A.09.03_-_W81K04-16-R-0012_080116_Questions_and_Answers.pdf

RFP

Page

RFP

Reference Relevant RFP Text Question Government Response

#1 N/A PWS 3.4.1 “3.4.1. The government may elect to provide unique government training to contract CSPs who are performing services under this contract. If the government elects to provide such training, the government will provide such training at no additional expense to the contractor or to the CSP.

When directed by the KO, CSPs shall complete all such training in a paid status as part of the normal services required and billed under the contract.”

Please clarify the meaning of “in a paid status as part of the normal services required and billed under the contract.” It is clear that the

CSP will not be charged for such required training; however, it is not clear as to how or where the offeror is to specify the price of CSP time attending such training. We respectfully request a CLIN be added to specify hourly or daily rates for such required training.

In the event that a CSP were to attend unique government training, a Cost

Reimbursable CLIN would be added for contractor’s reimbursement of CSP wages while attending government training.

#2 58 PWS Exhibit

A (PRS)

/ QASP 4.2

PWS Exhibit A (PRS)

In all rows, there is language under AQL that

“Validated customer complaints resulting from contractor action or inaction shall not exceed…”

(the specific quantity varies per entry)

QASP 4.2

“Customer Complaint. Customer complaints, to be considered valid, must set forth clearly and in writing the detailed nature of the complaint, must be signed, and must be forwarded to the COR. The

COR will accept those customer complaints and investigate using the Customer Complaint

Investigation, identified in Exhibit C.”

The language in the PRS uses the term

“validated”, which is not defined within the

RFP. A “valid” complaint is defined in the

QASP, however these are logically related but different concepts. Standard practice would be for a “valid” complaint (one that has been submitted through the proper process) would be investigated and, if substantiated, be considered “validated”. Thus, the contractor would be penalized with negative evaluations in CPARS if complaints that have been substantiated exceed the stated maximums, rather than also for the existence of complaints that are submitted properly but disproved.

We respectfully request this additional definition and distinction be added to the RFP.

The definition of “Customer Complaint” was revised in QASP, Paragraph 4.2 as follows:

“Customer Complaint. Customer complaints, to be considered valid, must set forth clearly and in writing the detailed nature of the complaint, must be signed, and must be forwarded to the COR. The

COR will accept those customer complaints and investigate using the

Customer Complaint Investigation. The

COR is responsible for substantiating and validating the customer complaint.”

#3 58 QASP 4.2 QASP 4.2

“Customer Complaint. Customer complaints, to be considered valid, must set forth clearly and in writing the detailed nature of the complaint, must be signed, and must be forwarded to the COR. The

COR will accept those customer complaints and investigate using the Customer Complaint

Investigation, identified in Exhibit C.”

The only Exhibit C contained in this draft RFP is a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Please provide the referenced Customer Complaint

Investigation as an additional Exhibit.

The Exhibit C was incorrectly referenced.

The reference to “Exhibit C” was removed from QASP, Paragraph 4.2.

RFP

Reference Relevant RFP Text Question Government Response

#4 64 Instructions to Offerors

1.j

“ j. Electronic Offers. The offeror shall submit

Volumes I through IV in electronic format on read-only CD-R CDs with an indication on each CD of the volume number and title. Use separate files to permit rapid location of all portions, including factors, supplements, exhibits, annexes, and attachments, if any. Each volume shall be on a separate CD. If files are compressed, the necessary decompression program must be included. The offeror’s CDs shall be virus free. The electronic versions of the proposal shall be submitted in a format readable by, at a minimum, Microsoft (MS)

Office Word 2007, MS Office Excel 2007, MS

Office Project 2007, and MS Office Power Point

2007, as applicable. The government will accept

.pdf files for the electronic version with the exception of the price proposal (MS Office Excel

2007) which requires the formulas to be reviewed by the government. The government will also accept Excel 2003 version as long as it is compatible with the Excel 2007 version. It will be the offeror's responsibility to ensure the Excel 2003 version is compatible with the Excel 2007 version.”

It is unclear what options of allowable formats are. The first sentence quoted states files must be compatible with the applicable MS Office formats; the second sentence states that pdf files are acceptable for all but price, but doesn’t clearly state .pdf is acceptable instead of MS

Office vice in addition to.

For clarification purposes, the Instructions to Offerors 1.j. are revised as follows:

“ j. Electronic Offers. The offeror shall submit Volumes I through IV in electronic format on read-only CD-Rs with an indication on each CD-R of the volume number and title. Use separate files to permit rapid location of all portions, including factors, supplements, exhibits, annexes, and attachments, if any. Each volume shall be on a separate CD-R. If files are compressed, the necessary decompression program must be included.

The offeror’s CD-Rs shall be virus free.

The electronic versions of the proposal shall be submitted in a format readable by, at a minimum, Microsoft (MS) Office

Word 2007, MS Office Excel 2007, MS

Office Project 2007, and MS Office Power

Point 2007, as applicable. The government will accept .pdf files for the electronic version.”

#5 64 Instructions to Offerors

1.j, also term used throughout

Instructions to Offerors

See above for text of 1.j. Requirement for “CD-R” or “CD” is discussed throughout RFP, question applies to all mentions of and requirements for CD-

R.

Please clarify whether only CD-R is acceptable or if submission using read-only DVD-R is also allowed.

See Item #4 above.

#6 N/A Instructions to Offerors, proposal organization, content, outline, etc.

n/a We respectfully request the Government add the requirement for an additional Supplement to Volume III/Factor 2 – Technical Approach.

We suggest the Government require the submission of a Sample Customized COTS item (any customized supply or material included in the offeror’s Supplement B-1).

The Government declines the request for an additional Supplement to Volume

III/Factor 2 – Technical Approach.

RFP

Reference Relevant RFP Text Question Government Response

#7 67 Instructions to Offerors

2.b.(1)

“(1) The offeror shall submit past performance information for up to three (3) contracts the offeror considers recent and relevant in demonstrating satisfactory past performance. The word “contract” is defined as a single contract or a single TO/DO on an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. ”

Please confirm that both Government and commercial contracts may be submitted within this volume.

The Government confirms that commercial contracts may be submitted within the subject volume. Instructions to

Offerors, 2.b. (1) is revised as follows

“The offeror shall submit past performance information for up to three (3) contracts the offeror considers recent (within the last two years) and relevant in demonstrating satisfactory past performance. The word

“contract” is defined as a single

Government and/or commercial contract or a single TO/DO on an Indefinite

Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. The word “contract”, as defined herein, does not mean basic IDIQ contract, for the purpose of past performance submissions under this solicitation. If an offeror submits more than three (3) contracts, the Government will evaluate only the first three (3) listed contracts.

The three contracts may include efforts performed by the prime and any major subcontractor(s) projected to perform on any resultant contract. Only those subcontractors that meet the definition of a major subcontractor, as defined as performing more than 25% of any resultant contract arising from this solicitation, will be used in the offeror’s past and/or current performance assessment. This volume shall be organized into the following sections:”

RFP

Reference Relevant RFP Text Question Government Response

#8 67 and

Instructions to Offerors

2.b.(1) /

Evaluation –

Commercial

Items

(addendum)

4.c.

ITO 2.b.(1) on page 66

“(1) The offeror shall submit past performance information for up to three (3) contracts…If an offeror submits more than three (3) contracts, the

Government will evaluate only the first three (3) listed contracts…”

Evaluation – Commercial Items (addendum) 4.c. on page 83:

“c. Offerors shall submit all Government and/or commercial contracts for the prime offeror and each major subcontractor in performance or awarded during the past two years, from the issue date of this RFP, which are relevant to the efforts required by this RFP. The Government may consider a wide array of information from a variety of sources, but is not compelled to rely on all of the information available.”

It is unclear whether the requirement stated in the evaluation criteria on page 83 describes an additional requirement for Volume II, in addition to the content described in the relevant sections of Instructions to Offerors, or if it simply conflicts with the ITO.

Please clarify whether one of the quoted sections or the other is correct and if so revise accordingly for consistency, of, if this is an additional response requirement, please add it to ITO 2.b. and describe the required informational details and format.

For clarification and consistency purposes, paragraphs ITO 2.b.(1) and Evaluation –

Commercial Items (addendum) 4.c. are revised accordingly.

#9 70 Instructions to Offerors

2.d.(2)

“(2) The offeror shall submit their monthly unit prices up to two (2) decimal places (example:

$158.03). All dollar amounts provided in response to these instructions shall be stated in United States

(U.S.) currency.”

As most contract items are not appropriately priced using “monthly unit” prices, please clarify whether this requirement applies only to those which are, or if it applies to all unit prices, we respectfully request this requirement be revised accordingly.

For clarification purposes, the referenced paragraph 2.d.(2) is revised as follows:

“(2) The offeror shall submit all unit prices up to two (2) decimal places (example:

$158.03). All dollar amounts provided in response to these instructions shall be stated in United States (U.S.) currency.”

#10 68 Instructions to Offerors

2.b.(1).(c).

(i)-(ii)

Paragraphs (i) and (ii) on page 67, which are currently organized as sub-paragraphs to

2.b.(1).(c), are as follows:

“(i) Past performance shall meet the recency and relevancy definitions stated in the Addendum to

FAR Provision 52.212-2, paragraphs A.4.e. and

A.4.f. of the solicitation.

(ii) Absent any recent and relevant past performance history or when the performance record is so sparse that no meaningful confidence assessment rating can be reasonably assigned, the offeror will be assigned a “neutral confidence rating” and its proposal will not be evaluated either favorably or unfavorably on past performance."

The paragraphs labeled (i) and (ii) under paragraph (c) do not appear to be appropriately organized in the outline as sub-sections to paragraph (c). Please confirm that these two paragraphs describe information that is relevant to overall Past Performance requirements and evaluation (all of 1.b.), and not only to the PPQ

(the subject of paragraph (c). If this is correct.

we respectfully suggest that it is more appropriate for these paragraphs to be numbered and formatted as 2.b.(2) and 2.b.(3), so as to clearly apply to the Past Performance volume as a whole rather than just the PPQs.

The Government confirms the referenced paragraphs 2.b.(1)(c)(i) – (ii) are relevant to overall Past Performance requirements and evaluation. The referenced paragraphs

2.b.(1)(c)(i) – (ii) are moved under

2.b.(1)(b).

RFP

Reference Relevant RFP Text Question Government Response

#11 Paragraph

(m)

"(m) The non-FAR Part 12 discretionary FAR, DFARS, AFARS, and LOCAL provisions included herein are incorporated into this solicitation either by reference or in full text. If incorporated by reference, see provision 52.252-1 herein for locations where full text can be found."

This paragraph appears to be located incorrectly within the RFP, numbered incorrectly or both. The outline for Instructions to Offerors (within which this paragraph appears) includes Section 1 (General Content) sub-sections a - m, ending on page 65, then

Section 2 (Proposal Content), ending with

Section 2.d.(5) on page 70. Immediately after, on page 70, is this clause (m). As such, it somewhat appears to be continuing the Section

1 clauses based upon numbering (if so, "m" is duplicated as of the draft dated 7/21/16), but is after Section 2, and thus could be assumed to be a subsection of section 2 (if so, sections e-l are skipped in numbering). This paragraph also does not appear to contain specific instructions to offerors, and may be another segment of the

RFP entirely. Please clarify whether this paragraph and related content fall under ITO, and if so, the specific submission instructions offerors are to follow for response content.

The referenced paragraph is correctly located in RFP. As stated in Addendum to

FAR 52.212-1, first paragraph:

“In the following paragraphs, pursuant to

FAR Subpart 12.302(a), FAR Provision

52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors –

Commercial Items, is tailored. The basic provision paragraphs (a), (f), and (h) – (k) of FAR Addendum 52.212-1 are not replaced. The basic provision paragraph

(e) is deleted for this solicitation. The following paragraphs of specific instructions to offerors for this solicitation replace the basic provision paragraphs (b) through (d), (g), and (l).”

Paragraph (m) is the added to Addendum as the next sequenced paragraph.