Questions and Answers 8-18-2011.pdf

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Washington, D.C. 20410

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER

Visit our web page at http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpo/index.cfm

Reference: Questions in response to Solicitation Number R-OPC-23867 ” Financial Advisor to Mark-to-Market Program and Other Restructuring Activities”.

To: Prospective Offerors

The following questions and answers are addressed below:

THE CLOSING DATE OF THIS SOLICITAITON IS WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24, 2011

AT at 4:00 p.m. E.S.T.

Q1. Is there an incumbent contractor? If so, who is it?

R1. Yes, Federal Practice Group, LLC

Q2. If there is an incumbent, is it precluded from bidding on the RFP?

R2. All qualified Small Businesses are eligible to submit a quotation.

Q3. Is the incumbent a small business?

R3. Information is available via CCR.

Q4. If the incumbent is a small business, does it have non-small (large) businesses as subcontractors?

R4. Information is not available.

Q5. What is HUD's policy if an Offeror does not possess relevant expertise in each area?

Under the first paragraph Section L.20.1.3. Factor 3 -- Relevant Experience (p. 94), there appears to be language missing. It says, "If an Offeror does not possess relevant expertise in each of the areas listed in the Statement of Work...". The rest of the sentence is missing.

R5. Section L.20.1.3 shall read the following: “If an Offeror does not possess relevant expertise in each of the areas listed in the Statement of Work the Offeror may include information about the relevant expertise of their proposed subcontract team”.

Q6. Can a small business have a non-small business (a large business) as a subcontractor?

R6. Yes, However, FAR Clause 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting (December 1996) applies to this requirement. The Small Business shall perform at least 51 percent of the cost of contract.

Q7. Section L.25. Subcontractors, paragraph (d) says that the prime contractor must perform 51% of the work. The scope of work listed in Attachment A is broad and does not indicate what percentage of the overall work each task represents. In particular, the RFP contains significant MIS work. What percentage of the overall scope of work would be related to MIS?

R7. See Response R6

Q8 For subcontracting purposes, could the MIS work ever be more than 51% of the scope of work.

R8. The MIS work should not be more than 51% of the scope of work.

Q9. Since the RFP is 130 pages and was only posted on Aug. 12, will the due date deadline be extended to give the non-incumbent bidders a chance to prepare proposals to compete with an incumbent.

R9. No.

Q10. Is there an incumbent for this RFP? If yes, can you provide their name? Also, are they eligible to rebid?

R10 See Response R1, R2

Q11. Can you tell us why the RFP is being issued with a 12 day turnaround?

R11. The pre-solicitation notice was issued on August 5, 2011 and the Solicitation was issued on August 12, 2011. This is a commercial requirement and the solicitation was issued in accordance with FAR Part 12.205(c).

Q12. Are you considering extending the due date of the Proposal?

R12. No. See Response R11

Q13. Are you considering extending the return due date of the Prior Performance Questionnaires

R13. No. Past Performance Questionnaires are due August 17, 2011 4:00 p.m.

Q14. Will HUD provide a list of firms who have submitted an intent notice to allow for teaming?

R14. No.

Q15. L.20.1.4 Factor 4 – Past Performance Information – states that the contracts or orders must have been completed before the proposal due date. We have several long-term contracts under which we have been providing services for several years, but the work continues to this date. To some extent this is the result of our satisfactory performance and we would like to reference these contracts in Factors 3 and 4, Relevant Experience and Past Performance Information, respectively. May we include contracts under which we continue to provide services?

R15. See R5 See Section L L.20.1.3. FACTOR 3 - RELEVANT EXPERIENCE read “The offeror shall describe their current and past experience, identifying other organizations in which they have performed similar tasks including etc……

Yes, for Relevant Experience contact may be provided on current and past experience.

Section L. L.20.1.4. Read FACTOR 4 - PAST PERFORMANCE INFORMATION read “These contracts or orders must have been completed before the proposal due date.

No, for Past Performance, the contract or orders must be complete before the proposal due date.

Q16. With respect to L.25 Subcontractors (f), can you please clarify the term “Cost Proposal” and what you are expecting from any subcontractor? Are they to complete Schedule B in its entirety, including FFP costs (ie. Subcontractor’s billings by unit to the Prime Contractor, assuming that could be done considering most unit deliverables would likely be a collaborative effort by the Prime and Sub). Or, are you simply requesting the labor rates of Subcontractor Personnel in addition to the labor rates of Prime Personnel, whether they be different rates or the same.

R16. No, the subcontractor shall submit a complete cost proposal in the same format as the offer or’s cost proposal that only includes the work they are performing or the other 49% of work. They may provide their cost in a sealed envelope to be opened only by the contracting officer.

Q17. Attachment B does not include unit pricing amounts for Deliverable ITEMs 5, 10, and 11, “Recurring Theme”, “Monthly Program Reports”, and “As Requested Reports”, respectively.

The last of these three may be difficult to price not knowing the product requested; however, the Recurring Themes Reports and Monthly Program Reports seem to be regularly delivered standard reports. Can you please clarify how these will be priced.

R17. These reports are requested by the GTR as needed and will be billed under the level of effort/labor hour line item. You will need to provide the labor rates for each labor category. See Attachment B Tab Labor Rates and Section L.21.3 PRICING.

Q18 Is there a limitation to the number of resumes we can include in the Proposal R18 No limit, limited to two pages per resume

Q19. Can you clarify the location of work. The Fed Biz Ops page references “Contractor Facility”, while RFP section F.3 refers to “within the Washington. D.C. metropolitan area.”

R19. The work will be conducted at the contractor facility. However, there may be a need for the contractor to travel to HUD field office for visits to our PAE’s located throughout the U.S.

Q20. More specifically with respect to location, where are the Resource Desk personnel currently located and do you anticipate that this virtual (web based) resource desk will be maintained at the Contractor’s facility?

R20.

Q21. Do the offeror and each subcontractor need to sign and submit Ex. E (Nondisclosure agreement) as part of the offer?

R21. No.

Q22. Are we required to attach specific supporting documentation for each item (1 – 7) listed in L.22? Contractors Responsibility?

R22. No.

Q23. Section L.25. Subcontractors requests that each subcontractor provide “A complete cost proposal in the same format as the offeror’s cost proposal.” If we are proposing to use a team, including numerous subcontractors, is it acceptable for our submission to include simply the subcontractor’s fully loaded hourly rates, by labor category, rather than trying to estimate which subcontractor will work on which task and for how many hours?

R23. See R6 and R16.

Q24. Where . Regarding Attachment D (Past Performance Evaluation Survey), do the references have the option of sending the completed survey to the Contracting Officer via email instead of hard copy?

R24. Yes, via email to Brenda.K.Lee@hud.gov.

Q25. On the Schedule of Reporting Requirements/Deliverables, Items 1, 6 & 7, mention a “hard copy” as a part of the deliverable. Since these three items are electronic tasks, i.e. maintaining the Resource Desk, updating the Rehab Database and performing Savings Calculations, what is envisioned as the “hard copy” deliverable for these items?

R25 Evidence that the updates were accomplished, i.e. a “Resource Desk Announcement”, an e-mail indicating the Savings Calculations and a hard copy of the updates to the Rehab Database (can be an electronic copy in this case).

Q26. For the Resource Desk task, one of the tasks references “input of customers using the Resource Desk will be solicited to determine whether users are satisfied with the Resource Desk.” What is the frequency that this solicitation will be expected to occur? And how should this feedback be provided to OAHP for their consideration?

R26. Semi-annual for the solicitation and the responses should be documented and sent to the GTR/GTM.

Q27.In Attachment A, subsection E., task 2: letter i. “Fixed Unit Price”, there is a reference to “five Post-Approval reviews (paragraph c. above).” It seems that what was meant was for this to be five “Full Restructuring w/ Additional Funds” and then a Post-Approval review on 20% of the Approved transactions in the month, but it is unclear. Can you please clarify what the current volume of Reviews, Post-Approval Reviews and Pre-Approval Reviews should be used?

R27. The number of Reviews are on the Fixed Unit Price are located in Attachment B Pricing Sheet block unit.

Q28. Is there an incumbent for the contract and, if so, whether that incumbent is eligible, and expected, to re-compete for the contract?

R28 See Response R1 and R2.