Instructions to Offerors .pdf

AWARD OF A CONTRACT IS CONTINGENT UPON AN AGENCY DECISION TO

FUND THIS PROJECT. ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST INDICATE PRICING IS VALID

THROUGH September 30, 2024.

A. INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS

Please submit the quotation in the following THREE (3) SEPARATE VOLUMES via e-mail to fpritchett@cpsc.gov. Quotes are due no later than August 12, at 12:00 pm EST.

All questions in response to the Request for Quotation must be emailed to fpritchett@cpsc.gov no later than August 05, 2024 at 12:00 pm EST.

Active registration in www.SAM.gov is mandatory for award. No telephone calls please.

A QUOTE MUST BE PROVIDED FOR ALL TASKS AND ALL OPTION YEARS TO BE

CONSIDERED FOR AWARD.

Each volume shall be submitted as a separate attachment. DO NOT COMBINE all three (3) volumes as one attachment.

VOLUME 1: CONTRACT & PRICING DOCUMENTS

A price quote shall be submitted for all deliverables identified in this PWS on a firm fixed-price basis.

Each element of the price quote shall be documented to show the basis and rationale used in arriving at the amount proposed and should reflect the methodology in your technical quote.

Supporting information shall include all costs, and any material, methodology, and assumptions made by the contractor.

The contractor must provide a proposed Payment Schedule for their Firm Fixed-Price total, with no more than 80% of the total price being disbursed before the final deliverable.

VOLUME 2: TECHNICAL QUOTE

There is a MAXIMUM PAGE LIMIT of 30 PAGES for this volume. Information past page 30 will not be reviewed. Brevity is encouraged.

This section shall describe technical information that the offeror provides. The technical quote shall include the details of how the offeror plans to accomplish all requirements and tasks of the PWS, what personnel are proposed and the qualifications of the contractor personnel, the resources the contractor plans to utilize, and all information necessary to demonstrate the contractor’s capabilities. The quote shall demonstrate the feasibility of the contractor’s approach and ability to oversee and carry out the objectives, scope, and requirements of the solicitation to include adequate staffing to complete the tasks in the PWS. The technical quote should also http://www.sam.gov/ clearly and fully demonstrate the offeror’s capabilities regarding the technical requirements described in the PWS.

VOLUME 3: PAST PERFORMANCE

The offeror will provide three (3) examples of work they performed within the past three (3) years that are similar in scope and complexity to this requirement. Please provide contact information and detailed description of work carried out for each example. The following information is required:

1. Project Title

2. Description of the Project

3. Contract Number

4. Contract Amount

5. Government Agency/Organization

6. COR’s name, address, telephone number, and email address

7. Contracting Officer’s name, address, telephone number, and email address

8. Current status, e.g., completed and/or in progress, start and estimated completion dates

9. Key Personnel, please identify those individuals who worked on the relevant project and are also proposed for this effort

10. A brief narrative of why the firm believes this reference is relevant to the proposed task.

B. BASIS FOR AWARD

It is the Government’s intent to award a task order using the procedures in FAR Parts 12 and 13, to the responsible offeror whose quote, in conforming to the RFQ, provides the overall best value to the Government considering technical evaluation factors and price.

The Government may reject any quote that is evaluated to be significantly non-compliant with the solicitation requirements, unreasonably high or low in price, or reflects a failure to comprehend the complexity and risks of the work to be performed.

Any exceptions to the governments’ terms and conditions may result in your quote being removed from consideration for this award.

Best Value-Trade Offs: The Government reserves the right to make an award to other than the low priced offeror if the superior technical submission, or the submission indicating a reduced performance risk, warrants paying a premium. Furthermore, the Government reserves the right to award no task order at all, depending on the quality of the quotes, the availability of funding, and the continued existence of the requirement.

According to FAR 15.101-1 Tradeoff process, for price evaluation, all evaluations factors other than cost or price, when combined are approximately equal to.

All technical evaluation factors and significant subfactors are equally important.

All technical evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price.

Past performance and technical evaluation factors are more important than price. As non-price factors become closer, price will become a more important factor in selecting the best value. Each offeror should recognize that its initial price and technical quote may be used as the sole and final basis for award and should quote accordingly. Should initial quotes not provide the Government with a satisfactory total solution, the Government reserves the right to establish a competitive range of the highest technically evaluated offerors and conduct negotiations in order to reach a best value determination.

The Technical Evaluation Committee reserves the right to revise an offeror’s technical consensus decision based on information within the Price Volume when the Technical Evaluation Committee feels that content within the Price Volume will have an impact on technical evaluation factors.

1. EVALUATION FACTORS:

The technical quote must clearly and fully demonstrate the contractor’s knowledge, capabilities, experience, and ability in conducting all aspects of the proposed work. The quote will be evaluated for demonstrated capabilities of the organization to manage and access data required to complete all tasks and deliverables and describe in detail experience the firm has had in the past performing similar or related work.

The Contractor shall address all qualification requirements provided in the Statement of Work.

FACTOR A. TECHNICAL CAPABILITY

a. Sub-Factor A –: In accordance with the Performance Work Statement, the Contractor shall have national, local and Hispanic media distribution capability reaching a minimum of 3,000 media outlets. Please describe your firm's capability to meet this requirement and provide a list of media outlets.

b. Sub-Factor B – In accordance with the Performance Work Statement, the Contractor shall send CPSC press releases and other documents to members of media (i.e. meteorologists) in targeted regions upon request by CPSC. Please describe your firm’s capability to electronically distribute CPSC press releases, etc. to the media in targeted regions. Provide details of targeted distributions offered by the firm.

c. Sub-Factor C – In accordance with the Performance Work Statement, the Contractor shall translate press releases into Spanish and distribute them within four business hours of receipt from CPSC. Please describe your firm’s experience and capability to provide the required services efficiently and timely.

FACTOR B. PAST PERFORMANCE

Quotes will be evaluated based on the performance demonstrated in previous, similar projects.

Offerors with no relevant past performance must be evaluated neither favorably nor unfavorably.

The Government reserves the right to obtain information for use in the evaluation of past performance from any and all sources including sources outside of the Government. Past performance information will be utilized to determine the quality of the contractor's past performance as it relates to the probability of success for the required effort.

FACTOR C. PRICE

Price is an important factor that will be duly considered. The Government will evaluate the offers to determine if their price is fair and reasonable relative to the scope of proposed activities. In addition, level of effort will be evaluated to determine if the offeror understands the nature and extent of the work to be performed.

2. EVALUATION PROCESS

The Government will award a contract resulting from this quotation to the responsible Contractor whose quote conforming to the quotation will be the most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following evaluation factors shall be used to evaluate the prospective contractors.

Factor A –Technical Capability Factor B – Past Performance Factor C - Price

All technical evaluation factors and significant subfactors are equally important. All technical evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price.

The Government will evaluate all quotes that comply with the requirements of the RFQ in accordance with the above evaluation criteria. Price will be evaluated separately.

Quotes will be placed into one of the following adjectival categories:

Outstanding - A quotation which offers additional advantages to the government in meeting requirements or a unique approach which satisfies all of the government's requirements with detail to indicate how the approach is innovative and not only feasible but desirable, and which is well supported by evidence that it will be successful.

Acceptable: An approach which satisfies all of the Government's requirements with adequate detail to indicate the feasibility of the approach and an understanding of the Government's need.

Susceptible to being made acceptable - An approach which, as initially proposed, cannot be rated acceptable because of minor errors or omissions which are capable of being corrected without a major rewrite or revision of the proposal. This proposal does not clearly meet the Government's requirements. (Quoters will only be given an opportunity to correct this rating if the Government enters into negotiations.

Otherwise, such proposals will be determined to be unacceptable. Therefore, quoters are encouraged to provide complete and thorough explanatory technical proposals with their initial submission.)

Unacceptable - The proposal fails to meet or to address the technical factors of the solicitation, contains major errors, omissions, or deficiencies, or indicates a lack of understanding of the Government's need.

The proposed approach is based on unproven techniques or is inadequately supported with evidence that it will be successful, or the approach cannot be expected to meet the Government's requirements without a major rewrite or revision of the proposal.

The Contracting Officer's determination for technical acceptability will be based only on the technical evaluation from technical evaluators. Negotiations may be conducted whenever the Contracting Officer deems it appropriate.

Pricing will not be scored. In the event that the quoters' technical factors are evaluated the same, award will be made based on the lowest overall price offered.