Questions_and_Answers.docx

QUESTION ONE: In Volume II under Subfactor A – Understanding of ABS and USCG Regulations it states that the offer shall provide a list of three (3) Government contracts (Federal Government contracts, state, local, or commercial contracts – in that order) completed within the last three (3) years from the date of issuance of this solicitation in which ABS or USCG attendance and approval of work was required. Would the Government allow the offer to submit delivery orders completed within the last three (3) years on IDIQ contracts to satisfy this requirement?

ANSWER ONE: Yes. In accordance with FAR 2.101, DFARS Case 2010-D004, and Delex Systems, Inc. GAO case B-400403, the Government considers a Delivery Order to meet the definition of a contract.

QUESTION TWO: SOW paragraph 13.2 states that the contractor must have access to a marine repair facility within 50 miles of the place of performance. There is no complete list of potential places of performance for LOT B efforts; SOW paragraph 3.1 identifies several locations, but acknowledges that it is not a complete list. To be eligible to bid on LOT B hours, is the contactor required to identify accessible marine repair facilities outside the Norfolk area? Or, can LOT B be bid, with the contractor relying on its home area shop facilities, portable equipment, and repair area subcontractors, with the understanding that it is not likely to be cost competitive when bidding out of town work necessitating significant local shop capability, but is quite likely to be competitive when bidding out of town work that can be supported by portable tools and equipment, or any work in remote areas where no bidders are likely to have significant local shop access?

ANSWER TWO: LOT B can be proposed with the contractor relying on its home area shop facilities, portable equipment, and repair area subcontracts. See Amendment 0001 paragraph 13.2

QUESTION THREE: Reference SOW para 9.1, 11.2, 11.5 and 13.1 on page 30. What does PPE stand for?

ANSWER THREE: PPE stands for “Principle Port Engineer.”

QUESTION FOUR: Reference Section L.1.D.2.a.I on page 84. The list is specified to include contracts completed within the last three years. Would ongoing contracts requiring ABS or USCG attendance and approval of work also meet the requirements of this paragraph?

ANSWER FOUR: Ongoing contracts would not meet the requirement, however see ANSWER ONE, above.

QUESTION FIVE: How many awardees do you anticipate for each of the 2 LOTS?

ANSWER FIVE: In accordance with section M of the solicitation, Award will be made to all offerors who are deemed responsible under FAR 9.104, whose proposal conforms to the solicitation requirements, whose proposal obtains a technical proposal rating of acceptable, whose proposal obtains a past performance proposal rating of acceptable, and whose proposal offers a total evaluated price determined fair and reasonable. Therefore, there is no anticipated quantity of awards at this time. Furthermore, in accordance with section M of the solicitation, any awardee for LOT B will also have an award for LOT A.

QUESTION SIX: In accordance with (IAW) L-1(C)(3)(b), files shall be submitted in one (1) or a combination of the following formats: Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and/or Excel. No file shall be locked. The file names shall consist of the volume number, factor, tab, company name, and state “initial” (for the first submission) and “Revision X” (for later submissions, if necessary) where X indicates the number of revision. “Factors” are defined in Section M-1. Volume I does not have an associated “Factor.” Will the Government please identify the proper naming requirement for Volume I?

ANSWER SIX: Per Amendment 0002, “factor” has been removed from the requirement

QUESTION SEVEN: IAW L-1(C)(3)(a) and (b): (a) The proposals shall be organized into four (4) separate volumes. Each file sent via email shall include the volume number in the document title. It is permissible to include multiple volumes within one (1) email submission, however a single file can contain no more than one (1) volume. (b) Files shall be submitted in one (1) or a combination of the following formats: Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and/or Excel. No file shall be locked. The file names shall consist of the volume number, factor, tab, company name, and state “initial” (for the first submission) and “Revision X” (for later submissions, if necessary) where X indicates the number of revision. “Factors” are defined in Section M-1. It appears that in Section (a), the Government is saying that a volume can be included in a “single file.” However in section (b), the Government requires offerors to use a file name convention that specifies “tabs.” Therefore, an Offeror cannot submit a Volume as a single file while identifying multiple tabs in the file name. This also leads to ambiguity with the table of contents and glossary requirements. Please clarify if the Offeror can submit files by “Volume” or by “tab.” Will the Government please clarify if the Offeror can submit their proposal Volumes in a single file and if so what the naming convention should be?

ANSWER SEVEN: One (1) file can contain no more than one Volume. However, one (1) volume can span multiple files. The tab portion of the naming convention specifies which tabs of a volume are associated with each file. One, some, or all of the tabs within a single Volume may be included within one (1) file.

QUESTION EIGHT: IAW L-1(C)(3)(d): The proposal shall not exceed the limits stated above. If the page limits are exceeded, the pages in excess of the limit shall be removed and remain unread. The Government will not accept any changes to the contractor’s proposal after the closing date of the solicitation (See FAR 15.208 for further information regarding late proposals). If discussions become necessary, page limitations may be placed on responses to Evaluation Notices (ENs). The specified page limits for EN responses will be identified in the letters forwarding the ENs to the offerors. The Government has not indicated a specified font style and/or size for text and/or graphics. A font style and size minimum should be established to ensure consistency among offerors. Will the Government please consider requiring uniform style and size requirements for font in text and graphics?

ANSWER EIGHT: See Amendment 0002 changes

QUESTION NINE: : IAW L-1(C)(3)(f) Page limits do not include: covers for volumes, tables of contents, glossary of abbreviations and acronyms, indices, title pages, cross reference indices, and section dividers/tables if they are inserted solely to provide ease to the reader in locating parts/sections of the proposal. Pages will be counted if they contain any other information, i.e., diagrams, extraneous data, etc. Pages marked, “This page intentionally left blank,” will not be counted. Since each “Tab” is submitted as a separate file, each tab could have its own “covers for volumes, table of contests, glossary of abbreviations…” Please confirm that each Tab should have its own “covers for volumes, tables of contents, glossary of abbreviations, indices, title pages, cross reference indices, and section dividers/tables.”

ANSWER NINE: In regards to Tabs, see ANSWER SEVEN, above. Furthermore, inclusion of “covers for volumes, tables of contents, glossary of abbreviations, indices, title pages, cross reference indices, and section dividers/tables,” is at the discretion of the Offeror.

QUESTION TEN: IAW L-1(A)(4), all questions shall be received no later than 30 calendar days after issuance of the solicitation. Offerors are cautioned that any question received after this deadline may not receive a response. IAW L-1(D)(3), For each of the contracts the offeror describes in a Past Performance Data Sheet (Attachment J-2), the offeror is requested to provide a Past Performance Questionnaire (Attachment J-3) to a reference at the organization that awarded the contract. The reference, not the offeror, shall email the completed Past Performance Questionnaire BEFORE THE DUE DATE FOR PROPOSALS directly to the Contract Specialist, Mark Draluck, at mark.draluck@navy.mil. Fax submittals will not be considered. The offeror, NOT THE GOVERNMENT, is responsible for ensuring that the Government receives a sufficient number of questionnaires. The solicitation was issued on September 26th. October 26th is 30 days after issuance of the solicitation. The Solicitation is due on October 31, 2017. Past performance questionnaires are due to the customer before the due date for proposals.

Many times offerors have questions regarding past performance that would prevent them from sending the past performance questionnaires to the customers until the Government responds to questions from vendors. The precaution is taken to prevent any confusion due to multiple submission or redacted submissions due to revolving requirement that have changed due to a modification in the RFP. In order to allow Offerors to review any answers to Offeror questions and/or modifications to the RFP prior to submitting questionnaires to their customers the Government should extend the due date for allowance of questionnaire submittal. Will the Government please consider extending the due date for allowance of questionnaire submittal to the Government?

ANSWER TEN: No extension will be granted at this time. However, per M-1(C)(3)(d), the Government reserves the right to consider Past Performance Questionnaires received after the due date for receipt of proposals.

QUESTION ELEVEN: All questions shall be received no later than 30 calendar days after issuance of the solicitation. Offerors are cautioned that any question received after the deadline may not receive a response. The closing date for submittal of questions is two (2) business days from proposal submission. This does not allow offerors ample time to review responses to Offeror questions and incorporate any amendments. Will the Government please extend the proposal due date to no less than one (1) calendar week from the release of answers to offeror questions and/or any resulting Amendment?

ANSWER ELEVEN: See Amendment 0002 changes

QUESTION TWELVE: It appears as though the numbering in C-1 section 2.1 is incorrect. The section goes from 2.1.10 to 2.1.11, to 2.11.12 to 2.11.28. This section should be numbered 2.1.12 through 2.1.28. Will the Government please review and revise the numbering in C-1 section 2.1?

ANSWER TWELVE: See Amendment 0002 changes

QUESTION THIRTEEN: Section C Para. 16.2 states that welding rods should be included as a consumable as they do not become an integral part of the vessel. Welding rods and wire prices fluctuate dramatically depending on what type of metal that are being welded. Are you sure the Government intends to price this in the labor rate as welding wire and gases do become an integral part of the vessel?

ANSWER THIRTEEN: There will be no change at this time to this paragraph

QUESTION FOURTEEN: In regards to the J-5 Disclosure of Lobby Activities, how does the contractor complete the requested information if they have never sought any types of lobbying activities to gain work?

ANSWER FOURTEEN: Per the J-5 attachment, “The filing of a form is required for each payment or agreement to make payment to any lobbying entity for influencing or attempting to influence an offer or employee of any agency of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with a covered Federal action.” To comply with the Volume I, TAB E submission requirement, if there are no lobbying activities to report, the offeror may mark under this tab in their proposal that there is no lobbying activities to report.

QUESTION FIFTEEN: Can the subcontractor’s past performance be submitted as one of the three past performances?

ANSWER FIFTEEN: Per L-1 Volume III, “Offerors may provide information for up to three (3) previous Government contracts whose effort is/was recent and relevant to the effort required by this solicitation… Past performance information regarding predecessor companies, key personnel who have relevant experience, and subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement may be provided as past performance submissions.”