Consolidated_Q A.pdf

Consolidated Q&A list SBAHQ-15-Q-0049 July 30, 2015

1) Question: This solicitation is processed through simplified acquisition procedures.

Answer: No. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items with a maximum threshold of $6.5M

2) Q: If so, the price limit for this is $150k. Please confirm

A: See answer to question 1 above.

3) Q: Is the pricing limit of $150k for the total value of the contract or on annual basis?

A: See answer to question 1 above. Pricing is not limited to 150K

4) Q: Who is the incumbent?

A: Consad Research Corporation

5) Q: What is the contract # under the incumbent is currently performing?

A: SBAHQ-13-A-0005

6) Q:You are looking just for the pricing quote, right? No need for technical response or past performance?

A: No. See amended solicitation for instructions

7) Q: Do you have any preference for Socio Economic status such as

HUBZONE or SDVOB?

A: Total Small Business Set-aside

8) Q; You included 2 labor categories. Are we restricted to use only 2 types of resources or can we propose additional, if needed?

A: You may propose additional resources

9) Q: How much travel is involved assuming majority of work is in DC metro area?

A: See amended solicitation for instructions. Please do not include travel in your quote

10) Q: What is the criteria for the award?

A: See amended solicitation for instructions and evaluation criteria

11) Q: Do you need any key personnel? If so, what type of skills or certifications are required?

A: N/A

12) Q: In addition, we would like to know historical levels of spending on these financial examinations. Based on the current cap, it appears that the spend is about $7500/examination max. Please confirm

A: We estimate 90 hours per financial examination.

13) Q; The Request for Quotation cost proposal page includes Travel. The

Request for Quotation states that some examinations will be on site and some off-site. It will be hard to bid travel when you do not know how many trips you will be making versus off-site/desktop reviews. Will contracting consider changing travel to actual under the U. S. General

Service Administration’s (GSA) Federal Travel Regulation (FTR)? If not considered, then please provide more specific information regarding # and location (geographic area) for visitations and # for desk review.

A: See amended solicitation for instructions. Please do not include travel in your quote

14) Q: The Request for Quotation cost proposal page has blanks under columns for “Required, Quantity, Unit Price and Total Price.” Could you please explain what you expect in each one of these columns and what needs to be entered in them? (For example there are 20 examinations with recommendations so we believe the “Quantity” could be 20 for items 1 through 3, but do not know how many trips we need to enter into the

“Travel Quantity Column”. The ‘Quantity” could be number of hours for items 1 and 2). Please clarify.

A: See amended solicitation for instructions and evaluation criteria

15) Q: Where in the schedule in question 2, above, should the fully loaded

Labor Rates be disclosed?

A: Disclosure of fully loaded labor rates is not required

16) Q: Should the report conform to Yellow Book and/or GAGAS standards?

A:Yes.

17) Q: What type of report do you expect to see? Agreed upon Procedures, special report, etc.?

A:Financial examination of grantees.

18) Q: Is there an incumbent? If so, who?

A: See the answer to question 4 and 5 above

19) Q: This contract has a life of 18 months. Will the awarded contractor be allowed to invoice and be paid on a percentage completion or progress to date method? If not when will the awarded contractor be allowed to bill and how often will they be paid?

A: Partial payment will be permitted, no more than monthly.

20) Q: Is this a re-compete or a new solicitation?

A: recompete

21) Q: If this is a re-compete, who is the incumbent?

A: See the answer to question 20, 4 and 5 above

22) Q: Can you indicate your proposed level of effort for this engagement?

A:See question 12.

23) Q: What is the timeframe for the completion of the financial examinations?

A: We will phase in the examinations. Once an examination is approved, we expect completion in 6 months.

24) Q: Are the examinations done consecutively or concurrently?

A: See question 23. We will have about four tranches of examinations spread over a 1-year period.

25) Q: Does the government have a projected cost estimate for this engagement?

A: Yes

26) Q: Task 1. "The financial examinations may be on site or off site, which will be at the direction of the OIT." The award contemplated is a fixed priced contract, however, the sites for conducting on site examinations are not reflected in the RFQ which makes pricing for travel and ODC costs difficult. Can the sites be provided so that pricing can be effected in a reasonable manner? Furthermore, pricing for travel to sites is difficult to do when it is not spelled out in the RFQ how many sites the OIT expects us to visit. Making this portion of the contract T&M would be most reasonable unless more definitive information can be provided about site visitations and their locations. We want to be responsive to the

RFQ, but we need more information to establish pricing on ODC and

Travel.

A: See amended solicitation for instructions. Please do not include travel in your quote

27) Q: Does the OIT have financial examination guidelines and report formats which are expected to be followed or will the contractor have to develop them (e.g. in accordance with Super Circular 2 CFR 200)?

A: Super Circular 2 CFR 200 will guide the examinations.

28) Q: Will the contractor be on OIT's site for conducting examinations that are off site and everyday duties and responsibilities? If so, what is that physical location?

A: Off site. The contractor will NOT have office space in OIT’s offices.

29) Q: What is the anticipated contract award date? It appears the period of performance (POP) after contract award is 18 months. Is that correct?

A: No later than August 30, 2015

30) Q: If the contractor is not physically located at OIT's offices, but will be required to come into that office how many trips are anticipated over the

POP (assists with pricing travel requirements)?

A: See amended solicitation for instructions. Please do not include travel in your quote

31) Q: Will the contractor be given access to previous financial examinations, results, recommendations, and current status for implementing those previous recommendations?

A: Yes.

32) Q: Is there an incumbent contractor? If so, please provide the company's name and whether they are eligible to compete on this RFQ?

A: See the answer to question 4 and 5 above. Incumbent will not bid.

33) Q: Are there any page or formatting limitations for the offer?

A: See amendment to solicitation instructions

34) Q: Is there an established protocol or objectives for the financial examinations? If so, would the Government please provide.

A:The information in the reports are confidential.

35) Q: Is it possible to get a copy of sample reports for all the 6 Tasks

A: . See question 34.

36) Q: Also, is this a new requirement of existing. If new, can we be provided the incumbent contract #, name, amount and period of performance.

A: See answer to question 4 and 5 above. Pricing and POP are not applicable to this effort.

37) Q: Is this a follow-on requirement? If so, could you please provide the incumbent contract number for this opportunity?

A: See answer to question 4 and 5 above.

38) Q: If not, is this a new requirement?

A: See answer to question 4 and 5 above

39) Q: The solicitation is asking for an "examination." In the CPA world, an examination is an attest engagement that only CPA firms with adequately reviewed and approved quality control policies and procedures. One could also read this as a "performance audit" which can only be done by a CPA firm that meets Government Auditing Standard requirements of quality control, continuing professional education, independence, and a host of other requirements. However, the solicitation is open to non-CPA firms under NAICS code 541611. Is the intention of this solicitation to keep this open to non-CPA firms?

A: CPA is not required.

40) Q: Is this a new requirement?

A: No

41) Q: Who has provided this service to the SBA in the prior years

A: See answer to question 4 and 5 above.

42) Q: What is the dollar range of this project from the SBA prospective

A: Between $150,000 and $500,000

43) Q: What was the fees paid to the prior contractor.

A: N/A

44) Q: How will bids be evaluated: Best value or technical acceptable lowest price

A: See amended solicitation for instructions and evaluation criteria

45) Q: On the pricesheet we see a quote for travel. Where do you see the contractor traveling for this project

A: See amended solicitation for instructions. Please do not include travel in your quote

46) Q: Can you provide the names and location of the 20 grantees.

A: The names and locations will be provided after contract award.

47) Q: How many years has the SBA-OIT utilized contractor services for

Financial (continued below)

A: 3 years.

48) Q: Examination, Financial Analysis and Financial Report?

A:3 years.

49) Q: Is the grant given to small businesses a set amount or does it vary by state and by industry?

A: The grants are issued to states. The states provide monies to small businesses. The amounts vary by state.

50) Q: Is the 1 page request for quotation sufficient, or would you like a proposal package?

A: No. See amended solicitation for instructions

51) Q: After the base 18 months service period expires, are there option years?

A: No.

52) Q: If applicable, can the government provide the Incumbent(s) on this contract/opportunity?

A: See the answer to questions 4 and 5 above

53) Q: If applicable, can the government provide the estimated/projected hours based on historical data for labor categories #1 and #2?

A: See question 12.

54) Q: Based on historical data, can the government provide a description/title for each labor category?

A: See amendment to solicitation. Labor category descriptions have been added to the SOW

55) Q: Is the government anticipating a single award or multiple awards?

A: Single award

56) Q: Is the government requesting/requiring any certifications and/or licenses from the contractors?

A: No.

57) Q: Will the winning bid be based solely on lowest cost?

A: See amendment to solicitation instructions and evaluation criteria

58) Q: Should the contractor provide any past performance and/or general company info (capability statement)?

A: see the answer to question 57

59) Q: Are the 30 minutes estimated weekly conference hours with the COR, total estimated hours for

A:We average 30 minutes per week for conference calls.

60) Q: The conference or estimates by task #. In other words, if the discussion includes more than a single task, is the government estimating 30 minutes per task type?

A: Total time per week on the conference call is 30 minutes.

61) Q: Is the attestation examination/review to be contacted in accordance with

AICPA’s Standards for Attestation Services or in accordance with Yellow

Book standards for attestation engagements required?

A:Yes.

62) Q: Does the government have estimates of required time for each task per grantee?

A: 90 hours per financial examination.

63) Q: Have the grantees been examined/reviewed before?

A:Most have already received financial examinations. However, a few have not.

64) Q: Does the government have its own Examination/review guidelines, if so is it updated periodically and where can one find a copy of the current guidelines?

A: Refer to Super Circular 2 CFR 200.

65) Q: Does the government expect more rounds of STEP grants beyond the current year? If so how many other rounds does the government expect?

A: Dependent on approval from Congress.

66) Q: Can the government please provide the fiscal year that will be under examination?

A: FY 2014.

67) Q: Please clarify and/or confirm: Are we examining 20 states whether they comply with the STEP and other pertinent federal regulation when they award STEP grants to recipients OR are we directly examining the recipients in each of the 20 states?

A: The contractor will examine 17 states, not the small businesses that use the funds.