Q and A.pdf

Q&A

Question 1: What is the name of the incumbent vendor for these requirements?

Answer 1: This is a new buy for IAF, there is no incumbent.

Question 2: What is the UEI number for the incumbent vendor?

Answer 2: See Answer 1.

Question 3: What is the contract number for the incumbent contract?

Answer 3: See Answer 1.

Question 4: What is the venue (sam.gov, GSA e-Buy, OASIS, etc.) for the award of the the incumbent contract?

Answer 4: See Answer 1.

Question 5: What is the solicitation number that corresponds to the incumbent contract?

Answer 5: See Answer 1.

Question 6: What is the venue (sam.gov, GSA e-Buy, OASIS, etc.) for the solicitation that corresponds to the incumbent contract?

Answer 6: See Answer 1.

Question 7: How will the Bureau of the Fiscal Service resolve the conflicting information in paragraphs (b)i. and (c) on page 32 of 52 of the posted “Clauses.pdf” file? Paragraph (c) directs Offerors to exclude from their proposals “…any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity,” however, Paragraph (b)i. instructs Offerors to leave “…the individual’s name on the document(s).” It is not possible to avoid distinguishing an individual’s identity while at the same time providing their name.

Answer 7: Please leave the individual’s names.

Question 8: An extension of the proposal submission deadline to 2:00 PM EST 26Feb24 is requested. A reasonable timeframe should be provided to vendors to prepare solicitation proposals following receipt of the final solicitation materials following the question and answer period.

Answer 8: We will extend the proposal submission deadline to 2:00 PM EST, Friday, February 23, 2024.

Question 9: In “Attachment A – Pricing Sheet”, the Evaluation Services are broken and disaggregated into Evaluation 1, Evaluation 2, and Evaluation 3. Is this to mean that there will be three Evaluations in the Base Year Period? Is this supposed to reflect Year 1, Year 2, Year 3? Or, another schema? Please clarify.

Answer 9: There will be three evaluations distributed over the five-year period.

Question 10: In “Attachment A – Pricing Sheet”, is the Proposed Labor Rate supposed to be an hourly fee, daily fee, and evaluation rate? Is this at the discretion of the proposing firm?

Answer 10: The proposed labor rate should be hourly.

Question 11: In “Attachment A – Pricing Sheet”, in the Offeror Proposed Labor Category column (Column C), are proposed labor categories limited to three professionals or can there be 4 or more proposed? Can any additional proposed labor categories have "To Be Determined (TBD)" in lieu of a proposed key personnel?

http://sam.gov/ http://sam.gov/

Answer 11: Four (4) or more professionals may be proposed, as needed to provide the services described in the Performance Work Statement. Additional proposed labor categories and rates must be clearly specified.

Question 12: As this BPA is, “This BPA provides for the issuance of Firm-Fixed Price (FFP), Labor Hour, T&M, or hybrid BPA Calls” the Estimated Amount ($626,742) for the entire period of performance is limited to professional fees/salaries and not reflective of expenses (flights, lodging, domestic transportation) for field work?

Answer 12: The estimated budget ceiling of $626,742 is reflective of professional fees/salaries and expenses for field work for the entire period of performance.

Question 13: Are all deliverables (evaluation work plan, Evaluation Report, etc) as identified in the Tasks are to be submitted in the English language only?

Answer 13: The Offeror may submit deliverables in either English or Spanish.

Question 14: The RFP states that “The IAF anticipates implementing no more than two evaluations simultaneously.”, but how many total evaluations are anticipated to be conducted per Year (Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5) and/or in total over the length of the BPA?

Answer 14: There will be three evaluations distributed over the five-year period.

Question 15: In the event that Key Informant Interviews (KII) or Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) are conducted in the Spanish language, are transcripts and or/translations to be provided in the raw data that is submitted with the Reports? In this hypothetical example these transcriptions/translations would be included in an Annex.

Answer 15: Transcripts and/or translations from Key Informant Interviews (KII) or Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) may be included as an Annex to the Evaluation Reports; however, these are not required deliverables.

Question 16: Are international Key Personnel allowable? That is to say, non- US citizens.

Answer 16: Yes, non-U.S. citizens may qualify as Key Personnel.

Question 17: Other than Spanish, what other languages may be required? For example Portuguese for Brazil.

Answer 17: Spanish is the only required language.

Question 18: Please clarify what is meant in Volume I: Non-Price Factors/Technical Proposal "Offeror must have at least 3 years’ experience working on evaluation services projects working with Spanish speakers", does this mean that the personnel must have been Spanish speaking, the developing country must have Spanish as the national/predominant language, or the end beneficiaries/grantees must have been predominantly Spanish speaking?

Answer 18: The Offeror must have at least three (3) years of experience working on evaluation services projects with predominantly Spanish speaking end beneficiaries/grantees.

Question 19: We are a non-profit research institution legally established in El Salvador, with 119 employees on average during the last 24 months (minimum 113, maximum 123 in the period). Which Small Business Program standard applies to us?

Answer 19: None.

Question 20: Where should we include this information in the proposal? Where should we include the text regarding 52-209-2 and 52.204-24? Should we provide that information in a statement included in Volume I: Non-price/Technical Proposal?

Answer 20: You can return a copy of the Clauses. The response for 52.209-2 is a checkbox that has been highlighted for you on page 30. The response for 52.204-24 is a checkbox that has been highlighted for you on page 27.

Question 21: In order to prepare a detailed proposal and to allow offerors time to revise proposals based on responses to quotations, would IAF consider an extension of two weeks for proposal submissions?

Answer 21: We will extend the proposal submission deadline to 2:00 PM EST, Friday, February 23, 2024.

Question 22: Please clarify if the estimated budget ceiling of $626,742 is for the base and four option years or for the base year alone.

Answer 22: The estimated budget ceiling of $626,742 is for the base and four option years.

Question 23: Page 15, section 4.0 and the budget template suggest that IAF contemplates three evaluations under this contract. Could IAF confirm the total number of evaluations expected to be conducted under this contract?

o If there are 3 evaluations and a total ceiling of $626,742, then primary quantitative survey data collection is not feasible for these evaluations. Is IAF mostly considering primary qualitative data collection for the evaluations?

Answer 23: There will be three evaluations distributed over the five-year period. As specified in page 15 of the “Clauses” document, the IAF would like the offeror to use evaluation methods that are the most rigorous, feasible, and appropriate to address the questions, and that generate the highest quality and most credible evidence.

Question 24: Can we propose additional labor categories for this contract or are offerors restricted to the three key personnel listed on page 17, Section 6.0 the RFP?

Answer 24: Additional labor categories may be proposed, as needed, to provide the services described in the Performance Work Statement. Additional proposed labor categories and rates must be clearly specified.

Question 25: On p.17, Section 6.0, the RFP states “Key Personnel will not change from one BPA Call Order to the next”, however, Attachment A Pricing Sheet has a separate line for each key personnel for all 3 evaluations. Could you please clarify if IAF is expecting key personnel to be different for each evaluation or the same?

Answer 25: Solicitation shall be amended to remove the sentence “Key Personnel will not change from one BPA Call Order to the next.” Key personnel may change from one BPA call order to the next, where appropriate, in order to most effectively carry out the evaluations.

Question 26: On p.17, Section 6.0, the RFP states “Key Personnel will not change from one BPA Call Order to the next” and p.35, Section ‘Factor 4: Price’, asks the offeror to report on the “Number of personnel per labor category that will be used to perform each task and corresponding deliverable.” If multiple staff will be bid under the same labor category, should we expect that all staff will be considered key personnel and expected to work on all evaluations?

Answer 26: The solicitation has been amended to remove the sentence “Key Personnel will not change from one BPA Call Order to the next.” Offeror shall propose a labor mix sufficient to complete work outlined in the PWS. All staff may not be needed for all evaluations and some staff may not be considered Key Personnel, depending on the labor mix proposed.

Question 27: On p.35, Section ‘Factor 4: Price’, the RFP states that Attachment A should include information on “Number of personnel per labor category that will be used to perform each task and corresponding deliverable.” Currently, there is no column to report this information in the template. Is it okay to modify the template to add this information or should we include this information separately in Volume II?

Answer 27: If an offeror proposes multiple personnel for any Key Personnel position, this can be indicated by putting the number of proposed personnel in parentheses in the column titled “OFFEROR

PROPOSED LABOR CATEGORY”.

Question 28: What is the IAF requiring to be submitted as part of the 3 pages for Volume II: Pricing Proposal, besides Attachment A?

Answer 28: Pricing may be limited to completing Attachment A, but offerors may also submit additional pages if needed.

Question 29: The RFP states “The Contractor shall provide a list of three (3) contracts or purchase orders completed during the past five (5) years”. Should a proposed subcontractor also submit 3 past performance contract references? Or is it 3 total past performance references between the prime and all subcontractors?

Answer 29: A minimum of three (3) past performance references are required from the prime contractor.

Question 30: Are resumes included or excluded from the 25-page limitation?

Answer 30: As stated in page 34 of the “Clauses” document, the Volume I proposal should not exceed 25 pages and the resumes should be included in that 25 page limit.

Question 31: Does the government intend for the task to be performed remote with possibility of travel?

Answer 31: As stated in page 18 of the “Clauses” document, work will take place in the awarded Contractors’ work location as agreed upon by the COR and Contractor as well as one or more locations in Latin America and the Caribbean where field research is implemented for the evaluation.

Question 32: The budget of $626,742 is being evaluated for 3 proposed labor categories over 60 months. Is this the budget for all 3 titles i.e ( PM, Sr. Researcher, Research Analyst) for 5 years on call?

Can the incumbent respond for (2) of the (3) labor categories?

Answer 32: The estimated budget ceiling of $626,742 is for the entire period of performance and includes all professional fees/salaries and expenses for field work. Offerors must propose personnel for all three key personnel labor categories. An individual, if they meet the criteria, could perform the functions of more than one of the key personnel categories.