Proposal Instructions.pdf

Additional Proposal Instructions

The enclosed RFQ is to provide support for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), Office of Communications and Public Liaison (OCPL).

The Government is issuing a competitive solicitation full and open, best value to qualified contract holders for the purpose of entering into a contract supporting Healthy Moments - Radio Airtime and Posting. The Government will conduct this acquisition in accordance with FAR Part 13.5, interested parties should submit their proposal in accordance with the following instructions.

Offerors are required to submit both a written Technical Proposal and Business Proposal to Government officials for the purposes of acquiring supplies and/or services from the Contractor(s) that is fully cognizant of the scope of this requirement and has the capability to complete all requirements described in the solicitation. Proposals which merely offer to conduct a program in accordance with the requirements of the Government’s scope of work will not be eligible for award.

FAR 52.216-1 TYPE OF CONTRACT (APR 1984)

The Government contemplates award of a single, firm fixed price contract resulting from this solicitation. Only one (1) award will be made as a result of this notice. The Government intends to evaluate proposals per the evaluation criteria and provide all offerors a fair opportunity for award.

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The resulting award period of performance is a base period of 12 months with four (4) 12 months option periods, unless the period is extended by modification to this contract (any modification to extend must be approved by the head of the contracting activity prior to the execution of the base period when the base period plus any option periods exceed three years). Option periods are subject to availability of funds and may be unilaterally exercised by the Government. (Dates subject to changes based on award)

Base Period: 29 August 2021 – 28 August 2022 Option Period 1: 29 August 2022 – 28 August 2023 Option Period 2: 29 August 2023 – 28 August 2024 Option Period 3: 29 August 2024 – 28 August 2025 Option Period 4: 29 August 2025 – 28 August 2026

SOLICITATION TECHNICAL INQUIRIES AND QUESTIONS

All questions regarding the solicitation, of a contractual nature or technical nature, must be submitted in writing via email to april.martin@nih.gov no later than 12pm Eastern Standard Time on August 6, 2021. Questions with the Government’s responses provided directly to the offeror. Please be advised that the Government reserves the right to transmit those questions and answers of a common interest to all prospective Offerors.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Proposals must be submitted electronically via email on or before the RFQ closing date of August 16, 2021 by 9am Eastern Standard Time.

FORMATTING

Page size 8.5 by 11 inches with 1-inch margins. Paragraphs single spaced. Minimum font size/style 12pt Times New Roman font for Text, 11pt font in the Arial family for Tables, and 8pt font in the Arial family for Graphics. Tables and graphics may be landscape; all other text must be portrait. The proposal submitted shall not exceed 25 pages. Any pages after 25 will not be considered. The cover mailto:april.martin@nih.gov page and table of contents should not count towards your page count.

TRANSMITTAL AND COVER LETTER

The offeror’s transmittal and cover letter for the proposal must contain the name, phone number, and e-mail address of the person to be contacted concerning any matter related to the solicitation.

NIH/NIDDK/OCPL may, for example, contact that individual to schedule and make arrangements for the offeror’s discussion meetings, if necessary.

Include the following information in your proposal:

1) DUNS number and TIN;

2) Company Name mailing address, and website address;

3) Date submitted and proposal expiration date;

4) All of the above-cited information for each entity on the proposed team, if a team is proposed;

5) Contract Number appropriate to this Solicitation;

6) Do you have a Government approved accounting system? If so, please identify the agency that approved the system;

7) Type of Company (i.e., small business, 8(a), woman owned, veteran owned, etc.) as validated via the System for Award Management (SAM). All offerors must register in SAM located at http://www.sam.gov/;

8) Company Point of Contact, Phone and Email address.

PAST PERFORMANCE (Volume 1, Section 2)

The Offeror shall identify one (1) contracts or task orders (maximum 3) with the Federal Government or commercial customers that demonstrate recent and relevant past performance. Recent is defined as within the last three years. Relevant is defined as work similar or larger in complexity, audience focus, and magnitude of the work described in this SOW.

Include the following information:

• Project title

• Description of the project

• Contract number

• Contract amount

• Government Agency/Organization

• COR’s name, address, and phone number

• Contracting Officer’s name, address, and phone number

• Contract and, if applicable, task order number

• Current status, e.g., completed or if in progress, start and estimated completion dates

• Dollar value and type of contract

• Name of company being referenced

• SOW sections that the reference applies to

• Key personnel (please highlight those individuals who worked on the relevant project(s) and are also being proposed for this effort.)

• A brief narrative of why you deem the reference to be relevant to this effort.

http://www.sam.gov/%3B

The Government may also consider information obtained through other sources. Past performance information will be utilized to determine the quality of the contractor’s past performance as it relates to the probability of success of the required effort.

SECTION 508 COMPLIANCE (Volume 1, Section 2)

SECTION 508 COMPLIANCE – ELECTRONIC AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACCESSIBILITY

HHSAR 352.239-739b) (January 2010)

NIDDK abides by 508 standards defined and enforced by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d) requires Federal agencies to purchase electronic and information technologies (EIT) that meet specific accessibility standards. This law helps to ensure that federal employees with disabilities have access to, and use of, the information and data they need to do their jobs. Furthermore, this law ensures that members of the public with disabilities have the ability to access government information and services.

There are three regulations addressing the requirements detailed in Section 508.

• The Section 508 technical and functional standards are codified at 36 CFR Part 1194 and may be accessed through the Access Board’s Web site at http://www.access-board.gov.

• The second regulation issued to implement Section 508 is the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). FAR Part 39.2 requires that agency acquisitions of Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) comply with the Access Board’s standards. The entire FAR is found at Chapter 1 of the Code of Federal Register (CFR) Title 48, located at http://www.acquisition.gov. The FAR rule implementing Section 508 can be found at http://www.section508.gov.

• The third applicable regulation is the HHS Acquisition Regulation (HHSAR).

Regardless of format, All content or communications materials produced must conform to applicable Section 508 standards to allow federal employees and members of the public with disabilities to access information that is comparable to information provided to persons without disabilities.

The Section 508 standards applicable to this contract are:

• 1194.41 Information, documentation, and support

The contractor must provide a written Section 508 conformance certification due at the end of each contract/order exceeding $100,000 when the contract/order duration is one year or less. If it is determined by the Government that EIT products and services provided by the Contractor do not conform to the described accessibility standards in the Product Assessment Template, remediation of the products or services to the level of conformance specified in the Contractor's Product Assessment Template will be the responsibility of the Contractor at its own expense.

In the event of a modification(s) to this contract/order, which adds new EIT products or services or revises the type of, or specifications for, products or services the Contractor is to provide, including EIT deliverables such as electronic documents and reports, the Contracting Officer may require that the contractor submit a completed HHS Section 508 Product Assessment Template to assist the Government in determining that the EIT products or services support Section 508 accessibility standards. Instructions for documenting accessibility via the HHS Section 508 Product Assessment Template may be found under Section 508 policy on the HHS Office on Disability Web site (https://www.hhs.gov/web/section- 508/contracting/technology-products/product-accessibility-template/index.html)

[(End of HHSAR 352.239-73(b)]

Prior to the Contracting Officer exercising an option for a subsequent performance period/additional quantity or adding funding for a subsequent performance period under this contract, as applicable, the Contractor must provide a Section 508 Annual Report to the Contracting Officer and COR. Unless otherwise directed by the Contracting Officer in writing, the Contractor shall provide the cited report in accordance with the following schedule. Instructions for completing the report are available in the Section 508 policy on the HHS Office on Disability Web site under the heading Vendor Information and Documents. The Contractor's failure to submit a timely and properly completed report may jeopardize the Contracting Officer's exercising an option or adding funding, as applicable.

Schedule for Contractor Submission of Section 508 Annual Report:

By the end of the period of performance.

[End of HHSAR 352.239-73(c)]

TECHNICAL APPROACH (Volume 1, Sections 3)

Offerors shall provide a Technical Approach.

At a minimum, the offeror’s Technical Proposal must discuss:

1) The background, objectives, and work requirements of the SOW as analyzed by the offeror,

2) The proposed methods and techniques for completing each task,

3) How each task will be evaluated for full performance and acceptability of work from the offeror's viewpoint; with support, and

4) Any anticipated major difficulties and problem areas, along with potential recommended approaches for their resolution.

EVALUATION

Proposals will be reviewed and evaluated in accordance with the technical evaluation criteria identified in attachment “Evaluation Criteria”.

BUSINESS PROPOSAL (Volume 2)

A. Price Price Reasonableness: The Offerors are expected to establish a reasonable price relationship between all price elements. An evaluation of the Offerors’ price proposals will be made to determine if they are realistic for the work to be performed, reflect a clear understanding of the requirements, and are consistent with the Technical Proposal.

CONTRACT AWARD

Contract award shall be made to the responsible Offeror whose offer, in conforming to this RFQ, provides an overall best value to the Government, technical evaluation factors, section 508 and price considered. All evaluation factors, other than price, when combined, are significantly more important than price in the award of the contract. In the event quotes are evaluated as technically equal in quality, price will become a major consideration in selecting the successful Offeror.