SPE602-20-R-0704-Pre-Proposal Conference Questions and Answers.pdf

Rocky Mountain West Pre Proposal Conference Q&A

January 22, 2020

Contracting (Jim Clough) –

1. Is there an interface other than the Offer Entry Tool (OET)?

No, OET submission is required for all offers.

2. Do I have to use BEM with OET?

No, BEM interfaces with OET. OET is specifically for vendors to submit offers and the BEM is the tool that DLA Energy uses to evaluate the offers submitted into OET to find the lowest laid down cost for the procurement.

3. May a company interested in subcontracting opportunities submit an offer to the RFP?

Yes, you may submit an offer and are encouraged to interact to explore opportunities at the conference.

4. Please elaborate on the 10% Small business Set Aside process?

Set Asides will be competitively awarded through the Bid Evaluation Model (BEM). During set aside negotiations, the KO’s will offer small businesses set aside quantities with the lowest price evaluated in the BEM and those small businesses will be offered those quantities at the otherwise winning price.

5. Please elaborate on the Small Business provision that the manufactured product has to be from a Small Business refiner?

For an offer to be considered as coming from a small business under the set-asides, the offered product must come from a small business refinery, which is defined for NAICS code 324110 as “… a concern that has either no more than 1,500 employees or no more than 200,000 barrels per calendar day total Operable Atmospheric Crude Oil Distillation capacity. Capacity includes all domestic and foreign affiliates, all owned or leased facilities, and all facilities under a processing agreement or an arrangement such as an exchange agreement or a throughput.” See the U.S.

Small Business Administration’s Table of Small Business Size Standards (https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/files/Size_Standards_Table.pdf).

6. May an offer be submitted early and withdrawn at any time?

Yes, you may submit your offer early and you may withdraw at any time during each phase of the OET rounds by selecting “Withdraw Offer” in OET.

7. How were partial small business set asides determined?

This was the result of an examination of small business offers from recent procurements, responses from the sources sought notice, searches of Government databases for small business vendors and coordination with the Small Business Administration.

8. How were the percentages of set asides determined?

If one small business offeror is present or likely 75% is set aside, if two or more small business offerors are present or likely the percentage is adjusted up accordingly.

9. Are the small business set asides fixed?

Set Asides are adjustable and could change.

Inventory Requirements (Eulanda Whiteside)-

1. Must all offers be submitted through OET?

Yes, OET access is needed to submit offers for bulk procurements.

Quality Technical and Assurance (Phil Chang)-

1. Are additives purchased from Refineries?

Refineries buy and distribute additives.

2. Regarding Lubricity Improver Additive (LIA), how quickly will waivers be processed?

Usual turnaround is one week. If there is a special situation, more time may be required to coordinate with Navy.

3. The stated flashpoint of 62.5 only relates to JP5 and not JP8, correct?

Yes, only JP5.

4. Are the QAPs information provided on the website addressed in the presentation?

Yes, to go to the QAPs for further information, the web address is https://quicksearch.dla.mil.

The QAPs in the solicitation will tell you the specification and any alteration DLA Energy requests.

Vendors are directed to the website provided for full information and military specification for the fuel.

Quality Technical and Assurance from Americas West Region (Marcus Ortman)-

1. Question regarding providing test documentation to pipeline companies, QAR or supplier?

There needs to be an upfront agreement from the vendor that specification is met to go into the pipelines. This will be part of a responsibility determination in coordination with Contracting.

Transportation (Cydne Chambers)-

1. What does the acronym “SPLC” stand for?

https://quicksearch.dla.mil/

Standard Point Location Code

Base Reference Pricing (Jesse Hall) ((Callie Lake))-

1. Are awards are made to the lowest bidder?

No, awards are made on an overall lower laid down cost of the entire procurement using the BEM as a tool for the evaluations.

Offer Entry Tool (Darren Dunham)-

1. Can you have more than one authorized negotiator in OET for a vendor?

Yes, you certainly can and DLA Energy is a proponent of having multiple users for a vendor with access to OET.

2. Can I have more than one email address associated with OET?

Only one email address associated for each authorized negotiator as accounts are individual.

Only one authorized negotiator at a time can access an offer and make changes in OET.

3. How do you toggle view and edit in OET?

Go to “offer submission data on the right side of OET home screen”, then click on “fill in data”, and then click on “return to bid entry”, and then you will see both view and edit.

4. Assuming you have multiple cage codes per email address, can you go back and forth with different offers?

Yes, you can. Once you log in to OET with user name and password, you will be prompted to select a CAGE code, if you have more than one assigned to your individual OET account.

5. Users with an associated cage code, do you check certifications to make sure that it is the correct company with the email address?

Yes, only the associated email address registered in OET will be able to access and submit offers for a specified CAGE code.

6. If you have multiple authorized negotiators and you each have an email address for the same CAGE code, can the other person see the offer(s)?

Yes, the other person can see the offer(s) and make changes to the offer(s) assigned to that CAGE code as well.

Bid Evaluation Model (Mathew Shuster)-

1. Does the OET auto populate the BEM?

Yes. Once an OET round is closed, the offers in OET are imported into the BEM for evaluation.

2. During negotiations, will offeror’s be able to see their competitor’s price?

No; however, a Laid down Cost Report (LCR) will be provided prior to a Price Reduction Round, which takes place at the KO’s discretion. The LCR only shows the winning prices, but will not show the competitor’s name.

Written Questions-

1. What was the rationale behind Beta.Sam.Gov? Will it improve on being able to better locate DLA Energy Opportunities?

This was a GSA effort to streamline and consolidate ten legacy federal award systems into a single website. The goal is to make the federal award process easier for all participants. Helpdesk information can be found at https://www.fsd.gov/fsd-gov/home.do.

2. Why are some of the truck (origin/destination) volume for California locations designated “must be offered through DFSP Carson” for tank truck? Will other truck offers not be entertained?

A vendor can offer FOB Destination. A vendor can offer FOB Origin tank truck from their refinery, we must evaluate any potential customer (within 400 miles) of that facility for BEM evaluation. To be offered from a DFSP, we must offer from DFSP Carson on the West Line Supply Chain because DFSP Carson is the only truck loading facility on that specific line.

3. Truck rates used for “evaluation purposes.” Normally see major discrepancies in origin vice destination rate and also area rates vice point to point. These variances impact awards, why the variance?

For area rates vs point to point, assuming area means region, rates applied are based on voluntary tenders that carriers have on file with Surface Deployment and Distribution Command’s (SDDC) system Global Freight Management (GFM). DLA does not control what type of tenders carriers file, specific locations carriers file tenders for, or the rate associated with each type of tender. The filing of rates are voluntary. DLA does apply order of precedence based on each origin and destination pair. The order of precedence is as follows: point to point, zone to zone, state to state, state to region, region to region, and CONUS to CONUS (9C-9C). If a point to point tender is filed, a carrier usually has high volume and knows the associated cost of doing business on the specific route. If there are not point to point tenders, a carrier applies other business logic to produce a tender rate that they deem reasonable to accommodate a move at any given time should they be requested to do so. The reason for the variance depends on the availability of the type of tender the carriers voluntarily file.

4. Where can I find a list of small business refineries?

Refinery information can be found at the EIA website: https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/refinerycapacity/table5.pdf In accordance with FAR 52.212-1 (a) of the solicitation “for NAICS code 324110 – To qualify as small for purposes of Government procurement, the petroleum refiner, including its affiliates, must be a concern that https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/refinerycapacity/table5.pdf has either no more than 1,500 employees or no more than 200,000 barrels per calendar day total Operable Atmospheric Crude Oil Distillation capacity.”