Q_ _A_Amendment_18Apr2014.doc

18 April 2014

AMENDMENT TO SYNOPSIS FTFA141003, A & E MULTIDISCIPLINES IDIQ

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. QUESTION: Can we bind the response with a laminated front and back cover?

ANSWER: You may provide your submission pages with laminated front and back cover, but it is not required.

2. QUESTION: Can we include a cover letter among the 40 pages.

ANSWER: You may provide a cover letter with your submission, but it is not a requirement. However, it will be reviewed if you do submit one with your 40 pages.

3. QUESTION: Please confirm the submission requirements, per the RFP an email submittal no larger than 10MB is acceptable, do we also need to submit 6 hardcopies or is either method acceptable?

ANSWER: An amendment was posted in FedBizzOpps changing the submission requirements to have all responding contractors provide us with one CD and six hard copies of their submission via mail/delivery service.

4. QUESTION: Please confirm that the disciplines listed in Appendix C, Basis of Design Report, are the disciplines anticipated for this contract.

ANSWER: Appendix A, Performance requirements for A-E services (Title I) page 8, paragraph (C) Basis-of-Design also includes features in Appendix C as stated in paragraph (C) (1) General. All of the required disciplines are identified.

5. QUESTION: Is this a small business set aside? I ask because it is listed as unrestricted but also mentions the size standard which I thought was irrelevant for an unrestricted.

ANSWER: This acquisition is not a small business set aside, but is unrestricted Full and Open competition. We thought it would be good to specify the applicable NAICs code and small business size standard, but realize that the size standard was 'not' required in accordance with the FAR when the acquisition doesn't involve a small business set-aside.

6. QUESTION: If it is not a small business set aside - are there any extra points for being a small business?

ANSWER: There are no "extra points" given for any small business who provides us with their technical submission. This A-E acquisition is 'not' for a partial small business set aside per the above reply. This acquisition is being evaluated through a Source Selection process and as such the evaluation factors listed do not take into consideration the business size.

7. QUESTION: Were the submittals made under the Source Sought's request FTFA14-1003 evaluated and are those evaluations available?

ANSWER: The requested document cannot be provided to you per your request. That information is not intended for release at this time. This acquisition is a Source Selection and the evaluations made in conducting market research are not available for contractor review at this time.

8. QUESTION: The current page limitation (40 pages for Parts I & II) provides an unfair advantage to certain AE's in this unrestricted solicitation. AE's with multiple in-house design disciplines can present their general qualifications in Part II by using fewer pages than corresponding AE's that do not have multiple disciplines in-house. AE's without multi-discipline in-house design staff must therefore offer design teams using outside design firms (consultants), which will require more pages in Part II for them to present their general qualifications (one page for each team member).

ANSWER: The page limitation we feel that the limitation evens the playing field for all contractors and is a fair way to go, so that we don't have issues. The past re-procurement (synopsis) for the A&E limited the SF 330 pages to 30 pages. Also, I might add that we do anticipate several companies to respond to this requirement and so we have to allocate a fair amount of time and resources to evaluate each of the contractor's submissions.

9. QUESTION: The current due date, 21 April (Monday) is the day after Easter Sunday, which is a traditional (though unofficial) holiday weekend for many individuals, (including federal employees). The 30-day advertising period for this action may not have anticipated the significance of the 21 April due date or the fact that the last business day for transmitting proposals for receipt on Monday,21 April is Friday, 18 April (Good Friday). This request is made in the spirit of affording everyone involved with this solicitation (government and private sector alike) the benefit of relief from the currently-scheduled suspense date (21 April).

ANSWER: After discussing your concern about the closing date of 21 April 2014 for the synopsis being a day that some people observe as a holiday with the Contracting Officer, we are not going to extend the due date/time of the subject synopsis closing date of Monday, 21 April 2014. The closing date was decided to be at the 32 day mark and not the 30th day as required, because of the weekend. The closing date is not on a Federal holiday and therefore is a normal business day. We have some urgency to have this requirement awarded due to having a break between the A-E Services contracts and the estimated date of the award for this re-procurement. A time extension to the subject synopsis is not feasible or practical in meeting the needs of Eglin AFB.

10. QUESTION: I noticed that in the solicitation it states "(7) Availability of all A -E disciplines in house." Does this mean that we are excluded from submitting if we do not have an architect "in-house", but have one as a sub-consultant?

ANSWER: Contractors are not excluded from submitting proposals based on "in-house" capabilities of architects and other professional services.

11. QUESTION: Is there a mile per radius for the subject solicitation in regards to the following requirement: (5) Location in the general geographic area of Eglin AFB, FL and knowledge of the locality of the project.

ANSWER: All A-Es will be evaluated based on a mile radius distance from Eglin AFB, FL. The specifics of the Civil Engineering's rating system are not intended for release at this time.

12. QUESTION: When you say research A&E Proposals and Awards, what exactly do you mean?

ANSWER: You can do a search on the Federal Business Opportunities Website for Air

Force A&E Solicitations. Your results should render you examples of current solicitations and awards already competed and advertised. Your initial proposal will be your Company's Qualifications Statement submitted on an SF 330. Per The Brooks Act, the Government has to evaluate a A&E's capability before a formal solicitation is issued.

13. QUESTION: The most updated solicitation says *Send the above requested information...both electronically and on a CD. Is the CD the electronic copy that you are referring to, because it also states in the solicitation NOT to send the SF330 to you by email?

ANSWER: The synopsis has been edited today to delete the words "both electronically and" from the synopsis. All of your documents are "not" sent electronically via (web site or email), but are required to be saved onto a CD(s) with PDF and/or Word documents 97-2003 version of all the hard copies (documents/SF 330) that you submit. Note that the synopsis does read "Please do not email your submission." If you would like to you put a label on the CD(s) with your firms name and whatever else you want included it would be helpful, otherwise we will mark each CD with the company name.

14.

QUESTION: We are an SDVOSB firm that would like to submit on the above referenced project. We have been awarded contracts with the Department of Veterans Affairs but to date; have not been awarded a contract with the USAF. Is it possible to look at a winning submittal so we can learn what the best way is to prepare a package for the USAF?

ANSWER: We cannot provide a winning submittal because I cannot provide a contractor with information that may give them an unfair advantage. Also every Architectural & Engineering Effort is unique so I recommend that you utilize the Federal Business Opportunities Website and research A&E Proposals &

Awards. There are numerous advertisements for A&E Acquisitions listed for free viewing and I encourage you to submit your qualifications statements per the Federal Business Opportunities Listing. If you have any additional questions concerning our advertisement please contact me before the Request for Qualification date expires.

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