Instructions to Offerors- OCS Tutors Revised.pdf

Attachment 1 – Instructions to Offerors (ITO)

1.0 Contract: This contract is a competitive small business set-aside. This acquisition will result in a single award Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) Contract which will have a one

(1) base year plus four (4) one (1) year options and additional option to extend for 6-months for the ordering period.

2.0 General Instructions:

2.1 ITO:

2.1.1 The Offeror's proposal must include all data and information requested by this ITO and must be submitted in accordance with these instructions. The Offeror shall be compliant with the requirements as stated in this solicitation. Non-conformance with the instructions provided in this ITO may result in an unfavorable proposal evaluation. The proposal shall be clear, concise, and shall include sufficient detail for effective evaluation and for substantiating the validity of stated claims. The proposal should not simply rephrase or restate the Government's requirements but rather shall provide convincing rationale to address how the Offeror intends to meet these requirements. Offerors shall assume the Government has no prior knowledge of their facilities and experience and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the Offeror's proposal.

2.1.2 System for Award Management (SAM): Offerors will not be eligible to receive a contract award from a Department of Defense (DoD) activity unless they are registered in SAM. Offerors must be registered in the SAM Database prior to award of any contract. Firms must register on a one-time basis and annually confirm accuracy and completeness of registration information. On-line registration and instructions can be accessed at https://www.sam.gov/index.html.

2.1.3 DD Form 254 Contract Security Classification Specifications: The Offeror shall complete blocks 6a – c, (and if applicable, blocks 7a – c, and 8a – c or a continuation sheet) of the DD Form 254 (RFP Attachment 11). Completed the form and submit with Volume 1 as an attachment (The total page count should not be included in the total page count for Volume 1), Technical. The Due Date for the Technical Volume is NLT 4:00 pm 15 Aug 2024.

2.1.4 The positions on this contract are all at the TOP SECRET level. Personnel performing work on this contract are required to have and maintain a valid TOP SECRET clearance. Interim clearances are acceptable;

however, all key personnel shall have a completed valid TOP SECRET clearance upon award of the contract.

2.2 Facility Security Clearance (FCL): Due to the clearance requirements, all prospective Prime Offerors shall possess a TOP SECRET Facility Clearance (FCL). The FCL shall be approved/issued by the Defense Security Service (DSS) and FCL must be posted in Defense Information Security System (DISS). A verifiable TOP SECRET FCL shall exist in DISS at time of proposal submission.

The Government will validate the Prime Offerors FCL based on the CAGE code provided on the completed DD254 per the instructions in paragraph 2.1.3. Offerors FCL will be assessed as “compliant/noncompliant” at proposal submission. Offerors without the required TOP SECRET FCL will be deemed “noncompliant.”” Offerors shall have an approved facility clearance no later than NLT 4:00 pm 15 Aug 2024.

2.3. Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI): Omitted. Information was removed.

https://www.sam.gov/index.html

2.3.1.1 Omitted. Information was removed.

2.3.2 Omitted. Information was removed.

2.4 Point of Contact: The Contracting Officer (CO), Ms. Hannah Dent, is the sole point of contact for this acquisition. All questions or concerns should be e-mailed to the CO by NLT 4:00 pm 15 Aug 2024.

2.5 The contracting POC may be reached via e-mail at hannah.dent.1@us.af.mil

2.6 Proposal Submission: Interested Offerors shall email their proposals to the contracting team.

2.7 The Technical (Volume I), Past Performance (Volume II), and Price (Volume III) volumes are due on NLT 4:00 pm 15 Aug 2024. All proposals shall be received via email by the contracting team by 4:00 pm Eastern Time on the required date.

2.8 Communications: Exchanges of source selection information between Government and Offerors will be controlled by the CO. E-mail will be used to transmit such information to Offerors.

2.9 Amendments to Solicitation: If this RFP is amended, all terms and conditions that are not amended remain unchanged. Offerors shall acknowledge receipt of any amendment to this request by the day and time specified in the amendment(s).

2.10 Period of Acceptance of Offers: The Offeror agrees to hold the prices in its offer firm for 120 calendar days from the date specified for receipt of offers.

2.11 Federal Holidays: The following Federal Legal Holidays are observed:

• New Year’s Day

• Martin Luther King Day

• President’s Day

• Memorial Day

• Juneteenth National Independence Day

• Independence Day

• Labor Day

• Columbus Day

• Veterans Day

• Thanksgiving Day

• Christmas Day

3.0 Preparation Instructions to Offerors:

3.1 Introduction: The purpose of these instructions is to prescribe the format of proposals and describe the approach for the development and presentation of proposal data. They are designed to ensure the essential mailto:hannah.dent.1@us.af.mil information required for evaluation of proposals is submitted. Offerors are cautioned to follow the detailed instructions fully and carefully, as the Government intends to make an award based on initial offers received without discussions.

3.2 Organization/Number of Copies/Page Limits: To assure timely and equitable evaluation of the proposal, the Offeror must follow the instructions contained herein. The proposal must be complete, self-sufficient, and respond directly to the requirements of this solicitation. The response shall consist of three (3) separate volumes; Volume I –Technical, Volume II –Past Performance, and Volume III –/Price.

3.2.1 The Offeror shall prepare the proposal as set forth in the Proposal Organization Table (Table 1 below). The titles and contents of the volumes shall be as defined in the table, all of which shall be within the required page limits.

The content of each proposal volume is described in the ITO paragraph as noted in Table 1 below:

Table 1:

VOLUME ITO

Paragraph

VOLUME TITLE PAGE

LIMIT

I 4.1 FACTOR I: TECHNICAL 20

II 4.2 FACTOR II: PAST

PERFORMANCE

III 4.3 FACTOR III: PRICE Unlimited

3.3 Specific Instructions:

3.3.1 Page Limitations: Page limitations shall be treated as maximums. If exceeded, the excess pages will not be read or considered in the evaluation of the proposal. Blank pages, title pages, cover pages, table of contents, tab indexing, glossaries, list of tables and figures, and subcontractor consent letter(s) are not included in page limitation. Legible tables, charts, graphs and figures may be used to depict organizations, systems and layout, implementation schedules, plans, etc.

3.3.2 Page Size and Format: A page is defined as each face of a sheet of paper containing information.

When both sides of a sheet display printed material, it shall be counted as two pages. Page size shall be 8½ x 11 inches. Pages shall be single-spaced and typed, except for displays and the reproduced sections of the solicitation document. The font shall be Times New Roman and no less than 12 point in size. Use at least 1 inch margins on the top and bottom. Pages shall be numbered sequentially by volume. When text is included within displays (graphs, charts, figures, tables, pictures), it may be no smaller than 8 point, but must be clearly legible without magnification, as determined solely by the CO. The size of these displays shall not exceed the page size as defined above. The email copy of the proposal shall be submitted in the following formats: Microsoft (MS) Word 2010, MS Excel 2010, or MS-Power Point 2010, or Portable Document Format (PDF), as applicable. Proposals can be broken up into more than one email or Offerors can request the proposals to be sent through DoD Safe. Non-CAC holders cannot use DoD Safe at this time. The Government will send a request to the Offeror to retrieve the files. Contact the POCs if you require assistance. Fold out pages are accepted for Volume III - Pricing.

3.3.3 Title Page (not included in the page count): Each volume must include a title page. The title pages must show:

• Solicitation Number

• Name, address, telephone numbers and e-mail address of the Offeror (only one copy for all required volumes)

• Cage/UEID

• Acknowledgement of any amendments as an attachment

3.3.4 Cross-Referencing: The proposal volumes shall be written on a stand-alone basis so that its contents may be evaluated without cross referencing to another volume. Information required for proposal evaluation which is not found in its designated volume will be assumed to have been omitted from the proposal.

3.3.5 Indexing: Each volume shall contain a detailed table of contents to delineate the subparagraphs within that volume. Tab indexing shall be used to identify sections and will not count against page limitations IAW paragraph 3.3.1 above.

3.3.6 Glossary of Abbreviations and Acronyms: Each volume shall contain a glossary of all abbreviations and acronyms used, with an explanation for each. As stated above in paragraph 3.3.1, glossaries do not count against the page limitations for their respective volumes.

3.3.7 Compliant: Documents submitted in response to this solicitation must be fully compliant to and consistent with the terms and conditions of the solicitation or may result in being rejected as noncompliant and not being evaluated.

4.0 Proposal Volume Instructions: The following details the specific instructions for each volume.

4.1 Volume I, FACTOR I – Technical:

4.1.1 Technical: The Technical proposal should be specific and complete. Legibility, clarity, and coherence are very important. The proposal should not merely reiterate or rephrase the objectives or reformulate the Government’s requirements specified in the solicitation but shall provide convincing rationale to address how the Offeror intends to meet these requirements. Offerors shall assume the Government has no prior knowledge of their facilities and experience and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the Offeror’s proposal. The Offeror shall demonstrate an understanding, approach, and methodology to complete tasks 1-5 IAW the PWS at the IDIQ level as well as provide a management plan for all FTEs.

4.2 Volume II, FACTOR II –

4.2.1.1 Past Performance: In order for past performance to be considered, the past performance must include previous or current requirements that are similar and fall within the scope of this requirement. A minimum of two (2) examples and a maximum of five (5) examples of past performance are required.

4.2.2 Recent and Relevant Contracts: Offeror shall provide past performance information on no more than five (5) contracts/work efforts. The scope and magnitude of this requirement can be broadly defined by the tasks in the PWS. To be recent, the contract (or subcontract) must have been performed within the past five (5) years from the date of issuance of this solicitation and for a minimum of a six (6) month period. Past

Performance outside this given timeframe will not be evaluated. Offeror’s proposal shall provide examples of past performance that indicates a high expectation that the Offeror will successfully perform the required effort.

The evaluation of past performance information will take into account past performance information regarding predecessor companies or subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement when such information is relevant to the acquisition.

4.2.2.1 Offeror shall furnish the following information for each contract submitted:

4.2.2.1.1 Company/Division name

4.2.2.1.2 Description of service and a detailed explanation of relevance to this requirement

4.2.2.1.3 Contracting Agency/Customer point of contact or reference having knowledge of contract performance

4.2.2.1.4 Contract Number

4.2.2.1.5 Contract Type and Dollar Value (per year cost and life cycle cost)

4.2.2.1.6 Period of Performance

4.2.2.1.7 Completion Date

4.2.2.1.8 Verified, up-to-date name, address, & telephone number of the Contracting Officer

4.2.2.1.9 Comments regarding compliance with contract terms and conditions

4.2.2.1.10 Comments regarding any known performance deemed unacceptable to the customer, or not in accordance with the contract terms and conditions.

4.2.2.2 Offerors are cautioned to ensure respective past performance information submitted is RECENT (recency definition provided in 4.2.1) from the date of issuance of the solicitation. Any past performance information submitted over the maximum five (5) contracts will be disregarded in its entirety.

4.2.3 Quality of Past Performance: The Government reserves the right to obtain information relative to present and past performance on its own, in addition to information provided by the Offeror. The quality of an Offeror’s past performance may be reviewed and evaluated through the use of systems such as the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), Contract Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS), Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), Electronic Subcontract Reporting System (eSRS), questionnaires tailored to the circumstances of this acquisition or other sources or databases known to the Government. Interviews may be conducted with Program Managers, Contracting Officers, Fee Determining Officials, Defense Contract Management Agency or other sources known to the Government.

4.3 Volume III, FACTOR III – Price:

4.3.1 This section is to assist Offerors in submitting data other than certified cost or pricing data that is required to evaluate fairness, reasonableness and balance of your proposed cost/price. Compliance with these requirements is mandatory and failure to comply may result in rejection of your proposal. Proposals should be sufficiently detailed to demonstrate their fairness, reasonableness and balanced cost/price.

The burden of proof for credibility of proposed prices rests with the Offeror.

4.3.1.1 IDIQ Pricing Sheet: The Offeror shall complete the IDIQ Pricing table below. All pricing shall be rounded to two decimal places.

*Price on annual basis, based on 1920 hours. Periods of performance in paragraph 4.3.2 Base OY1 OY2 OY3 OY4 OY5 (6-Month

Extension) LCAT (Price Per)

LCAT (Price Per)

4.3.1.2 Task Order Request Form(s): Complete the provided TO Request Forms. The task order pricing must be based off the IDIQ pricing. Thus, only requesting pricing for the identified task orders.

4.3.2 Period of Performance for Pricing Purposes:

4.3.2.1 The price proposal for the IDIQ must be submitted for a 1-year base plus 4 option years ordering period. The anticipated Period of Performance is as follows:

Period of Performance STARTS ENDS

Base 25 September 2024 24 September 2025 Option Year 1 24 September 2025 25 September 2026 Option Year 2 25 September 2026 24 September 2027 Option Year 3 24 September 2027 25 September 2028 Option Year 4 25 September 2028 24 September 2029 Option Year 5 (6-Month Extension) 24 September 2029 25 March 2030

4.4 General Information:

4.4.1 Discrepancies: If an Offeror believes that the requirements in these instructions contain an error, omission, or are otherwise unsound, the Offeror shall immediately notify the CO in writing with supporting rationale as well as the remedies the Offeror is asking the CO to consider as related to the omission or error. The Offeror is reminded that the Government reserves the right to award this effort based on the initial proposal, as received, without discussion. Accordingly, Offerors are advised to submit initial proposals that are well defined and clearly acceptable without additional information, additional or substitute pages.