W911QY23R1022_Questions_Answers_30AUG23.pdf

30 August 2023

MEMORANDUM FOR ALL PROSPECTIVE OFFERORS

FROM: U.S. Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground, Natick Division 1 General Greene Avenue Natick, MA 01760-5011

SUBJECT: Questions and Answers - Request for Proposal, W911QY-23-R-1022

The following are questions received from industry and answers provided by the Government related to solicitation W911QY-23-R-1022. This additional information aims to provide interested offerors with the most current information.

Question and Answer:

Question 1 - Section B.1.b of the RFP states that the ‘Page count for the Technical volume includes Table of Contents.’ Would the Government please consider removing the Table of Contents from the Technical volume’s 25-page limitation?

Answer 1 – The Table of Contents is excluded from the Technical Volume’s 25-page count. .

Question 2 - May the offeror include a cover page with their Technical Volume response? If so, can the Government confirm that the cover page is outside of the volume’s 25-page limitation?

Answer 2 – . Offerors may include a cover page with their Technical Volume. The cover page will not be included in the Technical Volume’s page count limitation.

Question 3 - May the offeror include a Table of Contents and cover page in Volume 2: Past Performance, Volume 3: Cost Price, Volume 4: Small Business Participation, and Volume 5: Administration? If so, will they count against the page limitations?

Answer 3 - Yes, offerors may include a Table of Contents and Cover Page, which will not count towards the respective volume’s page count.

Question 4 - Can the Government please provide instructions for Volume 5: Administration?

Answer 4 – This Volume was included in error. The Request for Proposal has been amended to remove this Volume.

Question 5 - May the offeror submit Volume 1a: Medical Countermeasure Development Brief as a PDF?

Answer 5 – No – the Solicitation requires Volume 1a to be submitted as a power point (pptx) file.

Question 6 - Can the Government please confirm that the slide deck cover is not included in the Volume 1a:

Medical Countermeasure Development Brief slide limitation?

Answer 6 –The slide deck cover page is not included in the slide count limitation.

Question 7 - Section B.1.a of the RFP lays out the formatting requirements for written sections of the proposal (‘For written sections of the proposal, all margins shall be 1 inch, text single spaced, 12-point Arial or New Times Roman font. Tables and illustrations may use a reduced font size no less than 8-point and may be produced in landscape mode.’) Can the Government please clarify if these are the formatting instructions for the ‘Medical Countermeasure Development Brief’ PPT as well or does the slide deck have special font and size requirements?

Answer 7 - The Volume 1a brief should include font no smaller than 8 point, but no other font format restrictions.

Question 8 – Section B.1.a of the RFP: Can the offeror include CPARS rating sheets for their Past Performance references in an Appendix outside of the Volume 25-page limitation?

Answer 8 - Materials provided as Past Performance references are at the offerors discretion and will count against the page limitations. Note: Volume 2, Past Performance, has a 5-page limitation.

Question 9 – Basis for Award: The Government has labeled the instructions for our response as ‘B’, but they did not provide a letter label for the evaluation criteria starting on page 7 of 23, (i.e., ‘C’). Can the Government please provide a letter for this section so we can properly map our response to the solicitation’s requirements?

Answer 9 – No - the Government intends to leave this as is.

Question 10 – Section B.a.2.(4) of the RFP: Other information, states that “the offeror shall describe the career fields of key government-facing personnel to be assigned to assist the JPEO-CBRND, including non-generic resumes for these individuals (resumes are not included in the 25 page count limit for Volume 1).” Can the Government confirm that the offeror is required to submit resumes for the (1) Program Manager, (2) Executive Strategy Project Leader, and (3) CBRN Subject Matter Expert? May the offeror submit additional resumes to highlight the depth and breadth of the team?

Answer 10 – The Government is not defining the key government facing personnel to be assigned to assist the JPEO-CBRND requirement. The Offeror is expected to define a team to meet the Governments requirements. .

Offerors shall submit the information required by the Solicitation. The information submitted shall be in compliance with the Solicitation’s instructions and page limitations.

Question 11 – SOO Section 2.0: Performance Requirements, states that “The contractor shall propose a Performance Work Statement (PWS) at a minimum for the requirements identified in Section 2.0.” Can the Government confirm that the offeror is not required to respond to the tasks in Section 3.0: General Requirements?

Answer 11 - The offeror is not required to include the tasks in Section 3.0 General Requirements within their proposed Performance Work Statement.

Question 12 – SOO Section 4.2: Transition, states that ‘The contractor shall follow the transition plan submitted as part of the proposal’. Can the Government please confirm that this is a requirement for this response? If so, is the transition plan outside of the Technical Volume’s 25-page limitation?

Answer 12 – This section is amended to “N/A.” A transition plan is not required.

Question 13 – SOO Section 2.3.1: Can the Government please confirm that the ‘CBRN Defense Countermeasure Portfolio Management Plan’ is not due at the time of the proposal submission? If it is required with our response, do we submit this as an additional attachment, or is it included of the Technical Volume?

Answer 13 – The CBRN Defense Countermeasure Portfolio Management Plan will be due under the first Task Order (TO).

Question 14 – Pricing Worksheet: Would the government remove the “Profit/Fee %” within the Labor Tab on cell 28? Commercial items service providers would only need to maintain a government cost accounting system (e.g., Deltek) that accumulates and allocates the direct and indirect costs and profit if they engaged on cost-reimbursable type contracts. Given that this acquisition is for commercial-items services and will be on a FFP basis, and not cost-plus, please remove the “profit/fee %” from the pricing worksheet. Additionally, removal of this would align to the current “Task 1” sheet, which never included this line.

Answer 14 – The pricing worksheet is amended to remove the Profit/Fee %.

Question 15 – SOO Section 3.3.2: Would the Government remove the last sentence of 3.3.2 Contract Administration: “The Contractor shall assign work effort and maintaining proper and accurate time keeping records of personnel assigned to work on the requirement.” As this IDIQ will be Firm Fixed Price, and contractor pricing is not subject to any adjustment on the basis of actual cost experience or actual hours worked performing the agreed upon scope of services, offerors should not be required to maintain time keeping records. We kindly request the removal of this requirement which may introduce an unnecessary administrative burden that is not be aligned with the fixed-price nature of the contract.

Answer 15 – No - the Government intends to leave this as is. JPEO-CBRND needs to know and understand what different contractor personnel are contributing to different tasks, and to what extent. JPEO-CBRND will also use this information to understand how the contractor is assigning and managing tasks.

Question 16 – SOO Section 3.4: Would the Government remove the last sentence of 3.4 Subcontract Management:

“The Contractor shall assign work effort and maintaining proper and accurate time keeping records of personnel assigned to work on the requirement.” As this IDIQ will be Firm Fixed Price, and contractor pricing is not subject to any adjustment on the basis of actual cost experience or actual hours worked performing the agreed upon scope of services, offerors should not be required to maintain time keeping records. We kindly request the removal of this requirement which may introduce an unnecessary administrative burden that is not be aligned with the fixed-price nature of the contract.

Answer 16 – No – the Government intends to leave this as is. JPEO-CBRND needs to know and understand what different contractor personnel are contributing to different tasks, and to what extent. JPEO-CBRND will also use this information to understand how the contractor is assigning and managing tasks.

Question 17 – SOO Section 2.3.5: Would the Government remove the requirement for a monthly cost report, notably the requirement to include labor hours broken out by CLIN? Given that this acquisition is for commercial-items services and is a FFP award, and contractor pricing is not subject to any adjustment on the basis of actual cost experience or actual hours worked performing the agreed upon scope of services, incurred costs specifically broken out by labor hours is not applicable / required. We kindly request the removal of this requirement which may introduce an unnecessary administrative burden that is not be aligned with the fixed-price nature of the contract.

Answer 17 – No - the Government intends to leave this as is. See Answer Nos 15 and 16.

Question 18 - Pricing Worksheet: Would the government consider specifying a base task to be used for a committed pricing exercise on the “task 1” tab? We understand that the government is not in a position yet to predict all scope expected under this contract. However, if there is a task element that is known at this point, a committed base task would ensure price reasonableness by requiring offerors to quote an actual firm fixed price that they will be held to deliver against if selected for award of the IDIQ (even if only for the initial base task).

Answer 18 – Please use the Medical Countermeasure Brief to price Portfolio Strategy, Management, and Communications; and CBRN Defense Community Alignment CLINs 1001 - 5002. The Request for Proposal has been amended (see A.2.e.(4) and B.2.b).

Question 19 - 3. Small Business Participation Commitment Document Worksheet Template. Would the government change “(in dollars)” to “(in percentages),” including adjusting rows 27-28 in the “SBPP Template Blank” tab and rows 21-22 in the “SBPP Template Instructions” tab? Given that this is an IDIQ contract structure, we recommend that offerors are asked to frame commitments in percentages rather than dollar amounts to allow for flexibility at sub-contractor level to meet government requirements as they emerge, particularly since the overall value of the IDIQ is not known.

Answer 19 - No. .

Question 20 - 3. Small Business Participation Commitment Document Worksheet Template. Would the government remove column for “Statement of Work (SOW) / Statement of Objectives (SOO) Reference”?

Answer 20 - No.

Question 21 - The RFP states “The government will fully evaluate and negotiate all priced Contract Line-Item Numbers (CLINs)/ordering periods for award.” However, the Pricing Worksheet identifies only cost/price by order period. Can the Government please confirm the intended CLIN structure?

Answer 21 – The Request for Proposal has been amended to provide a CLIN structure(see Addendum to FAR 52.212-2, 3.c. Cost/Price Factor).

Question 22 – Section B.2.f.(2) of the RFP states, “Within the Small Business Participation Commitment Document, all offerors … shall provide supporting documentation as evidence of compliance with small business participation/ subcontracting requirements on previous government contracts completed within the past three (3) fiscal years.” Would the government find citation of 3 previous contracts as acceptable for this requirement? If not 3 contracts, then how many?

Answer 22 – Please provide all previous government contracts completed within the past three (3) fiscal years.

Question 23 – Cost/Price Factor: The RFP contains conflicting instructions. On Page 11, the RFP states that “For award purposes, the total proposed price for all CLINs will be added together into a total sum contract value or contract ceiling”. The pricing worksheet instructions also seek to request labor categories and estimated hours for all tasks. However, the RFP also acknowledges in Section 1.3 “Task Order” in the SOO that “Contractor efforts will be initiated through a Task Order (TO) Request for Proposal (RFP)” in which “Individual task orders will include greater detail about the work to be performed…” including “details regarding deliverables, schedules, and places of performance.”. The resulting instructions are essentially asking offerors to propose a total price for all CLINs to establish the total sum contract value, while specifics requirements for the task order level detail has not yet been fully defined. We strongly recommend the Government consider a price evaluation by requiring offerors to quote an actual firm fixed price that they will be held to deliver against if selected for award of the IDIQ as suggested in Question 18. Would the Government consider establishing a reasonable maximum quantity as suggested in FAR

16.504 Indefinite-quantity contracts and further clarify the scope of what offers are being asked to price for purposes of this evaluation?

Answer 23 - The scope of what the offerors are being asked to price has been captured within the CLIN structure of the RFP (see B.2.b). The Government anticipates a maximum of 20 TOs over the five-year life of the IDIQ.

Question 24 – Section B.2.f.(2) of the RFP states, “Applicable information relating to compliance with FAR 52.219-8 shall include the contract number, as well as a description and available supporting documentation submitted to the Contracting Officer of the methods employed to promote small business utilization and the internal methods used to monitor such utilization...” Often, only small business contracting plans, which include assurances regarding FAR 52.219-8 and methods to promote and monitor small business utilization, are submitted to a Contracting Officer. Is that sufficient to show compliance with FAR 52.219-8?

Answer 24 – It is up to the vendor to provide information, such as a Small Business Contracting Plan, that demonstrates compliance with FAR 52.219-8, as required by the Request for Proposals. The Government will evaluation the information provided to determine if it meets requirements. .

Question 25 – Pricing Worksheet. The instructions state that Reference Material may be attached with supportive documentation but specifies Excel as the preferred format. Can the government confirm if a Word-Formatted Pricing Narrative is acceptable as an attachment to the Pricing Worksheet?

Answer 25 – Yes, a Word-Formatted Pricing Narrative is acceptable. The pricing narrative shall only include information supporting an offeror’s proposed price. No technical information shall be included. Any technical information included in the narrative will not be considered.

Question 26 – Pricing Worksheet. The instructions in the pricing working references a Materials Tab that doesn’t appear to be in the file. Can the Government confirm that the offeror may add a Tab to the Pricing Spreadsheet for Material/ODCs/Travel Assumptions?

Answer 26 – Yes, if applicable.

Question 27 – Can the government confirm past performance write-ups are requested to be included in Volume 1, and Volume 2 should only include pertinent contract details to seek Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) from central reporting systems (or similar information)?

Answer 27 –Contract number and period of performance are mandatory in Volume 2. A description of the effort, to include past performance write ups, should be discussed in Volume 1.

Question 28 - Volume 2 - Past Performance. In the event Past Performance write ups are not to be included in Volume 2, and only pertinent contracting details are requested in Volume 2, would the government consider re-allocating Volume 2's page count to Volume 1 to allow for more robust relevant experience write ups to be included in Volume 1? If the government makes this change, we request the submission instructions be revised to allow 30 pages max in Volume 1 and 1 page max in Volume 2 so that vendors may respond to the solicitation in the manner requested.

Answer 28 – No.

Question 29 - Volume 2 - Past Performance. Commercial entities (e.g., life sciences companies) typically require some level of anonymity in relevant experience write-ups. In the event the respondent elects to provide a relevant experience/qualification from a commercial entity, is doing so with some level of anonymity (e.g., company name, location, size) acceptable to the government?

Answer 29 - No. The offeror shall provide all information required by the Solicitation. Proposals will be safeguarded. Volume 2 will not be shared outside of the United States Government (USG).

Question 30 - Volume 2 - Past Performance. Can the government confirm if the respondent can list more contracts in the Past Performance section (Volume 2) than discussed in the technical response (Volume 1)?

Answer 30 - Content within a Volume is at the proposer's discretion but must comply with stated page limitations and solicitation requirements.

Question 31 - Volume 1 – Technical. Can the government confirm if the respondent is required to address each item specified in the Statement of Objectives (SOO) using headers and subheaders within the Technical Response?

Answer 31 - Headers and subheaders are not required, but may be used at the offerors discretion. Also, see response to Question No. 11.

Question 32 - Volume 2 - Past Performance. Can the government confirm if there is a specified number of past performances required to be listed in Volume 2?

Answer 32 – Offerors shall submit three to five government and/or commercial contracts performed within the last three years for the prime offeror and each major subcontractor in performance or awarded during the past three 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 (See D.b.2).

Question 33 - Volume 2 - Past Performance. Can the government confirm that all relevant experience described in Volume one should be included in Volume 2 with only project name, client, customer name, contract number?

Answer 33 - Content within a Volume is at the proposer's discretion, within page count.

Question 34 - Can the government confirm if they will publish historical rates or Labor Categories (LCATs)? If not, how will the government be evaluating price reasonableness (IAW 15.404-1)?

Answer 34 – Historical rates and labor categories will not be provided. The government may use a variety of published data sources, Governmental (e.g. the Bureau of Labor Statistics, etc.)or commercial (Economic Research Institute, etc.) to evaluate price reasonableness.

Question 35 – SOO. Can the Government clarify the number of Task Orders it intends to release on the resulting Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ)?

Answer 35 - The Government anticipates a maximum of 20 TOs over the five-year life of the contract.

Question 36 – SOO. Can the government confirm if there is a maximum period of performance for a given Task Order requirement, and if Task Orders will vary in duration?

Answer 36 - Task Orders will vary in duration but will not exceed 24 months.

Question 37 - Memorandum For All Prospective Offerors. Under sub-header b. Content, it is stated proposals shall consist of six Volumes of Content. In the table below the statement, only five Volumes are listed. Can the government confirm the number of Volumes expected for submission?

Answer 37 - Six volumes (1, 1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4), Volume 5 is removed.

Question 38 - Memorandum For All Prospective Offerors. Under Topic b. Content, can the government please provide a description of what is to be included under Volume 5, Administration?

Answer 38 - This Volume was included in error. The Request for Proposal has been amended to remove this Volume.

Question 39 - Attachment 2 – Pricing Worksheet contains a reference to Profit/Fee % on Labor, which many commercial service providers who do not have Certified Cost Accounting Systems are unable to provide. The solicitation specifies that, “certified cost or pricing data are not required based on the fact that adequate competition is expected for this procurement. Information other than certified cost or pricing data may be provided in contractor format providing that sufficient information is made available”. Conversely, FAR 15.404-1(b)(1)) states that price analysis shall be used when certified cost or pricing data are not required. Instead of requesting profit figures on labor, would the government consider using price analysis techniques to evaluate the “proposed price without evaluating its separate cost elements and proposed profit”, as its outlined in FAR 15.404-1(b)(1))?

Answer 39 – The pricing worksheet is amended to remove the Profit/Fee %.