QuestionsAnswers.pdf

Solicitation W912HQ-16-T-0023, Amendment 0001 Questions and Answers

Question 1: Is this a follow-on requirement? If so, could you please provide the incumbent contract number for this opportunity and whether or not it was a 100% Woman Owned set aside? If not, is this a new requirement?

Answer 1: This is a follow-on requirement. Incumbent contract number is W912HQ-16- P-0054. The last contract was not previously a woman-owned set aside.

Question 2: Are you looking for a unit price per month for the Primary Interpreter (for example CLIN 0001, 1001, 2001) or an hourly rate?

Answer 2: Unit price per month for the Primary Interpreter (see table in solicitation).

Question 3: Could you also elaborate on “Manpower Reporting”? Is that essentially our charge for administrative costs on our end? Are there certain reports that we will be asked to provide?

Answer 3: Contractor Manpower Reporting was unintentionally left out of the performance work statement (PWS). The PWS has been revised to add a section on manpower reporting, Section 4.4 (italicized). Manpower reporting is a Department of Defense requirement. Contractor must log into a secure data collection site and input required data fields. The PWS provides more detail. Offerors can also go to the website, https://cmra.army.mil/, and review the Contractor User Guide to learn more about this requirement.

Question 4: Is it essential for the on-site interpreter to be the same one every day, or is it possible to have a small team be the “staff interpreter”?

Answer 4: It is essential for the on-site (primary) interpreter to be the same one every day. The ad-hoc interpreter may vary provided they meet the requirements of the PWS.

The PWS has been updated to clarify this point (Section 2.2, italicized).

Question 5: What will be the contract type in the resulting contract to the offeror?

Answer 5: The contract will be firm-fixed price.

Question 6: The industry standard for cancellations is to provide two business days’ notice. Will USACE amend section 3.1 to state “USACE will also provide a minimum of two business days prior notice in the event of any cancellations"?

Answer 6: Yes, the PWS, section 3.1 has been amended to provide two business days prior notice in the event of any cancellations.

Question 7: Will USACE be willing to share the hourly rates of the incumbent provider?

Answer 7: No

Question 8: Can a contractor without Facility Clearance bid on the solicitation considering they have sign language interpreters that maintain security clearances?

What clearance level?

Answer 8: Neither the contractor nor interpreters need security clearances and will not handle or have access to classified information. The primary interpreter needs to be able to obtain a Common Access Card (CAC) in order to gain access to the building https://cmra.army.mil/ without an escort as well as access to the USACE network (public trust level). The secondary interpreter does not require a CAC as they will be escorted by the primary when in attendance at HQUSACE. The PWS removed the two security requirements in section 4.1 pertaining to clearances / classified information and 4.1.1 provides the above clarification.

Question 9: In order to obtain a more accurate and standardized pricing comparison, we suggest revising CLIN#0001 in the pricing chart to specify either an hourly rate or a total number of hours. Based on the current pricing chart, one agency may give pricing assuming a 6 hour day and another agency may give pricing assuming an 8 hour day.

This would not allow the government to compare all proposals on an equal level.

Answer 9: We are not paying on an hourly basis for CLIN #0001; we are paying by the month. Please provide a monthly rate for the primary interpreter (CLIN #0001) based on the requirements of the PWS.

Question 10: Does the monthly fee for the Primary Interpreter include web-cam services Mondays/telework days?

Answer 10: Yes. Web cam services are provided as requested by Deaf employee, historically 0-5 hours for the day.

Question 11: The PWS includes the minimum amount of time which will be given for requests for services (5 days for the ad-hoc interpreter) and for cancellations (48 hours).

However, a line item is not included for fees for requests or cancellations with less notice. Should an additional line be added to the other CLINs for these fees?

Answer 11: No; notice is given in accordance with the PWS.

Question 12: Can you provide examples of what’s meant by interpreting Information Technology/Information Management business processes and areas of discipline?

Answer 12: Interpreters must be clear, expressive communicators and must accurately and objectively convey the meaning and emotion of what they interpret relying on this level of Information Technology/Information Management (IT/IM) business processes and areas of discipline experience. For an example, understanding Federal, DoD and Army IT business process involves the interpreting experiences with a variety of stakeholders, strategic plans, enterprise roadmaps, workflow and logical steps managements, the disciplined approaches and methods, etc.

Question 13: Can you provide examples of what’s meant by interpreting Information Technology/Information Management Enterprise Architecture, Project management, Portfolio Management, Data Architecture Answer 13: The work required for the employee’s position is specific in the system Architectural discipline; providing advice and recommendations for solution architecture structure, metrics and infrastructure for organizational mission requirements

Question 14: Can you please clarify the statement in section 52.212-2 EVALUATION-- COMMERCIAL ITEMS, Factor 2 “Offers will be considered unacceptable if none of the contracts contain past performance interpreting Enterprise Architecture”?

Answer 14: At least one of the contracts submitted as past performance must show experience in interpreting Information Technology/Information Management Enterprise Architecture. Addenda to 52.212-1 and 52.212-2 have been updated to reflect this clarification.

Question 15: Is the Government satisfied with the incumbent vendor?

Answer 15: We are not providing this information.

Question 16: Please provide historical utilization data for 2014 and 2015. Specifically, how many hours of classified ASL interpreting was provided during those periods?

Answer 16: The client does not work with classified information.