Amendment_No._01_Q A.pdf

RFP No. SOL-168-13-000002 GOLD

Amendment No. 01

CONTINUATION PAGE

Responses to Questions Received

1) Can USAID confirm that the exchange rate to be used is 1.400 as mentioned on page 102 of the RFP?

Please refer to top of Page 65 (Section L.9) of the RFP which states that “There is no uniform exchange rate for the preparation of cost proposals”.

2) In recognition of subcontractors who are providing technical capacity that is key to program implementation, would USAID consider modifying the requirement for “Major

Subcontractors” to be 15% of technical effort or $1 million?

USAID doesn’t consider modifying this requirement.

3) On page 50 of the subject RFP, it states that the small business size standard is $7 million. We believe that the SBA standard for NAICS code 541990 is $14 million. Could USAID confirm which figure should be used?

USAID hereby confirms that $14Million figure should be used.

4) F.10 Audit, page 21: We are unable to determine from the Sida website what standards they would use in the audits discussed in F10; please provide additional clarification.

No additional clarification can be provided at this point. USAID in consultation with

Sida intends to provide more information at the award stage.

5) Section L.9 (c) on page 65 states “Proposed subcontracts must include the same cost breakdowns in their budgets and budget narratives as the prime contractor as applicable”.

Do all subcontractors have to provide cost budget and budget narrative, or only major subcontractors?

All subcontractors have to provide summary budget and budget narrative.

6) Section L.7.2(d) of the RFP (page 59) requests that Offerors send narrative text in MS

Word format; Section L.7.2(h) of the RFP (page 60) states that USAID prefers to receive a single attachment for each volume of the proposal. In order to facilitate compliance with the latter request, will USAID accept:

a. Complete technical proposals (including annexes) in PDF format, along with the technical narrative in MS Word?

b. Complete cost proposals in PDF format, along with the budget spreadsheets in MS Excel?

USAID will accept both a. and b. submissions as detailed above.

7) Section L.7.2 on page 59 instructs the bidders to use Microsoft Word (for narrative text), Microsoft Excel (for budgets and other relevant tables) or PDF format (for documents requiring signature). For more clarification, can bidders submit the technical proposal and cost narrative in PDF format?

Please refer to Question No. 6 above.

8) Section L.8 (f) on page 61 instructs the bidders to use single spaced Times Roman 12 font. May bidders utilize a smaller or alternative, yet clearly legible, font for tables, charts, organograms and textboxes?

Yes, offerors may utilize a smaller or alternative, yet clearly legible font for tables, charts, organograms and textboxes.

9) Section H.11(a) Personnel Compensation and H.12(d) Annual Salary Increases on page

32: H.11(a) states that “Direct compensation of the Contractor’s personnel will be in accordance with the Contractor’s established policies, procedures, and practices, and the cost principles applicable to this contract.” H.12(d) states “One annual salary increase

(includes promotional increase) of not more than five percent may be granted after the employee’s completion of each twelve month period of satisfactory services under the contract.” If the Contractor’s established policies, procedures, and practices include the adjustment of employee salaries on January 1 st of each year, will USAID consider waiving in advance the H.12 (d) requirement that employees must complete twelve months of services under the contract before the first salary adjustment may be implemented, provided that the Contractor only adjusts those employees’ salaries once each year on the same date?

Yes.

10) In Section L.8.2 Draft Work Plan it states: “Year one will be more detailed than years four through five.” Could USAID please confirm that this means that Year 1 will be more detailed than Years 2 through 5?

Confirmed.

11) Could USAID please clarify whether USAID anticipates transferring previous projects’ computer equipment or any other equipment, such as vehicles, to the GOLD project?

USAID may have a very limited number of vehicles available for transfer; one vehicle possibly available around September, 2013 other (approximately 2) possibly in

September of 2014; however, the condition of these vehicles is used.

12) On page 91, USAID refers to the GAP2 Year 5 Annual Report and the GAP2 Completion

Report. Please note that these documents are on the DEC and available at the links below:

· GAP2 Year 5 Annual Report -https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=ODVhZjk4NWQtM2YyM i00YjRmLTkxNjktZTcxMjM2NDBmY2Uy&rID=MzI3NTUy&sID=MjQ=&b ckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&qcf=&ph=VHJ1ZQ==

· GAP2 Completion Report – https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=ODVhZjk4NWQtM2YyM i00YjRmLTkxNjktZTcxMjM2NDBmY2Uy&rID=MzI3NTUx&sID=MjM=&b ckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&qcf=&ph=VHJ1ZQ== https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=ODVhZjk4NWQtM2YyMi00YjRmLTkxNjktZTcxMjM2NDBmY2Uy&rID=MzI3NTUy&sID=MjQ=&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&qcf=&ph=VHJ1ZQ https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=ODVhZjk4NWQtM2YyMi00YjRmLTkxNjktZTcxMjM2NDBmY2Uy&rID=MzI3NTUy&sID=MjQ=&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&qcf=&ph=VHJ1ZQ https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=ODVhZjk4NWQtM2YyMi00YjRmLTkxNjktZTcxMjM2NDBmY2Uy&rID=MzI3NTUy&sID=MjQ=&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&qcf=&ph=VHJ1ZQ https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=ODVhZjk4NWQtM2YyMi00YjRmLTkxNjktZTcxMjM2NDBmY2Uy&rID=MzI3NTUx&sID=MjM=&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&qcf=&ph=VHJ1ZQ https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=ODVhZjk4NWQtM2YyMi00YjRmLTkxNjktZTcxMjM2NDBmY2Uy&rID=MzI3NTUx&sID=MjM=&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&qcf=&ph=VHJ1ZQ https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=ODVhZjk4NWQtM2YyMi00YjRmLTkxNjktZTcxMjM2NDBmY2Uy&rID=MzI3NTUx&sID=MjM=&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&qcf=&ph=VHJ1ZQ

USAID noted this. Offerors can access these two reports from the link provided in the

RFP under “GAP2 Various Documents”.

13) Please confirm that a transmittal letter is not included in the 30-page limit for the technical proposal.

14) Section L.8.6(a)1 of the RFP (page 63) requires Offerors to submit “up to 5 of the most recent and relevant contracts for efforts similar to the work in the subject proposal…”

Please confirm this is inclusive of USAID cooperative agreements.

15) Section L.8.6(d) of the RFP (page 64) requires Offerors to include narrative information regarding the previous use of small businesses. Please confirm that this information may be submitted in the annex alongside the SF 294 (Subcontracting Reports), and will not be counted against the page limit for the technical proposal.

16) Section L.9.2.2 of the RFP (page 66) states, “Fringe Benefits for local long-term staff shall be budgeted as a separate item of cost and include only the social contributions

(excluding income tax) in accordance with BiH labor law.” In Attachment J.3 of the RFP

(page 102), USAID defines “gross salary” as follows: “the employee’s basic compensation (salary) for services rendered. Taxes which are a responsibility of liability of the employee are inclusive of, and not additive to, the base pay or salary. The base pay excludes fringe benefits and allowances, bonuses, profit sharing arrangements, commission, consultant fees, extra or overtime payments, etc.” Could USAID please confirm that for the purposes of this RFP, local employees’ social tax obligations (which total 31%) should be budgeted under “Fringe Benefits” and not included as part of local employees’ gross salaries budgeted under “Salary and Wages”?

17) Section L.9.2.8 of the RFP (page 67) states, “The offeror must not include the cost of locally employed salaries, allowances, equipment, and travel costs under the ODC cost category.” Please confirm that if it is an Offeror’s established practice (and its accounting system is structured accordingly) to include local support staff salaries and local professional and support staff social charges (employer’s obligations only) under ODCs, they may budget these costs as ODCs for this proposal.

18) Section L.9.3 of the RFP (page 68) requires Offerors and each proposed subcontractor to complete annual representations and certifications via ORCA. For proposed subcontractors that are not U.S. firms, thus might not be registered in the CCR database or in ORCA, would USAID accept a completed and signed Section K from the RFP? If yes, could USAID please add a signature block to Section K?

For proposed subcontractors that are Non-U.S. firms, thus might not be registered in the

CCR database or in ORCA, annual representations and certifications may be completed by using Section K from the RFP.

19) Section L.9.6 of the RFP (page 69) refers to letters of commitment from subcontractors, and then refers to the last page of Section K – representations and certifications. Please confirm that Section K should be submitted only under Part 3 of the Offeror’s cost proposal.

Amendments to the Solicitation

I. Section K.2 52.204-8 Annual Representations and Certifications (DEC 2012):

In Paragraph (a) (2), delete “$7 Million” and insert “$14 Million”, as the small business size standard.

II. Section L.8.2 Draft Work Plan

Delete sentence “Year one will be more detailed than years four through five”, in its entirety and replace with the following:

“Year one will be more detailed than years two through five.”

III. Attachment J.1 “STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES FOR GROWTH-ORIENTED

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT (GOLD) PROGRAM REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP)

In Section VI. “KEY ASSESSMENTS, REPORTS AND ANALYSIS” delete the following:

“Attachments (these reports have not yet been posted to DEC):

1) GAP2 Year 5 Annual Report

2) GAP2 Completion Report”

[END OF AMENDMENT NO. 01 - RFP NO. SOL-168-13-000002]