BEP_Amendment_1_Q&A_FINAL.pdf

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ISSUE DATE: May 23, 2017

REFERENCE: Request for Proposals (RFP) number SOL-165-17-000001 – Business

Ecosystem Project (BEP)

SUBJECT: Amendment No. 1

Question 1: Can you tell me if there is an incumbent contractor currently performing work for this requirement? If so, could you please provide their company name and contract number?

Answer 1: No. This is a new requirement.

Question 2: Whether an organization can apply individually, or there can be a consortium of partners (where an organization would be one of the subcontractors)?

Answer 2: Organizations can apply individually as a prime and separately as a subcontractor.

Only one proposal can be submitted as a prime.

Question 3: In Section C.9 of the RFP, USAID provides detail related to the projects’

Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Plan. However, USAID provided illustrative indicators for the project in Attachment 6, which states: “The final indicators and targets to measure the expected results listed for the overall goal and the three objectives will be established in the Work Plan and Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Plan, which will be prepared by the Contractor after the award and approved by USAID.” Should bidders submit a draft MEL as an annex to the technical proposal, or is this envisioned only to occur after award?

Answer 3: No, this will be done after award.

Question 4: USAID has stated that the grants fund is $1.5 million and should be used for BSO grants under Objective 1. However, Objective 3 stipulates that the project should be “Providing technical assistance and co-financing of $500,000 for MSME development, workforce development and/or LED activities implemented in partnership with lead firms.” Is this $500,000 co-financing to come from the grant fund or from separately budgeted funds for project activities? Could we propose to leverage the $500,000 from financial institutions or other private sector actors in lieu of using project funds?

Answer 4: The $500,000 for Objective 3 is separate from the $1.5 million intended for

Objective 1’s Grants Under Contract fund for BSOs. The intention of Objective 3 is to stimulate private sector investment in MSME development, workforce development and/or LED, thus the $500,000 is the project’s contribution to these

~ 2 ~ activities and offerors should present a credible strategy to promote private sector co-financing of activities under Objective 3. As stated on p. 12 of the RFP “The Contractor’s co-financing must not exceed 50% of the cost of any one activity.”.

meaning that private sector should match Contractor’s financing for each activity in this objective at least 1:1. The greater private sector leverage the contractor can ensure, the better.

Question 5: USAID has not requested that Offerors submit a separate Management Plan. Does

USAID expect to see an approach to managing BEP included in the Institutional Capacity section or should that section only address our management of past projects of similar size and scope?

Answer 5: Offerors must address the instructions under the “Staffing Plan and Key

Personnel” sub-section of section L.6. It is up to the individual Offeror to determine to how best to do so within the page limits indicated in the instructions.

There is no additional page allotment or annexes for a separate “Management Plan.”

Question 6: In Section C.6, USAID states that the local organization selected for direct capacity building should be responsible for the management of one or more of the program’s components. Should the Offeror propose an organization and provide details of how they would be involved in the management of specific technical work (subject to USAID approval)? Would USAID prefer a more illustrative approach, perhaps proposing one or more potential choices of organizations for consideration?

Answer 6: Offerors must determine the level of specificity to include in their technical proposals. Overall, additional details about an Offeror’s approach and potential sub-partners will give USAID a better idea of the feasibility and credibility of an Offeror’s technical proposal.

Question 7: Can USAID confirm that as per Section L.7 Part 4, Company XXX is not required to submit any Past Performance Information Sheets (PPIS) because all of our contracts are listed in CPARS?

Even if we are not required, will it be helpful to USAID for us to provide relevant PPIS for “contracts with a period of performance falling within the last 5 years for efforts similar to the work required by this RFP and with a cost between $4 and $12 million” to supplement our CPARS? If so, may we include relevant awards (such as GDAs) as well as contracts that fall within that cost range? Or may we provide PPIs for relevant contracts ranging between $4 million and $20 million?

Answer 7: Confirmed. If a project is not listed in CPARS, offerors are free to include it in the past performance information sheet. Please note that offerors must not submit separate sheets for each project, but just fill in the required information in the past performance information sheet.

Question 8: Can USAID confirm it is possible to include an Acronym List after the Table of

Contents that does not count against the page limit?

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Answer 8: Offerors may include an acronym list, but it will be counted against the page limit.

Question 9: The first page indicates a closing date of June 8th. The SF-33 on page 3 indicates a date of June 5th. Please confirm that June 8, 2017 is the correct date for submission of proposals.

Answer 9: Proposals are now due on June 12, 2017 at 4pm Skopje Local Time.

Question 10: In section B.5 (at page 7) and in section F.6, the RFP indicates that 25% of the fixed fee is tied to two deliverables (related to average revenue growth and job creation).

a. Can USAID confirm that the awardee is able to submit for payment of the applicable fee percentage as soon as it meets the required indicator threshold?

b. If the revenue growth target is expressed as an average percentage, when is the required indicator threshold met, i.e. does it require multiple years?

Answer 10: a. Yes.

b. Since it is likely that beneficiary SMEs will receive assistance over several years, the average % of revenue growth for each SME should be calculated over multiple years, i.e. since the assistance to them started till it is reasonable expected to feel the impact of the activities, but not later than end of the project. Please remember that data for both job creation and revenue growth should be collected from official data the companies submit annually to the central registry (see Required targets on p. 10 of the RFP). Offerors will have the opportunity to propose targets based in their research of the Macedonian context.

Question 11: Given the macro-level factors that may affect revenue growth and job creation wholly unrelated to USAID intervention through BEP, would USAID consider reducing the amount of the fixed fee that is tied to these indicators?

Answer 11: No.

Question 12: On page 10, section C.4, the project targets are measured based on Central

Registry data. Can USAID explain briefly how that data is collected and whether the awardee will have access to revenue/jobs data for specific MSMEs or groups that receive project assistance?

Answer 12: All companies submit their annual financial statements to the central registry.

This information (jobs, revenue, and profit) can be purchased for individual companies at a relatively low cost. Offerors should research this point directly with the Central Registry Data.

Question 13: Section C.5, footnote 2 on page 11 of the RFP provides a list of types of BSO organizations that could be eligible for GUCs, and further, page 39, section H.23

(e) states that: “The Contractor shall award such grants only to non-governmental organizations.”

a. Please clarify if BEP may provide non-grant technical assistance to state

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b. Please clarify if the Contractor may award grants to qualified BSOs that are registered as private/for-profit companies.

Answer 13: Yes and yes. USAID encourages close coordination with national and local government institutions in the design, implementation and evaluation of BEP;

however, grants are only intended for non-governmental organizations. As long as the intended BSOs are capable of providing quality, and cost-effective, services to MSMEs and start-ups, they can be nonprofit or for-profit.

Question 14: Section C.5, page 11 of the RFP, Objective 1 states that the Contractor must “… ensure that proper organizational structures and funding mechanisms are put in place within the BSO to ensure continuous provision of BSO services to MSMEs.” Does USAID envision that such structures and funding mechanisms must be in place prior to selection and award of grants to BSOs? Or that the Contractor may provide needed technical support to BSO grantees post grant award to ensure such structures and funding mechanisms are in place?

Answer 14: Lack of these structures and mechanisms should not be elimination criteria in the grantee selection process. The Contractor may provide the needed TA post-grant award, to ensure that the grantee is capable to continue to provide these services in the future.

Question 15: Section C.6 on page 12 of the RFP discusses subcontracting at least one existing local organization that will be responsible for management of one or more of the program components.

a. Does USAID intend for the selection of this local organization to be made at this stage and included in the proposal, or is the intention for the awardee to make the selection post-award

b. Please clarify if such local organization(s) may be for-profit consulting companies.

c. Since the objective is to build the capacity of the local organization to be competitive for future USAID awards, are bidders free to propose that the local organization have a cross-component role rather than focusing discretely on one of the three program objectives?

Answer 15: a) The offeror does not have to propose a local subcontractor in the proposal, but they are free to do so if they wish to provide additional details about their approach and potential sub-partner.

b) Yes, local organization(s) may be for-profit consulting companies.

c) The offerors are free to propose that the local organization manage one or more project components.

Question 16: In the discussion of Objective 3, there is a reference to $500,000 for technical assistance and co-financing along with lead firms for workforce development and other efforts. Can USAID kindly confirm that this $500,000 is separate and apart from the $1.5M GUC Fund?

Answer 16: See Question 4.

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Question 17: From Section F.7 (Key Personnel) -- in the case of an expatriate COP, are bidders permitted to have the DCOP take over full management responsibility prior to the exact project midpoint?

Answer 17: Yes.

Question 18: Can USAID confirm that aside from the two Key Personnel, bidders have the flexibility to propose whatever staffing configuration they feel is appropriate?

Answer 18: Yes.

Question 19: Section L.6, the 4th bullet on page 78 states that CVs for Key Personnel must include three references and must not exceed two pages. Given that references take up space otherwise devoted to detailing important professional experience, would USAID consider increasing the page limit for CVs for Key Personnel to three pages?

Answer 19: No.

Question 20: Should the required Key Personnel Commitment Letters be exclusive?

Answer 20: No.

Question 21: Can USAID please confirm that they do not require Letters of Commitment – exclusive or otherwise -- for proposed non-key personnel?

Answer 21: See Question 20.

Question 22: May bidders include either CVs or bios of other proposed staff members named in the Staffing Plan, and if yes, will this count against the 30-page page limit?

Answer 22: Yes, however these documents will count towards the page limits.

Question 23: May bidders include a staffing matrix for non-key personnel or for illustrative purposes? If yes, should this be included as an annex or within the 30-page limit?

Answer 23: See Question 22.

Question 24: Section L.6 Instructions for the Preparation of the Technical Proposal does not mention a Performance Management Plan (PMP), although USAID has included an Illustrative PMP as Attachment 6. Please confirm that USAID does not want bidders to include a PMP at this proposal stage.

Answer 24: No, not at this stage.

Question 25: Section L.7 (d) Past Performance directs bidders to list relevant past performance not included in CPARS into Annex 3. Given that certain columns in this Excel (“Relevance to Proposed Acquisition” or “Description of Performance) may require more information and distort the size of the document , may bidders

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Answer 25: No. Please use given form and provide concise responses.

Question 26: Apart from being listed in descending order of importance, could USAID provide any more information about the relative weight of the factors in Section M?

Answer 26: No.

Question 27: Section M.3 Evaluation of Past Performance (d) states that bidders that are not small business concerns and that demonstrate positive past use of small business concerns will be positively evaluated. If this is part of the evaluation criteria, what happens in the case of a small business bidder?

Answer 27: The question does not accurately reflect Section M.3. In the case of a small business offeror, the offeror is evaluated neither favorably or unfavorably with regard to the last element in M.3(d).

Question 28: Budget / Attachment 4. Please clarify where / how bidders should highlight the planned $500,000 in technical assistance and co-financing for MSME development, workforce development and/or LED activities implemented in partnership with lead firms? Shall bidders show this as a discrete line item under ODCs?

Answer 28: Yes.

Question 29: Section C.6 identifies a subcontract as the instrument for the local partner capacity building. The use of a grant may allow for more effective capacity building and cost savings. Can we issue a grant instead of a subcontract?

Answer 29: No. For this relation a sub-contract mechanism must be used.

Question 30: Under Section C.6, might USAID further consider an allowance under the $1.5 million allocated for grants to conduct the local partner capacity building activity?

Answer 30: No. The $1.5 million are explicitly intended for Objective 1’s Grants Under

Contracts for BSOs, thus building the capacity of the local partner is outside the scope of the $1.5 million intended for Objective 1.

Question 31: Section C.8 indicates USAID may contract a third party to conduct a mid-term performance evaluation. Should this occur, we respectfully request USAID’s confirmation that funds for the evaluation are outside the budget for the Contract.

Answer 31: A third-party mid-term evaluation, if deemed necessary, will be contracted and paid by USAID directly and will not be part of the contract budget.

Question 32: Section C.9 of the proposal refers to monitoring and evaluation. The RFP states that “the Contractor must develop specific outcome level indicators, benchmarks and targets, and establish baseline data against which subsequent performance can be measured.” Could USAID please confirm that this task would occur upon

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Answer 32: See answer 3 and 24.

Question 33: Section L.7.(d)(d)(3)(B) states that offerors are to “provide a list of the recent contracts for which you submitted subcontract reports to r (FAR 52.219-9(d)(10) and a copy of any similarly recent subcontracting reports if they were not submitted to eSRS.” Since our hardcopy subcontracting reports, SF-294s, for the past three years only total more than 800 pages and constitute more than 40 MB, may we submit, in addition to a list of 10 recent contracts submitted to eSRS, 3 relevant SF-294 forms that are not duplicated on the eSRS?

Answer 33: Yes.

Question 34: Section L.5 indicates that all attachments must be in MS Word, Adobe PDF, or

MS Excel readable format, while Section L.6 indicates that the technical proposal must be submitted in Microsoft Word. Can USAID clarify whether offerors may submit their technical proposals in PDF format?

Answer 34: Yes.

Question 35: We respectfully request that USAID exclude full page graphics and organizational chart from the page limit.

Answer 35: No.

Question 36: May we include a one- or two-page acronym list that does not count against the page limit?

Answer 36: See Question 8.

Question 37: Could USAID please provide the Private Sector Engagement Assessment referenced in the request for information released in February? We also request that USAID confirm whether the firm that conducted the assessment is precluded from competition for this solicitation.

Answer 37: The full, un-redacted Private Sector Engagement Assessment is now attached to the RFP. The firm that conducted the assessment is not precluded.

Question 38: Under the technical approach in Section L.6, USAID refers to “baseline reference” numbers from the Central Registry for the two indicators. Can USAID confirm that the contractor will be responsible for increasing the annual revenue growth rate and new jobs as reported in its monitoring and evaluation system as opposed to changes in Central Registry data, which are influenced by macroeconomic conditions and other factors outside the scope of this project?

Answer 38: The Contractor must use the official data assisted MSMEs have submitted as annual financial statement to the Central Registry when reporting on their

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Question 39: Is the author organization of the Private Sector Engagement Assessment mentioned in Attachment 5 eligible for award given that the report was used to inform the design of this project and has not been released to all offerors simultaneously?

Answer 39: See Question 37.

Question 40: Could USAID provide the Small Business Expansion Project final report or post it on DEC?

Answer 40: SBEP’s quarterly reports are already published on the DEC. The draft final report is provided.

Question 41: Can you define USAID’s interpretation of “innovative technical approaches” as included in L.6 and M.2?

Answer 41: USAID interprets “innovative technical approach” as something that is new to

Macedonia or a significant upgrade of the legacy initiatives that have been implemented either by USAID or other donor projects in the past.

Question 42: Would USAID be willing to push the submission time back to 11:59 pm DC time

June 8th (5:59 am in Skopje on June 9th)?

Answer 42: See question 9.

Question 43: Page 11 of the RFP reads “The Contractor must plan a Grants Under Contract fund of $1.5 million to award grants under contract to 10-15 BSOs”. However, page 12 reads “Lastly, the Contractor must leverage private sector resources (through matching financial and in-kind contributions) from lead firms—which are larger companies that have MSME providers or supply MSMEs—to support the enhancement of the MSMEs in their respective value-chains, increase the technical capacity of the labour force, and/or promote Local Economic Development (LED) in a community.” Can USAID clarify whether the grant fund is to be used only for Component 1 activities; or whether it is also to be used for Component 3 (or, for that matter, component 2) activities? Or is a separate fund contemplated for Component 3 cost share?

Answer 43: See Question 4.

Question 44: Page 12 of the solicitation reads “As early during implementation as possible, but within the first six months after award, the Contractor must identify and subcontract with at least one existing local organization that will be responsible for management of one or more of the program’s components”. Does USAID have a preference with respect to whether this organization is formally proposed in the proposal?

Answer 44: No, USAID does not have a preference. See answer 15(a)

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Question 45: Page 12 of the solicitation reads “The subcontractor must not be a direct provider of services to MSMEs, but have a project management, facilitation, and strategic direction role. The subcontractor must be able to interact with other organizations that will receive grants under contract without being their competitor.” Does this mean that the subcontractor cannot be a business service organization at all; or only that they cannot offer services directly to SMEs within the context of the project?

Answer 45: The sub-partner cannot be a competitor of the participating BSOs. The prime contractor must ensure that the local subcontractor will not be seen as biased or in a preferential position over other project beneficiaries. The RFP has been amended.

Question 46: May an organization sub-contract with a local firm that does no direct work with

SMEs but has an affiliation with another local legal entity that does?

Answer 46: See answer 45.

Question 47: May the contractor propose non-key personnel apart from the two identified key personnel positions?

Answer 47: As long as Offerors adhere to the page limits and address the requirements, it is up to them to include additional information that will make the case for the feasibility and credibility of their technical proposal and management capacity.

Question 48: May the grant fund be used for the purchase of equipment?

Answer 48: As stated in footnote 3 on page 11: “The grants are not intended for rehabilitation of buildings or purchase of equipment.”.

Question 49: Page 35 of the RFP reads “The authorized geographic codes for procurement of goods and services under this Contract is 937 defined as (the United States, the Cooperating Country, and developing countries other than advanced developing countries, but excluding any country that is a prohibited source).” Can key personnel with dual citizenship from one eligible country and one ineligible country be proposed?

Answer 49: Yes, so long as they are not citizens of the foreign policy restricted countries.

Question 50: Please confirm our understanding that the Contractor will act as Fund Manager of the MSMEs for the grants for BSOs to be awarded under the Contract, including developing the Fund objectives and implementing them, selection, contracting of the grant recipients and disbursement of funds.

Answer 50: The question is not very clear, so we can’t give a precise answer, though we believe the requirements to be clear. As stated in F.6 (e), upon award, the contractor must develop Grants under Contract Manual for USAID approval that must describe the objectives, target beneficiaries, procedures for approval, disbursal process and monitoring mechanisms for utilizing the available grant funds.

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Question 51: Should a proposed BSOs Selection Procedure be included in the Applicant’s

Technical Proposal or it shall be developed and provided to the USAID Contracting Officer Representative after the Contractor is selected?

Answer 51: This is up to the offeror to determine what to include in their technical proposal given the requirements of Section L.

Question 52: Please confirm our understanding that it is only the Lead firms that will invest and provide co-financing of $ 500,000 for MSMEs workforce development (where the co-financing must not exceed 50% of any activity).

Answer 52: The intention of Objective 3 is to stimulate private sector investment in MSME development, workforce development and/or LED, thus the $500,000 is the project’s contribution to these activities and offerors should present a credible strategy to promote private sector co-financing of activities under Objective 3.

USAID’s contribution will be no greater than 50% of co-financing of any particular activity; however it could be less than 50%, if the lead firms are able and willing to invest more funds. Other private or public organization can also partner with the lead firms in co-financing these activities.

Question 53: On page 12, section C.6 Transition and Local Partner Capacity Building, it is stated: “The subcontractor must not be a direct provider of services to MSMEs, but have a project management, facilitation, and strategic direction role.” Does this refers only to the potential subcontractor’s role in this particular project, or in general, the subcontractor must not have any previous experience in providing services to MSMEs?

Answer 53: See Question 45.

Question 54: On page 12, section C.6 Transition and Local Partner Capacity Building, it is stated: “The subcontractor must be able to interact with other organizations that will receive grants under contract without being their competitor.” Does this refers on competition among organizations in general, or only in the particular project activity Grants Under Contract?

Answer 54: See Question 45.

Question 55: Can you confirm that companies legally established in Serbia are eligible to participate in consortiums submitting proposals for USAID Macedonia RFP - SOL-165-17-000001 - Business Ecosystem Project, given the fact that Serbia does belong to the group of countries under 937 Geographical Code?

Answer 55: Companies legally established in Serbia are not eligible to apply under this RFP.

Question 56: Understanding that the USAID Macedonia CDCS is not present on the USAID website, can USAID please share the current CDCS?

Answer 56: USAID/Macedonia does not have a CDCS. Please see attached Sector Brief for information on USAID’s economic growth portfolio.

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Question 57: Understanding that current USAID programs develop and own staff compensation plans in lieu of the Mission local national pay scale, can USAID confirm that the contractor is expected to utilize a similar approach?

Answer 57: The contractor must utilize and comply with their own personal policies and any compensation to CCNs or TCNs may not exceed the Mission’s local compensation plan.

Question 58: On page 10 of the RFP USAID provides a baseline reference for average revenue growth of micro and small companies in Macedonia. Does USAID have a baseline reference for the average revenue growth of medium companies in Macedonia?

Answer 58: Offerors are welcome to consult the Central Registry or the statistical office to get a better idea of the average revenue growth of medium companies in Macedonia

Question 59: Can USAID please confirm on page 10 of the RFP whether the baseline reference of about 30,000 private sector jobs created in Macedonia in the past three years are full-time equivalents (FTE)? If so, does USAID expect the target of new jobs created to be FTE?

Answer 59: The 30,000 private sector jobs created in Macedonia in the past three years are taken from the state statistical office reports on official employment and are not full-time equivalents. The target will also be based off of the information available from the Central Registry which records official employment and not full-time equivalents.

Question 60: Please confirm that the draft MEL plan is not included in the 30-page limit.

Answer 60: See Question 3.

Question 61: Please confirm that a List of Acronyms and Abbreviations do not count toward the page limit.

Answer 61: See Question 8.

Question 62: Please confirm a full list of expected annexes or attachments to the

Technical volume.

Answer 62: See Section L.6.

Question 63: Since this project is to focus on MSME activity outside of Skopje and given that the DCA banks mentioned have the scope of financing agriculture and rural activities, there may be a need to work with the DCA banks and their rural borrowers. Are the DCA banks already receiving technical assistance support from an existing USAID project, or will the contractor be expected/allowed to provide TA to the DCA banks (and their rural MSME borrowers) within this project?

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Answer 63: The three banks in the Agriculture DCA are currently not receiving any technical assistance from other USAID projects. The two microfinance institutions included in the Agriculture DCA are receiving technical assistance from the Microfinance Inclusion and Innovation project (see response to question 64 as well). The contractor can provide assistance to the banks covered by the DCA if it leads to achievement of objective 2. .

Question 64: Can USAID provide additional information on the existing access to finance project with the Macedonia Microfinance Alliance, specifically activities outside of the financial literacy component of the project?

Answer 64: The Microfinance Inclusion and Innovation project is aimed at improving the access to finance tailored to the needs of low income households, entrepreneurs and MSE. It is working to create an all-inclusive Micro Finance sector that would offer low income people access to basic financial services (savings and loans) and new, innovative services M-banking and e-Banking. It will also work on improving the enabling environment for further development of the NBFIs (deposit and non-deposit taking).

Question 65: Given that start-ups can be widely defined from early stage to established organizations, can USAID please define what is meant by start-ups under Objective 2?

Answer 65: There is no firm definition of start-ups. USAID considers companies with no prior financial history or no experience in accessing external sources of finance as start-ups for the purposes of Objective 2.

Question 66: Can USAID confirm that the scope of the grants and TA under Objective 1 can be used to accomplish Objective 2 targets (e.g. increasing access to finance or bank-readiness)?

Answer 66: Please see Question 4.

Question 67: Please confirm the following aspects concerning the local organization sub-contractor referenced in Section C.6:

1. The RFP states that the subcontractor must not be a direct provider of services to MSMEs. Is this intended to mean that the subcontractor may not be a grant recipient under the scope of this project to avoid conflict of interest?

2. Please confirm that the local organization sub-contract referenced in C.6 can provide services to MSMEs as part of their regular work outside of their work within this contract?

3. Please confirm if there are specific requirements for the legal form to be considered as a subcontractor (e.g. NGO, company, etc.).

4. Please confirm if USAID intends the subcontractor to be one of the legacy organizations established by a USAID funded project in the past.

Answer 67: 1. See Question 45.

2. See Question 45.

3. This is the responsibility of the offeror to determine.

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4. Offerors are free to identify a local subcontractor that can best achieve the project’s goal and objectives.

Question 68: Please confirm that evaluation of past performance includes both work performed under USAID contracts and other agreement mechanisms.

Answer 68: Contracts only.

Question 69: Please confirm that USAID has requested the offeror present past performance information in a list (item 1) and that the information listed under item 2 is intended to correspond to past performance information (PPI) forms.

Answer 69: The question is unclear. Please review the submission requirements for past performance in Section L.7(d).