order requests." Should the word "second" in the preceding sentence be changed to "third" as awarded AFSTS vendors may receive two marginal technical proposal ratings during the five (5) year ordering period, but not a third?

Updated paragraph to read, "After receipt of the thrid marginal technical rating, the vendor will be off ramped…..".

Updated Scope and Ordering Guide.

Attachment 2 - Addendum to 52_212-2 Evaluation - Commercial

Items

5.1.4.1

If a prime contractor is proposing with a team of subcontractors (not a joint venture), are fully executed teaming agreements required to be delivered with the Small Business Commitment Document in addition to the agreement memos that are delivered with the Tier declaration?

Yes.

Attachment 2 - Addendum to 52_212-2 Evaluation - Commercial

Items

5.1.4.1

If fully executed teaming agreements are required to be provided, should they be delivered with the Small Business Commitment Document and are they excluded from page count limitations?

Yes, executable teaming agreements should be delivered with the Small Business Commitment Document. The executable agreements are excluded from page count.

DD-254 Ref. 10.f

Recent DCSA guidance has indicated that T5 investigations should be conducted every 6 years. Please confirm that in order to access the SAP, investigations must have been conducted within the past 6 years instead of within 5 years as referenced in the DD Form 254.

We will follow the guidance of the security office. Updates to investigation timelines will be revised upon security office guidance.

Attachment 1 - Addendum to 52_212-1 - Instructions to Offerors -

Commercial Items

3.2.2

The RFP states "When text is included within displays, it may be no smaller than 8 point, but must be clearly legible without magnification, as determined solely by the CO." Please confirm that "displays" includes graphics, charts, figures, and tables.

Graphs, charts, figures, and tables may be no smaller than 8 point. Updated RFP.

Attachment 1 - Addendum to 52_212-1 - Instructions to Offerors -

Commercial Items

Section 2.5.2

Please provide clarification on what date offerors need to provide a listing of attendees and their roles during the presentation with a one (1) page bio for the executives?

The offerors shall provide a listing of attendees and their roles and the executive bio 48 hrs prior to the date of the scheduled oral presentation.

Updated RFP.

Attachment 1 - Addendum to 52_212-1 - Instructions to Offerors -

Commercial Items

Section 2.5.2

Please provide clarification on whether the one (1) page bio for the executives means one page bio for each of the four executives attending orals (4 pages total), or a one page summary bio of the four executives?

Executive bios shall be one (1) page per executive. Bios are not included in any page count.

Updated RFP.

AFSTS Scope and Ordering Guide

Section 10.1 Appendix 2

The attachment icons at the end of the ordering guide do not link to any documents. Will the government provide these final attachments separately?

Attached to ammendment

Solicitation Supplies or

Services and Prices/Cost

Please confirm that pricing is not required for this RFP - including completing the "unit price" and "amount" fields in the Supplies or Services and Prices/Cost sheet included in the solicitation?

Pricing is not a factor for this

RFP

Attachment 3 - DD Form form Can you please confirm that we should use the provided DD254? A newer version of the document was published in May 2019.

Thank you for the update. The new form will be used upon award. This form is just to collect information.

Solicitation Various Please advise the appropriate volume in which offerors should include the signed SF1449 and reps and certs.

Please submit reps and certs wih Volume 1a

Attachment 1 Attachment 1 – 3

“the Government intends to make award based on initial offers received without discussions but reserves the right to hold discussions” Please clarify that the government will evaluate all sub-factors (1, 2, 3, and 5) to include Oral Presentations, in addition to the written slides, when determining acceptability.

Yes, the Government will evaluate everything; to include what is on the charts and what is presented orally.

Attachment 1

2.2.1.2 DD

Form 254, Contract Security Classification Specifications &

3.1.1 Table 2

For Step 1, the instructions at 3.1.1 Table 2 states that the DD254 should be one (1) page. The RFP version of the DD254 is 12 pages and completing blocks 7a – c increases the page count further.

Will the government please confirm that the DD254 may be more than one page?

Updated to 3 pages. Updated

RFP.

Attachment 1

2.2.1.4 Small

Business Subcontracting Plan

Will the government please confirm that the offeror may unilaterally determine the estimated prime contract total dollar value to include in the subcontracting plan based on FAR 52.219-9 requirements? If the answer is no, what number should the offeror utilize?

Attachment 1

2.2.1.4 Small

Business Subcontracting Plan

The government references a minimum subcontracting percentage of 32% to small businesses. Will the government please confirm whether the 32% goal is based on subcontracting dollars or total contract value of Task Orders?

Offerors shall use $100M as the total contract value for small business subcontracting plan purposes. Updated RFP.

Attachment 1 Section 2.1.3.2

Section 2.1.3.2 – Regarding Corporate experience. Please clarify – Fortune 300 or Fortune 500 companies. The link is to Fortune 500 companies.

While the list displays Fortune 500 companies, please utilize Fortune 1-300 companies from this list.

Attachment 1 Section 2.5.1

Attendance Requirements for Orals. Please provide the Governments definition of both an Engagement Executive and Transformation Executive.

Engagement Executive - Lead executive for engagement with high level clients.

Transformation Executive - Lead executive for transformation with high level clients. Updated

RFP

After completing Step 1 with Subcontractor Teaming agreement Memorandum, can an offeror continue to add Teaming Partners and submit those Letters of Intent with Step 2 and be acceptable?

No.

During Industry Day, 18 February 2020, it was discussed the OCI restrictions would be changed to being applicable at the Task Order level not the IDIQ level. Did the Government change that intent?

Please see Paragraph 9 in the scope and ordering guide

Can the Government please provide more context regarding the OCI restrictions? Are all offerors awarded an IDIQ contract subject to the restrictions in 5352.209-9000 Organizational Conflict of Interest?

There are currently no OCI restrictions. The task request are unknown. See paragraph

9.0 in the scope and ordering guide.

Do you have any information you can pass along about potential changes to the timeline of this solicitation? Just in the past week, we have noticed that other industry days and solicitations have been changed to a virtual format in response to COVID-19. Our team will need to travel weekly to the local Washington D.C. area to prepare for oral presentations which at this time would be against our corporate guidance and requires our Chief Executive Officer approval. We would sincerely appreciate any update from your office so we can prepare appropriately.

Not at this time. We are hoping that things clear up by then but we are preparing some courses of action just in case.

Can the Government provide the current number of existing Tier 2 Task Orders that require a Secret and Top Secret clearance? This enables the offeror to preposition staff for pending opportunities beginning in late June 2020.

Unknown at this time

Can the Government please provide more details regarding the process of evaluating the best value of the offerors that are considered technically acceptable?

Please review the evaluation criteria. Updated the RFP.

Can we add subcontractors post proposal and after award? The government clearly stated the proposal timeline, but what is the timeline for the government to award Technically Acceptable Offerors for AFSTS?

Subcontractors can not be added after tier decliration or prior to award. Subcontractors can be added after award.

Where is the work required to be performed? Performance location is dependent on the requirement owner

Is remote support/work allowable for the AFSTS contract?

Dependent on the requirement/requirement owner

What are the key evaluation points the government is looking for in the IDIQ Staffing Plan or how will the government judge IDIQ Staffing Plan as an effective?

See Attachment 1

General Questions

Solicitation

DFARS

5352.209-9001

DFARS 5352.209-9001 requires offers to “As a part of the proposal, the offeror shall provide the Contracting Officer with complete information of previous or ongoing work that is in any way associated with the contemplated acquisition.”

Can the government please confirm where the information should be included within the submitted proposal?

Shall include with OCI mitigation plan after award. See Paragraph 9.0 in Ordering Guide

Attachment 1 Volume 1b Submission

Due Date for Volume 1b: Can the Government confirm that all Offerors will be required to submit Volume 1b on the same date and time as identified in Section 2.5.3, as opposed to the timeline defined in Section 2.2.7 ( “1 Day Prior to the offeror’s scheduled presentation”). We assume not all presentations will occur on the same day.

Updated Section 2.5.3.

Attachment 1

Section 2.1.3

Please confirm that this restriction applies to all entities affiliated with an Offeror, including but not limited to wholly owned subsidiaries, legal partnerships, and parent organizations. For example, Offerors are not permitted to perform work in both Tiers as a Prime and/or Subcontractor under their affiliates, wholly owned subsidiaries, legal partnerships, etc. (e.g., a company creating a separate company/JV/subsidiary/affiliate so they can bid both Tiers is not allowed).

Upated Section 2.1.3.

Attachment 1 Section 3.1

Please confirm the allowable file size for all email submissions. We are considering not only the submission via Outlook, but also the allowable size of the file used at Orals that has to go through AFNet.

Updated Section 3.1

Attachment 1

Section 3.1

Please consider extending the page limitation for the SBSP to 50 pages. Master SBSP agreements and applicable attachments to be compliant with the FAR are generally much more 30 pages.

Updated to 50 pages

Attachment 4 Section 8.10

The government indicates: "8.10.1 Staffing of Contractor Personnel. This is a Professional Services Advisory and Assistance Contract. Contractor shall provide a qualified, experienced, and stable workforce, throughout the duration of the contract, and maintain a 20% or less employee turnover rate. Key personnel shall not be vacant for more than 14 calendar days. The government shall not be billed for key personnel positions left vacant over 10 calendar days unless the vacancy is due to government delay and otherwise approved by the CO. This is a performance based contract;

however, turnover affects the Government’s ability to focus on the mission when contractors have to gain or re-grain building access, computer access, etc. The requirement to keep employee turnover rate at or less than 20% will be based on the number of employees submitted in the accepted proposal."

Question: Please confirm the vacancy window is 14 calendar days for key personnel.

Confirmed

Oral Presentation Oral Presentation

Factor 1, Corporate Experience: Will the government confirm that, in conjunction with non-compete agreements with commercial customers, written artifacts (PPT) can refer to the industry (e.g., Fortune 100 Manufacturing Company), and during the oral presentation attendees will refer to the client’s name?

No. See attachment 2 paragraph 5.1.1.3. However, see answer below.

Oral Presentation Oral Presentation

Factor 1, Corporate Experience: Will the government confirm that, in conjunction with non-compete agreements with commercial customers, contact information for commercial client POC can be provided directly to the Contracting Officer in writing, under separate cover from the PPT submission (vs.

inclusion in the PPT)?

If informaiton is prvided separately, it is the responsibility of the Offeror to correlate the oral presentation to the separate document.

Attachment 1 3.1.1 Can an executive summary be included in volume 1a? Does it count against page limits?

This is at the Offerors discretion. There is no slide limitations

Attachment 1 Table 2 What are the slide limits for subfactor 1 corporate experience?

Updated table 2.

Attachment 1 4.1.4.1

Can you confirm small business targets are for % of subcontracted dollars, or are for overall IDIQ, or are for each task order?

Overall IDIQ. Updated RFP.

Attachment 1 4.8 Should a column be added for "nature of commitment" to Table 5 in the SBCD?

No.

Attachment 1

4.1.4

In order to calculate and propose an appropriate annual minimum quantitative requirement (MQR) percentage for small business utilization, an Offeror requires the total contract value (TCV) as the denominator (per Attachment 1, 4.1.4.1). Please confirmthat Offerors may use a Total Contract Value of $100M when calculating the MQR percentages.

No. This is applicable to the subcontracting plan not the MQR due to task orders being unknown. The Government request a target percentage at the IDIQ level for the SBCD.

Attachment 1

4.1.1.1

As discussed at the AFSTS Pre-Proposal Conference on February 18th, please confirm that the Government's intent is to assess the Prime's level of effort of 50% aggregated at the IDIQlevel, NOT at the individual task order level.An annual assessment of Prime participation of 50%, aggregated at the IDIQ level, is recommended as it allows for higher small business and non-traditional small business participation on specific task orders where their niche skills are needed.

No. Prime level of effort is assessed at the individual task orer level.

Attachment 1

Table 5

Per the instructions in Attachment 1 section 4.1.4.4 to provide the nature of commitment with each small business/NTSB subcontractor, please confirm that Offerors may add a column to Table 5 for "Nature of Commitment."

Column added for "Nature of commitment."

Attachment 1 2.1.3.2

The solicitation states, "Corporate experience successfully performing studies, research and analysis and developing transformational strategies and implementation plans for Fortune 1-300 companies…" Would the government consider changing this to the Global 1 - 500 companies to include companies that do a preponderance of their business in the US?

No

Attachment 4 Off Ramp

The scope and ordering guide states, “Awarded AFSTS vendors are only allowed to declare a “no bid” two (2) consecutive times OR no more than three (3) times annually (per ordering period year). Whichever threshold is met first, the vendor will be off ramped (removed) as an AFSTS IDIQ vendor and will no longer be able to propose on future TOPRs.” Please consider removing this requirement or increasing the number of permitted “no bids” for small businesses. In addition, please consider excluding “no bids” for OCI reasons.

See 9.0 in Scope and Ordering Guide

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