Amendment 003 - SB1341-12-RP-0027.pdf

RFP SB1341-12-RP-0027

Amendment 003:

The purpose of this amendment is to provide responses to the following questions posed by potential offerors. NIST’s responses are in red.

1. Section B, CLIN schedule. Each CLIN is based on 1 each "lot" but there is no way to calculate a total cost given the indefinite nature of the SOW and the absence of any specific task orders. Please provide a government estimate of the required number of hours per labor category for each CLIN. Section L.7, Proposal Preparation Instructions, describes what should be included as part of the Business Volume. The Offeror shall submit its proposed fixed-price fully burdened hourly labor rates for each labor category listed in Section B.3 and any other proposed labor categories. A “total cost” does not need to be submitted.

2. Section B.4, Schedule of Labor Rates. Does the government expect separate rates for each team member for each applicable labor category and period, or does the government expect a single rate for the entire team for each labor category and period? The Offeror shall submit its proposed fixed-price fully burdened hourly labor rates for each labor category listed in Section B.3 and any other proposed labor categories.

3. Section C, SOW. Paragraph II says tasks will be either FFP or Labor Hour (LH). Since paragraph III requires contractor to propose labor, equipment, travel and materials to accomplish task orders, Labor Hour (LH) needs to be changed to "Time and Materials (T&M)". Otherwise, there is no way to bid ODCs on Labor Hour task orders. No T&M task orders will be awarded under the resultant ID/IQ contract. The solicitation will be amended and all cites of ‘Time and Material’ and ‘T&M’ will be removed. The contractor is expected to possess the necessary equipment/materials.

4. Section F.3, Period of Performance. Will a task order awarded in Option IV POP be permitted to extend beyond the end of the IDIQ ordering period? If not, there may be insufficient time to complete Option IV tasks. The period of performance will be specified in each individual task order. If a task order is awarded during Option Period IV, its period of performance may extend beyond the end of the ID/IQ contract’s ordering period.

5. Section I.6, Small Business Subcontracting Plan. Since there are no sample tasks to bid or labor hours specified, there is no basis to allocate work to subcontractors and vendors to put together a meaningful Subcontracting Plan. Please provide a government estimate of the required number of hours for each labor category. As this RFP is for an ID/IQ type contract, there is no definite number of hours that can be provided. Task orders will be issued against the ID/IQ contract. The nature of the specific tasks to be awarded under this ID/IQ contract are based on events that are difficult to predict at this time such as future disasters and funding allocations to the Disaster and Failure Studies Program. For the subcontracting plan, offerors should estimate using the SOW in Section C and provide a Small Business Subcontracting Plan that meet the FY12 U.S. Department of Commerce’s subcontracting goals.

6. Section I.30, Payments, is the only payment clause in the contract. FAR 52.232-7, Payments under T&M and Labor Hour Contracts, needs to be added. The solicitation will be amended to add this clause as Labor Hour task orders may be issued.

7. Section J.1, Past Performance. The instructions on page 77 state that past performance information references are due on June 11, 2012 at 12:00 pm EST. Should this be June 14, 2012? Yes, past performance information references are due on June 14, 2012 at 12:00 pm EST.

8. Section L.7, Factor D, Past Performance. Is there a minimum required number of past performance information questionnaire tool references that must be cited? Is there a maximum? Should subcontractor references be included? There is no minimum or maximum number of past performance information required, so long as the information is for projects that have been completed and/or substantially (75%) completed within the last 36 months. Offerors should submit past performance information for themselves and subcontractors.

9. Section L, Volume II and Section M.2.F. Without sample tasks or a government estimate of hours per labor category there is no basis to evaluate consistency of cost/price with technical approach or to determine reasonableness of proposed cost/price. Please provide a government estimate of the required number of hours for each labor category. As this RFP is ID/IQ type contract, there is no definite number of hours that can be provided.

Task orders will be issued against the ID/IQ contract. The Government will evaluate price based on proposed labor rates/categories.

10. How will disaster response be triggered? Does the National Construction Safety Act have a mechanism for when and how this contract might be used in response to a disaster or building failure? Formal decision criteria have been developed to help NIST determine whether or not to conduct a disaster and failure study (see slide 9 from the Industry Day presentation for scores from past events). The National Construction Safety Team Act is one of several statutory authorities that NIST can utilize to initiate a disaster and failure study (see slide 3 from Industry Day). This ID/IQ contract is to support NIST’s Disaster and Failure Studies program.

11. Do you want a resume for someone for each of the 79 skill slots requested in the RFP listed in Section B.3 Schedule of Labor Categories? Resumes should be submitted for the Project Manager and Principal labor categories.

12. There is no administrative or contracts administrator position listed in Section B.3. Do you need a resume for such a position? Offerors may propose additional labor categories to the ones listed in Section B.3 if they believe they are relevant to the ID/IQ contract.

Resumes only need to be provided for the Project Manager and Principal labor categories.

13. Do we have an estimation as to how many colleagues NIST would like to train? Not at this time.

14. Have these stakeholders yet been identified? See slide 13 from the Industry Day presentation for a summary of stakeholders and contributors to NIST’s Disaster and Failure Studies program. There may be future stakeholders depending on the nature of the work to be performed under this ID/IQ contract.

15. Will we conduct any instructor-led training or would it be a 'train-the-trainer' and then hand off? Both types of training could be accomplished under this ID/IQ contractor;

however there is a much higher probability for instructor-led training.

16. For the cost proposal, will the Government provide the number of hours by labor category for the base period and the 4 option periods in order to complete the SF 33? As this RFP is for an ID/IQ type contract, there is no definite number of hours that can be provided. Task orders will be issued against the ID/IQ contract. For the cost proposal, offerors should propose fully burdened hourly rates for each labor category.

17. Since NIST has already developed multiple technical studies utilizing NIST staff, will efforts described on page 4, section A, numbers 5, 7, and 8 be staff augmentation (utilizing both members of NIST staff and contractors support) or does NIST plan to contract all of the work? The options that NIST may utilize to conduct a preliminary reconnaissance or technical investigation are outlined on page 34 of the solicitation.

NIST seeks a Contractor who has the capabilities to furnish the necessary personnel, material, equipment, services, and facilities to perform the Statement of Work/Specifications, including the efforts described on page 4, section A, numbers 5, 7 and 8. The decision on whether to use NIST or Contractor personnel (or some combination) will be made in the best interests of NIST for each disaster/failure study.

18. For the disaster and failure studies database, is the contractor required to be certified under ISO 9001:2001 or CMMI? The Contractor is not required to be certified under ISO9001:2001 or CMMI; however NIST needs to know the development process used by the Contractor, including any certifications.

19. On page 3, in section II, first paragraph, the RFP mentions technology transfer. What type of technology transfer activities will be required? As shown on page 2 of Section II, one of the objectives of NIST’s disaster and failure studies may include ‘recommending, as necessary, specific improvements to standards, codes, and practices as well as any research and other appropriate actions based on study findings.’ NIST studies are documented in technical reports containing data, findings, and recommendations for consideration by private sector bodies responsible for developing relevant national building and fire model codes, standards and/or practices; federal, state and local building and fire officials for adoption and enforcement of national model codes and standards;

and research performing organizations such as universities, national laboratories, and private sector entities.

20. Page 38, Footnote #3: Will NIST provide the architecture (to include, OS, databases, programming language) to be utilized in development of the disaster and failures studies database? Will all production licenses be provided as GFE? How will development and test software be procured? NIST will provide the architecture to be utilized in the development of the database. All hardware/software will be GFE or cloud services will be contracted through the federal government.

21. Page 40, Paragraph VI discusses travel costs will be specified under task orders, and page 28 discusses fully burdened labor rates for the IDIQ. How will ODC costs be handled under this IDIQ response (for items such as hardware, software, reproduction costs, etc.)?

Please see response to questions # 3 and 20 above. The Contractor will not be procuring hardware, software, etc.

22. Page 100: The offeror shall submit one original copy of the entire proposal on one (1) compact disc, eight (8) copies of the Technical Volume and two (2) copies of the Business Volume to the address identified in the solicitation notice by the response deadline identified above. Can NIST clarify the following:

a. Deliver one copy of the entire proposal (both Technical & Business Volumes) on 1 CD. Yes

b. Deliver eight (8) copies of the Technical Volume on CD. No, deliver eight (8) hardcopies of the Technical Volume.

c. Deliver two (2) copies of the Business Volume on CD. No, deliver two (2) hardcopies of the Business Volume.

23. Page 106: Factor F Price. It appears that we are only required to provide fully burdened rates for all identified labor categories. The government intends to determine if these rates are fair and reasonable, but in addition the government reserves the right to award to other than the lowest price offeror. Can the government explain how price will be evaluated: lowest average rate per year, total average rate, total of all rates by year or by entire contract? There are several ways to evaluate prices. See FAR Part 15 for guidance.

24. What research on human subjects is anticipated? NIST seeks a Contractor who has the capabilities to furnish the necessary personnel, material, equipment, services, and facilities to perform the Statement of Work/Specifications, including the efforts described on page 4, number 8 of SOW in Section C. The specifics of possible human subject research will be specified in each individual Task Order.

25. In order for the contractor to provide the most accurate price proposal, will the Government consider a two-week extension to the due date? At this time the Government does not plan to extend the due date.