Synopsis Solicitation WTP IDIQ 3_30_21.pdf

Combined Synopsis/Solicitation No. 74N96021Q00014

NIEHS, Office of Acquisitions

Worker Training Program (WTP) for Hazardous Materials, Waste Operations and Emergency IDIQ (75N96021Q00014) Combined Synopsis/Solicitation for Commercial Items

Christopher Fisher 3/26/2021

COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS

General Information

Document Type: Combined Synopsis/ Solicitation

Solicitation Number: 75N96021Q00014

Posted Date: June 10, 2021

Original Response Date: June 23, 2021

Current Response Date: June 23, 2021

Product or Service Code: AF11

Set Aside: Small Business 100%

NAICS Code: 541620

Contracting Office Address

530 Davis Drive Morrisville, NC 27560

Description

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 12.6, “Streamlined Procedures for Evaluation and Solicitation for Commercial Items,” as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation;

quotations are being requested, and a written solicitation document will not be issued.

This solicitation is a Request for Quote (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular FAC 2021-03.

The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 541620, with a small business size standard of $15.0M.

The NIEHS, RDU, NC, is seeking to purchase assistance in preparation for the delivery of disaster specific training and response to man-made and natural disasters and emergency response activities. In the past, the WTP has responded to hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, oil spills, the opioids response, terrorist attacks, wildfires, and infectious disease such as Ebola and COVID-

19. Response activities may include, but not be limited to, preparing program materials, conducting information assessments and gap analyses, data analyses, providing subject matter expertise (health and safety training, industrial hygiene, disaster response, infectious disease, HAZMAT training, chemical exposure response training, radiation response training, etc.)

providing expert review, developing training curricula, conducting pilot testing of developed curricula, evaluation of developed curricula, stakeholder and partnership identification and support, safety and health training guideline reviews, meeting support, awardee training activity coordination, reports and white papers, logistical support for materials and equipment, developing/updating/printing disaster booklets and other emergency response training activities that may arise.

This procurement will be conducted pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 16.5, Indefinite-Delivery Contracts (IDC) as a Requirements Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite- Quantity contract (IDIQ) with a total award ceiling of $7,000,000 and a minimum amount of $10,000. The attached performance work statement (PWS)(Attachment 1) provides details on the scope of the required services. Task orders issued under the IDIQ master agreement will be awarded based on NIEHS’s evaluation of quotes per individual Firm Fixed Price Task Orders.

All interested companies shall provide quotations for attached Sample Task Order (Attachment

2) and Pricing Fully Loaded Rates (Attachment 3) based on the Performance Work Statement

(PWS):

Performance Work Statement (PWS)

Background

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), located in Research

Triangle Park, North Carolina, is one (1) of 27 research institutes and centers that comprise the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services (DHHS).

The mission of the NIEHS Worker Training Program (WTP) is to support the development of a network of non-profit organizations that are committed to protecting workers and their communities by delivering high-quality, peer-reviewed safety and health training curricula to target populations of hazardous waste workers and emergency responders.

Through the NIH extramural grants process, the WTP awards cooperative agreements to: 1) establish new national benchmarks for quality worker safety and health training;

2) create a major prevention education activity for NIEHS as technical scientific and translated research information is delivered to target populations with high risk toxic exposures; and 3) develop model occupational safety and health training for workers and their supervisors that perform dangerous jobs in the nation's hazardous waste management and remediation programs, as well as for emergency responders to uncontrolled hazardous materials releases and natural and man-made disasters.

The National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training for Hazardous

Materials, Waste Operations, and Emergency Response functions as the national resource for the dissemination of program related information, technical reports, resource materials, and other materials that have been developed by the grantees of https://tools.niehs.nih.gov/wetp/index.cfm https://tools.niehs.nih.gov/wetp/index.cfm the NIEHS Worker Training Program (WTP), as specified by Section 126 (g) of the

Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA) to the general public.

NIEHS WTP awardees develop safety and health training for workers engaged in activities related to hazardous materials and waste generation, removal, containment, transportation, and emergency response. The WTP HAZMAT Disaster Preparedness

Training Program (HDPTP), established in 2005 in response to lessons learned from national disasters (including the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks), supports the development and delivery of disaster-specific training to prepare workers to respond to man-made and natural disasters and possible future terrorist incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. This training augments prevention and preparedness efforts in a wide variety of high-risk settings, enhances the safety and health training of hazardous materials workers, emergency responders, and skilled support personnel, and ensures responders are aware of site-specific hazards and mitigation techniques prior to and during response activities.

In the past, the WTP has also been asked to respond to the National Response

Framework (NRF), National Disaster Recovery Frame Work, and the National

Contingency Plan, which guides the nation on how to respond to all types of disasters and emergencies. Once activated, the NIEHS Worker Training Program (WTP) may provide:

• Training technical assistance, such as instructional staff, curriculum development experts, subject matter experts, and professional staff.

• Health and safety training specific to the hazard, nature, and environmental conditions of the response. Assistance and support in the development and delivery of site-specific health and safety training through appropriately qualified WTP awardee instructional staff.

• Assistance such as respirator fit testing and distribution of personal protective equipment.

• Health and safety outreach to workers and communities who will be performing response and recovery activities taking into consideration cultural, literacy, and language needs.

Scope

There is an immediate need to acquire assistance in preparation for the delivery of disaster specific training and response to man-made and natural disasters and emergency response activities. In the past, the WTP has responded to hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, oil spills, the opioids response, terrorist attacks, wildfires, and https://www.niehs.nih.gov/careers/hazmat/awardees/index.cfm https://www.niehs.nih.gov/careers/hazmat/training_program_areas/hdpt/index.cfm https://www.niehs.nih.gov/careers/hazmat/training_program_areas/hdpt/index.cfm https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/117791 https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/117791 https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/national-preparedness/frameworks/recovery https://www.epa.gov/emergency-response/national-contingency-plan-subpart-j https://www.epa.gov/emergency-response/national-contingency-plan-subpart-j infectious disease such as Ebola and COVID-19. Response activities may include, but not be limited to, preparing program materials, conducting information assessments and gap analyses, data analyses, providing subject matter expertise (health and safety training, industrial hygiene, disaster response, infectious disease, HAZMAT training, chemical exposure response training, radiation response training, etc.) providing expert review, developing training curricula, conducting pilot testing of developed curricula, evaluation of developed curricula, stakeholder and partnership identification and support, safety and health training guideline reviews, meeting support, awardee training activity coordination, reports and white papers, logistical support for materials and equipment, developing/updating/printing disaster booklets and other emergency response training activities that may arise.

The scope of the contract will necessitate a variety of staff to provide for the possible areas of work listed above. Staff to be considered may include Program Manager, Subject Matter Experts (Industrial Hygienist, Curricula Development Specialist, Disaster

Response Specialist, Infectious Disease Specialist, HAZMAT specialist, Nuclear specialist, etc.), Research Analyst, Research Associate, Meeting Planner, Logistics Coordinator, IT specialist, IT support staff, Graphics Designer, and Administrative. All developed materials will be posted on the WTP National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and

Health Training webpage. For integration, the Contractor is expected to coordinate with the National Clearinghouse Contractor to ensure proper posting of materials and must operate within the current IT requirements of NIEHS (PHP, MySql, Percussion, Cold

Fusion, Thunderstone, HTML Standards, etc.) All website(s), functionalities and content created by the Contractor shall adhere to existing HHS, NIH, and NIEHS IT systems security, web policies, style guidelines, operational environment, meet Section 508 compliance requirements, specified user requirements, and all material shall be housed on the government’s server and shall not adversely affect system performance.

Requirements

The Contractor shall provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to perform the services.

Non-Personal Services

The Government shall neither supervise contractor employees nor control the method by which the contractor performs the required tasks. Under no circumstances shall the Government assign tasks to, or prepare work schedules for, individual contractor employees. It shall be the responsibility of the contractor to manage its employees and to guard against any actions that are of the nature of personal services or give the perception of personal services. If the contractor believes that any actions constitute, or are perceived to constitute personal services, it shall be the contractor's responsibility to notify the Contracting Officer (CO) immediately.

Project Management

Each Task Order / project will be awarded on an as needed basis with a guaranteed minimum of $5,000 per Task Order.

For those months that the project is active, the Contractor shall prepare a monthly progress report by the 15th of each month, to include a description of the time spent by contractor employee(s) on certain subtasks for that month and provide a timeline of activities that clearly states the deadlines for each month’s deliverables. The contractor shall provide planned activities and next steps for the upcoming month and identify any potential challenges or significant delays. The contractor shall suggest solutions or outline plans to address identified challenges and delays.

At the end of each month the contractor will also provide an invoice that includes the item description (e.g. task, materials, travel), the amount billed for the current period, the funded amount for each category, and the amount remaining for the year, and a breakdown of travel for each contractor employee for that month.

Travel will only occur on a preapproved basis. Prior to incurring any travel expenses, the contractor must obtain written authorization from the Contracting Officer’s

Representative (COR) that the travel has been preapproved. All travel must meet current government per diem rates. Contractor expense reports shall be prepared and processed in accordance with the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR).

Post Award Administration and Monitoring

Within 20 business days after award-date the contractor shall meet with the Contracting

Officer and the COR for a kick-off meeting at NIEHS. Throughout the life of the contract, the COR will monitor the progress of the work being performed and will proactively seek prompt resolution of any issues or problems.

Place of Performance

The contractor shall possess appropriate office space with the technical capabilities to perform all tasks; in particular, the ability to use CISCO VPN clients and CITRIX terminal services clients to communicate with the NIHnet and to interface with NIEHS IT systems.

This will require proximity to NIH or NIEHS facilities to acquire access to government furnished laptops through the VPN with appropriate security clearances and badging.

The anticipated Requirements IDIQ contract will be a single award with a five-year ordering period with Firm Fixed Price Task Orders (FFP) being issued to fund Tasks. The start date of the contract is TBD.

Delivery shall be made to the Contracting Officers Representative (COR) TBD as specified in each Task Ordered awarded.

Award shall be made to the quoter whose quotation is deemed to be the best value to the government, considering both non-price and price factors. Reference Attachment 5, FAR 52.212-2 (Evaluation – Commercial Items) for additional detail.

The full text of FAR provisions or clauses may be accessed electronically at http://acquisition.gov/comp/far/index.html.

The following solicitation provisions apply to this acquisition:

1. FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors–Commercial Items (Jun 2020)

2. FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation – Commercial Items (Oct 2014)

3. FAR 52.212-3, Offerors Representations and Certifications–Commercial Items (Feb 2021)

Quoters must complete annual representations and certifications on-line at http://orca.bpn.gov in accordance with FAR 52.212-3, Offerors Representations and Certifications–Commercial Items.

The following contract clauses apply to this acquisition:

• FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions–Commercial Items (Feb 2018)

• FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders (Sep 2018)

The following subparagraphs of FAR 52.212-5 are applicable(see attachment 7):

All quotes shall be submitted via e-mail to Christopher.fisher@nih.gov.

This is an open-market, Small Business Set-Aside (100%), combined synopsis/solicitation for services as defined herein. The government intends to award a single five (5) year Requirements IDIQ contract as a result of this combined synopsis/solicitation that will include the terms and conditions set forth herein. To facilitate the award process, all quotes must include a statement regarding the terms and conditions herein as follows:

"The terms and conditions in the solicitation are acceptable to be included in the award document without modification, deletion, or addition."

http://acquisition.gov/comp/far/index.html

Quoters shall list exception(s) and rationale for the exception(s).

Submission shall be received not later than June 23, 2021 at 11AM EST. Late submissions shall be treated in accordance with the solicitation provision at FAR 52.212-1(f). All quotes must be received via e-mail to Christopher.fisher@nih.gov.

Any questions or concerns regarding this solicitation should be forwarded in writing via e-mail to the Christopher Fisher at Christopher.fisher@nih.gov

Point of Contact

Christopher Fisher, Contract Specialist, e-mail Christopher.fisher@nih.gov.

List of Attachments:

Attachment 1 – Performance Work Statement (PWS) Attachment 2 – Sample Task Order Attachment 3 – Pricing Fully Rates by Position Attachment 4 – FAR 52.212-1 Instructions to Quoters Commercial Items Attachment 5 – FAR 52.212-2 Evaluation Criteria – Commercial Items Attachment 6 – Clauses and Provisions mailto:Christopher.fisher@nih.gov