Amendment_0001_Q&As.xlsx
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- Solicitation number
- W911QY-17-R-0012
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Details of questions and answers correlated to the RFP attachments as applicable
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RFP Q&A Matrix Amend 0001
| Question No. | RFP Section | Question | Answer | RFP revision(s) |
| 1 | SF 1449 Cover Page | Please clarify the solicitation issue date. The SF1449 shows an issue date of 3 July 2017 but FEDBIZOPS shows the date to be 12 July 2017. | The SF1449 incorrectly showed 3 Jul 2017 as the issue date. The date of issue of this solicition was 12 July 2017 | |
| 2 | PWS, Page 11, paragraph 8.1 | Is the PM position separate from any specified labor category or is he/she one of the specified key personnel acting as the contract PM? Additionally, will the Government provide office space for the PM at Fort Belvoir? | Indirect cost only. See revision to Attachment 1, PWS, Paragraph 8.1 Contract Management. | Attach 1, PWS, 8.1 Contract management. The Contractor shall provide a program manager (PM) to adequately supervise all Contractor personnel during the period of this contract. The PM shall be an indirect cost and not an on-site labor category. The PM shall manage all work locations/assignments and act as the primary point of contact (POC) for the COR and KO regarding performance under this effort to ensure requirements and logistics of the contract are being met. The PM shall provide all aspects of TDY, CONUS and/or OCONUS (to include any SPOT reporting requirements), of Contractor personnel with COR coordination and approval. The PM shall ensure that any problems that cannot be resolved shall be referred back to the designated COR and/or KO for resolution. The PM shall be available to the COR and/or KO during normal duty hours. |
| 3 | Instructions to Offerors, paragraph 6.3.7 | Is the Government asking for an index in addition to a table of contents? What exactly is tab indexing? | Tab indexing in terms of an electronic file is anticipated as a Blank sheet within the file with the title of the Section that is to immediately follow it. | |
| 4 | Attachment 2, Tab C | Where is the delineation between “required” and “desired” personnel requirements? The Evaluation Factors for Award para 2.3 describes the “standard” in terms of required and desired qualifications; however, those do not appear to be defined anywhere. | 1. See Revision to Attachment 8, paragraph 2.3 and Attachment 2, Tab C, column B title. | Attach 8, 2.3, STANDARD: Majority of Key Personnel meet all of the required and some of the desired qualifications, the required education within the stated fields of study as stated in the PWS, some of the certifications required, and some experience is in support to SOF communities and/or Government Intelligence Agencies. |
Attachment 2, Pricing Model, Tab C, Column B changed to read: Typical Duties and Qualifications 5 Section L, 7.2.2 Key Personnel and Attachment 4, Paragraph 2 There are 24 distinct labor categories in the Pricing Model. Attachments 4 list eight of these, by labor category title, as Key. See Revisions to Attachment 4, paragraph 2, Attachment 7, paragraphs 7.2.1 and 7.2.2. Revisions to Attachment 8, paragraph 2.2. Attachment 4, paragraph 2 has been revised to reduce the number of Key Personnel.
Attachment 7, Revise 7.2.1 Transition Plan, to add sentence immediately following: The percentage of personnel available immediately at contract award, percentage of recruit hiring to fully staff the initial planned requirement outlined in Table 1 to accommodate those Task Orders that end on 30 April 18 and the Plan to recruit for the Task Orders ending in late CY18, depicted in Table 2. One Resume shall be provided for each of the labor categories shown in tables 1 and 2 below. (The Offeror does not need to include a resume for each FTE under each labor category, the requirement is for just at least one resume per the labor category description). This is in addition to the resumes provided for Key Personnel in paragraph 7.2.2.
Attachment 8, paragraph 2.2, added as last sentence: The Offeror has provided resumes and Contingency Hiring letters for all of the personnel depicted in Table 1 and 2 of paragraph 7.2.1.
Revision to7.2.2 Key Personnel:...The qualifications and experience for each labor category expected to be required under the contract are specified in Attachment 2, Tab C. The Offeror shall include one resume for each of the FTE Key Personnel labor categories in Attachment 4, Special Contract Requirements, Paragraph 2. The Offeror shall clearly label the resume to identify the specific Labor category, location and expertise the submitted resume is intended to support.
| 1. IT Network Engineer - Senior | ||||
| 2. IT Software Engineer Senior | ||||
| 3. Network Engineer - Principal | ||||
| 4. Project Manager | ||||
| 5. Project Manager - Senior | ||||
| 6. Software Engineer-Senior | ||||
| 7. Subject Matter Expert - Sr | ||||
| 8. Subject Matter Expert-Principal | ||||
| The instructions state that the offeror shall include no more than two resumes per labor category. We understand that this requirement is defined by the labor category title and typical duties description. Addition of Expertise and Location define Positions rather than Labor Category. This means an offeror would present no less than seven and no more than fourteen resumes, and designate the specific Expertise and Location for which the resume is intended to support. For example, Network Engineer-Principle is a single Labor Category. Attachment 4 lists six Network Engineer- Principal Positions at two locations with two different expertise definitions. The requirement is to present at least one and no more than two resumes and specify the position (i.e. Springfield or Fort Bragg). Is this correct? | ||||
| If so we recommend section L 7.2.2, as reads “…clearly label the resume to identify the specific Labor Category…” be changed to read “clearly label the resume to identify the specific position, by location and expertise,…”. | See Revisions to Attachment 7, paragraph 7.2.2. | The Offeror shall clearly label the resume to identify the specific Labor category, location and expertise the submitted resume is intended to support. | ||
| 6 | Section L 7.2.1 Transition Plan. | Section L 7.2.1 Transition Plan. This section states that the Offeror may provide Contingency Hiring Letters with start dates related to the start of Task Orders. Neither section 7.2.2 nor Section M describes the need for, or evaluation method of Hiring Letters. We understand that offers may use Contingency Hire Letters to substantiate their transition plan, but these letters are not required for evaluation of key personnel. Is this understanding correct? | See revisions to Attachment 7, paragraph 7.2.1 and Attachment 8, paragraph 2.2. | Attach 7, 7.2.1 Transition Plan, The Offeror’s planning assumptions to recruit and hire personnel in order to sustain competence, minimize loss of capability and sustain continuity. The Offeror shall provide Contingency Hiring letters of planned personnel commensurate with the start dates for the Task Orders following the expiring Task Orders. |
Attach 8, paragraph 2.2, add the following to the STANDARD:...The Offeror has provided resumes and Contingency Hiring letters for all of the personnel depicted in Table 1 and 2 of paragraph 7.2.1 of Attachment 7.
7 FBO notice The FBO notice shows this as a “Presolicitation”. Please clarify The FBO notice posted on 12 Jul is notice of the Solicitation being posted as shown under "Changes".
| 8 | Reference Section L of the RFP and Attachment 4 | Reference Section L of the RFP and Attachment 4. The RFP appears to require at least one, and no more than two resumes for every position on attachment 4. This would mean no less than 46 resumes and as many as 92 resumes. We assume the second resume per position is to demonstrate depth. If this interpretation is correct, we believe it is unduly burdensome for Offerors in the designated SB NAICS code, injects risks to the USG through restricted competition and induced excessive turnover. | See answers to questions above, and revisions to Attachments 4, 7 and 8. |
| Overly Burdensome. Requiring an offeror to obtain 46 resumes in less than 30 days would be a significant challenge for a business of any size, except for the incumbent contractor. Potential qualified candidates are either currently on this or similar tasks, and as such are difficult to reach during a normal duty day. No small business qualified under the designated NAICS will have the required HR and recruiting staff to secure, assess, vet, and format 46 candidates to the quality standards this contract deserves. To meet this requirement many companies will present resumes with the expectation that the candidate will not be available in April of 2018. While meeting the compliant standard, this approach does not accurately reflect on the staffing approach. | See answers to questions above, and revisions to Attachments 4, 7 and 8. | ||
| Risk to USG-Restricted Competition. The requirement for more than 70% of the workforces resumes gives a distinct and unfair advantage to the incumbent contractor. This is compounded by the short response time. The effect will be the screening out of companies who rate significantly high in the higher priority evaluative criteria of Transition and Management. Restricted competition reduces the USGs options and induces cost and performance risk. | See answers to questions above, and revisions to Attachments 4, 7 and 8. | ||
| Risk to USG- Transition. We understand the value in designating 46 positions as Key persons. This helps ensure continuity of work and ensures quality manning throughout the life of the contract. We also understand the customer’s strong desire to maintain a large portion of the incumbent workforce at the start of the contract. Requiring more than 70% of the resumes is at odds with this objective. Requiring identification and commitment of all key personnel at submission induces transition risk to the USG. A successful offeror may present 46 non-incumbent Key Persons. Upon award the USG may face the turn-over of more than 70% of the workforce. No organization can accept this without impact, least of all the SOF customers supported by this contract. | See answers to questions above, and revisions to Attachments 4, 7 and 8. | ||
| Personal Services Contract. The option to present back-up resumes, and their purpose is not well defined. If they represent a recruiting depth, they are unnecessary as this is evaluated in other factors. The screening of such a high percentage of resumes, and potential back-up candidates, approaches the characteristics of a Personal Services Contract. The GAO often cites a USG excessive role in employee selection as a de facto Personal Services Contract. Requiring 46 resumes at submission essentially becomes a screening criteria and is more important than the stated best value, non PSC evaluative criteria. | See answers to questions above, and revisions to Attachments 4, 7 and 8. | ||
| Recommendation: We recommend that the RFP be adjusted to require one resume per Labor category Title (i.e. Project Manager, Project Manager- Senior) from within the list of Key Persons from Attachment 4. This would give an eight (8) resume requirement, maintain Key Person Designations, open competition, and avoid all risks of establishing a de facto PSC. | See answers to questions above, and revisions to Attachments 4, 7 and 8. |
| 9 | "DRFP", page 3/33 | CLIN has “45,000,000” and Units = LOT. | This is not a DRFP. In regards to the quantities shown in Section B of the RFP, those quantities are the max units that can be ordered under this IDIQ. The Unit price is anticipated as $1. ea. |
| Recommend change Units to be “Task Order” or “Delivery Order” and Qty to be “Est 200”. | |||
| 10 | Attach 4, page 2/23 | “Key Personnel (Name in Table below to be filled in by Offerors)” | |
| Apparently followed by two blank lines to be filled in (but overlapped with the text on our copy) | |||
| Does this mean that the contractor is to specify which of the 46 personnel from the list are Key?Are no corporate personnel considered Key (e.g. Task Request Order Manager; Contract Manager)? Are TWO Key Persons from the list sufficient?If not, what is the required quantity of Key Personnel? | The "two blank lines" are not an indication of the number of Key Personnel. The table shown below the "lines" includes a column to be filled in with the "Name" of the proposed "key person". This Attachment (Attach 4, Special Contract Requirements) becomes an attachment of any resulting contract. See also revisions to Attachment 4, paragraph 2. | ||
| 11 | Attach 4, page 2/23 | “Key Personnel (Name in Table below to be filled in by Offerors)” Followed by a Table of 46 positions. | |
| Are offerors to provide resumes for all 46 positions? | See answers to questions above and revisions to Attachments 4, 7 and 8. | ||
| 12 | Attachment 7, Page 9/2; 7.2.2 | “Offerors shall include the names proposed for Key personnel in this paragraph for inclusion of this document to…” | |
| Which is “this” document –Attachment 4 or Attachment 7? | Attach 4, Special Contract Requirements, will become an attachment to any resulting contract. | ||
| 13 | Attachment 7 Vs SF1449 Block 8. Page 1/21;1.1 | Attach 7 Instructions: “…11:59:00 pm Eastern Standard Time Vs Block 8 "Local" time. | |
| Current time is Daylight. The ARMDEC system appears to use Eastern Local Time. Recommend remove “Standard”. | Due date and time of offers is 11:59:00 pm Eastern time. | ||
| 14 | CDRL A0001, page 1, Block 11 | CDRL 1 Kickoff Meeting, Block 11; recommend alter to be something similar to 10 Days post award. | revise block 16 of CDRL to clarify corresponding block being tailored. |
| 15 | Comments to Acquisition Strategy | We ask that this acquisition be further Set Aside in the SDVOSB track of OASIS-SB. This is appropriate for DoD work and will contribute to making Department-wide goals. If two or more qualified respondents are SDVOSB, this should be Set Aside in that socio-economic category; ... | The determination to set aside this acquisition for Small Business has been made. |
16 Would you consider changing the requirement of the Facility Clearance at time of proposal submission? No. Requirements are as stated in the RFP, Attachment 7, Paragraph 7.1.
17 Instructions for Offerors Section 7.2.2 state we have include the names of Key Personnel in Attachment 4, Paragraph 2. It shows forty six (46) positions. Do we have to show the names for all forty six (46) positions? See answers to questions above and revisions to Attachments 4, 7 and 8.
| 18 | Attachment 4 – Special Contract Requirements and Attachment 7 and Addendum to FAR 52-212-1 Instructions to Offerors – | The proposal due date provides an ominously short time to identify, qualify staff and obtain a commitment from each potential Key staff member to support the contract. This requirement infers the government is predisposed to give preferential selection treatment to the incumbent contractor due to the fact that the incumbent would be the only company having all of the required Key positions currently staffed. It is unreasonable to assume that a small business, without perfect RFP knowledge, would have identified staff with the professional qualifications and clearances necessary for this contract prior to the RFP issuance. It is equally unreasonable for the government to assume a small business could recruit and qualify the requisite number of key personnel during the short bid period. | The Government has identified the Key Personnel in Attachment 4, Paragraph 2. See also revised Attachment 4, provided in this Amendment. |
| Paragraph 2.c.-Key Personal Chart requires the names of 46 key personnel; Attachment 7, para 7.2.2, requires the contractor to provide names and no more than two resumes per labor category (46 names x 2?) proposed to be included in Key Personnel requirements. | · To provide a more competitive bidding process for small businesses, would the government provide names of the current contractor staff assigned to the key positions and make those staff members available for recruiting interviews. | The Government is not in the business of revealing current contractor staff to anyone outside the Government. | |
| · Would the government consider reducing the number of Key personnel to a number closer to an industry and Federal Government standard (less than 10%). | The Government has identified the Key Personnel in Attachment 4, Paragraph 2. See also revised Attachment 4, provided in this Amendment. | ||
| We would encourage the government to ensure that any staff members choosing to make themselves available for an interview would suffer no negative repercussions for their actions. | The Government has no role in managing the contractor's staff. |
| 19 | The statement of work and evaluation criteria includes descriptions of the qualifications and experience of key personnel. Attachment 4, para 2c, requires names of 46 key personnel. Attachment 7, para 7.2.2, requires the contractor to provide names and no more than two resumes per labor category (46 names x 2?) proposed to be included in Key Personnel. | As written, it is hard to read these requirements as anything other than heavily favoring the current incumbent contractor.Given the proposal due date, the time frame for identifying, qualifying, and obtaining a commitment from each prospective staff member is untenable.Due to the unreasonably high number of resume and commitment requirements, would the Government consider either reducing the number to include only true key personnel (5-10% of workforce, normal standards) or providing the names of incumbent workforce for recruiting activity while also extending the proposal submission date? | See revised Attachment 4 provided in this Amendment |
| 20 | PWS states that this is a “Non-Personal Services” contract. The requirements provide information that could be interpreted otherwise. Examples applied against the questions used to identify personal services contracts from FAR 37.104 Personal Services Contracts (Caution-https://www.acquisition.gov/sites/default/files/current/far/html/Subpart%2037_1.html < Caution-https://www.acquisition.gov/sites/default/files/current/far/html/Subpart%2037_1.html > ), para (d) are; | Since the tasks are not deliverable based and appear to be civil service/Government staff type support for routine and skilled staffing function requirements, will the Government consider revising them to meet and/or comply with traditional non-personal services guidance and build task oriented, deliverable based, objective requirements? | The Government has made the determination that this contract is for non-personal services based on TO PWSs that will be task oriented, deliverable based, with objective requirements. |
| - (1) Work is Government site. | Confirmed | ||
| - (2) All equipment is GFE. | Confirmed | ||
| - (3) The tasks are all work normally performed by civil service employees with requirements common to Government site employees without detailed tasks to accomplish. Specific examples are:Procurement Support. The Contractor shall perform administrative tasks; Contracting Support. The Contractor shall provide input to the Contracting Office with work products that are accurate and free of any errors for Government Contracting Officer approval.;Financial Services Support. The Contractor shall perform a variety of functions related to PMSP’s financial management operations.; and5.7 Administrative. The Contractor shall provide: typing, word processing, data entry and reproductive services. | Government employees are not performing the expected efforts. There may be some tasks that are similar to Government efforts but there are distinctions between the two types of work | ||
| - (4) The services are comparable or meeting comparable needs as those performed by civil service personnel. | Contractor service compares to but is not exactly that performed by civil service personnel | ||
| - (5) They last well beyond 1 year with a 5 year ordering period. | Task Order periods of performance will not necessarily last well beyond one year. | ||
| - (6) Government supervision is implicit in the very administrative nature of the tasks. | There will be no Government Supervision of contractors performing under the prospective contract. Contracting Officer's Representatives and Technical Monitors will provide oversight and quality assurance effort relative to the contract deliverables. |
| 21 | Go/No Go Criteria | In attachment 1, paragraph 6.3.1, Volume I is given a page limit of 15 pages. The requirements for Volume I located in paragraph 7.1 of the same attachment list the only requirement for that volume as whether offerors possess a TS Facility Clearance. This could be accomplished with a printout from the Industrial Security Facility Database (ISFD), which is 1 page. Could the Government clarify if this would fulfill the requirement given in 6.3.1 and 7.1? | The Government has provided a limitation of 15 pages for Offerors to supply the necessary documentation to provide verification that the offeror does possess a TS Facility Clearance. |
| 22 | Key Personnel | In Attachment 4, Paragraph 2, the Government lists 46 labor categories in the Key Personnel table. Would the Government clarify if all of these labor categories are considered key and therefore require resumes, or if offerors may determine which of these labor categories are key by filling in their name in the provided table. | The Government has identified the Key Personnel in Attachment 4, Paragraph 2. See also revised Attachment 4, provided in this Amendment |
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