Questions_and_Answers_2.docx

FA9401-15-R-8019

Technical Order Support and Logistics Management Administrative Support

10 FEB 15

QUESTIONS and ANSWERS 2

1. Your package contains Small Business instructions, but it is unclear if there is a small business set aside requirement. Is there a Small Business requirement with this solicitation?

Response: This is an unrestricted acquisition, see block 10 of the SF 1449.

2. We are a Small Business under NAICS code 541330, does this require us to produce a Small Business Plan for this solicitation?

Response: Each NAICS code has a different threshold for determining Small Business size standard. Block 10 of the SF 1449 identifies that the size standard for this acquisition as $15M for NAICS 541990.

A size standard is the largest that a concern can be and still qualify as a small business for Federal Government programs. For the most part, size standards are the average annual receipts or the average employment of a firm. How to calculate average annual receipts and average employment of a firm can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 13 CFR § 121.104 and 13 CFR § 121.106, respectively. Using this information please determine if you are a small business under NAICS 541990. If you are not a small business, then a Small Business Subcontracting Plan is required.

3. Page 1 of the SF 1449 – Since the solicitation has been pulled apart into 2 sections, Technical Order Support and Logistics Management Administrative Support the NAICS code 541990 is no longer relevant for the TO section. Will the government be changing the NAICS code to account for the division of work?

Response: The government believes that NAICS 541990 is the appropriate code for this effort. The contracting officer’s determination is final unless it is appealed following the procedures identified in FAR 19.303(c).

4. Attachment 1, Appendix 1, page 15 – Will the Government please clarify the “NUMBER OF ITEMS” presented in the FY 13 and FY 14 columns? Are these numbers representative of page counts or individual Technical Orders?

Response: “Number of Items” is referring to the number of job order packages accomplished each FY. Note that under “Workload Type” job order packages are further broken out by type and number of pages.

5. Attachment 1, page 6, paragraph 1.4.1.3. of the PWS TO Support provides timelines for producing changes based on amount of pages in change/revision. Are these the standards to be used, or will the Routine, Urgent, and Emergency standards in specified in TO 00-5-1 be used?

Response: The standards in TO 00-5-1 will not be used. Attachment 1, paragraph 1.4.1.3 identifies the standards for changes to be used for this effort. Urgent and Emergency standards specified in TO 00-5-1 are used for Informational Operational Supplements or Informational Safety Supplements and the government creates and performs these AFTO22/847 changes.

6. Attachment 2, Table 1, Page 5 – Will the Government consider a specified number of years of experience (i.e., 5, 10, etc.) in lieu of a BS/BA requirement? This appears to be very restrictive as Logistics personnel with administrative support experience are readily available in the Government sector and industry without the BS/BA degree requirement.

Response: An Amendment will be issued to revise Attachment 2, Table 1, Logistics Management Administrative Support labor category:

FROM: BS/BA in Management, Logistic, or related field

TO: BS/BA in Management, Logistic, or related field; or a minimum of 5 years experience in Logistics or a related field

7. Is the proposal single spaced or double spaced?

Response: Attachment 4, 52.212-1 Addendum, does not specify the spacing. Either option is acceptable. However, the identified page count limits still apply.

8. Attachment 4, 52.212-1 Addendum, para 2.5.4.3, page 6 states “Typing shall not be less than 12 pitch.” The RFP does not specify pitch for tables, graphics, charts and figures. Will the Government consider amending the proposal to include 8-pitch or 10-pitch for tables, graphics, charts and figures?

Response: No, please use 12 pitch in all documents.

9. Your solicitation calls for Hand delivery of the Response. Is FEDEX or UPS receipted delivery an acceptable option?

Response: Assuming you are referring to Attachment 4, 42.212-1 Addendum, paragraph 2.5.5.1., this paragraph is not requiring that proposals be hand carried. It is just a warning to those who are hand carrying proposals (including FEDEX, UPS, etc) that delays accessing the base should be anticipated. Please see FAR 52.212-1(f) regarding late submissions of proposals.

10. Will the Government consider adding two business days to the past performance information delivery schedule (17 February 2015), to account for shipping of this data in a timely manner as there is a Federal Holiday on 16 FEB 15?

Response: No, we will not change the 17 FEB 15 response date; however, as it is not a requirement to provide early submittal of past performance information (PPI), we will accept all PPI submitted 17 FEB 15 or later until the proposal due date.

11. Past Performance (PP) delivery is currently due on 17 Feb. President’s day is 16 Feb (Government holiday and no mail delivery). Would the government consider changing the PP delivery date to 18 Feb to allow for shipment of documents on the 17th?

Response: See response to question 10.

12. To ensure a common understanding of the term, please clarify your definition of “Severable CLIN.”

Response: This term is mainly used for internal government use. Most commercial service contracts are automatically considered severable, therefore, it is not always included in CLIN descriptions. To use a generic definition, the government receives a benefit each time the service is performed; therefore, it is a severable effort. As opposed to a non-severable effort such as a report, that the government only receives a benefit when the report is complete. Internally to the government severable/non-severable efforts affects the way services can be funded. Normally a non-severable effort must be fully funded at time of award, where as a severable effort may be incrementally funded.

13. In order to accurately propose travel costs, please provide more details for the anticipated travel requirements. What geographical location will these employees be flying to? What time frame will these trips be occurring? How many employees will be traveling at a time? What will be the average duration of the trip?

Response: Travel location, number of employees, and time frames will be identified as the need for each trip arises. The offeror should only propose the Travel costs already identified in the Travel CLINS. Attachment 5, 52.212-2 Addendum paragraph 2.4 states that the total evaluated price will include “the stated price for Travel CLINs.”

An amendment will be issued to revise Attachment 4, 52.212-1, paragraph 2.2.2. to add the following clarifying sentence:

ADD: The proposed pricing for Travel CLINS shall be the dollar value currently stated in each of the Travel CLINS.

14. The Contract Type is Firm Fixed Price with a NTE amount (Base + Option Periods) with no profit allowed. In the PWS “Technical Support” (1.4.3.4) it states travel is to be coordinated & approved by the COR and itemized expenses and substantiating records are to be given to the COR upon return. Will the government consider changing the contact type to “Cost Reimbursable”?

Response: The Government agrees travel should be a cost reimbursable CLIN. Unfortunately the contract writing tool (ConWrite) will not allow a cost CLIN to be created under a commercial contract.

15. Will G&A be considered an allowable cost on travel CLINS? If so, does the designated CLIN value for travel include that burden? Also the Travel CLINS specify “The Contractor shall provide all labor and supplies necessary…” Please confirm that only travel costs are to be incurred under these CLINs, exclusive of labor and supplies.

Response: G&A will not be considered an allowable cost on travel CLINS. The reference to labor will be removed from the CLIN description. An amendment will be issued for each travel CLIN description to revise the first paragraph:

FROM: Severable CLIN. The Contractor shall provide all labor and supplies necessary to perform in accordance with Attachment 1, Performance Work Statement entitled “****” paragraph “****”. There is no profit associated with this CLIN. Excess travel funds will be deobligated at the end of the period.

TO: Severable CLIN. The Contractor shall provide all supplies necessary to perform in accordance with Attachment 1, Performance Work Statement entitled “****” paragraph “****”. There is no profit or G&A associated with this CLIN. Excess travel funds will be deobligated at the end of the period via a bilateral modification.

16. Travel CLINS are specified as FFP, however, the Descriptive Data for each travel CLIN indicates that the CLIN will be cost reimbursable, with no profit. Please Clarify.

Response: See question and answer number 14.

17. Reference all Travel CLINs and the statement “Excess travel funds will be deobligated at the end of the period.” Should these travel CLINS be Cost Reimbursable (CR) rather than Fixed Price (FP)?

Response: See the answer to question 14.

18. You list some FTE as Key personnel, but ask for Letter of Intent. What is the requirement for Letter of Intent for non-key personnel?

Response: Per Attachment 4, 52.212-1 Addendum, paragraph 2.3.1.1.4. Letters of Intent are only required for personnel filling a position identified in the PWS (Attachment 1 or Attachment 2), Table 1 Contractor Personnel Categories.

19. We assume that all letters of intent will be sanitized for any Personally Identifiable Information (PII). This is correct assumption?

Response: Please sanitize all Letters of Intent for PII prior to submitting your proposal (i.e. Social Security Numbers and other unique identifiers).

20. Is the intent to have the Offeror’s propose their estimates of the labor categories and number of FTEs from Table 1 to meet the requirements of this estimated workload (Attachment 1, Appendix 1, Historical Workload)?

Response: All of the requirements in the PWS should be considered when developing your staffing plan. The Attachments 1 and 2, Appendix 1 Historical Workload data is provided to help you determine the magnitude of the effort involved.

21. The RFP/PWS does not specify the amount of hours to be used for a man year. Please provide a standard amount of hours required per year.

Response: The government will not specify the number of hours for a man year as it is dependent upon each offerors unique technical approach. Please see paragraph 4.1 Hours of Operation in both Attachments 1 and 2 for additional information.

22. Are you defining Currency as having performing similar work within the Currency period listed? Of that amount of experience. For example in Attachment 2, Table 1:

"Throughout the life of the contract, personnel must maintain currency of experience as related to the technical requirements of the PWS. Currency is defined as experience within the last 7 years. Followed by "Demonstrate proficiency (minimum of 5 years' experience or 2 years with certification) in use of Microsoft Office products including but not limited to: Word, Excel, PowerPoint. " Is this 7 year experience or 5 years within the last 7?

Response: In the example above, currency is 5 years’ experience within the last 7 years. This logic applies to all currency related questions.

23. Will the government confirm that the Offeror’s staffing plan must include only those labor categories identified in Table 1?

Response: Attachment 4, 52.212-1 Addendum, paragraph 2.3.1.1 and it subparagraphs requires various aspects of the staffing plan to identify all proposed labor categories.

24. Will there not be a monthly status report required for the Logistics Management Administrative support contract?

Response: No, the Logistic effort does not require a monthly status report.

25. Attachments 1 and 2, paragraph 2.1, Quality Assurance, Quality Control Procedures. Is there a contract milestone established to ensure timely delivery to the COR of CDRLS? What is the preferred delivery method and file extension? Example: docx, .pdf?

Response: Exhibits A and B of the solicitation contain all CDRL requirements. DD Form 1423-1, Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) , Blocks 10, 12, and 13 discuss delivery dates. If neither the CDRL nor the associated Data Item Description (DID) identified in the CDRL Block 4 identify a delivery method or file extension type then it is the contractor’s preference. The DIDs can be found at: http://quicksearch.dla.mil/

26. The RFP includes flow down 52.219-09 which requires a small business subcontracting plan. Please provide small goals required for this effort, if any.

Response: This acquisition doesn’t have any unique small business goals that must be met.

27. Would an interim clearance approval by 1 MAY 2015 (or whatever date the contract actually starts after this bid process) be sufficient to bid this as prime and not be disqualified?

Response: An offeror must have a Top Secret Facility Clearance at time of proposal submission.

An amendment will be issued to Attachment 4, 52.212-1 Addendum to add the following paragraph:

ADD: 2.3.1.4. The offeror shall assert that they have a Top Secret Facility Clearance as required by Attachment 3, DD254 DoD Contract Security Classification Specification.

An amendment will also be issued to Attachment 5, 52.212-2 Addendum to add the following paragraph:

ADD: 2.5.1.4. The offeror affirmatively asserted that they have a Top Secret Facility Clearance as required by Attachment 3, DD254 DoD Contract Security Classification Specification.

28. Under clause 52.212-05, clause 52.204-14 Service Contract Reporting Requirements (Jan 2014) is checked which requires reporting of ALL hours using www.SAM.gov. Both Attachments 1 and 2 paragraph 6.0 Contractor Manpower Reporting requires the contractor to report ALL contract hours to the web address: http://www.ecmra.mil. Please tell us if there is a conflict in the clauses or whether we are to report two locations?

Response: An amendment will be issued to remove clause 52.204-14.

29. Is Wage Determination No. 2005-2361 Rev 15, dated 07 /25/14 the latest release?

Response: An amendment will be issued to revise Attachment 6:

FROM: Wage Determination 05-2361 (Rev 15)

TO: Wage Determination 05-2361 (Rev 16)

30. The RFP states that we are to identify the proposed labor category (IAW Attachment 4, paragraph 2.3.1.1.2.) and the proposed labor rate and Health and Welfare rate. Please confirm that we are to insert the information in the narrative portion of Part I-Price Proposal.

Response: That is correct.

31. IAW Table 1 in Attachments 1 and 2, “Contractor Personnel Categories” please provide the DOL SCA labor category occupational code/title for each labor category. This will alleviate all irregularities in mapping among prospective bidders.

Response: It is up to the individual offeror to determine appropriate DOL SCA labor categories based on each offerors unique technical approach.

32. Is it mandatory that we bid all labor positions for both PWS’s as Service Contract Act?

Response: The government believes these efforts are subject to the Depart of Labor (DOL) Wage Determination. However, your technical approach may propose a different option, but the proposal must justify why the DOL Wage Determination does not apply.

An amendment will be issued for the following changes:

Attachment 4, 52.212-1 Addendum, paragraph 2.2.3 shall be revised to ADD: If an offerors technical approach proposes labor categories that are not subject to the Department of Labor (DOL) Wage Determination (Attachment 6), the offeror shall provide justification as to why these labor categories should be excluded. The offeror does not need to include labor rate and Health and Welfare rate for non DOL Wage Determination labor categories.

Attachment 4, 52.212-1 Addendum, paragraph 2.3.1.1.2 shall be revised to ADD: Cross referencing is not required for non DOL Wage Determination labor categories.

Attachment 5, 52.212-2 Addendum, paragraph 2.4 shall be revised to Add: If applicable, offerors proposal adequately justified use of non Department of Labor Wage Determination labor categories.

33. Reference page 2 of Attachment 4 (instructions to offerors) paragraph 2.2.3. A) Is the “proposed labor rate” the base labor rate (hourly rate of pay) or the fully burdened labor rate inclusive of all fringes, overhead, G&A, and fee? B) Is the proposed labor rate requested for any positions that don’t map to the Wage Determination? C) Is the health and Welfare rate only the Health and Welfare rate and not other benefits such as vacation, holiday, taxes, etc that comprise a fringe benefits rate? D) Is the Health and Welfare rate requested to be included for any non-wage determination categories?

Response: A) The proposed labor rate is the base labor rate exclusive of fringes, overhead, G&A and fee. B) If a non-SCA labor category is proposed, the labor rate is not required to be included. However, a justification for use of a non-SCA labor category is required based on technical approach. See answer to Question 32 above. C) Health and Welfare is exclusive of Vacation, Holidays, etc. See Attachment 6 for definitions of Health and Welfare, Vacation and Holidays. D) Health and Welfare rate is not requested to be included for any non-wage determination categories. See answer to Question 32 above.

34. Is NMGRT applicable to the labor and travel associated with this RFP? If so, what county, location code and rate is to be used?

Response: Per FAR 29.401-4(b) NMGRT is only applicable to cost reimbursement contracts.

35. In Attachment 4 , 52.212-2, paragraph 2.6.2. the evaluation criteria states “Past Performance regarding predecessor companies, key personnel who have relevant experience, or subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement will be assessed as highly as past performance information for the principal offeror.” Does this mean that if a company has resumes of individuals with exceptional experience that they out way that of a past performance citation? If this the case, how would this be evaluated since an actual PPQ wouldn’t be submitted to contracting officer?

Response: No, this is not referring to resumes (experience synopsis) that will be evaluated under the Technical Capability Factor. FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iii) requires us to consider this information when making a past performance evaluation. Historically, documentation supporting “key personnel who have relevant experience” is utilized when a company does not have previous contract experience performing similar requirements because they are either entering a new service sector or they are a newly formed company. When used this information is normally submitted as part of the Past Performance Information. If the key person, usually an officer in the company, has worked on a previous contract and may be known, a past performance questionnaire (PPQ) could be submitted on that individual.

36. We are planning to use the same past performance in response to both proposals. As you only sent one questionnaire, may we assume you only need one response for both proposals?

Response: All information required in Attachment 4 paragraph 2.4 and its subparagraphs, except for the Past Performance Questionnaire (PPQ) responses, should be contained in separate proposals per Attachment 4 paragraph 2.1. However, to reduce the burden on responders, a single PPQ which incorporates both efforts on a single contract is acceptable.

37. Attachment 4, page 4, paragraph 2.3.3.1. states “The offeror shall provide their technical approach for accomplishing all requirements described in either Attachment 1 or 2.” In the next paragraph 2.3.2.1.1., specific sections are called out to be addressed that match sections in the PWS: “Attachment 1 Proposals – The technical approach shall specifically address how the offeror will perform Technical Order Support requirements to include Work Assignment/Completion, Formatting, Administrative support and quality assurance.” A similar list is defined in paragraph 2.3.2.1.2. Given the 6 page limit on technical approach, should the proposals be written to describe the approach for ALL requirements in both PWS’s, or just the sections referenced in paragraphs 2.3.2.1.1. and 2.3.2.1.2.?

Response: An amendment will be issued to revise Attachment 4, 52.212-1 Addendum, paragraph 2.3 PART II – TECHNICAL PROPOSAL:

FROM: Limited to no more than 6 pages…

TO: Limited to no more than 10 pages….

An amendment will be issued to revise Attachment 4, 52.212-1 Addendum, paragraph 2.1 to add the following sentence: “The page limitations identified below apply to each separate proposal.”

Attachment 5, 52.212-2 Addendum, paragraph 2.5.2. answers your question regarding the evaluation of “ALL” requirements versus those sections referenced in Attachment 4 paragraphs 2.3.2.1.1. and 2.3.2.1.2. Also remember that Attachment 4, paragraph 2.1 requires separate proposals to be submitted for the efforts described in Attachment 1 and Attachment 2.

38. Attachment 4, 52.212-1 Addendum, paragraph 2.3 Technical Proposal – Would the government please consider changing the page count to allow the contractors to better address all requirements?

Response: Yes, please see response to question 37.