Attachment 9 Section L and M Miscellaneous Text.pdf

Instructions, Conditions, & Notices to Offerors or Quoters

SECTION L- Instructions, Conditions, & Notices to Offerors or Quoters

A.PROPOSAL PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS

(1) To assure timely and equitable evaluation of proposals, offerors must follow the instructions contained herein. Offerors are required to meet all solicitation requirements, including terms and conditions, representations and certifications, and technical requirements. Failure to meet a requirement may result in an offer being ineligible for award.

(2) The response shall consist of three (4) separate parts: Part I - Contract Forms, Part II- Technical

Documentation, Part III- Past Performance, and Part IV- Price.

(3) FORMAT- Documents submitted in response to this solicitation must be fully responsive to and consistent with the following:

(a) Requirements of the RFP (CLINs and PWS) and Government standards and regulations pertaining to the PWS.

(b) Evaluation Factors for Award in Section M of this RFP.

(c) A page is defined as one face of a sheet of paper containing information.

(d) Typing shall not be less than 11 pitch

B. PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS:

(1) GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS - Submit one (1) electronic copy

A proposal shall be prepared in separate volumes with the page limit as follows. The table of contents are exempt from the page limits. The following volumes of material will be submitted:

Volume Title Maximum Page Limits

I CONTRACT FORMS NO LIMIT

II TECHNICAL 125*

III PAST PERFORMANCE (See separate instruction for limitations)

IV PRICE 25**

*See specific instructions under paragraph D - TECHNICAL- VOLUME II.

**Pages should be limited to the minimum number necessary. The 25-page cost/price proposal is a goal not a limit. The Offeror may use additional pages if necessary to comply with public law.

(2) Any technical proposal pages submitted that exceed the page limitations set forth above will not be read or evaluated.

(3) Content. All proposals must be complete and respond directly to the requirements of this solicitation.

C. CONTRACT FORMS - VOLUME I

(1) Offerors are reminded that exceptions to terms and conditions will be considered as part of an integrated assessment of all offers received. Thus, the most effective time to request clarification of, or express an exception to, the terms and conditions set forth in the solicitation is during the proposal preparation stage, i.e. prior to the proposal due date, NOT in your proposal. If your offer includes exceptions to terms and conditions, they must be explained and justified in this Section in sufficient detail to allow the Government to determine the acceptability of your offer without necessitating discussions with your firm. Failure to provide detailed support for your position may, in conjunction with the other evaluation elements identified in Section M, lead to the determination that your proposal does not offer the best overall value to the Government.

(2) 8(a) Program Participation. Offerors shall provide a letter from the Small Business Administration

(SBA) showing proof of current 8(a) status. If the offeror's 8(a) status will expire prior to 01 JUNE 2026, that offeror cannot be considered for contract award.

(3) Cover letter, completed Representation and Certifications found in Section K as well as Attachment 7, and letter from SBA showing proof of current 8(a) status to be included with Volume 1.

D. TECHNICAL - VOLUME II

(1) The Technical Proposal should be specific and complete. Legibility, clarity, and coherence are very important. Your responses will be evaluated against the Technical factor defined in the Evaluation Factors for Award. 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. Do not merely reiterate the objectives or reformulate the requirements specified in the solicitation.

(2) Technical proposals must be fully responsive to and consistent with the requirements of the RFP

(CLINs and PWS) and Government standards and regulations pertaining to the PWS.

(3) The Technical Proposal shall consist of two sections as follows:

(i) Technical Capability/Understanding of the Requirements: The Offeror shall submit a technical plan that illustrates how its specific management and technical capabilities will be used to accomplish the PWS requirements and ensure the performance of quality services and deliverables as identified in the PWS.

The submitted technical plan shall document the Offeror's specific processes and capabilities and not just restate the PWS. The Offeror shall submit its technical approach for achieving the overall objectives of the

PWS during the period of performance (PoP). Offerors proposal shall include a comprehensive approach that reflects an understanding of the work.

(ii) Personnel/Staffing Plan: The Offeror shall submit a staffing plan showing experience in similar work and shall describe their staffing plan to ensure a stable and qualified workforce over the life of the contract by detailing their ability and approach to recruiting and retaining qualified personnel as well as backfill/substitution. Plan shall also discuss the Offeror's approach to minimizing mission disruption within the first 60 days, personnel security clearances and number of cleared personnel available to start on day one of the contract. Offeror's shall outline their staffing approach in an organization chart with Full Time

Equivalents (FTE's) for each Technical Area/CLIN including labor categories as part of their proposal.

E. PAST PERFORMANCE - VOLUME III

(1) PAST PERFORMANCE QUESTIONNAIRES:

(i) The Government will evaluate the quality and extent of offeror's performance deemed relevant to the requirements of this solicitation. The Government will use information submitted by the offeror and other sources, such as other Federal Government offices, Contractor Performance Assessment Reports

System (CPARS) and other Government and commercial sources, to assess performance.

(ii) Offerors shall submit Past Performance Questionnaires (PPQs) for no more than five (5) of the most relevant contracts performed for Federal agencies and commercial customers completed within the last five (5) years (or ongoing) which demonstrate the ability of the offeror to perform the proposed effort. If the offeror intends to fulfill the requirements of this solicitation in a teaming arrangement or joint venture, the offeror must provide complete information as to the teaming arrangement or joint venture including the roles and responsibilities each team member will perform. If involved in a teaming arrangement or joint venture, the offeror shall submit no more than three (3) of the most relevant contracts performed for

Federal agencies and commercial customers completed within the last five (5) years (or ongoing) which demonstrate the ability of the offeror to perform the proposed effort as the prime and no more than three

(3) of the most relevant contracts performed for Federal agencies and commercial customers completed within the last five (5) years (or ongoing) which demonstrate the ability of the subcontractor to perform the proposed effort.

(iii) Subcontractor/ Teaming Partner Consent Letter - Past performance information concerning subcontractor and teaming partners cannot be disclosed to a private party without the subcontractor's or teaming partner's consent. Because a prime contractor is a private party, the Government will need consent before disclosing subcontractor/teaming partner past performance information to the Prime during exchanges. Offerors shall submit formal consent letters, if applicable, with the past performance information to the Government POC's by the closing date and time of this solicitation. Consent letters shall include the specific past performance information/contract authorized for Prime disclosure, subcontractor POC information and reference this solicitation number FA875126R0004.

(iv) Offerors will fill out Section A pages 2-3 of the PPQ and then provide the entire PPQ pages (1 - 8) to each reference and then request that the references return the PPQs directly to the Government by 13

March (See Attachment No. 6 for further instructions).

(v) On a separate sheet of paper, offerors shall clearly describe the relevance to this solicitation of each project in which PPQ's were submitted to a reference.

Relevance is defined in sub paragraph below.

Page Limitation: 1 additional sheet per reference/contract is allowed.

F. PRICE - VOLUME IV

(1) For proposal pricing purposes, Offeror should assume contract start date of 01 JUNE 2026.

(2) The Government anticipates that the conditions for adequate price competition will exist. Upon examination of the initial offers, the Government will review this determination and if, in the Government's opinion, adequate price competition exists no additional information will be required.

(3) However, if at any time during this competition the Government determines that adequate price competition no longer exists; offerors may be required to submit information to the extent necessary for the contracting officer to determine the reasonableness and affordability of the price.

(4) Complete your price proposal by inserting the proposed unit and extended prices for each Contract

Line Item Number (CLIN), including ALL option periods, within the Proposal Template included as

Attachment No. 3 to the RFP. Insert the proposed labor categories and number of hours per category for each CLIN so that the Government can evaluate the offeror's staffing approach. The extended amount must equal the whole dollar unit price multiplied by the number of units, and must be evenly divisible by

12.

(5) The Price Factor will be evaluated for reasonableness and balance and will be determined to be fair and reasonable IAW FAR 13.106-3(a). The Government intends to evaluate offers and award a contract without discussions.

(6) PROGRAM EFFORT. This data is provided only for the purpose of calculating prices. Offerors should make the following technical assumptions: (1) EQUIPMENT: there are approximately 44 equipment accounts with nearly 3000 items total; (2) Information Technology Asset Management Equipment (ITAM):

there are approximately 52 ITAM accounts and 11,066 items total including 1 account at Newport NY and

1 account at Stockbridge NY, of which both require annual inventory; additional trips to Newport and

Stockbridge NY may be required for inspections; (3) MAILROOM: Requires mail pickup and delivery at 24 local inhouse Active Distribution Offices daily. Two mail runs required each day averages 50 internal/external mail items plus managing approximately 25 FedEx/UPS packages weekly. TECHNICAL

LIBRARY: Support government librarian with approximately 18,000 volumes/physical titles, 23 databases, and access to more than 6,500 online and print journals in Applied Sciences, Physical Sciences and

Mathematics supporting RDT&E. The Government’s estimated full time equivalent (FTE) is 16.

(7) Period for Acceptance of Offers. The offeror agrees to hold the prices in its offer firm through 01 JUNE

2026.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE CHANGE HISTORY

Many companies have acquired, have been acquired by, or have otherwise merged with other companies, and/or reorganized their divisions, business groups, subsidiary companies, etc. and these changes have taken place during the time of performance of relevant efforts or between conclusion of recent past efforts and this requirement. As a result, it is sometimes difficult to determine what Past

Performance is relevant to this acquisition. To facilitate the organizational changes, to include specific names and dates. If not applicable, the contractor shall state that no organizational structure changes have occurred for verification of compliance.

PRE-PROPOSAL SITE VISIT

A site visit has been tentatively scheduled for 12 February 2026 at 0900 EST. Offerors wishing to attend must create a DBIDS Pre- Enrollment Request on on https://dbids-global-enroll.dmdc.mil and email the

QR confirmation code to Brooke.McDonald@us.af.mil at least one week prior to scheduled site visit.

Participants will report to the Visitor Control Center (VCC) AFRL/Information Directorate, 304 Brooks Rd, Rome, NY 13441 for badging. Be sure to bring your Real ID and QR code confirmation page with you to present to the VCC representative. You will then meet your sponsor at Building 3, at 0900. Visitors are required to have a Real ID to gain access to the site. Without a Real ID, other acceptable forms of IDs are: Passport, Birth certificate or SSN.

CONTRACTOR INQUIRIES

Formal communications/inquiries, such as requests for clarification and/or information concerning this solicitation MUST be in writing. When addressing questions concerning any aspect of the solicitation, state the page number, section, and paragraph number needing clarification. Submit inquiries to

Brooke.McDonald@us.af.mil with a copy to Jenna.Tarbania@us.af.mil.

METHODS OF RESPONSE

The electronic form of the proposal will be considered official and should be sent by email to

Brooke.McDonald@us.af.mil with a copy to Jenna.Tarbania@us.af.mil.

Please note that the following will not be considered: proposals submitted by facsimile alone or alternate proposals.

Evaluation Factors for Award

SECTION M- Evaluation Factors for Award

EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

The Government intends to evaluate offers and award a contract without discussions with offerors.

Therefore, the offeror's initial offer should contain the offeror's best terms from a price and technical standpoint. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct discussions if later determined by the

Contracting Officer to be necessary. The Government may reject any or all offers if such action is in the public interest; accept other than the lowest offer; and waive informalities and minor irregularities in offers received.

Addendum to FAR 52.212-2:

(a) BASIS FOR CONTRACT AWARD: The Government intends to award a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract. A best value competitive selection will be conducted in accordance with tradeoff processes pursuant to FAR Parts 12 and 13. The Government will select the best overall offer, based upon

Performance-Price Tradeoff (PPT) of those offers found technically passing.

A contract may be awarded to the Offeror who is deemed responsible in accordance with the FAR, whose proposal conforms to the solicitation's requirements (to include all stated terms, conditions, representations, certifications, and all other information required by Section L of this solicitation) and is judged, based on the evaluation factors, to represent the best value to the Government. The Government will compare differences in performance confidence with differences in price. In making this comparison the Government values superior performance confidence more than price. The Government may make an award at a higher overall price to achieve superior performance confidence. This may result in an award to other than the lowest priced Offeror. The tradeoff will only occur between prices and performance records as stated in the below evaluation process:

(1) All proposals will be evaluated on a pass/fail technical basis.

(2) All technically passed proposals will then be evaluated to determine if the price is reasonable and balanced. All technically passed proposals whose price is found to be reasonable and balanced will then be ranked by total evaluated price. Total evaluated price is the sum of prices for the base year and all option years. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s).

(3) Past performance will be evaluated on the lowest priced technically passed offeror whose price is found to be reasonable and balanced. If past performance is not found to be of "Substantial Confidence," the next lowest priced offeror's past performance will be evaluated and the process will continue (in order by price) until an offeror is rated "Substantial Confidence," or until all offerors are evaluated. An integrated assessment best value award decision shall be made.

(4) Offerors are required to submit documentation addressing each of the evaluation factors. If no documentation is supplied to evaluate any of one of the factors, the Government reserves the right to find the proposal unacceptable without further review. The Government also reserves the right to reject a proposal if it is evaluated to be unreasonable in terms of program commitments, including contract terms and conditions, or unbalanced high or low in price when compared to government estimates, such that the proposal is deemed to reflect an inherent lack of competence or failure to comprehend requirements and/or the complexity and risks thereof. At the discretion of the Contracting Officer, award may be made without discussions; therefore each initial proposal should contain the Offeror's best terms from both a technical and price stand point.