ACSS II 18-R-0011 Q and A No 3.pdf

Request for Proposal (RFP) N66001-18-R-0011

ADVANCED CYBER SUPPORT SERVICES (ACSS)

IN SUPPORT OF GOVERNMENT NETWORK OPERATIONS AND SECURITY CENTER

Questions and Answers (Q & A) #3:

Q23: Section 1.1 Acceptability of Offer indicates that “The Government will determine the acceptability of each offer on a pass or fail basis”. Section 1.2.1 Organizational Experience: indicates that “Offerors that receive a Marginal or lower evaluation rating for the Organizational Experience factor in Step One will not be considered for award. How will the government conduct a valid trade –off analysis if the offeror’s Organizational Experience is rated Pass or Fail as indicated in Step One? Will the government clarify the ratings it will use and provide the rating criteria for each rating used to evaluate the offeror’s Organizational Experience and specifically explain how the trade-off analysis will be conducted?

A23: Organizational Experience will NOT be rated on a pass/fail basis. Adjectival ratings will be used for Organizational Experience (i.e. Outstanding, Good, Acceptable, Marginal, Unacceptable) in accordance with the Combined Technical/Risk Rating Method outlined in the DoD Source Selection Procedures of 31 March 2016. Offerors that are rated “Marginal” or lower for this factor will not be part of the tradeoff as they will not be considered for award.

Q24: Instructions indicate PPQs must be returned to the contracting office within 10 working days.

What is the date of reference?

A24: In accordance with L-TXT-12 paragraph 3.2(b), PPQs should be submitted to the Government before the due date for proposals; however, the Government MAY considered PPQs received after the proposal due date. The timeline of “10 days” that you are referring to is the guidelines on the PPQ for your customer/reference to get it to the Government. Accordingly, recommend getting the PPQs (as applicable) to your customers/references at least 10 days before proposals are due.

Q25: Can a proposal move to the Step 2 evaluation if past performance is rated as “neutral”?

A25: Per sec. 1.2.2 of the RFP (page 126), “In the context of acceptability/unacceptability, a neutral rating shall be considered acceptable.”

Q26: Section 1.2.1 Organizational Experience: indicates that “Offerors that receive a Marginal or lower evaluation rating for the Organizational Experience factor in Step One will not be considered for award.

How will the government conduct a valid trade–off analysis if the offeror’s Organizational Experience is not rated with a score that is greater than marginal. In other words, what are the rating levels for above marginal and the specific criteria for each of those levels?

A26: See A23

Q27: Instructions indicate PPQs must be returned to the contracting office within 10 working days.

What is the date of reference?

A27: See A24

Q28: Can a proposal move to the Step 2 evaluation if past performance is rated as “neutral”?

A28: Yes. See A25.

Q29: In Section 1.2.1, is Organizational Experience graded as marginal or greater than marginal. If so, how will you perform trade-offs?

A29: See A23

Q30: Section L 3.1 Section (e) “The offeror should demonstrate organizational experience operating enterprise-level wide area networks worth at least $12.5M (now $10.5M) per year”. If this is a requirement, how can a company get an acceptable rating providing no past performance which would be considered neutral/acceptable.

A30: See A25.

Q31: Can the prime offeror combine its contract reference value with the subcontractor’s contract reference value in order to meet the $10.5M per year dollar threshold?

A31: No. See A14 (from Q&A #2).

Q32: The Government’s requirement is for a $10.5M per contract reference threshold. Additionally, the Government is not allowing the prime and its subcontractors nor task orders to be aggregated to meet the threshold, extremely restricts competition. Is it apparent that the incumbent team can easily meet this requirement and has been awarded this contract multiple times? Is it the Government’s intent to restrict competition so that the incumbent team has a clear advantage for award?

A32: The Government’s intent is to fulfill the Government’s requirement.

Q33: In section B -TXT-04 LEVEL OF EFFORT – FEE ADJUSTMENT FORMULA (JUN 2017) (Page 4 of 127) :

(a)Total Staff-hours of Direct Labor (X) = 182,400; 2.0 Volume II (pages 112-115 of 127) Section 2.3.

Estimated Level of Effort (a)(3) Estimated Level of Effort (Man Year Hours) = 190,080; Question: Please confirm whether total estimated number of man year hours is 182,400 per page 4 of the solicitation, or if it is 190,080 per the total on the charts from pages 112-115 of the solicitation.

A33: The Estimated Level of Effort is 182,400 man-year hours. Amendment 0002 to the RFP to reflect the aforementioned change is forthcoming.

Q34:Section L 3.2.b(page 120 0f 127) “…For contract actions where past performance information does not reside in CPARS, offerors shall contact their past performance references and request that each reference complete Attachment 3 “Past Performance Questionnaire” and e-mail the completed survey form, before the due date of this solicitation, directly to:…” Attachment #3 Past Performance Questionnaire: “In order for our team to compile its evaluation, we request that you complete the attached survey form and email it, and any other pertinent information, within ten (10) working days…” Question: Would the Government please clarify if PPQs are due before the proposal due date or “…within ten (10) working days…” as stated on the PPQ attachment? If the PPQ attachment is correct, within ten (10) working days from what reference date?

A34: See A24.

Q35: Section L 3.2 Past Performance (pages 120 of 127). Questions: Please confirm the government is requesting only CPARS and/or PQQs for Section 3.2(b). In the event that the government is requesting solely CPARS and/or PPQs in response to Section 3.2, how will the government evaluate CPARS and/or PPQs that, combined, exceed fifteen (15) pages?

A35: There are no page limits to the CPARS or PPQs. The 15 pages refers to the Reference Information Sheets and the maximum of four additional pages per reference.

Q36: Is the Offeror correct in assuming that a Single Award IDIQ where work is performed under the basic contract and where multiple service tasks are broken out as task orders is allowed to be aggregated as a single contract on one Reference Information Sheet?

A36: That is not a correct assumption. The Government’s statement that “Offerors are not allowed to aggregate multiple task orders on to one Reference Information Sheet” does not distinguish between task orders off of single or multiple award IDIQ contracts. Therefore, the statement applies to all IDIQ contracts.