RFI DRAFT PWS - Proceedings Support Services.pdf

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

For

Strategic Acquisition Center (SAC)-Frederick

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board)

Office of the Clerk of the Board

A. GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Project: Board Proceeding Support Services

Background: On July 28, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Board of

Veterans’ Appeals (Board) by Executive Order 6230, Veterans Regulation No. 2(a). The

Board was delegated the authority to render the final decisions on appeal for the

Administrator (now Secretary) and was directly responsible to the Administrator

(Secretary). The Board was charged “to provide every possible assistance” to claimants and to take final action that would “be fair to the Veteran as well as the Government.”

The Board continues to meet this charge.

The Board is comprised of a Chairman, Vice Chairman, and such number of Veterans

Law Judges and Board members as necessary to meet the Board’s mission to conduct proceedings and dispose of appeals properly before the Board in a timely manner.

2. Scope of Work: The Board of Veterans’ Appeals is seeking a qualified contractor(s) to provide legal proceeding support services, which include transcription, court reporting, and proofreading/editing of a provided transcript against a proceeding recording.

1. The goal of this contract is to ensure that all legal proceedings held by the Board are accurately transcribed and documented, with clear, concise, and unbiased reports, to support the Board in making well-informed, just decisions regarding Veteran's benefits disputes. The legal proceeding support services required under this PWS are:

2. Transcription Services: The contractor shall provide secure and accurate transcription services for all legal proceedings and labor dispute proceedings conducted by the

Board. The contractor will be responsible for transcribing all audio and video recordings of legal proceedings and labor dispute proceedings conducted by the

Board and its counsel.

3. Court Reporting Services: The contractor shall provide skilled and professional court reporters to assist with legal proceeding and labor dispute proceedings. The court reporter will be responsible for accurately recording all spoken dialogue, including questions, answers, and objections, during the proceeding/proceeding process.

4. Proofreading Services: The contractor shall provide a proofreading service to ensure that all proceeding transcripts are free from errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and report on errors found. This includes any AI-generated transcripts with audio files provided by the Boards.

5. The contractor shall provide all resources required for the provision of legal proceeding support services under this contract, including personnel, equipment, software, and materials. The contractor will be responsible for meeting all service level agreements, quality standards, and timelines specified under the contract.

6. The successful contractor must have a minimum of five years of experience in providing legal proceeding support services to government agencies. They must also have a proven record of delivering timely and high-quality services, and must have all the necessary licenses, certifications, and accreditations to provide services to the

Board.

7. The contract will be for a twelve-month base period of performance, with an option to extend for four additional twelve-month periods, subject to satisfactory performance evaluations.

3. Performance Objectives:

1. Accuracy and Timeliness: The contractor shall ensure that all legal proceedings are accurately transcribed and documented and submitted to the Board as specified within the Deliverables Schedule (Section 4)

2. Quality Assurance: The contractor shall conduct quality control checks on all transcripts to ensure that they are free from errors, omissions, and inaccuracies in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, with a 99% accuracy rate.

3. Professionalism: The contractor shall provide skilled and professional court reporters, translators, and interpreters who are fully fluent in the relevant languages and maintain a professional demeanor.

4. Confidentiality: The contractor shall maintain the confidentiality and security of all information obtained in connection with any proceeding, including any personal or medical information of the parties involved in the proceedings.

5. Efficiency: The contractor shall provide data analytics services that extract insights from proceeding transcripts, identify trends and patterns to improve proceeding efficiency and track key metrics through demonstrated measurable improvements.

6. Service Level Agreements: The contractor shall meet or exceed all service level agreements specified in the contract, including turnaround times, quality standards, and accuracy rates to reflect the level of service needed by the Board.

4. Deliverables Schedule:

Description Requirements Delivery Date

Task 1.1Kick Off

Meeting and Roster

The contractor shall participate in a kickoff meeting within 10 Business days after award. At the kickoff, the contractor shall brief its draft

Within 10 business days of

Project Management Plan. Following the briefing, the contractor shall submit its detailed Project

Management Plan (PMP) electronic form to the

Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) for review and acceptance.

The Contractor shall provide a kickoff meeting agenda at least two (2) business days prior to the meeting. Meeting minutes shall be provided to

Contracting Officer (CO), COR, and other attendees within three (3) business days after conclusion of the meeting. The Contractor shall coordinate with the COR to invite the CO, Contract Specialist (CS), COR, and any other necessary VA personnel. Work shall not commence until the Board Project Manager approves the PMP.

Contractor shall provide a staff roster of employees that will be working on this contract at time of award throughout the period of performance. The

Staff Roster will include but not be limited to the following: Full Legal Name, Onboard Date, Roll-off Date, Completion Dates of Required Training

Certificates, and PIV Card/USACCESS Card expiration dates (if applicable). This roster shall be updated as required throughout the life of the contract.

Deliverables: Agenda, Briefing of Draft PMP, delivery of final PMP, Staff Roster, and meeting minutes.

award unless waived by COR

Task 1.2 Reporting Monthly Status Report: The Contractor shall provide a monthly status report (MSR) that addresses the invoices delivered, page count for the month, work orders completed in the required time, work orders not completed in the required time, number of transcript errors returned by the

Board and an updated staff roster. The MSR shall include activities performed during the previous month and any issues realized during performance that would require Government attention.

Annual Summary Status Report: The Contractor shall provide a project summary status report summarizing work performed over the period of performance. The summary report shall include all

By the 5th of the month and within

10 business days of the end of the

Period of

Performance items from the MSR and any additional significant items to reflect the summary nature of the report.

Deliverables: Monthly Status Report; Annual

Summary Status Report

Task 1.3

Transcription

Services

The Contractor shall provide the specific deliverables described below within 10 business days for regular transcripts and 3 business days for expedited transcripts.

Work Order:

A work order will include a set number of audio files to be transcribed.

The Government will provide an electronic copy of each work order to the Contractor through a secure delivery method.

Transcript Format:

Transcripts shall be prepared in a manner acceptable to the Board. All transcripts will be in a clean verbatim transcription format. Format requirements include letter size paper (8 ½” x 11”), Times New Roman 12 font, created in a program compatible with Adobe Portable Document Format programs. An electronic template cover page and a sample proceeding transcript will be provided to the Contractor (Attachment A1). The word

Attachment (A1) will not appear on the deliverable transcript. Complete all inserts on the cover page or leave blank if information is not provided.

a. Clean/Literal Verbatim:

▪ The more Veteran-friendly version of transcripts

(sometimes referred to simply as verbatim), eliminates distracting extras of non-verbal utterances/filler phrases, emotions, and sounds, resulting in accurate transcripts that make pure sense representing a true representation of the content of the testimony, including incorrect grammar.

▪ Literal verbatim, the less Veteran-friendly version of transcripts (also referred to as full verbatim or true verbatim), transcribes every sound, including non-verbal utterances/fillers.

Standard-10 business days from transmission

Expedited-3

(“er” “um” “uh” “I mean” “ah”, stutters, false starts, gestations, etc.,), sounds (sniffle, cough, clearing throat, papers shuffling, long pause) and emotions (laughter, tremors in voice, crying).

b. The Transcript Specifications of Page Layout for

Text Pages are:

▪ Font – Times New Roman regular font size 12

▪ Top margin – 1.5 inches from the top of page

▪ Left and right margins – 1 inch each

▪ Bottom margin – 1 inch from the bottom of page

▪ Footer – page numbering, starting at the center, .5 inches from the bottom of the page starting on the first page

▪ Footer – starting at the right, Veteran’s Legal

Last Name, First Name, MI, and Veteran’s

Claim Number ending in C or Social Security

Number ending in S.

▪ Line spacing – typing shall be 1.5 line-spacing

▪ No indentations

▪ Double space at transitions between the participants in the proceedings

▪ No inserts of section page breaks

▪ File names will be saved as last name and last four of the claim number

Transcript submission:

All deliverables per work order will be returned in the same bundle as received in order by the due date.

Completed work order – A work order is not considered complete unless it includes transcriptions of all proceedings that were transmitted in the original work order, unless technical defects prevent the transcription of a proceeding.

The contractor is required to inform the Board as soon as is practical with audio defects that would prohibit the completion of a transcript within the specified time. The contractor must explain why a case cannot be transcribed, for example: Inaudible proceedings; recording level was too low can’t make out what is being said throughout the proceeding or the recording level was too high in which the audio is skipping or a buzzing in background throughout the proceeding. Incomplete proceedings: pre-conference proceeding information was captured only, and partial audio was captured on a proceeding which ended abruptly to advise and keep constant updates on transcript issues through the entire completion process. All means possible must be made to produce a full written transcript. It is an absolute last resort that must be sent an Inaudible Audio

Letter offering the new proceeding due to the inability to produce a transcript from the original proceeding.

Electronic copy of the transcript in Adobe Portable

Document Format shall be delivered by secure delivery method.

Contractors must appropriately label the Veteran’s

PDF file with the Veteran’s last name and last four digits of the claim number as received by the contractor.

Upon completion of the requirements associated with the work order, the Contractor will update the electronic work order and return the updated work order with all other deliverables that are due into the drive.

Deliverable: Prepared and Delivered electronic transcripts; updated work orders

Task 2: Court

Reporting Services and Transcription of live virtual or in-person Proceedings

The Contractor shall prepare transcripts in the format prescribed by the

Government and forward electronically through secured VA network. A Sample of the Investigation Transcript format is provided in

Section D.

Transcript Specifications of Page Layout for Text

Pages: • The example format is provided in Section

D. • Each line will be numbered, maximizing 25 lines per page. • Errata sheet will be included; and

• Each page will be numbered on the top right-hand corner.

• Company address may be placed as a footer at bottom of page.

10 business days from the completion of individual testimony/examin ations

The transcript and full package shall be a PDF document(s) that are emailed to the

Ordering Representative and shall be stored on the contractor’s secured server.

and made available to the VA upon request.

Documents need to be stored for 30days after the closure of the case. After 30 days records and documents shall be destroyed and a certification of destruction of information is provided to the COR as outlined in VA Directive 6300.

The Board reserves the right to cancel an assignment within 24 hours of scheduled request for Transcription and Court Reporting Services without cancellation penalties.

The Government will review finalized deliverables within three (3) business days of receipt and the Contractor will be notified by the

COR of acceptance or rejection.

The Government will not issue notice of acceptance until all required deliverables are received. In the event of rejection of any deliverables, the Contractor will be notified in writing and will have up to five (5) business days to correct the deficiencies at no cost to the Government. The

Government will have three (3) business days to review subsequent submissions of the same deliverables.

The contractor shall forward all deliverables to the

COR and/or Ordering Representative as indicated in the call order. The COR the Contractor shall issue invoice(s) for payment if not rejected by

COR after 3 (three) business days. Invoice should be submitted in the payment system not later than (NLT) 30 days from rendering services. No payment will be made until the services or products are accepted as conforming to the requirements of the work order and this PWS.

Task 3: Proof-reading and Editing of AI-generated transcripts

The Contractor shall provide the specific deliverables described below within 3 business days10 business days for regular transcripts and 3 business days for expedited transcripts.

Standard-10

6. Period of Performance: Base period of twelve (12) months + Four (4) twelve (12) month option periods

7. Key Personnel: Approval of Key Personnel, as specified in Contractor’s Technical

Proposal who will be working on this project, must be obtained from the Government within five business days of any change in these Key Personnel. The Contractor’s Project

Manager is a Key Person as defined by this section.

8. Type of Contract: This is a Labor Hours contract.

9. Place of Performance: The work shall be performed virtually or at place of performance specified at the Task Order level.

10. COR Authority: In no event is the COR empowered to change any of the terms and conditions of the contract. All changes, to any section of this contract, shall be made only by the Contracting Officer pursuant to a properly executed modification. The types of actions within the purview of the COR’s authority are to ensure that the Contractor performs the technical requirements of the contract, and to notify the Contracting Officer of any deficiencies observed. A Letter of Designation shall be issued to the COR and a

Description Requirements Delivery Date

Work Order:

A work order will include a set number of audio files along with preliminary AI-generated transcripts for each proceeding.

The Government will provide an electronic copy of each work order to the

Contractor through a secure delivery method.

The Contractor shall proofread the preliminary AI-generated transcript while simultaneously listening to the corresponding audio file(s) and prepare a final transcript in accordance with the technical guidance in Task 1.3 above. The Contractor will also prepare a separate errata sheet for each final transcript prepared to report to the Board the errors found during proofreading. The Contractor will return the final transcripts and errata sheets.

Deliverable: Prepared and Delivered electronic transcripts; errata sheets; updated work orders

Expedited-3 copy shall be sent to the Contractor at the time of contract kickoff meeting or post-award conference setting forth in full the responsibilities and limitations of the COR.

11. Hours of Work: Normal operational hours for the Board of Veterans’ Appeals are 8:00 –

5:00pm ET, Monday-Friday. Use of overtime is not applicable.

B. CONTRACT AWARD MEETING

The Contractor shall not commence performance on this contract until the Government has conducted a contract kickoff meeting, post-award conference or the COR has advised the Contractor that a kickoff meeting is waived.

C. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

1. All written deliverables shall be phrased in layperson language. Statistical and other technical terminology shall not be used without providing a glossary of terms.

2. The Government shall complete their review of draft deliverables within 3 business days from date of receipt. The Contractor shall have 3 business days to deliver the final deliverable from date of receipt of the government’s comments.

D. SPECIFIC MANDATORY TASKS AND ASSOCIATED DELIVERABLES

Description of Tasks and Associated Deliverables: The Contractor shall provide the specific deliverables described below within the performance period stated in Section A-

6.

Task One: Transcription of recorded Proceedings

Contractor(s) shall provide all resources necessary to accomplish the deliverables described in this PWS.

The scope includes, but is not limited to, the accurate transcription of Board proceedings.

Most of the proceedings are less than 60 minutes in length and are recorded on digital media.

Upon request by the Contracting Officer Representative (COR), or authorized individual, the Contractor shall accurately transcribe the entire proceeding and provide one electronic (PDF) copy per Deliverables Section. The contractor shall transcribe all audio recordings per work order. Deliverables will be returned in the same bundle of audio files as received in order by the due date.

Task Two: Court Reporting Services and Transcription of live virtual or in-person

Proceedings

The contractor shall ensure the Court Reporters and Transcribers service providers are certified in accordance with state laws where the service is being performed. With the exceptions of a few states that require court reporters to pass unique state exams, most states recognize the certifications granted through National Court Reporters Association

(NCRA) and the National Verbatim Reporters Association (NVRA). Some states only recognize certifications from the NCRA, but many will accept certifications from both organizations. Upon request, the contractor shall be able to provide the proper certification to ensure the Court Reporters and Transcribers Service providers meet state laws.

Court Reporting Services require a qualified court reporter or court stenographer (also called stenotype operator), shorthand reporter or law reporter, who transcribes spoken or recorded speech into written form, using shorthand, machine shorthand or voice writing equipment to produce official transcripts of court proceedings, depositions, investigations, and other official proceedings.

Task Three: Proofreading

Contractor(s) shall provide all resources necessary to accomplish the deliverables described in this PWS.

The scope includes, but is not limited to, the accurate editing/proofreading of AI-generated transcription of Board proceedings compared against digital recording. Most of the proceedings are less than 60 minutes in length.

Upon request by the Contracting Officer Representative (COR), or authorized individual, the Contractor shall accurately edit/proofread the transcription of the entire proceeding against the proceeding recording and provide one electronic (PDF) edited copy per

Deliverables Section. Deliverables will be returned in the same as received in order by the due date.

E. CHANGES TO REQUIREMENT

Any changes to this solicitation shall be approved through written correspondence from the Contracting Officer.

F. TRAVEL

Any required travel will be documented at the Task Order level.

G. GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITIES

The Government shall provide access to proceedings, recordings of proceedings, and transcriptions for review, where applicable. The Government shall also provide on-site and/or electronic and/or phone access to Contractor personnel for Court Reporting services Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 and 5:00 pm (EST), excluding Federal holidays. In addition, the Government will provide access to systems necessary for sending and receiving required documents and media. The Government will also provide notification of any systems outages and access to system help desks.

H. CONTRACTOR PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS

1. Contractor personnel shall be fluent and communicate in the English language, both written and oral communication.

2. The contractor shall not employ any person who is an employee of the United States

Government if the employment of that person would create a conflict of interest.

K. QUALITY CONTROL

After contract award, the Contractor shall implement and follow the Quality Control Plan or Quality Assurance and Surveillance Plan (QASP) that it submitted as part of its proposal and as accepted by the Government. The solution based PMP using the Quality

Control Plan or QASP with performance goals and acceptable quality levels is necessary to ensure quality for this project. The Contractor shall address any issues meeting established Government performance goals as needed. The Contractor will provide full access of its internal QASP for the COR to monitor performance.

L. QUALITY ASSURANCE

As stated in the Quality Control Plan or QASP, the Government shall evaluate the

Contractor's performance under this agreement. For those tasks listed in the Quality

Control Plan or QASP, the COR or evaluators shall follow the methods of surveillance specified in this agreement. The Government shall record all surveillance observations. When an observation indicates defective performance, the COR shall forward the observation to the Contractor manager or alternate(s), who shall initial the observation. The initialing of the observation does not necessarily constitute concurrence with the observation, only acknowledgment that he or she has been made aware of the defective performance. Government surveillance of tasks not listed in the Quality

Control Plan/QASP or by methods other than those listed in the Quality Control

Plan/QASP may occur during the performance period of this agreement. Such surveillance shall be done according to standard inspection procedures or other agreement provisions. Any action taken by the contracting officer because of surveillance shall be in accordance with the terms of this agreement.

M. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION MEETINGS

The Contracting Officer may require the Contractor to meet with Government personnel as deemed necessary. The Contractor may request a meeting with the Contracting

Officer or COR when Contractor believes such a meeting is necessary. At a minimum, the Contractor Project Manager (and other key personnel), and the Contracting Officer or

COR (or other Government personnel, as deemed necessary) shall meet periodically as needed to discuss the ongoing operation of the agreement. The Contractor shall prepare written minutes of such meetings, which shall be recorded in the agreement file. The

Contractor Project Manager and the COR shall sign the minutes indicating their approval or provide in writing their non-concurrence within five business days following receipt of the minutes.

O. HOURS OF OPERATION

Except as otherwise set forth in this agreement or for scheduled maintenance, the

Contractor shall conduct work in accordance with normal operational hours for the Board of Veterans’ Appeals are 8:00am – 5:00pm ET, Monday-Friday.