RFQ 12FPC422Q0005 - COMBINED SYNP SOLICITATION 01062022.docx

Combined Synopsis and Solicitation

SOLICITATION: 12FPC422Q0005

State of Mississippi Three (3) Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) for Legal, Title and Real Estate Services This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued.

The solicitation number 12FPC422Q0005 is issued as a request for quotation (RFQ) and the acquisition procedures at FAR Part 13, are being utilized. The Government anticipates that this solicitation will result in the award of three (3) BPA awards, to the responsible Contractors whose quote conforms to the solicitation and will be most advantageous to the government. The government retains the right to issue more than three awards, or no awards based on this solicitation.

This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2022-01 with an effective date of December 6, 2021, which can be found at under the current FAR section.

This acquisition is a 100 % set aside for small business. The applicable NAICS code is 541191 - Title Abstract and Settlement Offices, which has a size standard of $11.0 million. For more information on size standards visit http://www.sba.gov/size.

Line Items. The line items are as detailed at Attachment 2- Pricing Schedule. The BPA awards shall be for a five (5) year period, with annual reviews of performance and the Government’s continuing need.

Description of Requirement. The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program Wetland Reserve Easement component (ACEP-WRE), the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), Emergency Watershed Protection Program - Floodplain Easements (EWPP-FPE), and the Healthy Forest Reserve Program (HFRP) authorize the acquisition of conservation easements from willing landowners for the purpose of restoring and protecting wetlands, floodplains, grasslands, or forest lands. NRCS is the lead USDA agency that is charged with administering these programs.

The objective of this blanket purchase arrangement (BPA) is to obtain title search, preliminary title commitment, final title policy, and closing services for acquisitions of program easements for the State of Mississippi on behalf of the United States of America, acting by and through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The Government intends to award up to three Blank Purchase Agreements (BPAs) from this solicitation to the responsible offeror(s) whose quote conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered.

Date(s) and Place(s) of Delivery and Acceptance. Acceptance will be made by the USDA NRCS Mississippi state office Contracting Officer Representative (COR) upon final inspection of all deliverables. The specific period of performance, acceptance, and delivery location will be specified in each order.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING QUOTES

All Contractors must be registered in the Beta.SAM, prior to award of a Federal Contract. For information regarding registration visit https://www.beta.sam.gov

Quotes are due no later than 2:00 pm Eastern Standard Time on Friday, February 11, 2022. Send quotes via email to Regi.troullier@usda.gov. Quotes MUST include solicitation “12FPC422Q0005, State of Mississippi Three (3) Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) for Legal, Title and Real Estate Services” in the subject line to avoid oversight.

The following items shall be submitted with your quote to be considered:

1. Provide items to determine minimum technical requirements as shown under “Evaluation of Quotes.”

2. Completed Attachment 2, Price Sheet in its entirety

3. Completed Attachment 3, Section B, Provisions

4. Completed Attachment 4, Cooperator Acknowledgment

Material issues raised concerning the required effort that result in changes to the Solicitation will be resolved through written Amendments. Oral statements or instructions shall not constitute an amendment to the Request for Quotes.

The provision at FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors—Commercial Products and Commercial Services (Nov 2021) applies to this acquisition and are tailored as noted.

52.212-1 Instructions to Firms—Commercial Products and Commercial Services. (NOV 2021)

(a) North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and small business size standard. The NAICS code(s) and small business size standard(s) for this acquisition appear elsewhere in the solicitation. However, the small business size standard for a concern that submits an offer, other than on a construction or service acquisition, but proposes to furnish an end item that it did not itself manufacture, process, or produce is 500 employees if the acquisition— (1)Is set aside for small business and has a value above the simplified acquisition threshold;

(2)Uses the HUBZone price evaluation preference regardless of dollar value, unless the offeror waives the price evaluation preference; or (3)Is an 8(a), HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned, economically disadvantaged women-owned, or women-owned small business set-aside or sole-source award regardless of dollar value.

(b) Submission of quotes. Submit quotes to the office specified in this solicitation at or before the exact time specified in this solicitation. Quotes may be submitted on the SF 1449, letterhead stationery, or as otherwise specified in the solicitation. As a minimum, quotes must show—

(1) The solicitation number;

(2) The time specified in the solicitation for receipt of quotes;

(3) The name, address, and telephone number of the offeror;

(4) A technical description of the items being offered in sufficient detail to evaluate compliance with the requirements in the solicitation. This may include product literature, or other documents, if necessary;

(5) Terms of any express warranty;

(6) Price and any discount terms;

(7) "Remit to" address, if different than mailing address;

(8) A completed copy of the representations and certifications at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.212-3 (see FAR 52.212-3(b) for those representations and certifications that the offeror shall complete electronically);

(10) Past performance information, when included as an evaluation factor, to include recent and relevant contracts for the same or similar items and other references (including contract numbers, points of contact with telephone numbers and other relevant information); and

(d) Product samples. When required by the solicitation, product samples shall be submitted at or prior to the time specified for receipt of quotes. Unless otherwise specified in this solicitation, these samples shall be submitted at no expense to the Government, and returned at the sender’s request and expense, unless they are destroyed during preaward testing.

(e) Multiple quotes. Firms are encouraged to submit multiple quotes presenting alternative terms and conditions, including alternative line items (provided that the alternative line items are consistent with FAR subpart 4.10), or alternative commercial products or commercial services for satisfying the requirements of this solicitation. Each offer submitted will be evaluated separately.

(f) Issuance of purchase order. Your quotation should contain your best technical and price terms. The Contracting Officer may reject any or all quotes. The Contracting Officer may issue a purchase order to other than the quoter with the lowest priced quotation. After the evaluation of quotes, the Contracting Officer may negotiate final terms with one or more quoters of the Government’s choice before issuing any purchase order. The Contracting Officer will not negotiate with any quoters other than those of the Government’s choice and will not use the formal source selection procedures described in FAR Part 15.

(g) Contract award (not applicable to Invitation for Bids). The Government intends to evaluate quotes and award a contract without discussions with firms. Therefore, the offeror’s initial offer should contain the offeror’s best terms from a price and technical standpoint. The Government may reject any or all quotes if such action is in the public interest; accept other than the lowest offer.

(h) Multiple awards. The Government reserves the right to issue multiple purchase orders for different line items when advantageous to the government.

(i) Availability of requirements documents cited in the solicitation.

(1) (i) The GSA Index of Federal Specifications, Standards and Commercial Item Descriptions, FPMR Part 101-29, and copies of specifications, standards, and commercial item descriptions cited in this solicitation may be obtained for a fee by submitting a request to-

GSA Federal Supply Service Specifications Section

Suite 8100 470 East L’Enfant Plaza, SW

Washington, DC 20407

Telephone (202) 619-8925

Facsimile (202) 619-8978.

(ii) If the General Services Administration, Department of Agriculture, or Department of Veterans Affairs issued this solicitation, a single copy of specifications, standards, and commercial item descriptions cited in this solicitation may be obtained free of charge by submitting a request to the addressee in paragraph (i)(1)(i) of this provision. Additional copies will be issued for a fee.

(2) Most unclassified Defense specifications and standards may be downloaded from the following ASSIST websites:

(i) ASSIST ( https://assist.dla.mil/online/start/).

(ii) Quick Search ( http://quicksearch.dla.mil/).

(3) Documents not available from ASSIST may be ordered from the Department of Defense Single Stock Point (DoDSSP) by-

(i) Using the ASSIST Shopping Wizard (https://assist.dla.mil/wizard/index.cfm);

(ii) Phoning the DoDSSP Customer Service Desk (215) 697-2179, Mon-Fri, 0730 to 1600 EST; or

(iii) Ordering from DoDSSP, Building 4, Section D, 700 Robbins Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19111-5094, Telephone (215) 697-2667/2179, Facsimile (215) 697-1462.

(4) Nongovernment (voluntary) standards must be obtained from the organization responsible for their preparation, publication, or maintenance.

(j) Unique entity identifier.(Applies to all quotes that exceed the micro-purchase threshold, and quotes at or below the micro-purchase threshold if the solicitation requires the Contractor to be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM).) The Offeror shall enter, in the block with its name and address on the cover page of its offer, the annotation "Unique Entity Identifier" followed by the unique entity identifier that identifies the Offeror's name and address. The Offeror also shall enter its Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) indicator, if applicable. The EFT indicator is a four-character suffix to the unique entity identifier. The suffix is assigned at the discretion of the Offeror to establish additional SAM records for identifying alternative EFT accounts (see FAR subpart 32.11) for the same entity. If the Offeror does not have a unique entity identifier, it should contact the entity designated at www.sam.gov for unique entity identifier establishment directly to obtain one. The Offeror should indicate that it is an offeror for a Government contract when contacting the entity designated at www.sam.gov for establishing the unique entity identifier.

(k) [Reserved] (End of provision)

FAR provision 52.212-2, Evaluation-Commercial Items does not apply to this solicitation.

Evaluation of Quotes.

The lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) approach will be utilized for this procurement. The Government anticipates awarding up to three (3) Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPA) resulting from this solicitation to the responsible Quoter whose quote conforming to the solicitation will be the lowest price technically acceptable quote. That is the quoter who demonstrates that they meet the minimum technical requirements below and then is lowest price.

a. Quotes will be determined to be technically acceptable in accordance with the noted evaluation factors. The evaluation factors for this acquisition are:

1. Past Performance

2. Sample Policies, Approach & Capacity

3. Pricing

Each factor will be evaluated as noted below.

1. Past Performance

2. Sample Policies, Approach & Capacity

3. Pricing

Pricing that is unrealistically low may be considered an indication that the quoter does not possess adequate understanding of the requirement or the requisite technical capability to successfully perform the work. The Government may determine that a quote is unacceptable if the pricing is significantly unbalanced.

(b) The Government will evaluate quotes for award purposes /by adding the total price for all years to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that a quote is unacceptable if the base period and out year prices are significantly unbalanced.

Offerors are required to complete the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications—Commercial Products and Commercial Services. This must be completed at SAM.gov and the registration in an “Active” status.

The clause at 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions—Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition and addenda are attached.

The clause at 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required To Implement Statutes or Executive Orders—Commercial Products and Commercial Services (Nov 2021), applies to this acquisition and the additional FAR clauses cited in the clause are attached.

(End of clause)

Any issues raised concerning the required effort that results in changes to the Solicitation will be resolved through written Amendments to the solicitation. Oral statements or instructions shall not constitute an amendment to the Request for Quote.

Questions MUST be submitted to the Contracting Specialist via e-mail at Regi.troullier@usda.gov not later than January 28, 2022. E-mail questions MUST include solicitation “12FPC422Q0005, State of Mississippi Three (3) Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) for Legal, Title and Real Estate Services” in the subject line to avoid oversight. No phone calls will be accepted or returned.

END OF SOLICITATION