N00173-14-R-RV01_Q A.pdf

N00173-14-R-RV01

Solicitation Questions and Answers Volume 1.

Reference: Industry Day Q1. Will the Government release the list of vendors registered who registered for the NRL-ITD Industry day?

A1. Yes

Reference: Section L Q2. The RFP states no due date for questions. Will the Government please specify when questions are due?

A2. Questions may be asked up until the closing date of the RFP. However, the Government reserves the right to refuse to answer any question asked by a potential vendor.

Reference: Attachments 1 & 6 Q3. The LCATS in Attachment 1 and Attachment 6 are not identical. Information Technology Subject Matter Expert (Series BH) and Social Scientist (Series CD) appear only in Attachment 6. They have no job descriptions in Attachment 1. Also, after Row 206 of Attachment 6, the series designators are no longer consistent with those in Attachment 1. Can the Government revise these documents so they are consistent with one another?

A3. See Amendment 1.

Reference: Section A Q4. Page 1 of the Solicitation says the due date is 2/16/15. That day is a Federal Holiday, Presidents’ Day. Will someone be available at NRL to accept proposals? If not, would the Government consider extending the due date to 2/17/15 A4. See Amendment 1.

Reference: Section L-11 Q5. In L-11, on page 82, the table limits the page count of the Cost Volume to 50 pages. Our company is planning to respond to all 7 Research Fields and submit the required attachments, which will exceed 50 pages due to the number of tables which must be provided. Would the Government consider excluding the tables from the page count or increasing the page count to 70 pages?

A5. See Amendment 1.

Reference: Attachment 6.

Q6. Attachment 6 requires rates to be provided for 6 years. Are these, calendar years, contract years, of Government fiscal years? Also, what is the planned date for contract award, since rates will be dependent on the date the contract is planned to be awarded.

A6. Contract Years. For planning purposes, Offerors shall assume a contract start date of 1 July 2015.

Reference: Draft RFP Q&A Volume 2 Q7. In response to Q5. In Volume 2, the Government requires Offerors to put maximum rates per position in Attachment 6. These rates should be based on TS clearance levels. Since the incumbents know what clearance levels are required for the positions they currently staff, what will prevent them from bidding rates for SECRET cleared people as their maximum rates while non-incumbents are disadvantaged by bidding TS rates? How will these maximum rates be fairly evaluated?

A7. The rates listed in the solicitation represent the maximum rate that an Offeror may charge on any task order issued under this vehicle. Task orders may contain work that requires TS, Secret, or unclassified personnel during the performance of the task order. See Section M-2(d) for details on how pricing will be evaluated.

N00173-14-R-RV01

Solicitation Questions and Answers Volume 1.

Reference: Section B Q8. In B-1, may the Offerors put “TBD” in the spaces provided for Quantity, Unit Price, and Amount since this is an IDIQ?

A8. Yes.

Reference: Section A Q9. The SF 33 states a due date of 16 February for the proposal. This is President’s Day, a Federal holiday. RFP Section L-9(c) states that “Proposals may be hand delivered….excluding weekends and federal holidays.” Will the Government be available to accept proposal deliveries on that day, or will the Government revise the due date?

A9. See question 4.

Reference: Section L-13 (b)(1)(i) Q10. RFP Section L-13 (b)(1)(i) states that “Offerors may elect to submit a Technical Volume for a minimum one and a maximum seven of the seven Research Fields listed in the SOW.” Section L- 13(b)(2)(i), Volume Organization, states the required organization of technical volumes, which includes addressing Subfactors B and C. Section L-13(b)(2)(ii) states “In further detail, each individual proposal making up the Technical Volume will be organized according to the provided outline.” Whereas Subfactor B, Resources, may vary from field to field, Subfactor C, Management, of the IDIQ and task orders will stay the same. Is it the Government’s intent that for offerors who are proposing to multiple research fields provide only one 25 page response to Subfactor B and Subfactor C as long as Subfactor B adequately addresses all resources available for each research field proposed?

A10. Yes.

Reference: Ref RFP Section L-13(b)(3)(i)(B) and Questions and Answers Q11.

Q11. This RFP section states “Additionally, the prospective Offeror will be required to demonstrate its technical understanding of the Research Field by responding to one or more sample Research Field Topics within the given Research Field. Each sample Research Field Topics proposal shall demonstrate the methodology and technical approach, including applicable references to the Contractor’s quality control process.” Question 11 instructed that the five page sample Research Field Topic response was within the 30 page allocation for each research field. As stated, if an Offeror chooses to respond to multiple sample topics in order to provide the Government with a comprehensive understanding of our capabilities, then the page allocation for addressing the technical requirements proper would be reduced commensurately with the number of sample topics chosen for response. In other words, should an Offeror choose to respond to three sample topics (15 pages max), then there would only be 15 pages remaining to address all SOW Functional Area requirements as well as SOW Research Field requirements. Will the Government consider changing the page requirement to 30 pages for the technical response to Subfactor A, and 5 pages per sample task response to allow us to provide comprehensive responses to all requirements?

A11. Based on feedback from the Draft RFPs released throughout the acquisition planning phase, the Government feels that the page count limits stated in Section L-11(b)(1)(i) allow for sufficient detail for effective evaluation.