N62645-15-R-1004_Amendment_0001.doc

SECTION SF 30 BLOCK 14 CONTINUATION PAGE

SUMMARY OF CHANGES

SECTION SF 30 - BLOCK 14 CONTINUATION PAGE

The following have been added by full text:

BIDDER QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES

Bidder Questions and Responses: Solicitation N62645-15-R-1004

Q1. May the offeror or a Commercial Accounting Firm complete the SF 1408 or should this only be completed by DCAA?

Response: No. For the Department of Defense, DCAA has overall responsibility for determining the acceptability of a contractor’s accounting system. If no information is available to DCAA to make this determination, a Pre-award Survey of Prospective Contractor -- Accounting System (SF 1408) may be requested from DCAA. DCAA has developed a pre-award accounting system adequacy checklist for contractors new to cost reimbursement contracts with the Government. The checklist can be located at:

http://www.dcaa.mil/preaward_accounting_system_adequacy_checklist.html.

Q2. If an organization’s government customers have not to date elected to conduct accounting system review, how should the offeror provide evidence of an adequate accounting system and be compliant with this requirement?

Response: In this case, the offeror should state this information in its proposal. If the offeror is selected for award, the Government reserves the right to review the offeror’s accounting system for adequacy prior to award. Please refer to FAR 16.301-3(a)(3) and DFARS 252.242-7006 Accounting System Administration.

Q3. If an offeror is proposing as a small business and does not have subcontractor government sales exceeding $25 million, and the offeror ’s government customers has not to date elected to review its purchasing system how should the offeror provide evidence of an approved purchasing system and be compliant with this requirement?

Response: If the offeror’s sales to the Government (excluding competitively awarded firm-fixed-price and competitively awarded fixed-price with economic price adjustment contracts and sales of commercial items pursuant to FAR Part 12) are not expected to exceed $25 million during the next 12 months, then a Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR) would not be required. Sales include those represented by prime contracts, subcontracts under Government prime contracts, and modifications. If the CPSR is not required per the requirements of FAR 44.302, then the offeror should state this information in its proposal. Please refer to FAR Subpart 44.3 and DFARS 252.244-7001 Contractor Purchasing System Administration.

Q4. If an offeror does not have subcontractor government sales exceeding $25 million, and the offeror ’s government customers has not to date elected to review its purchasing system how should the offeror provide evidence of an approved purchasing system and be compliant with this requirement?

Response: See response to question Q3.

Q5. If an offeror does have subcontractor government sales exceeding $25 million, and the offeror’s government customers has not to date elected to review its purchasing system how should the offeror provide evidence of an approved purchasing system and be compliant with this requirement?

Response: In this case, the offeror should state this information in their proposal. If the offeror is selected for award, the Government reserves the right to conduct a Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR) in accordance with FAR Subpart 44.3 and DFARS 252.244-7001.

Q6. If the offeror does not have a current rate agreement or forward pricing agreement may the offer provide a prospective estimate of indirect rates as a basis for the Rate Agreement and be compliant with this requirement?

Response: Yes, NMLC would accept this information and consider it compliant.

Q7. If the offeror does not have a current rate agreement or forward pricing agreement may the offer provide fixed indirect rates as a basis for the Rate Agreement and be compliant with this requirement?

Response: No, NMLC does not desire to hold the successful offeror to fixed indirect rates.

Q8. If the offeror does not have a current rate agreement or forward pricing agreement may the offer provide provisional rates submitted to Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), or other Federal Government contracting offices and be compliant with this requirement?

Response: Yes, NMLC would accept this information and consider it compliant.

Q9. If an organization’s government customers have not to date elected to conduct an audit, how should the offeror provide a copy of any DCAA audit the supports the proposed contract rates or costs and be compliant with this requirement?

Response: NMLC recognizes that an offeror may not have a recent DCAA audit. In this case, the offeror should state this information in its proposal.

Q10. If the offeror does not have a have a DCAA audit or any other DCAA type audit from other Federal Government Contracting offices may the offer provide provisional rates submitted to DCAA or other Federal Government Contracting offices to be compliant with this requirement?

Response: Yes, NMLC would accept this information and consider it compliant.

Q11 Background. Page 6: Section 4.0, Estimated Staffing, defines Key Personnel as those performing at the Senior Management Consultant and Management Consultant IV levels. It goes on to state that resumes shall be provided for all key personnel positions.

Question 11: Would the government allow the offeror flexibility in defining its key personnel based on its understanding of the work and the proposed solution? For example, all Senior Management Consultants may not necessarily be key personnel due to the limited number of hours worked or the role they serve on the effort. Conversely, there may be a lower level position considered "key" due to that individual’s niche expertise or skill set employed in performance of the mission.

Response: Please review Page 5 Section 4.0 paragraph 2.

“This is the Government’s estimation of the staffing needed to accomplish this effort. The offeror may have an alternative approach to staffing during the proposal phase. However, any deviation from the staffing estimated could be perceived as noncompliance if not sufficiently supported by the offeror and acknowledged by the evaluator/client. Therefore, if an alternative is being proposed, it is required that the offeror first address the base requirement as a minimum and then augment such with an alternative if the offeror is proposing an alternative.

Resumes shall be provided for all key personnel positions. Key personnel shall demonstrate sufficiently enough to the evaluator or client that the person proposed has the knowledge and experience relevant to accomplish the aforementioned tasks.”

Q12 Background. Page 7: In Section 5.0 (Travel and Other Direct Costs) and Section 6.0 (Consultants)

Question: Are the NTE amounts provided considered plug numbers for use by all offerors? ODC and Consultant NTEs specify “per year before contractor burdens.” Please confirm the NTE for travel of $125K per year is also “before contractor burdens.”

Response: The NTE amounts are recommended to be used by all offerors. Confirmed, the NTE for travel of $125K per year is also “before contractor burdens.”

Q13 Background. Page 93 Section L.7.2.1; Volume 1 Subpart 2 instructions: The instructions state for the Management section, offerors are allowed “20 pages excluding letters of commitment and key personnel resumes.” On page 95 paragraph 2, the instructions state “The Offeror must present resumes for proposed candidates, consisting of one (1) resume per labor category, in order to evaluate the Offeror’s recruiting capability.”

Questions:

a. Are offerors to submit resumes for all key personnel plus one resume for each remaining labor category?

b. If the answer to Question 3a is “yes,” are all resumes excluded from the Management section page count?

Response:

a. Offerors are to submit resumes for all key personnel and at least one additional resume from each the remaining labor categories.

b. Yes, all resumes are excluded from the page count.

Q14. Page 6 of 104, Paragraph 3.21 of the PWS states that the performer must have current/active Data Use Agreement (DUA) in place with OSD at the time of award. Since Data Use Agreements are very specific to contract and PoP, not even the incumbent contractor can meet this requirement. The PWS states that this requirement is a minimum requirement for the contract.

Response: Another amendment will be issued to the solicitation to address this question.

Q15. Page 8 of 104 Paragraph 7.4 of the PWS states that there is human research involved as a part of this contract. Can you define the scope of human research activities that will be required under this contract?

Response: Collecting, characterizing, analyzing, and reporting of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) / Protected Health Information (PHI) data from multiple sources, including both in-house sources such as the Expeditionary Medical Encounter database (EMED) and external sources such as the Military Health System (MHS), the VA, civilian/homeland defense data, tactical data, operational data, and personnel data.

Q16. Page 8 of 104 Paragraph 7.5 of the PWS states that there will be a mix of on-site and off-site contractor staff, but the PWS does not state the mix. Can you please specify the required mix of on-site and off-site contractor staff or provide the current mix as a basis for estimating future on-site vs off-site support requirements?

Response: Possibly up to 5 of the 34 contractor personnel positions will be located off-site.

Q17. Page 6 of 104 In paragraph 4 on estimated staffing, it states that the Senior Management Consultant and the four Management Consultant IV positions are key. Can you confirm that all four Management Consultant IV positions are key?

Response: Confirmed, all four Management Consultant IV positions are key.

(End of Summary of Changes)