Questions_and_Answers_3.docx

The Government has received the following question:

Question:

I have been going back and forth with our RFP team and we did give our 2 cents of what we would need to have removed from the RFI that was given to us to review with all the problem areas that might prevent us from submitting a bid due to the strict regulations of a federal contract.

In our opinion it will make it difficult for any of the CLECS and ILECS and companies to bid and be able to provide all the restrictions. Here are the notes that are our biggest concerns:

1. The request and SOW is essentially the same as the RFI, they just tacked on the FAR contract terms. There are issues with the following items;

0. 5.1.6 Traffic Engineering Support

0. 5.1.7 QoS

0. 5.1.9 Multicast

1. 6. Security

1. I think this is the biggest problem with the RFQ, and I mentioned this previously when we responded to the RFI

1. “The Offeror shall provide system security in compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), security‐related OMB Circulars and Memorandums (e.g., OMB Circular A‐130), security‐related compliance standards and requirements for federal agencies issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and any future statutes, regulations, requirements, or guidelines for securing federal systems.”

1. There is no way we can agree to these standards as they are probably bound to these regulations.

1. Contract Clauses – Federal Acquisitions Regulations

2. Required for all federal contracts and there is not really room for negotiation

2. Vendor has not yet agreed to any federal contracts.

I want to know if we are unable to meet the above requirements would that be a deal breaker for Vendor?

Answer:

The RFP and requirements remain as is. Any exceptions to the RFP must be clearly annotated in the proposal, but the Government may determine any proposal that does not meet the requirements to be non-responsive.