J.4 Instructions to Quoters and Basis for Award.pdf

Acquisition and Material Management Division Ford House Office Building, Room H2-263 Washington, DC 20515 202.226.2557 www.aoc.gov

Architect of the Capitol | Acquisition and Material Management Division Ford House Office Building, Room H2-263 | Washington, DC 20515 | 202.226.2557 | www.aoc.gov

Instructions to Quoters and Basis for Award

AOCSSB26Q0038

Release Date: 5/7/2026

The Architect of the Capitol (AOC), Acquisition and Material Management Division (AMMD) is issuing Request for Quotations (RFQ) # AOCSSB26Q0038 for multiple award agency-wide Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) for uniforms. It is anticipated that this RFQ will result in a multiple award Blanket Purchase Agreement with Firm Fixed Price orders (and one Labor Hour order) to responsible Quoters actively registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) and whose quote provides the overall best value to the AOC in accordance with the requirements set forth by this solicitation and the Statement of Work (SOW).

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation;

quotations are being requested and a separate written solicitation will not be issued.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes for this requirement is 315990

– Apparel Accessories and Other Apparel Manufacturing. The Product Service Code is 84 – Clothing, Individual Equipment, Insignia, and Jewelry. The BPA period of performance will be 1 base year and 4 one-year options, for a total of five years from the date of award if all options are exercised. FAR 52.217-8 will also be included at the BPA level for a possible 6 month extension.

The Architect of the Capitol anticipates awarding two BPAs, however, reserves the right to award one BPA from this solicitation.

Please see List of Attachments.

L.1 RFQ GENERAL CONDITIONS

The submission of a quote to the Government shall constitute the quoter’s acknowledgement, agreement and compliance with the terms and conditions of the RFQ. The Government will not be obligated to pay any cost incurred by a contractor in the preparation and submission of a quote. Quoters are cautioned to ensure that their quote submissions are complete and reflective of the evaluation criteria and requirements described herein. Quoters are encouraged to provide their best terms with their initial quote submission. Quoters shall not assume that the Government will afford an opportunity to clarify, discuss, or revise a quote.

The Government reserves the right to allow a quoter to revise their quotation if it determines http://www.aoc.gov/ that it is in the best interest of the Government, although a formal competitive range will not to established, the AOC is using Simplified Acquisition Procedures for this procurement.

Quotes shall be valid for 90 days from the date of final quote submission.

Any exceptions or conditional assumptions taken with respect to the requirements outlined in the RFQ or SOW shall be fully explained in the quoter’s Introductory Letter. The Government cautions quoters that taking exception to any term or condition may render their quote non-responsive and the quoter will be ineligible for award, unless the RFQ expressly authorizes such an exception with regards to a specific term or condition.

L.2 QUESTIONS AND QUOTATION SUBMISSIONS

All correspondence in conjunction with this solicitation, including questions and quotation submittals, shall be directed to the Contracting Officer, Roman Davydov, via e-mail at roman.davydov@aoc.gov. E-mail messages shall not exceed 10 MB. If necessary, quoters shall compress files with a .zip extension.

L.2.1 Questions Due Date

Questions about the technical or contractual details of this procurement must be submitted in writing via e-mail by May 20th, 2026 at 12:00 noon ET. When submitting questions, please include the RFQ #, Company Name and the word “Questions” in the subject line of the email.

For example, “AOCSSB26Q0038_ ABC Inc. Questions”. Questions submitted after this cut off will be responded to at the discretion of the Contracting Officer. Quoters shall use Attachment J.8 Quoter Questions Template to submit questions.

Answers to questions will be provided as an amendment to the RFQ.

L.2.2 Quotation Due Date

Quotations must be received no later than June 11th, 2026 at 12:00 noon ET. When submitting your final quotation, please include the RFQ #, Company Name and the word “Quotation” in the subject line of the email. For example, “AOCSSB26Q0038_ ABC Inc. Quote”. Quotations received after this date and time shall be considered late and shall not be accepted by the Government unless it is determined to be in the best interest of the Government.

L.3 VOLUMES AND ORGANIZATION

Quotations shall be clearly and concisely written, as well as being neat, indexed and logically assembled as described herein. Quoters are advised to supply all information in the sequence and format specified in the table below. The submitted quotation must provide a sufficient basis for a thorough evaluation and contain the information necessary for evaluation. The

Government will not assume the quoter possesses any capability, understanding, or commitment not specified in the quotation. The quotation must not merely repeat the solicitation and Statement of Work requirements, but rather must provide convincing documentary evidence in support of conclusive statements of how contract requirements will be met.

Quotations shall be prepared in separate volumes: Volume I – Technical and Volume II – Price.

The quoter shall provide the requested information within the designated volume evaluation factor. Any requested information placed outside of the designated location shall not be considered or evaluated under that evaluation factor regardless of whether it is located somewhere else in the quotation. In order for the technical quotation to be strictly evaluated on the merit of the material submitted, Volume I and Volume II shall be submitted as separate documents. Pricing is prohibited in, and shall be omitted from, Volume I. Each volume shall be indexed by evaluation factor.

Volumes shall be organized in the following manner:

Volume Factor Title Page Limit (Not to Exceed)

I

Introductory Letter No Limit 1 Technical Approach 12 Pages 2 Key Personnel 3 Page resume 3 Corporate Experience 3 Pages per contract

4 Past Performance No Limit – to be provided by past customers

II

5 Price No Limit (in Excel) Standard Form 18 (Provision Fill-Ins) No Limit

All pages in Volume I, except the introductory letter, shall include page numbering.

Content which is outside the Page Limits in the above chart will not be considered by the Government during evaluations.

Table of contents does not count towards page limits.

L.3.1 Paper Size and Formatting

Written materials shall be submitted 1 sided single spaced pages using standard 8 ½” x 11” size paper with a minimum of 1” margins. Font size shall be Times New Roman or Calibri with a minimum of 12-point size for text and 10-point size for tables and graphics.

L.3.2 Introductory Letter

The following introductory information is required before the first index of Volume I:

• RFQ Number & Title;

• Name and address of quoter;

• Unique Entity Identifier (UEI Number) & cage code;

• NAICS / PSC;

• Name, telephone number & e-mail address of quoter’s main point-of-contact;

• Date of submission;

• Name, title and signature of authorized representative;

• All technical factor assumptions to the RFQ and SOW shall be identified in this section.

Pricing assumptions shall be identified in Volume II. Exceptions identified in other areas of the quote will not be considered.

L.3.3 Standard Form 18

The quoter shall complete Page 1 of the SF18 and all the provision fill-ins under Section K - Representations, Certifications, and other Statements of Quoters or Respondents. The entire form shall be returned in PDF format in Volume II. Any SF-30 associated with any amendments to this RFQ shall be signed by the quoter and included in Volume II as well.

L.3.4 Factor 1 – Technical Approach

The quoter shall confirm that they can provide all of the Brand and Style Numbers in Attachment J.5 Pricing Sheet in the first sentence of their Technical Approach.

The quoter shall provide a technical approach plan in a narrative format that describes the quoter’s approach to managing and executing the requirements of the SOW. Quoters are cautioned that the submitted approach will be contractually binding.

The Technical Approach narrative shall reflect key management approaches, policies, and procedures to be implemented to ensure exceptional project management, delivery and quality control to complete the contract on-time, within budget and provide an approach which meets the requirements of SOW sections C.3 Scope of Work, C.5 Specific Performance Areas of the BPA, and C.6 Deliverables and Deliverables Schedule.

The quoter shall confirm that they can provide all of the Brand and Style Numbers in Attachment J.5 Pricing Sheet.

The quoter shall also describe how they will ensure that all invoices are in accordance with the BPA price list.

L.3.5 Factor 2 – Key Personnel

The quoter shall provide one resume for the Project Manager. The Project Manager is responsible for the overall BPA and Delivery Orders, and is the primary interface between the

Contractor and the Government. The resume shall demonstrate that the Project Manager has the experience and ability to perform as the Project Manager for the resultant BPA. The resume shall indicate dates of employment and the employer. The resume shall identify the experience, training, and education to meet the requirements and qualifications described in the SOW. The contractor shall ensure dates are included for all experience, training, and education identified.

L.3.6 Factor 3 – Corporate Experience

The Quoter shall describe three (3) recent and relevant contracts completed within the past five

(5) years, or for contracts that are on-going, those contracts must have been performed for at least 2 years. Contracts will be considered recent and relevant if they document completed work of a similar size, scope, magnitude, and complexity for a Government or private entity.

Quoters shall use Attachment J.6 Corporate Experience Template to submit Corporate Experience.

L.3.7 Factor 4 – Past Performance

The Government is providing a Past Performance Questionnaire (PPQ) as an attachment to this solicitation (Attachment J.7) which the quoter shall provide to the past customer points of contacts (POCs) for the three past contracts identified under the Corporate Experience factor (L.3.6) for completion. The Government requests that the quoter submit the questionnaire to the POCs via email. All completed questionnaire forms must be emailed by the past customer POC directly to the Contracting Officer, Roman Davydov, at roman.davydov@aoc.gov by the due date and time of quotes.

Quoters may submit a PDF copy of their CPARS for their contracts in lieu of the Past Performance Questionnaire.

L.3.8 Factor 5 – Price

Quoters shall input the price per item in Attachment J.5 – Pricing Sheet. Estimated Quantities are provided by the Government and shall not be changed, input the price per items in the respective cells for the Base and all Option years, the totals will auto-calculate. Quoters shall input the hourly rate for the Fitting Room Employee (see SOW section C.5.2.8) for each BPA ordering period.

Note that the pricing sheet reflects about half of the agency’s required quantities each year, to reflect two BPA holders, with Delivery Order obligations being about the same for each vendor.

Quoter shall quote on the brands/style numbers listed in Column B.

M.1 BASIS FOR AWARD

mailto:roman.davydov@aoc.gov

Evaluations will be conducted in accordance with the procedures defined below. The Government will first verify the on-time submission of all quotes. The Contracting Officer will then verify the quotes meet the Volume and Organization structure described in Section L.3.

Volume I of the quotes that meet the requirements of Section L.3 will be submitted to the Technical Evaluation Panel (TEP) for evaluation. The TEP will evaluate each quote against the evaluation criteria. Each non-price factor will be assigned an adjectival rating as established in Section M.2 herein. Once all Volume I quotes are evaluated, the TEP will evaluate Volume II, Price in accordance with the evaluation criteria for this factor.

The Government will make an award to the quoter whose quote represents the best value to the Government. Within the best value continuum, the Government will use the Tradeoff process of non-price and price factors in evaluating the quotes approved for evaluation. The Government will reserve the right to make an award without discussions if there is a fully acceptable quote received in the initial submissions. If not, the Government may allow a quoter to revise their quotation although a formal competitive range will not be established.

The Government also reserves the right to make no award.

In the event that two or more quotes are determined not to have any substantial technical differences (i.e., are technically equivalent), price may become the determining factor and award may be made to the lower priced quote. In the event that quotes are not technically equal, award may be made to other than the quoter with the lowest priced quote, if the Government determines that a price premium is warranted due to technical merit. The Government may also award to other than the highest technically rated quote, if the government determines that a price premium is not warranted.

Evaluations will be based on a complete assessment of the quote submission. Quotes will be evaluated on the following factors listed in descending order of importance. All non-price factors when combined are more important than Factor 5, Price.

Non Price Factors:

Factor 1: Technical Approach Factor 2: Key Personnel Factor 3: Corporate Experience Factor 4: Past Performance

Price Factors:

Factor 5: Price

The evaluation criteria for each factor are as follows:

M.1.1 Factor 1 – Technical Approach

If the Government cannot determine that the quoter confirmed that they can provide all of the Brand and Style Numbers in Attachment J.5 Pricing Sheet, the quoter will be rated marginal for this factor and not eligible for award.

The Government will evaluate the quoter’s Technical Approach to determine the quoter’s understanding of the requirement and method for completion. The Government will evaluate the quoter’s detailed knowledge and understanding of the SOW challenges associated with SOW sections C.3, C.5, and C.6. The Government will make a determination to which extent the technical approach provided by the quoter meets or exceeds the Government’s expectations.

M.1.2 Factor 2 – Key Personnel

The Government will evaluate the Program Manager’s resume to determine the extent to which that individual has the experience and ability to perform as the Project Manager for the resultant BPA.

M.1.3 Factor 3 – Corporate Experience

The Government will determine whether the Quoter provided three contracts (of similar size, magnitude, complexity, and scope to this requirement) that demonstrates the contractor’s ability to satisfactorily provide the requested services and references increase the likelihood of successful contract performance.

M.1.4 Factor 4 – Past Performance

Past performance will be evaluated to determine the extent to which the quoter’s past performance demonstrates successful performance on the contracts identified under the corporate experience evaluation factor.

The Government will evaluate the Past Performance Questionnaires received from customer references to determine the extent to which the quoter has demonstrated at least a satisfactory record of customer satisfaction. The Government may contact these references or use other references/information to verify past performance, such as CPARS. See Attachment J.7 - Past Performance Questionnaire for the contents that the Government will evaluate from the quoter’s past customers when using the Past Performance Questionnaire to evaluate past performance. Quoters without a record of relevant past performance, or for whom information on past performance is not available, shall not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably, but shall instead receive an overall rating of “neutral.”

M.1.5 Factor 5 – Price

The Government will evaluate the price quotes of all quoters receiving an Acceptable rating or above for Factors 1, 2, and 3. Price criterion will measure not only actual dollars but reasonableness of the quoter’s proposed price and its position in the range of all quoter prices.

The quoter’s price quote shall be evaluated for price reasonableness to prevent the Government from paying too much for the services outlined in the SOW. Additionally, a price realism analysis may be performed to determine whether a quoter’s price is unrealistically low.

An unrealistically low quote may question whether a quoter fully understands the size, magnitude, complexity, and scope of service outlined in the SOW. An unrealistic price quote may serve as a rejection for the quote.

The quoter’s quote will be evaluated for unbalanced pricing utilizing price analysis techniques.

The Government may determine that a quote is unacceptable if the prices proposed are materially unbalanced. A quote may be rejected if the Contracting Officer determines that the lack of balance poses an unacceptable risk to the Government.

Price will not be rated adjectivally, but will be evaluated based on a comprehensive review.

Price quotes shall be evaluated with respect to accuracy and completeness based on information submitted in the quoter’s written submission. This process will involve verification that figures are correctly calculated, prices are presented in the requested format, and that proposed rates and any applicable discounts are accurate. Additionally, the Government may utilize one or more of the following methods to evaluate price:

• Comparison to other quotes received;

• Comparison and/or analysis based on Independent Government Cost Estimate; or

• Comparison/analysis to historical prices.

As part of the price evaluation, the Government will evaluate the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) clause 52.217-9, Option to Extend the Term of the Contract and FAR 52.217-8, Option to Extend Services. The quoter's total evaluated price shall include the base period and all option periods. FAR 52.217-8 will be evaluated by dividing the price of option period 4 by two and including that amount in the evaluated price.

Note that the pricing sheet reflects about half of the agency’s required quantities each year, to reflect two BPA holders, with Delivery Order obligations being about the same for each vendor.

If the Government chooses to award the BPA to only one vendor, the evaluated price will double as a result.

M.2 RATING AND DEFINITIONS

The Government will evaluate non-price factors 1, 2, and 3 of Volume I using the following adjectival ratings and definitions scale:

Rating Description

Outstanding The quotation provides a very clear, comprehensive and detailed response that meets all requirements and may include significant strengths with no

Definitions of Strengths and Weaknesses are as follows:

Significant Strengths: A strength that appreciably enhances the merit of a quotation or appreciably increases the probability of successful contract performance.

Strengths: Any aspect of a quotation which exceeds a requirement and increases the probability of successful performance of the contract. Also, any aspect of a quotation which deficiencies or significant weaknesses. The risk of unsuccessful performance is very low as the quotation demonstrates a clear understanding of the requirements and can be expected to result in outstanding performance.

Good The quotation provides a sound response that meets all requirements and may include strengths with no deficiencies and few weaknesses. The risk of unsuccessful performance is low as the quotation demonstrates an understanding of the requirements and can be expected to result in satisfactory performance.

Acceptable The quotation provides a response that is capable of meeting all requirements but may include both strengths and weaknesses with no deficiencies. Strengths are not outweighed by the weaknesses. The risk of unsuccessful performance is moderate as the quotation demonstrates a general understanding of the requirements and can be expected to result in satisfactory performance.

If no strengths or weaknesses are found, i.e., quotation plainly meets all requirements, the quotation will be rated Acceptable under this definition, the quotation can be expected to result in satisfactory performance.

Marginal The quotation provides a response that does not meet all requirements and may include strengths, weaknesses and/or deficiencies. Strengths are outweighed by the weaknesses and/or deficiencies. The risk of unsuccessful performance is high as the quotation does not demonstrate an understanding of the requirements and can be expected to result in unsatisfactory performance.

Unacceptable The quotation provides a response that does not meet all requirements and may include significant weaknesses and/or deficiencies that far outweigh any strengths. The risk of unsuccessful performance is very high as the quotation does not demonstrate an understanding of the requirements and will result in unsatisfactory performance.

meets a requirement, however, must be presented in a manner which is very clear, comprehensive, and convincing i.e., not merely repeat the solicitation requirements.

Weaknesses: A flaw in the quotation that increases the risk of unsuccessful contract performance.

Significant Weaknesses: A weakness that appreciably increases the risk of unsuccessful contract performance.

Deficiencies: A material failure of a quotation to meet a Government requirement or a combination of significant weaknesses in a quotation that increases the risk of unsuccessful contract performance to an unacceptable level.

The rating definitions below shall be used for Past Performance:

Adjectival Rating Definitions

Substantial Confidence

Based on the Quoter’s recent (NLT 5 Years) and relevant performance record, the Government has a high expectation that the Quoter will successfully perform.

Satisfactory Confidence

Based on the Quoter’s recent (NLT 5 Years) and relevant performance record, the Government has a reasonable expectation that the Quoter will successfully perform.

Limited Confidence

Based on the Quoter’s recent (NLT 5 Years) and relevant performance record, the Government has a limited expectation that the Quoter will successfully perform.

No Confidence Based on the Quoter’s recent (NLT 5 Years) and relevant performance record, the Government has a no expectation that the Quoter will successfully perform.

Unknown Confidence (Neutral)

The quoter does not have recent (NLT 5 Years) and relevant performance; or the quoter’s performance record is so sparse; a meaningful confidence rating cannot be reasonably assigned.