NWDC_QA.pdf

Vendor Question FLC Norfolk response

The Draft PWS has a 5.6 section on Services and Support but this section does not appear in the final RFP PWS…although it is a section on the Past Performance template

(Attachment II). Please confirm that a discussion of Services and Support is not required in either the Performance and Management Approach (Factor I, Sub-factor III) or Past

Performance (Factor II).

PWS included in solicitation is final PWS.

Section C - Descriptions and Specifications, Page 35, Appendix B – Labor Category

Descriptions provides a list of six labor category descriptions; however, the

Government provided Labor Mix Table (Atch IV) Excel file lists only five labor categories under the FFP and CPFF Detail tabs. Please confirm the accuracy of the table below that shows a cross walk of labor categories under Appendix B to Attachment IV or other guidance for staffing and pricing the appropriate labor categories.

See Amendment one (1) - Labor Mix Table for corrections to

Categories.

Also related to Appendix B – Labor Category Descriptions and the Labor Mix Table (Atch

IV), will the Government provide guidance on how to split the stated labor category hours for both FFP and CPFF labor categories between the three prescribed skill levels

(1/Junior, 2/Mid, and 3/Senior…..with the exception of the Program/Project Supervisor category)?

See Amendment one (1) - Labor Mix Table for breakdown by level.

The Labor Mix Table (Atch IV) provides for FFP and CPFF hourly rates by ordering period; however, neither the Excel template nor the instructions in the solicitation provide specific dates for the ordering period. Will the Government confirm the dates of each ordering period to be as follows or provide correction: Ordering Period I:

January 26, 2019 – January 25, 2020; Ordering Period II: January 26, 2020 – January 25, 2021; Ordering Period III: January 26, 2021 – January 25, 2022; Ordering Period IV:

January 26, 2022 - January 25, 2023; Ordering Period V: January 26, 2023 –January 25, 2024; FAR 52.217-8 Option To Extend: January 26, 2024 – July 25, 2024

The awarded contract will contain a five (5) year ordering period. The start date will be based on actual award date;

therefore, "approximate" dates have been provided within the soliciatation.

Page 4. Payment of Fixed Fee, Competitive CPFF Task Orders. Will fixed fee per hour be determined based on Task Order level bid and pricing versus the overall IDIQ bid?

The proposed fully burdened hourly labor rates included on the NWDC Fleet Operations Support Estimated Labor Mix

Table will be incorporated into the resultant contracts as the ceiling labor rates for each labor category. During task order bidding, offerors can propose a rate lower than that bid at the MAC level but not higher than the rates in the IDIQ.

Page 28. Travel. The ‘Yearly Travel Projections Table’ provided at the bottom of page

28 includes ‘Iraq / Bahrain’ as a Travel Destination. Does the government foresee the contractor traveling to designated combat zones in the performance of this contract? There will be no requirement for contractors to travel to designated combat zones.

Page 29. Section 17 of the RFP states, “The application of profit and/or any other indirect cost on ODCs are not allowable under this contract.” Does this mean that both travel and additional ODCs cannot have fee applied, since travel and other ODCs are lumped into one $1.43M ODC plug?

That is correct.

Pages 35-36. Appendix B defines six Projected Labor Categories (i.e., Program/Project

Supervisor 3, Analyst: SME 1-3, Operations Support: Program 1-3, Operations Support:

Technical 1-3, Operations Support: Operational 1-3, and Functional Support:

Certification and Accreditation (Experimentation) 1-3). The “Labor Mix Table”

(Attachment IV) lists five Resource Bands (i.e., Program/Project Supervisor, Analysts, Operations Support, Technical Support, and Functional Support). Will the Government align projected Labor Categories to Resource Bands in order to complete the Labor Mix

Table (Attachment IV)?

See Amendment one (1) - Labor Mix Table for corrections to

Categories.

Page 47. Recognizing the broad range of capabilities and skillsets anticipated by this

RFP, would the government consider adding language to the CPFF Task Order (TO) ordering instructions to allow contractors to propose new labor categories at the TO level—subject to Contracting Officer approval—to access highly-specialized or credentialed skillsets to meet future NWDC TO requirements?

TO proposals should be based on IDIQ labor categories.

Page 48. The RFP states “THE ANTICIPATED CEILING FOR EACH AWARDED CONTRACT IS

$55,100,00.00, inclusive of 52.217-8 CLIN pricing.” Does this ceiling refer to only the five-year ordering period, or the five-year ordering period plus the six-month option period?

Inclusive of the six-month option

Page 51. The clause 52.222-41 - Service Contract Labor Standards is included in the solicitation, however, no wage determination was provided. Will the Government confirm that under PSC R405 and NAICS 541990 this is not applicable?

Wage Determination added to amendment one (1)

Page 131. In the Proposal Page Limitations instructions state that “Each Factor shall be submitted in separate binders.” However, the instructions for the volume cover include adding the “Proposal Category (Sample Tasks, Staffing Approach, Performance and

Management Approach, and Small Business Participation Plan or Price/Cost)”. Lastly, the number of copies within Factor I vary by sub-factor (e.g., Sub-Factor IV only requires

1 copy). Does the government expect that each FACTOR is in a separate binder, or each

SUB-FACTOR is in a separate binder?

See amendment one (1). 1 binder per factor.

Pages 131, 133, and 137. Within the instructions for Volume II (page 137), the RFP provides instructions for the Subcontracting Plan. However, within Volume I instructions (page 131), the RFP directs that “All large business offerors shall include their Small Business Subcontracting Plan in the same binder as their Small Business

Participation Plan.” The instructions for Factor I, Subfactor IV Small Business

Participation Plan (Page 133) do not include a section for the Small Business

Subcontracting Plan. As Small Business Subcontracting Plans may include dollar values, will the Government consider amending Section L to require co-location of the Small

Business Participation Plan and the Small Business Subcontracting Plan within Volume

II?

See amendment (section L)

Page 135. The RFP states, “The price/cost proposal shall support the anticipated level of effort provided in the Governments labor estimate in Attachment IV, NWDC Fleet

Operations Support Estimated Labor Mix Table.” Does this mean the offeror shall bid to the government directed LOE for the FFP and CPFF sections?

Please see page 133 of 154 where guidance on labor mix is provided

Page 136. Section L.3.d. states “Other Direct Costs (ODCs): Offeror shall insert the

Government estimated ODC plug number in their proposed price in addition to any applicable General and Administrative (G&A) and/or Overhead (OH) rate applicable in accordance with FAR Part 31 and their approved accounting system. Within the

Attachment IV “Overall Summary” tab, however, the Government pre-populates the applicable ODC’s and Travel cells with the NTE plug numbers. Will the Government clarify if the applicable indirect costs should be added to the plug numbers provided, or, if the plug numbers provided should be inclusive of applicable indirect costs?

Plug numbers are inclusive should they be applicable in accordance with FAR Part 31

Page 137. How many hours delineate a man-year in the proposed government LOE for the FFP and CPFF CLINs?

1920 Hours

Page 150. Factor II – Past Performance. The Past Performance Relevancy evaluation description states, “…each offeror’s Past Performance submission will be evaluated to determine its scope and magnitude relative to the instant requirement.” Will the

Government define ‘instant requirement’ or update as appropriate?

RFP N0018918R0063 is the instant requirement

Page 150. Factor II – Past Performance. The 5th paragraph within this section states, “The relevance of the contract will increase with the number of areas of experience that the contract reflects…”, followed by a list of 6 items including “- Services and

Support”. Since this term is not one of the SOW categories, will the Government define

‘Services and Support’ or update as appropriate?

See amendment one (1)

Attachment IV. Would the government provide definitions or guidance as to the specific pricing information it is requesting in the “CPFF Detail” tabs (e.g., function, grade, band, and technology overhead). These are not defined in the RFP instructions.

Additionally, is each offeror permitted to tailor the template format of specific tabs within Attachment IV in order to adhere to their own estimating practices?

See amendment one (1). Tailoring of the tabs is permitted

Attachment IV. The Labor Summary tabs within N0018918R0063Attach_IV_-

_Fleet_Operations_Support_Estimated_Labor_Mix_Table-1 appear to indicate the estimated hours by resource bands and not individual labor categories that may be utilized within these bands. The Solicitation Section L Volume II instructions on Page

135 state “The proposed fully burdened hourly labor rates included on the NWDC Fleet

Operations Support Estimated Labor Mix Table will be incorporated into the resultant contracts as the ceiling labor rates”. If the offeror proposes labor categories under the overall resource bands as interpreted in the table may the offeror assume that the ceiling rate will be based on the highest priced LCAT when more than one LCAT in a category is proposed?

Each labor category ceiling rate will be incorporated into the resultant contract.

Attachment IV – Labor Mix Table (Excel spreadsheet). The Government provided spreadsheet used for estimating costs/price under this effort provides separate CPFF detail tabs (CPFF Detail – Base Period; CPFF Detail – Period 1; CPFF Detail – Period 2;

CPFF Detail – Period 3; CPFF Detail- Period 4 and CPFF Detail – 52.217-8). In each of these tabs there is a column that provides for a fixed fee rate (Column Y) with a resultant hourly rate for each labor category by ordering period (Columns Z & AA). Is it the Government’s intention to award the CPFF fully burdened hourly rates inclusive of profit? If the Government does intend to award CPFF fully burdened rates inclusive of profit, the burdened rates appear to be Time & Material (T&M) rates. How does the

Government intend to utilize the IDIQ hourly burdened rates at delivery order execution?

The proposed fully burdened hourly labor rates included on the NWDC Fleet Operations Support Estimated Labor Mix

Table will be incorporated into the resultant contracts as the ceiling labor rates for each labor category. The rates are for incorporation into the contract and used for task orders.

The MAC contracts are CPFF contracts.

Attachment IV – Labor Mix Table (Excel spreadsheet) The Government provided spreadsheet used for estimating costs/price under this effort provides separate CPFF detail tabs (CPFF Detail – Base Period; CPFF Detail – Period 1; CPFF Detail – Period 2;

CPFF Detail – Period 3; CPFF Detail- Period 4 and CPFF Detail – 52.217-8).

Some of the columns do not provide for information found standard in Government cost estimating worksheets. No instructions have been provided in the Excel workbook or in the solicitation as to what the Government wants entered as data in these columns.

What information is the Government looking for in the following Excel columns?22 See amendment one (1) and response to question 19

Column B – Resource Type. What is a resource type?

Column D – External Sub. What is the Government looking for in this field as the subcontractors company name will already be provided in Column C?

Columns E through H. What is a Function? What is a Category? What is a

Grade? What is a Band?

Column J – Technology Overhead. What is Technology Overhead?

Column K – General Labor Category. Is the Government looking for the Prime and Subcontractor’s labor category name? What is meant by General Labor

Category?

22a Column M & N – Labor Rate & Labor Value. What is meant by labor rate and labor value under these two columns?

Base labor and base labor times hours

22b

Columns T & U – Comm Sup % & Comm Sup Value. Please define Comm

Sup% and Comm Sup Value. A reference to Common Support is made under the CPFF Summary tab. What is common support?

Cost of Money if applicable. See amendment one (1)

Attachment IV – Labor Mix Table (Excel spreadsheet) Are offeror’s allowed to deviate the format provided under each tab (add columns, rows, etc) to account for an offeror’s cost estimating methodology that may be different from the buildup provided by the

Government?

See response to question 19

Pages 136-137 of 154 under Section L (Volume II – Price/Cost Proposal) provides for the unburdened ODC/Travel amounts for Offerors to use for Ordering Period I – Ordering

Period V at $260,000 for each year. The table in the solicitation does not provide the

FAR 52.217-8, Option to Extend. To match the data in Attachment IV - Labor Mix Table will the Government confirm the following Travel/ODC amounts for each ordering period and update Pages 136-137 accordingly.

See amendment one (1)

Attachment IV – Labor Mix Table (Excel spreadsheet). The Government provided spreadsheet used for estimating costs/price under this effort provides a FFP Summary tab. Within the FFP Summary there is a line that provides for the Travel/ODC amounts by ordering period. There is nowhere in this tab that the Offeror can show the indirect detail that should be applied to Travel/Material/ODC costs. For the FFP Summary are these amounts considered to be inclusive of an offeror’s indirect burden structure and profit?

See response to question 15.

22 See amendment one (1) and response to question 19

If a company’s application of indirect rates is different for various cost elements

(Travel, ODC’s, and Material), please define how the offeror should allocate the unburdened plug number by ordering period in order to reflect the appropriate burdens for each of these cost elements.

See response to question 19. Tailoring is allowed.

It is not clear what type of rates offerors should bid- contractor site or client site rates?

Which performance site should be assumed for purposes of developing estimated costs using the appropriate Overhead rate? If the Government requires rates for both on-site

(Government-site) and off-site (contractor site) performance what is the percentage of the split between on-site and off-site hours?

Please see PWS for primary place of performance.

Under Section L, II. Requirements for Proposal Content on page 131 of 154 the RFP states that the cover page should include a proposal validity date through 2/31/2019.

Should this date be 2/28/2019?

See amendment one (1)

Under Section L, page 130 of 154 the RFP states that proposals are due no later than

2:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) 27 AUG 2018. The solicitation cover page under

Section 9 shows a due date of 12am on 27 AUG. Please confirm that Offerors proposals are due to the Government with the date and time shown on page 130.

The date /time have been aligned within the amendment.

Attachment IV – Labor Mix Table (Excel spreadsheet). Is the data provided on rows 10-

19 of the CPFF Summary tab intended for the subcontractor’s proprietary submittal?

Can rows be added to account for an offeror’s cost estimating methodology that may be different from the buildup provided by the Government?

See response to question 19. Proprietary cost/price data can be submitted directly to contracting office by due date of solication

Section C – Performance Work Statement, page 8 of 154: Should the section titled

“Doctrine” be numbered 5.2 Doctrine?

Yes, numbering error corrected in amended solicitation.

The note following the Proposal Page Limitations Table [page 131 of 154] states that the Small Business Subcontracting Plan is included in the same volume as the Small

Business Participation Plan. Guidance for this Small Business Subcontracting Plan is provided under the guidance for Volume II – Price/Cost Proposal (page 137 of 154).

Volume II-Price/Cost proposal (page 129) states this volume of the proposal shall exclude any pricing information. The Small Business Subcontracting Plan has subcontracting dollars which is cost data. The Page Limitation Table indicates that the

Small Business Participation Plan is included in the Volume I – Factor I volume. Based on the note and cost guidance, will the Government allow both of these plans to be submitted as part of Volume II Price/Cost? Also, based on the answer to this, please clarify the original, copies and CD ROM requirements for this Factor I – Sub-Factor IV

Small Business Participation Plan.

See amendment one (1) for change in number of copies.

Subcontracting plan shall be submitted in accordance with

Section L.

Section L, I. GENERAL, page 129 of 154 of the RFP indicates there are only two separate volumes. Under Section II. REQUIREMENTS FOR PROPOSAL CONTENT, page 131 paragraph (4) table note it states “each factor shall be submitted in separate volumes.

This implies there are three separate volumes; one for Factor I, one for Factor II and one for Price/Cost. Please clarify.

Please see response to question 12

Reference Attachment II “CORPORATE EXPERIENCE and PAST PERFORMANCE

INFORMATION FORM.” The provided form uses 8 font and its margins are outside the limits of Section L requirements. Will the Government confirm offerors are to adjust margins and adjust content to 12 font per Section L criteria.

An adjustment to the margins and font to the provided

Corporate Experience and Past Performance Information

Form is not required by offeror(s).

Please confirm that offeror’s may include a “Glossary of Abbreviations, Acronyms and

Terms Used” in each volume that is not counted within the allotted page count.

confirmed

Section L, II Requirements for Proposal Content, page 131 (4) Proposal Page Limitations states, “the page limitations are inclusive of the Executive Summary….” The Executive

Summary is not listed in the Proposal Page Limitation Table. Request clarification of the requirement for an Executive Summary and if required, the prescribed location for

Volume I Factor/SubFactor page limitation considerations.

not required

Section L, III Proposal Content, Factor I Technical Approach, Sub-Factor I Sample Task centers on conducting a Focused Collection and Analysis. Section M, Volume I, Factor I

Technical Approach, Sub-factor I Sample Task refers to the experimentation planning process. Request clarification of the Sample Task evaluation criteria as experimentation planning is not part of the FCAT activity/process.

See amendment

Section B, page 4 of 154 - Payment of Fixed Fee: PAYMENT OF FIXED FEE UNDER CPFF

TASK ORDERS (CPFF MULTIPLE AWARD IDIQ) (SEP 2015), subpara. (b) Non-

Competitive CPFF Task Orders.

This section currently reads, “The fixed fee payout rate for non-competitive task orders to be paid under any individual task order will be the hourly fee rate determined by dividing MAC solicitation’s Estimated Total Hours by the individual contractor’s proposed fixed fee for the award of the MAC contract…”

We believe the formula for determining the hourly fee dollars should be based on the total proposed fee dollars divided by the hours, so that the sentence in the RFP would read, “The fixed fee payout rate for non-competitive task orders to be paid under any individual task order will be the hourly fee rate determined by dividing the individual contractor’s total proposed fixed fee dollars for the award of the MAC contract by the

MAC solicitation’s Estimated Total Hours.”

Section B, page 4 of 154: PAYMENT OF FIXED FEE UNDER CPFF TASK ORDERS (CPFF

MULTIPLE AWARD IDIQ) (SEP 2015), subpara. (b) related to CPFF task orders:

This section currently reads: “If substantially fewer than the estimated hours established in any task order are employed in the performance of that task order, then the fixed fee amount for the task order shall be equitably reduced to reflect the reduction of work.”

As ‘substantially fewer’ is not defined, to avoid uncertainty during performance we request that this sentence be changed to read: “: If substantially fewer than the estimated hours established in any task order are employed in the performance of that task order, then the fixed fee amount for the task order shall be equitably reduced to reflect any reduction of work. However, if all work required under the task order PWS was performed and delivered, the Fixed Fee shall not be reduced.”

38 The Government will not be making a change

39 The Government will not be making a change

If an Offeror’s System Award Management (SAM) online representation and certifications do not include all of the DFAR/FAR clauses from Section K, can an Offeror point the Government to our online representation and certifications in SAM and only include in full text those FAR/DFAR clauses not in SAM versus copying all 12 pages of

Section K into the Price/Cost Volume?

concur

The Government provided Attachment IV – Labor Mix Table Excel spreadsheet is an xls file. Can offerors submit this Excel file in .xlsx format?

concur