Questions and Answers 5 Nov 2020.pdf

5 Nov 2020 Questions and Answers – Strategic Replenishment Contract

1. Question: Based on the governments’ response to Question 4, dated 25 September 2020, is the government suggesting the use of a Contractor Teaming Arrangements (CTAs) as noted in FAR Part 9.601 vs. a traditional Joint Venture/Teaming Agreement?

Answer: No, the Government is not suggesting the use of either agreement. Question number four provided the FAR definitions for these arrangements as question number 4 was whether the terms were interchangeable.

2. Question: Please advise of due date for the SRC proposal.

Answer: The deadline will be 30 days after the formal RFP is released. The current estimated RFP release date is 30 Nov 2020.

3. Question: Please confirm a Past Performance Contract from United States Federal Government may include a Subcontract from a US Prime Contractor. This clarification is associated with Section L, Paragraph C.2 "Past Performance Format".

Answer: Yes, IF the subcontract is for United States Federal Government, state and/or local governments, Foreign Military Sales or their agencies.

Section M.II.C.2 states the following: “please note that the offeror/joint venture member shall be the party to submit all performance information in the PPI Tool. Contracts listed may include those with any of the following: United States Federal Government, state and/or local governments, Foreign Military Sales or their agencies. Commercial contracts will not be considered as a part of this evaluation”.

4. Question: Is the PPI tool available yet for this effort?

Answer: Yes, it is posted as an attachment titled PPI

5. Question: Can the AF provide the estimated activity level for this contact over the first three contract years (e.g. how many NSNs and in what estimated quantities)?

Answer: There are no estimated quantities at this time. The individual orders will include definitive quantities.

6. Question: How will the AF determine which vendors are qualified to produce the listed

NSNs?

Answer: Previous acquisition history and qualified sources lists are maintained by the Individual Program Teams and will be provided with each RFP for individual orders.

7. Question: When will the AF be providing the qualified sources list and will it be made public?

Answer: At the individual delivery order level when the RFP for each order is issued.

8. Question: As written, the RFP has no provision for qualifying additional sources of supply; so, this appears to be a bundle of 10-year sole source contracts to certain vendors.

Answer: The contract is a multiple award contract with items that may include technical data packages and/or a list of qualified offerors. The Statement of Work references the first article process and testing as well as the qualification process for new components.

For purposes of configuration control and to minimize cost, the SRC strategy is to utilize qualified sources first. In the event the vendor is unable to obtain a quote from a qualified source, they can submit a quote from an alternate source for review and consideration as pertains to configuration and cost control. Many of the NSNs have multiple approved vendors. For those in which the vendor must go to the OEM, this contract is still competitive in nature, as the multiple sourcing vendors will have to adjust their proposed prices to compete.

9. Question: Will the AF be including a Conflict of Interest Clause to preclude a potential winner of this contact from also offering their own products as a supplier? There is at least one potential NSN supplier which is also a likely bidder on this contract.

Answer: No, the resulting contract(s) will not include a conflict of interest clause because the contract does not create one as outlined in FAR 9.502. After the task order is accepted by a contractor it will be the contractor’s responsibility to fulfill it. The prime contractor will be a sourcing contractor for any individual order that is issued. The prime contractor will have the option of contacting the qualified source(s) provided by the Government at the time of issuing the order. It is possible that a sourcing contractor could elect to manufacture one of the items because it is one of the approved sources or it intends to submit itself as an alternate source for qualification.