Additional_Questions_and_Answers_-_JFOC.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY

U.S. ARMY MISSION AND INSTALLATION CONTRACTING COMMAND

MICC-FORT SILL

1803 MACOMB ROAD

FORT SILL, OK 73503-4433

MICC – FORT SILL April 18, 2018

SUBJECT: Contractor Questions and Government Answers – W9124L-18-R-0002 – JFOC

SUPPORT SERVICES

1. REFERENCE: Page 63 of 102, Amendment 0005 Conformed RFP.

QUESTION: The Government has added a Remedy for PO6 that states there will be “Deduction in contract for Replacement instructor. COR lost time for Inspections and Coordination.” Given that no company or agency in the world has 0% turnover and this is a multi-year contract, it seems offerors must be prepared for payment of this penalty.

Would the Government please provide a schedule of tasks, estimated hours by task and hourly rates for the COR to do his/her job in processing a Replacement Instructor on this contract?

ANSWER: The impact to the COR for lost time for Inspections and coordination is part of the overall Government daily course costs that will impact the Government if training is not accomplished. The COR and ACOR are both instructors, and as such, the information requested above cannot be fully determined outside of the Government’s full costs of the courses. These costs are calculated per CME for each course that is impacted on any of the PO that are not met.

2. REFERENCE: Pages 60-64, Performance Requirements Summary, Amendment 0005

Conformed RFP.

QUESTION: Given the significance of penalties, the Government has made clear this is a high risk set of positions to keep filled. In executing similar high risk work for DoD, offerors will often propose more than the base FTE requirement in order to manage that risk appropriately. Will the Government accept proposals for more than the stated number of FTE? Ie. for the Base PTAC instructor requirement, will the Government accept a proposal for more than 27 FTE?

ANSWER: No. Any reach-back capability to quickly fill vacancies with qualified and certified PTACs, even certified to instruct, is the responsibility of the contractor and can be described in the proposal; however, 27 PTACs that are qualified and certified to instruct are required.

3. REFERENCE: Page 60, Performance Requirements Summary, Amendment 0005

QUESTION: The Performance Standard for PO2 states “Any Unfilled positions shall be filled within 30 calendar days with qualified personnel.” Are penalties for unfilled positions assessed beginning on Day 31 of the unfilled position? How does this 30-day period fit with other statements about penalties starting on Day 1 of a vacancy?

ANSWER: Deductions begin on the first day of a defect, such as a vacancy, or having less than 27 PTACs at the end of the Phase-in period. The 30 days that are provided to fill a vacancy during full performance is the period that will not incur a Contract Discrepancy Report. Deductions for missing or uncertified personnel begin on Day 1.

4. REFERENCE: Page 60, Performance Requirements Summary, Amendment 0005

QUESTION: Fully qualified replacement instructors will require the same 60 day certification process (a Government certification process and timeline) as the original instructors and will therefore be unable to teach until that process is complete. Are penalties assessed to the contractor during that certification timeframe, even if the position was filled within the required 30 calendar day timeframe?

ANSWER: Only the certified instructor part of the deduction will be assessed during the certification period.

5. REFERENCE: Amendment 0005 Q&A, Question 8.

QUESTION: In the Government’s Response to the question on remedy for “services not received,” it stated “The Contractor is required to provide 27 qualified and certified instructors at start of full performance (at the end of the Phase-In period) for the duration of the contract. Even if there are no classes being conducted, the contractor still has to provide 27 CMEs. As per the PWS, contract instructors do more than just instruct in the course--they also prepare material for upcoming classes, update simulations, ship equipment for MTTs, and other support functions.” Will the government confirm that even if all contractual service requirements are being met for course instruction and course prep, any unfilled position will still be counted as a failure to provide service and be assessed remedies/penalties IAW the Performance Requirements Summary?

ANSWER: Yes, that is correct.

6. REFERENCE: Page 20, Clauses Incorporated by Reference, Amendment 0005

QUESTION: The Government has included DFAR Clause 252.226-7001 Utilization of Indian Organizations and Indian-Owned Economic Enterprises, and Native Hawaiian Small Business Concerns. This does not generally apply to Set-Asides for SDVOSBs.

Will the Government clarify why this Clause has been incorporated?

ANSWER: The prescription for DFARS Clause 252.226-7001 can be found at DFARS 226.104, and it states to use the clause in solicitations and contracts for commercial items Using FAR part 12 procedures that will exceed $500,000.00.

7. REFERENCE: Amendment 0005 Conformed RFP.

QUESTION: Attachments 1 through 8 as shown in Original RFP and previous Amendments were not included. Have they been deleted from the solicitation?

ANSWER: There were no changes to Attachments in Amendment 0005. The last change to the Attachments is Amendment 0004.

8. REFERENCE: Amendment 5, Questions and Answers, Page 3, Question 8 refers to PO 1 and PO 2 and asks if the services not received is defined as solely the absence of a certified instructor whether or not instruction was conducted. The Government answer at the end of the phase-in period the contractor is to provide 27 qualified and certified instructors for the duration of the contract whether or not instruction is being conducted based on other duties the instructors perform besides instruction.

In response to Question 9 the Government defined a defect for PO 1 by stating: “…If the Prime Contractor does not provide ALL 27 qualified and certified PTAC instructors by the completion of the Phase-in period, then the Prime contractor did not meet performance standard under PO1, and the remedy will be assessed.

In response to Question 10 the Government stated: “PO2 –The requirement is for the Prime contractor to provide ALL 27 qualified and certified PTAC instructors for performance for the entire period of performance (base and option years). Example, 4 of the 27 PTAC instructors leave the contract and the Prime contractor did/does not backfill the positions immediately with qualified PTAC instructor, (only 23 PTAC instructors are being provided) therefore, there will be a gap of for 4 of the instructors. The contract requirement is for 27 PTACs for the entire period of performance.”

Amendment 5, Performance Requirements Summary, PO 2 states the allowable Performance Deviation is: “Zero (0) defects per month. Any Unfilled positions shall be filled within 30 calendar days with qualified personnel.

QUESTION: Please clarify when the remedy/penalty begins for a missing instructor during the phase-in period and after the phase-in period?

Example A: During the phase-in period an instructor leaves the contract and a replacement instructor reports within 30 days and subsequently completes certification within 60 days, but after the phase-in period ends. Does the remedy/penalty period begin between the end of phase-in and when the replacement instructor becomes certified, or is there no remedy/penalty in this example?

ANSWER 1A: For Performance Objective (PO) 1, given the above example, there is information missing to properly answer the question. The remedy calculation will be applied beginning the first day of full performance; however, there are three calculations:

1) Hiring of qualified personnel – 27 PTACs on board within 90 days – there is no penalty assessment for the missing personnel because all 27 are on board; 2) Example: Only 25 are certified by the end of Phase-in period to start full performance – that will leave two

(2) PTACs on board, but not completely certified, and the course cost calculation will apply here; 3) If there are less than 27 PTACs on board, and less than on board are certified also, both remedy assessments will apply.

Example B: During the full performance period an instructor leaves the contract and a replacement instructor reports within 30 days and subsequently completes certification within 60 days. Is the penalty for the period between when the instructor left and a replacement instructor reported to the contract, or is it until the replacement instructor is certified or is there no penalty provided a replacement instructor arrives within 30 days after an instructor departed and completes subsequent certification within 60 days thereafter?

ANSWER 1B: Remedy calculations will be applied beginning on the first day that a qualified and certified instructor is missing. Liquidated Damages are not a penalty, but it is something a Contractor should avoid receiving. If these damages are calculated, it represents Government costs for a missing person and is the best method to measure the services not provided.

9. REFERENCE: Amendment 5 Q&A 8, 9, & 10, the government has clarified how it will assess monetary redress per day/hour for any shortage of “Qualified” and “Certified” instructors per PO1, 2 &3 and how “services not performed” is defined. Based on this, can the government clarify/answer the following:

QUESTION: Request clarification of the term “Certified”. The PWS uses the term certified in 2 very different ways. First, in some cases the PWS seems to be referring to JTAC/PTAC certification, but in other places in the PWS seems to refer to “instructor certification”, i.e. the TRADOC/428th FA BDE, government controlled process to “certify” an instructor. The PWS says “A minimum of 8 weeks is required for each uncertified contractor employee to be certified as a Joint Fires Observer Instructor and Simulator Instructor.” And “For 13F AIT contract Instructor candidates that are not current 13F MOS certified instructors… the certification process may take up to 90 days to complete.” In the context of the requirement to provide Qualified and Certified instructors per PO1, 2 &3, does “Certified” refer to an employee’s required JTAC / FAC

(A) certification, or does it refer to the 428th FA BDE certification that can take up to 8 weeks or 90 days? If the term certified is used in different ways, can the govt clarify which definition is being used for POs 1, 2 &3?

ANSWER: There are two (2) parts to being a qualified and certified Instructor: 1) First and foremost, in order for candidates to be eligible to work on this PWS, the Government has to approve that candidates meet all qualifications as outlined in PWS paragraph 2.2.0.

The Government will verify the qualifications when Employee Listing is received in accordance with Paragraph 18.0 – Deliverable Table – Employee Listing. EXAMPLE:

If the Government requires that a candidate possess a Master’s Degree from an Accredited Institution, the Prime contractor has to provide a candidate that already has a Master’s Degree in hand. (The Government will not approve a candidate with a Bachelor’s Degree and have them work on it till they obtain their Master’s Degree it to meet the minimum qualifications); 2) Second, if candidates meet the minimum qualifications as outlined in PWS 2.2.0. and obtain approval from the Government, the candidate will be able to start the Instructor Certification process as outlined in PWS 2.4.

NOTE: A candidate cannot become JTAC/PTAC certified under this contract;

Candidates shall have this qualification in hand in order to be approved by the Government to start the instructor certification process as per PWS paragraph 2.4.

10. REFERENCE: The answer to the question above is vital to how it impacts the following questions below. It is also critical to offerors because the Government has already placed ALL of the risk onto the contractor by virtue of its LPTA, Level of Effort approach; thus, the use of these terms is essential to our understanding of exactly how, when and for what financial penalties will be imposed.

QUESTION: If PO1, 2 &3 remedy amounts DO refer lack of certification based on the 428th FA BDE government scheduled and government controlled certification process, and since no workforce ever has zero turnover, is it the government’s intent to assess monetary remedy deductions immediately for all new instructors even if the contractor fills a position with a qualified and JTAC certified instructor with no gap between the outgoing instructor and the incoming instructor?

ANSWER: Please review the answers provided for Questions 8A and 8B. These answers explain how the remedy calculations will apply. Basically, 27 certified JTAC/PTACs (not part of this requirement) are required to be on board and completed with the instructor certification process by the end of the Phase-In period (90 days) to not receive a remedy action.

11. QUESTION: If the answer to #9 is no, and the govt intends to allow a reasonable time for a new instructor to become certified (meaning the instructor certification, not the JTAC/FAC(A) certification), how does the govt intend handle new (replacement) instructors? Does a replacement instructor get 90 days to become certified without penalty? Currently the PRS only addresses the 90 day timeline for phase-in.

ANSWER: Please refer to PWS Paragraph 2.4. This paragraph states that a minimum of eight (8) weeks is required for certification as a JFO Instructor. This time is allowed and the remedy for the vacant position will not be assessed if 27 PTACs are on board;

however, the remedy for a non-certified JFO instructor will be assessed during certification.

12. QUESTION: The Amendment 5 answer to question 10 says in the example given for PO2, that the requirement is to “backfill the positions immediately”. This seems to conflict with the statement in PO1 and PO2’s Allowable Performance Deviation which states that “Any Unfilled positions shall be filled within 30 calendar days with qualified personnel”. Can the government clarify at what point a contractor is held financially accountable for non performance for failure to provide qualified PTAC instructors? Is it “immediately” upon position vacancy, or after 30 days of position vacancy?

ANSWER: As stated for both objectives, the remedy will be assessed at the time of occurrence of the defect. There is a 30 day period to fill a vacant position upon commencement of full performance before a Contract Discrepancy Report will be issued.

13. QUESTION: The Govt provides 3 different daily costs per class for non performance (PWS 20.0). But the remedies for PO1, PO2, and PO3 are stated in terms of deductions for number of uncertified/missing positions multiplied by costs per CME. In order to assess the risk of this remedy penalty, request the government provide a cost per CME rate instead of just the cost per class. Currently there is no way to calculate what the penalty would be for a missing/uncertified instructor in each class, since the govt did not specify how they intend to break down the 27 instructor work force.

ANSWER: The remedy calculation utilizes the CME billable rate and the course costs remedy is calculated by dividing the number of CMEs on the contract into the course costs where the defect occurred. EXAMPLES: PO1 – there are 27 PTACs at the end of Phase-in, but only 20 are certified to instruct by the end of Phase-in. The remedy would be seven (7) times the course identified where there is a defect divided by 27 times the number of days the 7 remain uncertified after completion of Phase-in; PO2 – number of vacant positions times the course cost calculation for PO1 times the number of days affected; PO3 – calculation methods are used as stated above for PO1 and PO2.

14. QUESTION: Since the government has established 3 different costs of non performance for the 3 different courses, we request the govt split the Labor CLINs into the three different courses also instead of having all 27 PTAC instructors lumped together. Since the penalty amounts differ greatly, there is significantly higher risk for an instructor shortage in the FA BOLC course as compared to a shortage in the 13F AIT course or the

2E-SIL7/250-ASIL7 (MC) course. We need this information to provide a realistic pricing to the FCoE which incorporates the very high cost risk the govt is imposing with these remedies.

ANSWER: This cannot be split among the CLINs with specific numbers for each course.

The Government’s requirement is for 27 PTACs to be certified to instruct across the three identified courses at any given time. Instructor certification in this requirement will provide the certification required to instruct the JFO POI blocks at any time in each of the three courses.

LISA G. SLAGLE

CONTRACTING OFFICER