SOW_IG_Investigation_OGC_2013.doc

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board

Office of Financial and Administrative Management

1615 M Street, N.W. Suite 500

Washington, DC 20036

Phone: (202) 254-4415; Fax: (202) 653-7821; E-Mail: stephen.smith@mspb.gov

Procurement Specialist

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board

Request for Proposals

MSPB-RFP-14-001

Investigation

SCOPE OF WORK

1. The contractor will provide the services of one or more investigators to conduct an assessment of allegations of gross mismanagement, gross waste of funds, and abuse of management authority, as well as alleged violations of the Privacy Act, labor relations laws and other laws governing the management of federal employees.

The contractor will conduct this assessment in consultation with the Board’s Order No. 1095, an internal procedure for Inspector General operations.

The contractor will apply knowledge of Federal whistleblower, labor relations, privacy, procurement, and related federal employment and administrative laws and regulations.

The contractor will, if necessary, identify witnesses and documentary evidence to support its assessment. The contractor will observe the criminal, civil, union, and other rights afforded witnesses. The contractor will provide recordings of any witness interviews.

Sections 2 and 3 describe the two steps of the investigation process.

2. After an initial review of the specific allegations and applicable law and regulation, the contractor will make a written recommendation supporting its assessment as to the appropriate level of investigative activity, if any, that is necessary to either substantiate or refute the allegations identified in the complaint.

The contractor will identify the potential scope of the recommended additional investigation, to include the legal, regulatory or policy issues implicated and elements of proof.

The contractor will complete the initial assessment and the initial recommendation submitted to the agency within 21 days.

3. If the initial assessment indicates that additional investigation is warranted, the contractor will conduct interviews and collect documentary or other evidence to support a final report and recommendation to the General Counsel of the Board or designee. The contractor will conduct this investigation consistently with the Board’s Order No. 1095, an internal procedure for Inspector General operations.

The investigator(s) will meet periodically with the designated point of contact within the Board’s Office of the General Counsel to provide updates on the progress of the investigation.

The contractor will apply knowledge of Federal whistleblower, labor relations, privacy, procurement, and related employment and administrative laws and regulations.

The contractor will interview witnesses and collect documentary evidence to support the record of investigation. The contractor will observe the criminal, civil, union, and other rights afforded witnesses. The contractor will provide recordings of any witness interviews.

The contractor will document witness interviews and identify documentary and other evidence necessary to the completion of the investigation.

Confidential files and work product will be maintained.

The contractor will submit report of investigation, including and referencing all material evidence, to the agency within 90 days.

The report will accurately address relevant aspects of the investigation, identify any weakness or problem that may require corrective action, make recommendations, and provide for follow-up, as needed. The report will reference the collected evidence with specific citation, and will conform to professional standards of grammar and punctuation.

AMENDMENTS TO THE STATEMENT OF WORK

The Board will codify revisions to the statement of work with written amendments and will give the contractor reasonable advance notice of proposed changes whenever such changes become necessary. All questions or proposed changes on the part of the contractor should be presented in writing to the designated Board contact within the Office of General Counsel.

CONTRACTOR PERSONNEL

Contractor personnel must have a current background investigation. Professional conduct and appearance and a high standard of integrity are expected at all times. The contractor must maintain a fair, impartial, and objective attitude in conducting and reporting the investigation. The contractor(s), in performing services under this Agreement, shall comply with all laws, rules, and regulations that govern or apply to the provision of services as described in this Statement of Work.

REPORT OF INVESTIGATION

The contractor will provide interim and final reports to the Board’s General Counsel or designee. All reports and other records or materials created during the investigation are the property of the Merit Systems Protection Board and will be turned over to the Board’s Office of the General Counsel by the contractor at the conclusion of the investigation along with submission of the final report of the investigation. Such records and material include, but are not limited to, notes of interviews or record/file checks, documents gathered during an investigation, documents furnished to the contractor by the Board, and electronic media (e.g., emails, tape or other recordings, diskettes, computer hard drives, or CDs).

PAYMENT

The MSPB Financial and Administrative Management Office is responsible for payment to the contractor. All invoices or other statements from the contractor to the Board for services provided under this Contract shall be submitted to the Board’s General Counsel for review and approval prior to being submitted to the Board’s Director of Financial Management for payment. Upon completion of the investigation and the submission of the report, the MSPB must remit payment in 30 days from the receipt of the contractors invoice, unless the investigative report is found to be substantially incomplete, incorrect or has other deficiencies requiring work by the contractor. In those cases, the report will be sent back to the contractor for the required work to be completed. All additional fieldwork will be billed at the standard rate. Deficiencies in reporting deemed to be the result of negligence or carelessness will be corrected by the contractor at no cost.

TIME REQUIREMENTS

It is expected that the contractor will complete the investigation of this matter as soon as is practicable. However, the target completion date is April 25, 2014 for submission of the final investigative report and investigative file to the Board’s General Counsel.

CONTRACT TYPE

This is a Time and Materials contract. The contract price shall include all estimated costs and expenses associated with the delivery of goods and services as specified herein, including travel to and from Merit Systems Protection Board Headquarters in Washington, DC or any of its field and regional offices.

QUESTIONS

Questions should be addressed to Stephen G. Smith, Contracting Officer, at the e-mail address shown below.

CONTRACTING OFFICER’S REPRESENTATIVE

At the time of award the Contracting Officer shall designate a Contracting Officer’s Representative to work with the contractor during performance of the contractor. This individual will not be authorized to order or accept work beyond the scope of the contract or obligate in anyway additional work under or outside the contract. That ability is reserved strictly to the Contracting Officer.

KEY PERSONNEL

MSPB expects that persons proposed to perform under the terms of this contract, will be the persons who in fact perform the requirements of this contract. In the event the contractor is forced, by emergency or other unforeseen circumstance, to substitute persons for those proposed, the Contractor must, as soon as practicable, notify the Contracting Officer of this circumstance and submit replacement resumes. MSPB will be the sole judge of acceptability of any such persons proposed and, may in such an event, at its sole discretion, terminate the contract for convenience.

HOW TO SUBMIT PROPOSALS

Interested potential service providers may submit Proposals to the Board by e-mail or by mail at the address below.

Merit Systems Protection Board

Stephen G. Smith, Contracting Officer

1615 M Street, NW

Washington, D.C. 20036 stephen.smith@mspb.gov

Tel.: 202-254-4415 Proposals must be received by 3:00 p.m., EST, January 24, 2014.

Proposals should include:

A corporate profile or resume showing the firm’s experience in conducting the types of investigations generally described in this RFP;

Names and resumes of persons who will conduct the investigation and prepare the reports;

Name, address, including e-mail, telephone number(s), etc. and resume of the contractor’s proposed Project Manager; and

An estimated price.

EVALUATION AND AWARD

Award will be made to the firm/individual offering the best value to the government. Price and other factors will be considered.

Any award will be made based on the best overall (i.e., best value) proposal that is determined to be the most beneficial to the Government, with appropriate consideration given to the three following Evaluation Factors: Technical, Past Performance, and Price. The Technical Factor is significantly more important than the Price Factor, which is significantly more important than the Past Performance Factor. To receive consideration for award, a rating of no less than “Acceptable” must be achieved for the Technical Factor. Offerors are cautioned that the award may not necessarily be made to the lowest Price offered or the most highly rated technical proposal.

I. EVALUATION APPROACH

All proposals shall be subject to evaluation by Government personnel. The Government reserves the right to award without discussions based upon the initial evaluation of proposals. The proposal will be evaluated strictly in accordance with its written content. Proposals which merely restate the requirement or state that the requirement will be met, without providing supporting rationale, are not sufficient. Offerors who fail to meet the minimum requirements of the solicitation will be rated Unacceptable and thus, ineligible for award.

II. TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

The offeror must have proven technical expertise and specific service offerings in the areas specified in the Statement of Work (SOW).

The evaluation process will consider the following:

a. Understanding of the Problem - The proposal will be evaluated to determine the extent to which it demonstrates a clear understanding of all features involved in solving the problems and meeting and/or exceeding the requirements presented in the solicitation and the extent to which uncertainties are identified and resolutions proposed.

b. Feasibility of Approach - The proposal will be evaluated to determine the extent to which the proposed approach is workable and the end results achievable. The proposal will be evaluated to determine the level of confidence provided the Government with respect to the Offeror's methods and approach in successfully meeting and/or exceeding the requirements in a timely manner.

c. Completeness - The proposal will be evaluated to determine whether the Offeror’s methods and approach have adequately and completely considered, defined, and satisfied the requirements specified in the solicitation. The proposal will be evaluated to determine the extent to which each requirement has been addressed (i.e., met and/or exceeded) in accordance with the proposal submission instructions of the solicitation.

III. PRICE EVALUATION APPROACH

The Government will evaluate offers by adding the total of all line item prices. The Total Evaluated Price will be that sum.

IV. PAST PERFORMANCE AND EXPERIENCE

Proposals shall provide comprehensive information and demonstrated evidence of the Offeror’s past performance and previous experience in providing investigations to other federal agencies. The Past Performance evaluation will assess the relative risks associated with an Offeror's likelihood of success in fulfilling the solicitation's requirements as indicated by that Offeror's record of past performance. In this context, “Offeror” refers to the proposed prime contractor and all proposed major subcontractor(s).

The Government will conduct a performance risk assessment based on the quality, relevancy and recency of the Offeror's past performance, as well as that of its major subcontractors, as it relates to the probability of successful accomplishment of the required effort. The Government reserves the right to obtain past performance information from any available source and may contact customers other than those identified by the Offeror when evaluating past performance. Since the Government may not necessarily interview all of the sources provided by the Offerors, it is incumbent upon the Offerors to explain the relevance of the data provided. Offerors are reminded that the burden of proving low performance risk rests with the Offerors. The Government will review aspects of cost, schedule and performance. Areas to be evaluated may include but are not limited to quality of product or service, timeliness of performance or adherence to delivery schedules, and/or effectiveness in program management (to include use and control of subcontractors). In the case of an Offeror without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information on past performance is not available, the Offeror may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on past performance.