Amendment_1_Questions_and_Answers.pdf

RFQ No. FDA-SOL-1216425A Amendment 1 – Questions and Answers

The purpose of this amendment is to answer questions raised by potential offerors.

Question #1: In the base year, the RFQ states 12 initial courses.

a. Is this 12 different courses with different content, or 1 course delivered 12 times?

b. In the base year after week 4, the RFQ asks for 12 deliveries. Are they consecutive?

c. If not, how much time apart are the deliveries?

Answer #1:

a. This will be one (1) initial course delivered 12 times.

b. No.

c. These will be delivered monthly to the FDA.

Question #2: How long is the initial course in the base year? Is this a one-day workshop?

Answer #2: Initial courses should be a one-day workshop.

Question #3: Option year 1 and 2 ask for initial courses and refresher courses. What are the expected course lengths for each workshop?

Answer #3: Initial & refresher courses should both be a one-day workshop.

Question #4: How many participants will be in each course for the base year and both first and second option years? How many student guides need to be printed?

Answer #4: Offerors should assume 30 students for each session. There should be a student guide for all students for each session.

Question #5: With regards to the following requirement:

“The Contractor shall be responsible for working with CBER assigned subject matter experts (SME)/Project Officer(s) to tailor the Contractor’s off-the-shelf training using the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) model to make the content applicable to the CBER environment.”

Please confirm if the contractor can work with SMEs virtually or if the contractor will be required to be present in person for interviews, meetings etc. as this will have implications for the price.

Answer #5: The first meeting should be in person. All meetings afterwards can be virtual.

Question #6: Please confirm the class size (number of participants) for each session. This will inform the number of training materials to be provided.

Answer #6: Please see answer to Question #4.

Question #7: Will the audience for all 12 sessions requested be different people or will the same set of participants attend more than one session? For example, if the class size for one session is 20, should the contractor expect 240 individual participants for the 12 sessions.

Answer #7: All initial 12 (base year) sessions, as well as future initial sessions, will be for a different audience. Participants who have attended an initial course will be directed to refresher sessions in one of the option years, if additional training is needed.

Question #8: On page 1 of the RFQ the subhead “5. Pricing” has no instructions; however, it does include (on page 2) three tables that ostensibly show how the Offeror is supposed to price out the initial and refresher workshops. The word “Unit” in these tables refers to the total price for a single workshop with no breakdown of costs. So I assume that filling in the “Unit Price” and “Extended Price” and their totals on all three tables (plus the “Grand Total” table at the bottom), is all that is required as far as pricing information that you request.

However, on page 24 of the RFQ under “Firm-Fixed-Price—Pricing Information Instructions” it states that “a breakout of unit pricing must be provided. The Offeror must provide sufficient documentation to show breakdown of costs.” Our workshops have three pricing components 1) labor, 2) manuals and materials, and 2) travel costs. None of these costs are fixed. Labor costs vary depending on the number and length of meetings we need to have with CBER staff to gather the information needed to tailor the initial and refresher workshops; the time required to design the workshops based on this information;

the time to present the workshops and have follow-up meetings to, if necessary, modify the workshop;

etc. Manuals and materials costs are fairly fixed, but also vary depending on printing and other costs that change over the cost of the contract. And travel costs can vary drastically from one workshop to the very next. For example, airfare for a workshop in May of 2020 can be hundreds of dollars more than the price for the very same ticket purchased for a workshop in April of 2020.

So I’m not sure what to provide in my response for a “breakdown of costs” other than a more detailed explanation of what I just wrote in the above paragraph. And I have no documents that would satisfy the “provide sufficient documentation to show the breakdown of costs.” I could attach copies of past airfare and hotel bills, but that would in no way reflect what those costs would be in 2020 and beyond. Please let me know how I should proceed in order to meet the “Pricing Information Instructions.”

Answer to Question #8:

Correct, the offeror should fill in the pricing chart on page 2 where indicated.

Regarding the breakdown of costs, please see the responses to Questions #1-7 above, which provides additional budgetary guidance for quotation purposes. This will be a firm-fixed-price (FFP) contract, so offerors should base their quoted pricing on that assumption.

For the purposes of this RFQ, “sufficient documentation” for a breakdown of costs does not include copies of such documents as past invoices, airfare and hotel bills; those types of documentation are not required. The Government merely requires a breakdown (calculation) showing all the cost elements that comprise the unit pricing.

Question #9: Page 24 of the RFQ states that the Offeror must complete Attachment A. However, the instructions are not clear. Attachment A (page 29) begins by stating: “The Offeror shall complete only paragraph (b) of this provision if the Offeror has completed the annual representations and certification electronically in the System for Award Management (SAM) accessed through https://www.sam.gov.” I completed my annual representations and certification for this year on SAM.gov, so all I have to do is complete paragraph (b).

But it’s not clear to me what there is to “complete.” Paragraph (b) states: “After reviewing SAM information, the Offeror verifies by submission of this offer that the representations and certifications currently posted electronically at FAR 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items, have been entered or updated in the last 12 months, are current, accurate, complete, and applicable to this solicitation (including the business size standard applicable to the NAICS code referenced for this solicitation), at the time this offer is submitted and are incorporated in this offer by reference (see FAR 4.1201), except for paragraphs ______________. [Offeror to identify the applicable paragraphs at (c) through (u) of this provision that the offeror has completed for the purposes of this solicitation only, if any.”]

The wording of this is very confusing, as paragraph (b) does not ask me to complete anything. What am I supposed to do?

Answer to Question #9: Unless the fill-in section of the provision applies to your company’s offer (which apparently it does not), there is nothing to technically “complete.” By submitting your offer, you are verifying, under paragraph (b)(2), that “…by submission of this offer that the representations and certifications currently posted electronically at FAR 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items, have been entered or updated in the last 12 months, are current, accurate, complete, and applicable to this solicitation (including the business size standard applicable to the NAICS code referenced for this solicitation), at the time this offer is submitted and are incorporated in this offer by reference…”

Question #10: Just to verify: Attachments B and C are informational and require no response from me for this RFQ, correct?

Answer to Question #10: Correct, but the information in those Attachments is binding upon contract award.

Question #11: Just to verify: Attachment D only applies after the contract is awarded and I do not have to fill it out for the RFQ, correct?

Answer to Question #11: Correct.

Question #12: Just to verify: Attachment E is about lobbying, which I do not do and state that I don’t in my cover letter. So, I do not have to fill out and send in this form either, correct?

Answer to Question #12: Correct.

https://www.sam.gov/ http://sam.gov/