RFQ 8(a) competitive 4.01.2010.docx

United States Coast Guard

1900 Half St. SW, Room 11-0604 Washington, DC 20593-0001 Staff Symbol: CG-9123 Phone: (202) 475-3342 Fax: (202) 475-3904 Email: kelly.l.sewer@uscg.mil

To: 8(a) Firms – Small Business Set-Aside-Contractors April 1, 2010 Subject: Request for Quote (RFQ) HSCG23-10-Q-ADW020 To provide the United States Coast Guard (USCG) with Project Management and Technical Support Services The United States Coast Guard (USCG) invites your company to submit a quote. The Contractor selected for this acquisition will provide project management and technical support services. This is a small business restricted requirement under 8(a) FAR 19.805. You are requested to submit a detailed quote in response to the requirements described in the enclosed Statement of Work (SOW).

This is a commercial acquisition (FAR 12), utilizing simplified acquisition (FAR 13) policies and procedures unless otherwise prescribed by FAR 19.8. As a result of the subject RFQ, the Government intends to award a single Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with Task Orders (TO) being issued on a Labor Hour or Firm Fixed Price (FFP) basis. The period of performance will be for one (1) year from date of award.

I Basis of Award:

The Government intends to award an IDIQ contract, as specified in the SOW, to the Contractor whose quote, conforming to the RFQ, represents the best value to the Government, price and other factors considered.

Quotes will be evaluated based on the following evaluation factors: 1) Technical Approach; 2) Relevant Past Performance and 3) Price. Technical Approach is more important than Relevant Past Performance. The non-price factors, when combined, are more important than Price. The degree of importance of Price as a factor could become greater depending upon the equality of the quotations for other factors evaluated. Where competing quotations are determined to be substantially equal for non-price factors, Price becomes the controlling factor. .

II Evaluation Criteria:

An evaluation of all quotes will be conducted in accordance with the criteria set forth herein. The evaluation criteria for this award are as follows:

1. NON-PRICE FACTOR 1 – Technical Approach:

The following items are not subfactors, but rather a narrative description of the aspects of this evaluation factor that the Government believes are important and intends to consider in its evaluation of the technical approach described in the proposal. Each contractor’s quote will be evaluated on (1) technical approach to the SOW and the soundness thereof; (2) understanding of the SOW; (3) the demonstration of the ability of the contractor to successfully perform the requirement; (4) the overall security clearance levels, qualifications, knowledge, and experience of each of the contractor’s key personnel; and (5), the contractor’s ability to recruit and retain quality personnel; and, (6) management plan.

For evaluation purposes, the Government will use the following benchmarks for the various experience levels of personnel. These are not minimum requirements, but rather a common standard against which length of experience will be compared.

Senior Level – at least ten (10) years experience in the field Mid Level – at least five (5) years experience in the field Junior Level – at least two (2) years experience in the field

All personnel shall be eligible for a SECRET clearance level.

NON-PRICE FACTOR 2 – Relevant Past Performance: The following items are not subfactors, but rather a narrative description of the aspects of this evaluation factor that the Government believes are important and intends to consider in its evaluation of the past performance described in the proposal. Each returned Past Performance Questionnaire will be evaluated for (1) cost/price control; (2) schedule control; (3) contract administration; (4) responsiveness to the Government; (5) contract compliance with technical requirements and (6) key personnel. A contractor’s lack of relevant past performance information will be evaluated by the Government as “Neutral” for this criterion.

The Government reserves the right to utilize any past performance information in conducting the evaluation of your quotation, to include information from various Government systems and other information not submitted in conjunction with the quote.

2. PRICE FACTOR: The Government will evaluate the total overall price to determine accuracy, completeness and reasonableness. The Government will evaluate proposals for award purposes by evaluating prices for the base period. Use of the “Pricing Template” (Enclosure 5) to complete the price quote is mandatory. Failure to do so may result in disqualification and rejection of a quotation without further evaluation.

To ensure consistency of evaluation of quotations for purposes of an IDIQ contract award under this RFQ, Contractor’s must quote the exact labor categories and hours as shown in Enclosure 5 “Pricing Template”.

All Travel required by the USCG outside the local commuting area(s) will be reimbursed to the Contractor in accordance with the Travel Clause located in Enclosure 2 – Clauses, beginning on page 2. The primary place of performance for all services under this contract will be the USCG Headquarters (Jemal Building) 1900 Half Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20593.

III Submission of Quote:

A contractor’s quote shall be submitted in two separate volumes

1. Volume I – Volume I must contain the management plan and technical response to the requirements contained in the SOW (Enclosure 1) and shall be no more than 35 pages in length not including resumes of personnel. Personnel resumes are limited to three (3) pages per resume. This portion of the volume shall address the SOW requirements sequentially and shall demonstrate the Contractor’s approach to perform all SOW requirements. Contractor’s response to Section 5.0 of the SOW must be sequentially ordered and identify the SOW paragraphs by number in order to be considered a conforming quote. Restating the SOW requirements in this volume will not be accepted as a demonstration of a Contractor’s approach. Contractors shall provide the following: (1) the planned technical approach that will be utilized to accomplish all the tasks in the enclosed SOW (see enclosure 1), the technical approach should clearly demonstrate the contractor’s understanding and technical capability to successfully perform all SOW requirements. The Contractor is to respond to every task in Section 5.0; 2) Contractors shall provide resumes outlining relevant skills, experience, and certifications for personnel. 3) The Contractor shall also demonstrate an effective approach for recruiting and retaining quality personnel. Contractors who fail to provide sufficient information that clearly demonstrates a technical approach and the ability to perform the work in the enclosed SOW with available, experienced, and qualified personnel shall be considered non-responsive in accordance with the evaluation criteria. Refer above to Evaluation Criteria – Non-Price Factor 1.

2. Volume II shall contain the Past Performance Questionnaires which will be sent directly to the Contractor’s reference and returned to The Government by the reference. The Government’s intent is to determine whether the Contractor consistently delivers quality services in a timely manner. Contractors shall provide past performance information for services relevant to those to be performed under the resultant Contract. To be considered relevant all of the following criteria must be met: the services must have been performed within the past three years; the total dollar value must exceed $100,000.00 during the Period of Performance (POP), and demonstrate a clear relationship to the tasks in the enclosed SOW. The Contractor shall submit the Past Performance Questionnaire see Enclosure four (4) to at least three (3), but no more than five (5) references for completion. Completed Past Performance Questionnaires will be added to the Volume as they are received from your references. The references shall return the completed questionnaire directly to the email address on the Questionnaire no later than the closing date of this solicitation. The Contractor is solely responsible for ensuring the Questionnaire is completed and returned by the respective references to Ms. Kelly Long Sewer at Kelly.L.Sewer@uscg.mil on or before the quotation submission. See Enclosure four (4) for Questionnaire and instructions. Refer above to Evaluation Criteria – Non Price Factor 2.

3. Volume II – Volume II shall also contain the price quote. The Contractor shall submit a quote, with a detailed price breakdown for SOW requirements using the “Pricing Template”; failure to do so may result in disqualification and rejection of a quotation without further evaluation – Enclosure five (5) to ensure consistency of submissions. The price quote shall be separate from the technical proposal. The price quote must not contain technical information as described in the SOW. There is no page limit for this Volume.

The font size for all volumes shall be no smaller than 12 point. Graphs, footnotes, and other similar areas are exempt from this rule.

IV Additional Requirements for Quotes (Volume III):

Quotes shall set forth any exceptions/assumptions taken with regard to the SOW or any other aspect of the RFQ or any other information that the Contractor finds necessary and pertinent to their quote. However, Contractors are cautioned that any exceptions/assumption to the terms and conditions of the solicitation will be at their own risk. Any exceptions or assumptions should clearly identify the paragraph and term or condition to which the exception or assumption is being made and include supporting rationale.

Volume III shall contain a completed The Department of Homeland Security Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) in Enclosure (3) and address all the Provisions in Enclosure (6).

V Questions

Any questions for clarification concerning this RFQ shall be submitted via email to Kelly Long Sewer at Kelly.L.Sewer@uscg.mil and to the Contracting Officer, Lance Nyman at Lance.Nyman@uscg.mil no later than 12:00 noon, Eastern Time on 18 March 2010.

VI Quotation Submission Deadline or No Bid

Contractors shall submit an electronic version of both volumes in word format and any pricing tables in excel format. The Contractor’s quotation must be received by the contracting office no later than 2:00pm Eastern Time 9 25 AprilMarch 2010.

Contractors shall submit quotes via electronic mail to Kelly Long Sewer at Kelly.L.Sewer@uscg.mil and to the Contracting Officer, Lance Nyman at Lance.Nyman@uscg.mil. Please limit the file size to 10MB. If necessary, you may send multiple electronic mail correspondence to address the entire RFQ.

This RFQ shall not be considered as direction to proceed with the subject effort, nor a promise of future direction to proceed. Vendors are solely responsible for any costs associated with responding to this RFQ.

We would like to thank you for your support of the United States Coast Guard, and for your consideration of submitting a response to this request.

Sincerely,

Enclosures:

Enclosure 1 – The Statement of Work (Revised)

Enclosure 2 – Federal Acquisition Regulations and Homeland Security Acquisition clauses that will be incorporated into the anticipated award

Enclosure 3 – The Department of Homeland Security Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and Safeguarding Sensitive but Unclassified Information Management Directive.

Enclosure 4 – The Past Performance Questionnaire

Enclosure 5 – Price Template which shall be used for submitting Price (Revised)

Enclosure 6 - Provisions image1.wmf oleObject1.bin