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HERA CALL 0001 Q&A
as of 18 Mar 2008
| 1. |
| Will the subcontracting plan be required at the contract level or for individual task orders? |
| A Subcontracting Plan is required at the contract level for other than small businesses. |
| 2. |
| Is this acquisition set-aside for small business? |
| This acquisition is NOT set-aside for small businesses. The NAICS and size standards are stated for companies to properly indicate their socioeconomic status. |
| 3. |
| Please clarify whether we are required to submit copies of the price backup for material prices proposed or just a priced list of materials annotating whether the estimated price is based on a vendor quote, purchase order, or engineering estimate. |
The applicable instructions are not clear on this point: The Cost Proposal Instructions for IDIQ Contracts state: "Provide an itemized, priced list of all proposed equipment, materials and supplies for each delivery/task order by OFY. Provide information regarding the basis of estimates (i.e. vendor quotes, purchase orders, engineering estimates, etc.)" (emphasis added) The instruction to "Provide information" does not make clear whether an annotated, priced list of estimated materials proposed is sufficient, with a column showing whether the price for each proposed item is based on a vendor quote, purchase order, or engineering estimate, or whether a copy of the actual price backup needs to be included in the proposal. Providing copies of the actual price backup could be a problem with a Cost Proposal goal of 75 pages.
The cost proposal verbiage "Provide an itemized, priced list of all proposed equipment, materials and supplies for each delivery/task order by OFY. Provide information regarding the basis of estimates (i.e. vendor quotes, purchase orders, engineering estimates, etc.)"
Indicates that the contractor need to first of all provide an itemized priced list
Then provide information regarding the basis of estimate.... whether the numbers presented are based on "vendor quotes, purchase orders .....)
We are not asking for the "actual documentation" only let us know what the information is based on....vendor quotes, purchase orders, engineering estimates
| 4. |
| The Call specifies “The period of performance is to be proposed in the format ‘includes XX months for technical effort and 3 months for Final Report preparation.’ “, yet the CFTO task order does not require a final report to be prepared. Knowing whether the six years includes or doesn’t include a 3-month period for final reporting affects the labor estimating for the cost proposal. Would the Government please confirm that the CFTO period of performance, given as start and end dates, is indeed six years, does not include 3 months for final reporting, and that no final report is required? |
| The period of performance for the CFTO is established at six years. There is no final S&T report required as this task order does not include actual research efforts. |
| 5. |
| CDRL A008 seems to be a contract-level data item and not applicable to individual task orders. Would the Government please clarify whether CDRL Item A008 is a contract-level item and not generally applicable to individual task orders? |
| CDRL Item A008 is a contract level requirement and required only under the CFTO/Task Order 0001. References to CDRL A008 are deleted in the Sample TOs for Technical Area 1 (Atch 3) and Technical Areas 2 and 3 (Atch 4). |
| 6. |
| For CDRL A011, there is data missing from blocks 10, 12, and 13. Would the Government please specify the missing data from CDRL Item A011, blocks 10, 12, and 13? |
| CDRL A011, block 16 is changed to added verbiage for blocks 10, 12 and 13 |
| 7. |
| CFTO Task Order Statement paragraph 4.1 cites 11 facilities covered for laboratory operations and paragraph 4.22 lists 10 facilities wherein the Government will supply office space. These two paragraphs do not seem to relate to the same facilities. Would the Government please clarify the building list in paragraph 4.22 with the requirement that 11 facilities are included in the CFTO scope from paragraph 4.1? |
| CFTO Task Order Statement paragraphs 4.1 and 4.22 are revised. Laboratory Operations (paragraph 4.1) and Office Facilities (paragraph 4.22) may be located in different buildings to be determined by the Government. |
| 8. |
| The BAA specifies a respondent is to summarize the technical methodology and task description in the proposed C-SOW and structure the C-SOW into the three sections they recommend. Yet the Call supplies complete TO SOWs to use in the preparation of our technical proposal. Would the Government please clarify whether a respondent is to include the Government-supplied task order statements of work verbatim as the C-SOW for TO technical proposals or is a respondent able to modify the TO SOWs appropriately to summarize his proposed technical approach as required by the baseline BAA and to conform the C-SOW format to the three sections defined in the baseline BAA? Or, is the overarching C-SOW requirement for TOs 1-3 intended to replace the BAA requirement for a C-SOW in each proposal? |
| The government has waived the requirement for offerors to prepare task order C-SOWs. CALL 0001 is amended to reflect this change. |
The requirement for a separate comprehensive C-SOW at the contract level addressing Technical Areas 1-3 (CALL 0001 REQUIREMENTS DESCRIPTION, 2nd paragraph) and conforming to the requirements as stated in the Baseline BAA remains.
| 9. |
| The third C-SOW section, “Requirements,” and the baseline BAA require a respondent to modify Blocks 5, 17, and 18 of the associated CDRL. Could the Government please clarify whether a respondent is to modify and supply updated DD Form 1423’s for Blocks 5, 17, and 18? If a respondent is to modify the DD Form 1423 itself, would the Government please identify whether these are to be included in the technical proposal as implied by the baseline BAA or whether the forms could be supplied as either an appendix to the technical proposal (and outside the page limitations) or in the cost/business proposal? |
| This information may be provided in text/table format, or attachment/appendix to the technical proposal. |
| 10. |
| The baseline BAA also seems to require that cost data related to the preparation of CDRL items be included in the requirements section of the C-SOW. Usually, cost data are not included in either a C-SOW or in the technical proposal. Would the Government please clarify whether cost data for preparing CDRL materials are really required in the technical proposal as implied by the baseline BAA PPIs or whether they will accept citing the estimated costs to prepare CDRL materials in the cost/business proposal? |
| The cost data related to the preparation of CDRLs items is not applicable to the comprehensive (overarching) C-SOW. The cost data is required for CDRLs at the task order level (DFARS 215.470, Estimated Data Prices) and shall be included in the technical proposal. |
| 11. |
| CFTO Task Order Statement requires the development of three specific plans (Mgt Plan, QA Plan, Eqmt Mgt Plan) and that the contractor develop/update expt’l systems and H/W manuals, but none of these documents are included as CDRLs in the TO and there are no DD Form 1423’s or Data Item Descriptions called out that apply directly unless these plans can be delivered under either CDRL A005 (S&T Report) or CDRL A011 (Tech Report). The CDRLs that are called out by this SOW paragraph are the SAR, Status Report, and ES&H Plan. Would the Government please clarify that the Management Plan, the Quality Assurance Plan, and Equipment Management Plan are formal deliverables as called out by the CFTO? Would the Government also clarify which CDRL Items are to be used to deliver these plans? |
| Paragraph 4.4 of the CFTO is deleted in its entirety. |
| 12. |
| CFTO Task Order Statement Paragraphs 4.1, 4.4, 4.8, and 4.10 do not call out CDRL A012 yet require development of operations and maintenance documentation. Would the Government please clarify whether CDRL A012 applies to the CFTO and to what specific technical requirements? |
| The reference to operations and maintenance documentation in the CFTO pertains to usage, repairs and routine maintenance/calibration documentation. CDRL A012 pertains to the development of a comprehensive system operating manual describing operations and maintenance (e.g., hardware/prototype/system development). |
| 13. |
| Sample Task Order – Technical Area 1 Task Order Statement. Some TO paragraphs do not call out a CDRL reference. Would the Government please clarify which CDRL Items are to be used to document work accomplished for technical requirements and to be used to complete Blocks 5, 17, and 18 of the associated DD Form 1423’s? |
| Not every technical task/paragraph involves a separate and distinct data requirement (CDRL). Use your best judgment in selecting the applicable paragraphs within each respective task order when completing blocks 5, 17, and 18. |
| 14. |
| Sample Task Order – Technical Area 1 Task Order Statement calls out CDRL A008, EH&S Plan, which is a contract-level CDRL item, as the deliverable due NLT 60 days prior to the start of a test. There are relevant task-level CDRLs also included by the Government covering similar data. Would the Government consider eliminating CDRL A008 from requirement 4.9 and replacing it with CDRL A002? If CDRL A002 is acceptable, would the Government please confirm that it still would like to adhere to the 60-day requirement instead of the 10-day requirement specified by the DD Form 1423 for CDRL A002? |
| Reference to CDRL A008 is deleted in its entirety (paragraph 4.9). Added reference to CDRL A002 (paragraph 4.9 and 7.0). The sentence allowing 60-days for submission of test and safety plans in the Task Order Statement, paragraph 4.9, is deleted in its entirety. The CDRL requirement of 10 workdays remains in effect. |
| 15. |
| Sample Task Order – Technical Areas 2 and 3 Task Order Statement calls out CDRL A008, EH&S Plan, which is a contract-level CDRL item. There are relevant task-level CDRLs also included by the Government covering similar data. Would the Government consider eliminating CDRL A008 from requirements 4.1 through 4.4 and replacing it with CDRL A002? |
| References to CDRL A008 are deleted in their entirety (paragraphs 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, and 5.0). Added reference to CDRL A002 (paragraphs 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, and 5.0). |
| 16. |
| The requirements for the CFTO include 21,186 hours for IT System Administrator and 13,362 hours for Material Handler, yet the CFTO SOW does not include requirements for either of these positions. Would the Government please clarify that our proposal need not include hours for either the IT System Administrator or the Material Handler, and that our total proposed hours for the CFTO can be reduced commensurately? Please clarify whether it acceptable to propose our own labor category mix and labor hour allocations for the CFTO? |
| CALL 0001 is revised to reflect the reduced labor effort. As stated in CALL 0001, an offeror’s proposal may deviate from the labor categories and associated man hours, but a justification must be provided supporting the deviation. For example, an offeror’s labor categories may not match exactly to what AFRL contemplates, or an offeror may decide to reallocate hours among categories to realize efficiencies. |
| 17. |
| For the cost/business proposals, there is a certain amount of common material that will be identical in each of the four proposals. This includes things such as direct and indirect rate development, common proposal terms, conditions, and assumptions, DCMA rate recommendation letters, Master and Individual Small Business Plans, guidelines for personnel qualifications, and the like. Would the Government allow submittal of a single, overarching business proposal for all of CALL 0001? |
| No, a complete proposal must be submitted for each task order. |