Attachment_1-SOW.docx

Attachment 1

SECTION B – SERVICES AND PRICES

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) intends to issue one (1) Purchase Order for the duration of one base year and four (4) option years. The NTSB requires the services of a Contractor to provide financial service assistance in accordance with the Statement of Work (SOW).

I. Prices of Services The Contractor shall provide the services as described in Section III of the SOW on a firm fixed price basis. The NTSB anticipates issuing one (1) firm fixed-price purchase order for the Contractor to provide the services as described in Section III of the SOW. Additional line items may be added to the purchase order as miscellaneous follow-on support as described in Section II paragraph D of the SOW during the base year and each option year of the purchase order. Therefore, in addition to providing the firm-fixed price to perform the services as described in Section III of the SOW, the Contractor shall submit all of its proposed labor categories and respective hourly rates to provide assistance to the NTSB in monitoring the execution of the correction of identified material weakness for the base year and four (4) option years of this purchase order.

Each Line Item of the purchase order will be issued on a firm fixed-price basis, however, Contractor’s shall provide the proposed labor hours on a firm fixed price basis to provide the services and deliverables as described in the SOW.

The anticipated dates of performance are as follows:

(Actual Dates to be entered upon issuance of purchase order)

BASE YEAR

OPTION YEAR 1

OPTION YEAR 2

OPTION YEAR 3

OPTION YEAR 4

TOTAL PRICE

LABOR CATEGORIES AND HOURLY RATES TO PROVIDE ALL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE SERVICES AS SET FORTH IN THE SOW

[END OF SECTION]

SECTION C – STATEMENT OF WORK

Request for Financial Service Assistance

Background

Description of the National Transportation Safety Board In 1966, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was established by statute as an independent Government agency located within the Department of Transportation for funding and administrative support. NTSB was made a wholly independent agency on January 3, 1975 when Congress approved the Independent Safety Board Act of 1974, Public Law 93-633, and began operation as such on April 1, 1975. Later, in 1996, the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act (Public Law 104-264) expanded the role of the NTSB to include coordinating victim and family assistance. In 1997, the Foreign Air Carrier Family Support Act extended the provisions of the 1996 Act to include foreign carriers operating in the United States.

The NTSB is charged by Congress to investigate every civil aviation accident in the United States, most public-use aircraft accidents, and significant accidents in other modes of transportation, and to conduct special investigations and studies.

In 2000, the National Transportation Safety Board Amendments Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-424) gave the Office of Inspector General, Department of Transportation (DOT) responsibility over reviews over NTSB's financial management, property management, and business operations, including internal accounting and administrative control systems, and ensuring adherence with Federal laws, rules and regulations. . The Department of Transportation Inspector General (DOT IG) through a contract with an independent auditing firm audits the NTSB’ financial statements each Government fiscal year. The independent auditor’s report on the FY 2013 and FY 2012 financial statements identified a material weakness in internal controls over financial reporting. That weakness involved the need to strengthen and document controls and processes related to posting journal vouchers and performing and following up on analytical procedures. Such controls and processes have been documented and implemented.

Description of Requirement Based on the findings of the audit of the FY2013 and FY2012 financial statements, the NTSB requires financial services assistance of a Contractor to evaluate the corrective action plan (CAP) to correct the identified material weakness identified in the audit of its financial statements. Additionally, the Contractor shall provide other financial management support in the categories described that assist the NTSB in improving the financial management processes.

Scope of Work The Contractor shall provide assistance to the NTSB in developing and evaluating corrective actions plans (CAPS) and monitoring the progress of each CAP to correct the identified material weaknesses and to identify and implement solutions for any related issues The work involves on-going periodic review to ensure the identified procedures and processes are being followed and that they effectively correct the material weakness or related issues to prevent their reoccurrence. The revised procedures must ensure that journal vouchers are documented sufficiently to comply with all relevant guidance including, but not limited to, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Generally Accepted Auditing Standards. They must also ensure that variances or anomalies identified in the analytics are researched and the explanations documented with appropriate action taken and documented where needed.

Specific requirements have been identified and are listed below.

A. Develop an understanding of the identified material weakness.

B. Evaluate the current processes and procedures and if needed propose improvements that will correct the weaknesses.

C. Periodically review (at least monthly) the financial statements and the documentation of journal vouchers and analytic procedures to ensure compliance with new procedures, ensure that procedures effectively correct the material weakness and report your findings.

D. Miscellaneous Financial Management Follow – On Support The NTSB anticipates the need for financial management support in other areas, such as:

(1) Process improvement As required, the Contractor shall assist the NTSB in strengthening and improving the CAP process and developing, updating and implementing monitoring of CAPS for audit related material weaknesses and related internal findings.

(2) Planning and performance measurement/trend analysis As required the Contractor shall support the NTSB in measuring and assessing its performance in achieving financial management goals and progress in improving strategic goals and objectives. This work includes developing and analyzing baseline information and trend analysis and identifying areas where performance measurement improvements need to be made. Specific task may include creating accountability models, benchmarking, analysis and developing options, recommendations or best practices to improve financial management and business process improvements.

The NTSB will request miscellaneous support as needed by task order. The NTSB will request the Contractor to provide a firm-fixed price with the required skill categories and number of labor hours required by those skill categories to perform the related effort as each requirement is identified. The NTSB request will be made via e-mail from the NTSB COR to the Contractor, and will include a description of the scope of the task, expected duration and completion date for the support required, deliverable requirements and due date for submission of the Contractor’s estimate to the NTSB. The Contractor shall provide a copy of the estimate to the NTSB Contracting Officer and COR in the manner specified in the request. Upon evaluation and acceptance of the Contractor’s estimate by the NTSB, purchase order will be modified to add the additional funds and the Contractor will be directed to proceed by the Contracting Officer. The Contractor shall not proceed without written authorization provided by the Contracting Officer.

Deliverables, Acceptance Criteria, and Schedule for Performance/Delivery The Contractor shall conform all deliverables to generally accepted accounting principles. The NTSB requires the use of Microsoft Word for word processing documents, Excel for spreadsheets and Access for database files.

After delivery and receipt by the NTSB, there will be a two-week (14-day) period for review and acceptance of each deliverable by the NTSB. The NTSB will make payment for deliverables on a firm fixed-price basis for each deliverable upon completion of the deliverable by the Contractor, and acceptance of the deliverable by the NTSB.

E. Evaluate the corrective action plan to correct the identified material weakness:

A.1 – Draft Action Plan Due Date: 1 week after agreement is signed A.2 – Final Action Plan Due Date: 1 week after NTSB provides comments on the draft plan A.3 – Draft documentation of the evaluation of the current corrective action plan

F. Due Date: 1 week after NTSB provides comments on the draft procedures G. Perform periodic follow-up to ensure the new processes and procedures are working.

C.1 – Monthly review of NTSB work papers with written summary of review results Due Date: the last calendar day of each month for the previous month’s journal vouchers and analytical procedures (for example, journal vouchers and analytics for the month of December would be ready for review by the Contractor around the 15th of January and the Contractor would be expected to complete review and provide a written summary by the 31st of January)

Period of Performance The period of performance for this purchase order will consist of a base year and five option periods as follows:

Period From Through Base – Report on adequacy of procedures and Procedures monitoring Mar. 2014 Feb. 2014 (Financial statements, journal vouchers, and analytics of Feb. 2013 through Jan. 2014)

Other General Requirements H. Environment The Contractor will be allowed limited access to the Government’s facilities as specified below:

490 L’Enfant Plaza East, SW Washington, DC 20594

The NTSB will provide the work areas to perform this task. The Contractor will be provided use of copier machines, fax and telephone equipment. The Contractor will provide equipment and information including computers, electronic file storage capacity, software and electronic data files necessary to store and process data.

The Contractor will have access to NTSB personnel Monday through Friday between the core hours of 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. If the Contractor anticipates the need to work evenings, or weekends, advance arrangement must be made with the COR.

I. Government Furnished Items Access to NTSB’ Financial Management System with read only access, if needed. Access to NTSB journal vouchers and related supporting documentation. Access to results of analytic procedures and related supporting documentation.

J. Security Contractor employees are subject to approval by NTSB. Contractor employees are required to undergo Minimum Background Investigations. Contractor employees who undergo Minimum Background Investigation checks which reveal, but are not limited to, the following, may be unacceptable under this contract: conviction of a felony, a crime of violence or a serious misdemeanor, or a record of arrests for continuing offenses. The NTSB reserves the right to determine if a Contractor employee assigned to this contract shall continue with the task.

K. Disclosure of Information Every Contractor staff assigned to this contract must sign a NTSB Non-Disclosure Agreement because they will have access to Privacy Act and Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) information. Provisions subject to non-disclosure to protect information remain in effect two (2) years from termination or expiration of the purchase order.

1. Key Personnel This contract shall be contingent upon acceptance of key personnel by the NTSB and such personnel shall be expected to remain in place for the duration of the contract. The key personnel shall be the Contractor's three most senior personnel assigned to the project under this SOW. The Contractor shall obtain the Contracting Officer’s written consent before removing, replacing, or diverting any of the personnel assigned to the positions. The Contractor shall (1) notify the Contracting Officer reasonably in advance and (2) submit justification (including proposed substitutions) in sufficient detail to permit evaluation of the impact on this purchase order. All proposed personnel substitutions shall possess capabilities that equal or exceed the capabilities of the person to be replaced.

F. Availability of Personnel During the periods of developing the processes and procedures to address the material weakness through the final delivery of those processes and procedures the essential work of the contract must continue uninterrupted by Contractor personnel. Therefore, the Contractor is to propose and provide sufficient staffing in all skill categories to ensure that personnel absences do not impede performance under the contract and accomplishment of contract objectives.

Points of Contact Technical point of contact:

To be provided after award Accounting Division Office of the Chief Financial Officer National Transportation Safety Board 490 L’Enfant Plaza East, S.W.

Washington, DC 20594

202-XXX-XXXX

SECTION L – PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS

I. General Information The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) solicits your proposal for Financial Assistance services described herein. This Request for Proposal (RFP) will result in the award of one (1) purchase order to one (1) small business Contractor.

II. Notice and Instructions to Contractors Contractors are required to meet all the requirements of the RFP. The Government may reject any proposal that is so lacking in competence or in understanding the requirements that without a major reformation of the proposal it is not adequate for evaluation purposes.

In responding to this RFP, Contractors shall submit a proposal in three (3) separate parts: Technical, Past Performance, and Price.

III. Part I – Technical Proposal The Technical Proposal shall include the following sections:

1. Executive Summary An Executive Summary of the Contractor’s proposal is required. This summary will not be evaluated but will be used to gain an understanding of the overall proposal contents. It should identify and highlight significant features of the proposal and include the salient points contained in the various parts. Each Contractor should include a General Information section in the Executive Summary that addresses the following: 1) company name and address, 2) Dun and Bradstreet’s number, 3) Cage Code, and 4) small business size status.

2. Corporate Experience Contractor’s shall submit at least two (2) examples of experience performing Federal Agency financial statement audits that are similar in scope to this requirement and would qualify the offeror to perform the work set forth in this solicitation. The Contractor must provide a listing of previous financial audit services work that has been successfully completed. The Contractor must describe the scope - in both dollars and personnel - magnitude and complexity of prior and ongoing experience similar to the stated requirements, over the past three (3) years and provide references for each. Describe for whom the work was accomplished and when the work was accomplished. Experience that is not relevant to the performance of this requirement is not required and will not be evaluated. Contracts listed may only include those entered into with Federal Government customers.

Include the following information for each contract:

(1) Customer Name and Address

(2) Contract Number

(3) Contract Award Date and Completion Date

(4) Contract Type

(5) Total Contract Period of Performance and Dollar Value

(6) Contracting Office Points of Contact (name and telephone number)

(7) Technical Office Points of Contact (name and telephone numbers)

(8) Brief Description of Services

3. Contractor Qualifications Contractors shall submit the resume of the proposed senior level personnel. The resumes must show the years of experience the proposed personnel has working in the financial auditing field and experience in reviewing journal vouchers and analytical procedures, as well as compliance with Generally Acceptable Accounting Principles (GAAP) and Generally Accepted Auditing Standards. The resumes must also identify the work responsibilities and positions held. Each senior level personnel must have at least three (3) years’ experience analyzing financial statement audits for Federal Government agencies and must have a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certificate.

There is no limit on the number of pages for the Technical Proposal information.

IV. Part II – Past Performance Contractors shall ask the references provided under the Corporate Experience factor to complete the Past Performance Questionnaire (Attachment 2) and submit it directly to Bryan J. Moy via email at bryan.moy@ntsb.gov or via fax: (240) 752-6262. It is the Contractor’s responsibility to ensure that Past Performance Questionnaires are completed timely and submitted by customer references, and that correct names, addresses and phone numbers are provided in the responses for each reference. A Contractor will not be penalized in the evaluation with an unfavorable rating for the failure of its past performance references to complete and submit the Past Performance Questionnaires. The Government may contact Contractors’ customer references or use other references/information to verify past performance.

There is no limit on the number of pages for the Past Performance information.

V. Part III – Price For evaluation purposes, the Contractor shall provide the following in Section B paragraph I of the RFP. Failure to price all line items, to include option year line items, may result in the Contractor’s proposal not being considered for award.

(1) A firm fixed-price to evaluate the current corrective action plan for the identified material weakness as described in Section II paragraphs A and B of the SOW. Include the proposed labor hours for the Government to determine a Contractor’s comprehension of the solicitation requirements, as well as, the validity of a Contractor’s approach.

(2) A firm fixed-price to provide monthly follow-up to ensure the new processes and procedures are working for the base year and each of the four (4) option years as described in Section II paragraph C of the SOW. These prices shall represent the cost of performing all work required by this solicitation, other than the work described as “Miscellaneous Financial Management Follow-On Support” under Section II paragraph D of the SOW. Include the proposed labor hours for the Government to determine a Contractor’s comprehension of the solicitation requirements, as well as, the validity of a Contractor’s approach.

(3) The Contractor shall propose for the base and all option years fully-burdened hourly labor rates for its proposed personnel for Miscellaneous Financial Management Follow – On Support under Section II paragraph D of the SOW. The NTSB will fund the Miscellaneous Financial Management Follow – On Support as an additional line item(s) at a firm-fixed price.

For evaluation purposes only, the Government will evaluate travel for all Contractors in the amount of $2,500. If travel is required, the purchase order will include a separate line item for travel costs. Travel and per diem costs will be reimbursed in accordance with Federal Travel Regulations currently in effect.

Federal Travel Regulations may be reviewed at:

www.gsa.gov/federaltravelregulation

Federal Travel Per Diem rates may be reviewed at:

www.gsa.gov/perdiem

There is no limit on the number of pages for the Price information.

VI. Submission of Proposals Your proposal must be received no later than 4:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, on February 14, 2014. LATE PROPOSALS MAY NOT BE CONSIDERED in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision 52.212-1.

Bryan J. Moy Email: Bryan.Moy@ntsb.gov

The maximum size of an email, including attachments, which the NTSB email server can accept is 5 megabytes (MB). Therefore, the Contractor may choose to send their proposal in separate emails, if the combined file size of any email received by the NTSB email server will exceed 5MB. Contractors are encouraged to remove excess graphics from their proposals to ensure proposals remain under the file size limit. It is the Contractor's responsibility to ensure that the designated point of contact has received your proposal at the email address of the contact specified above by the proposal due date.

All questions regarding this RFP shall be directed to Bryan J. Moy via email at the email address listed above. ALL QUESTIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 4:00 p.m. EST on February 7, 2014.

VII. Electronic Dissemination of RFP Documents Access to this RFP and amendments will be posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website: www.fbo.gov. All Contractors are cautioned that it is your responsibility to frequently check back to the website to ensure that you have received all issued amendments.

VIII. Expenses Related to Contractor Submissions This solicitation neither commits the Government to pay any cost incurred in the submission of the offer nor to contract for services or supplies. Any costs incurred in anticipation of a purchase order shall be at the Contractor’s own risk.

IX. Sam Registration The successful Contractor must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) prior to award. The SAM website may be viewed at: https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM/

SECTION M – EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

I. Evaluation of Proposals The Government may award one (1) purchase order to the responsible Contractor whose proposal that conforms to the RFQ, will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other price factors considered, such that it provides the best value to the Government. Best value is defined as the procurement process that results in the most advantageous acquisition decision for the Government that is performed through an integrated assessment and trade-off analysis between price and non-price factors.

The Government reserves the right to reject any or all proposals if such action is in the public interest. Under a best value procurement, the NTSB may reasonably determine that the superior solution/approach merits a higher price and, therefore, represents the best value to the Government or the NTSB may reasonably determine that the Contractor with other than the highest rating in non-price factors is the best value. The Government may waive informalities and minor irregularities in proposals. The Government reserves the right to award without discussions. Contractors are cautioned that they must submit a best offer with the initial proposal.

II. Evaluation Factors The following factors will be evaluated by the Government:

Factor 1, Executive Summary, is not evaluated but information requested must be provided. The non-price factors (Corporate Experience and Contractor Qualifications) in Part I are evaluated adjectively. The Government will evaluate factors in Part I based on the Contractor’s overall understanding of the requirements and the degree to which the Contractor’s proposal satisfies all the requirements in the SOW and demonstrates that the Contractor has a clear understanding and knowledge of the SOW requirements and how to achieve them in a logical, feasible, and technically effective manner. Contractors are cautioned that despite the relative weight of the non-price factors (and sub-factors, if any) proposals that receive an unacceptable in Part I may be deemed ineligible for award.

The non-price factor in Part II, Past Performance, will be evaluated and will be rated Acceptable or Unacceptable. The Government will assess the relevance, breadth and quality of the Contractor’s recent past performance on similar types of work and evaluate the quality of the Contractor’s past performance based on the past performance references provided in the Contractor’s submission and/or other information obtained from references provided by the Contractor, as well as other relevant past performance information obtained from other sources known to the Government. A Contractor without a record of past performance or for whom information on relevant past performance is not available will be evaluated as neutral. Contractors are cautioned that despite the relative weight of the non-price factors or sub-factors, proposals that receive an unacceptable in Part II may be deemed ineligible for award.

Corporate Experience is of equal importance to Contractor Qualifications and both of these factors are more important than Past Performance. All the non-price evaluated factors, when combined, are significantly more important than price. However, as proposals become more equal in non-price factors, price becomes more important.

Part III, Price is not rated adjectively. Price will be evaluated but not scored.

Pricing will be evaluated to determine whether the proposed pricing is realistic for the services being purchased; reflect a clear understanding of the requirements, and are consistent with the approach described in the Contractor’s technical proposal. As part of its price evaluation, the Government specifically reserves the right to evaluate the risk associated with any pricing schemes.

Price proposals will be evaluated to determine the reasonableness of a Contractor’s proposal. Evaluation may include analysis to determine a Contractor’s comprehension of the solicitation requirements, as well as, the validity of a Contractor’s approach. A price that is found to be unreasonably high or unrealistically low in relation to the proposed solution may result in the proposal receiving a lower rating or a Contractor’s proposal may be rejected if the pricing poses an unacceptable risk to the Government.